Turkey season again. With my failed attempt at deer hunting and archery in general, I was glad to get a shotgun back into my hands.
Opening weekend, my brother-in-law and I were able to call in a nice tom. Lance shot him at 10 yards, full strut! It was about as perfect a hunt as you can get.
My first weekend to hunt started off with great weather. The birds were gobbling in the roost like popcorn popping in the pan.
The blind has served its purpose, albeit maybe too well. I don't know if you're supposed to feel comfortable AND drink coffee while hunting, but that ended up not hurting my chances!
I have yet to go hunting and NOT see something amazing or beautiful while I'm out. Whether it's interesting patterns in the clouds, new noises in the woods, or dew droplets in the wheat, God's creative nature is always on display. (Rom. 1)
I had arrived that morning about 6:00 am just as dawn was beginning to break. Basically I was showing up too late and risking getting spotted by a roosting turkey. Apparently that's exactly what happened because as soon as the turkey started flying down, they headed in the opposite direction of me. However, with so much activity in the woods, I was able to listen and call back to several different groups of turkeys within a half mile of the blind. Eventually, without warning, a group of Jake's came running out of the woods directly toward the decoy. I didn't notice them until they were already in range. All I had time to do was pull my gun up and aim at the "biggest" one. The turkey were so close together that when I pulled the trigger, not one but two turkey bit the dust! I couldn't believe it, but there were two turkeys flopping on the ground with five others milling around with curiosity. If I'd had more tags, I'd have kept shooting!
Even though the birds were young, (1 yr or less) they still weighed a fair amount. Short beards (3-4 in) and barely any spurs mean I won't get to brag on size, but I couldn't pass the blessing of two birds in one shot.
To show how cool it was, I photographed the ice-crystals on my boot from walking through the frosty wheat.
Photo-Op!!
Since getting two birds was so "easy", there had to be a challenge. Thus: plucking and prepping two birds with the skin on. The clock below shows 10:29 am. I shot that bird at 7:30 am. Besides driving home, that's how long it took to get one turkey plucked!
The nasty plucking process. The amount of bloody water left over made me seriously consider creating a short zombie movie and using that water for special effects. Problem is; I have no idea how to do that.
Back was sore at this point. I really need to talk to a professional about better plucking techniques.
This is not the final product, but the work was definitely worth it. (I finished the 2nd turkey right before lunch) We roasted this bird and it came out really moist and tasty! Even the upper leg meat was superb. (btw: that's not blood, but Syrup, BBQ sauce, Lemon juice, A-1 sauce, and a couple other secret ingredients!)
Recap:
1. Super blessed to be in the woods on nice day.
2. Super blessed to get two birds.
3. Really thankful to my wife for letting me spend all morning cleaning and plucking these birds and using her pots and pans and maybe getting a little blood on the deck while she watched our two boys.
Christmas Eve gave me the opportunity to test out the Jeep in the snow. The snow won.
High centered in the snow. Four spinning wheels don't do much good when they aren't touching the ground.
Knee deep in snow.
If it weren't for the fact that the jeep is unable to move an inch, this might make a good promo shot!
I spent roughly 45 minutes digging with a broken window scraper. While I created some great snow hills all around the jeep, it wasn't quite the tool I needed.
Now, if there were 10 more exhaust pipes on the Jeep, I may have been able to melt free! Looking into some of these badboys for the future.
As much as I'd like to be able to tell a story about using my own two hands to get unstuck, the real solution came from my cell phone.
All that work really got me ready to blend in to the environment for Lemming hunting.
After having some time to actually hunt in my blind, I decided it needed a little improvement. When I last left my blind, it looked like this:
This is fine if you don't move or draw a bow back. However, I realized after some that movement is necessary and that my outline could be easily seen because of the empty space behind me. After a little bit of research and work, the improved blind looks like this:
There's a lot more color variation in the front and I used a lot of large dead branches around the base of the tree behind where the hunter sits. This should help to break up our outline and color patterns.
Another angle, and a little closer.
How nature says "Back Off". Glad that one didn't go through me, but every time I see a thorn tree like this, it's humbling to think of Christ's Crown.
