Hunting Season Continues w/ Zack's First Deer on Video...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words....well, this video link is worth more than that and tells the story of what happened here in the woods, in Michigan this past weekend.  Caution:  If you like BAMBI...please do not watch this video!  (live footage of the actual deer kill).  But, if you do watch it, be sure to have your volume up...it is not the same without the music...which starts soft...and builds.(and enjoy the ending...).
                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKqOldTPhmw

A Belated Birthday Present in the Woods...

They say that good things come to those who wait... I have wanted to be in the woods for the last 6 weeks, but have not been able to either make the time, muster up the energy, or get myself out there for whatever reasons. So, tonight, November 12, 2010, Caleb decided for me...that we needed to be in the woods. He got out about 2:30 or so...about the same time I was out posting the camp property, due to the upcoming firearm season opener on Monday. (I always try to post the property just before opening day). I had pretty much convinced myself that I was going to stick with the posting and once again just skip the woods...I mean it is short sleeve weather, too hot for the deer to be moving much, the wind is swirling in all directions, I won't see anything anyway and I'll just be sitting out there watching squirrels.

Well, most of that was indeed true, but nevertheless, after watching at least 142 squirrels and hearing all 142 of them scampering through the very crisp and crackling leaves, at just about one hour on the stand I heard some leaf noises that were just a little different than the squirrels. I'll let you also know that I was unprepared for hearing such noises, because I was actually getting very bored with the squirrels, the sun was shining and warm and I had just pulled my hat down to block the sun from my eyes and was just a few moments from drifting off into hunter's dream land. As I slowly came out of the near slumber to check out this leaf crackling back over my right shoulder, the first sign of movement I saw was his unique rack coming through the woods. At this point, I don't know where feelings of being tired go...but they are instantly gone. I had to move quick, but not too quick, because as I said, my bow is hanging on the tree next to me...and I still have to knock an arrow, get my release hooked on the string, get into position and hopefully not scare this buck coming right at me at about 25 yards away. He was coming up a trail that was wide open when I first saw him, but fortunately for me, unfortunate for him, as he got within about 15 yards he turned off the trail and into the brush. This gave me the cover I needed to make some movement with the bow and turn his way and get into a shooting position for the next opening he was headed towards, which was going to be almost directly behind my stand and the tree I was sitting in. (which is not good, if I can't get him before he gets to that point, due to having to then make a quick change over to the other side of the tree and all the movement it would require and noise it would make and possibly spooking him in the process). Well, the good news is that I was at full draw and ready for him when he hit the first opening. I was aiming at him even as he was walking through the brush, ready to "let ur fly" as he hit the opening, which is just what I did. To my surprise he dropped immediately, just like one other deer I got quite a few years ago that I hit high and in the spine. So, I figured that must be what I had done here...and then I even knew why. As I stood there and watched him laying on the ground, head up looking around, but obviously unable to run away, I realized that he had only been about 8 yards away and I had forgotten to compensate for the short distance (when they are that close, I have to aim at the bottom line of the body, instead of aiming straight on at the vitals as normal). He was in the brush again, so all I could see was his rack and just a few parts of his body. He continued to look around, and every now and then would make attempts to crawl or get up, but with no success and only getting a few feet further back down the same route he had just walked in on. About that same time, another deer, a little button buck showed up on the scene and made his way over to the downed buck. I found myself wondering just what both deer were thinking about each other and since not much was happening, I even found myself making imaginary deer conversation between them...which I won't bore you with...but you can imagine the scene. ("Hey little guy, wanna give me a hand ... I'm kinda in a bit of a jamb here". "What's happenin big brother?" "Yea, you're not lookin so good there") You know how it goes, I mean, what else am I supposed to do? I am now waiting for one deer to leave and wondering if the other one is going to die or if I'm going to have to shoot him again, and if I can even get another shot at him. Well, this went on for 15 or 20 minutes, and I just stood there watching and wondering, and he never did present another shot, but continued to stay in the brush and also continued to gradually scoot back down the same route he had walked in. It was going to be dark soon, so I decided to go ahead and take a chance at getting down from the stand and getting another shot at him while I could still see him. The little button buck decided things were not quite right, and moved along...so I started down my ladder stand. As I figured he would, as soon as I hit the leaves he found the energy to somehow move faster and began to crawl quickly towards what he hoped would be refuge in the thicker brush. I ran up ahead of him looking for a place to