I was also able to spend some time up in the trees. Fall is beautiful from the ground and from the sky.
Dad had just finished harvesting the soybeans in the picture above. Amazingly, (to me) he also cultivated the ground and planted wheat in the time it took me to realize the soybeans were gone.
#hardworkingman
This view (Picture Above) doesn't do the beauty of the colors of fall justice. Yellow, Brown, Green, and Red dominate the landscape. Dad's Milo is ready to be harvested in the background.
Woke up at 5:10 am to get outside while the stars were still shimmering and the sun was still sleeping. Too bad the camera can't capture what a still, dark, starry morning has to offer. Maybe you should try it sometime! I sat in the blind for an hour listening to the woods wake up. First an owl whose tree I had apparently bumped into when I sat down; next a few turkeys and then all the song birds start when the sun yawns. B-e-a-u-tiful. I can't think of the last time there was no wind and the temperature was comfortable enough to sit for a long time without breaking a sweat or breaking into a cold chill.
In preparation for the fall hunting season, Emily (Andbeglad) made some delicious soup out of last year's pheasant and quail harvest.
Mmmm...baby back pheasant.
This got me so jacked up to go hunting again, I decided to head out to my blind (as mentioned in previous posts) to set up some more camouflage before the hunting begins for me. (I think she seasoned that soup with a little bit of "honey, this meat was free!" Gets me every time.)
While my 3 year old boy and I were out around sunset, the coyotes started kicking up real close and Gabe took off for the jeep. Well, he's too short to get in by himself but that's ok, because I quickly decided to follow his advice. Without my gun and some napalm, I get a little skeered in the woods at Sunset too. We sat in the jeep and listened to the coyotes. I couldn't see them, but I'm pretty sure the scene looked something like the picture below.
Getting pumped up to harvest a dear and or turkey. More to come in the future!
This year I'll try to harvest a deer with sticks, pulleys and a few levers: some snobs call it a bow and arrow. This is how you prepare to "tame the beast" in your own backyard.
Now all I have to do is find the nearest blue whale and a village of Inuits to help me harvest it.
Recently, I had some time to myself and decided to go camping and
hunting. My plan was to hunt and fish for my food while away from
"civilization" for a few days without our usual camping necessities.
What follows is a documented conglomeration of fire starting, gigging
for frogs, cleaning and cooking frogs, and building a hunting blind.
Here are the tools and the spot for building this blind. Shovel, Chainsaw, Electric Screwdriver, Wood screws, a few 2X4s of various length and a hammer and nails in case I run out of juice.
The frame is going up against the trunk of the tree. A little trimming and digging is all that's happened beyond that.
Here's the frame up close. I plan on using as little "man-made" material as possible and cutting most of the camo from the dead wood laying near there. The ice storm from 4 years ago is still evident in all of the dead branches covering the ground.
Here's the unfinished view from inside. The jeep has no idea I'm in there...
Here's the (game) view about halfway through. Not too bad for our eyes, but a turkey would spot movement in there in no time. Need some more cover.
So here is where it stands as of now: A quaint house for 1 in the Shire. Lots of charm, and could use some love. These shots show my attempt to use the natural foliage and downed timber to create some camouflage. It still needs some work, but I'll help things along by pinning up camouflage burlap sheets on the inside. That should break up our outlines and help muffle sound in there. More pictures when it's finished.
No, that's not a tan-line.
Those of you who work outside a lot already know how dirty you can get, but I thought it'd be fun to finish this post with a before and after shot of my sock-dirt-line. See if you can figure out which one was after the shower....and yes, my feet could blind an albino bat.
Recently, I had some time to myself and decided to go camping and hunting. My plan was to hunt and fish for my food while away from "civilization" for a few days without our usual camping necessities. What follows is a documented conglomeration of fire starting, gigging for frogs, cleaning and cooking frogs, and building a hunting blind.
The first challenge of the night was to get a fire going. I had recently received this knife as a gift and wanted to test out the fire starter on it. Check out the link if you want to know more about the Bear Grylls Ultimate Survivor Knife I was curious if I could actually get a fire going and how many strikes it would take.
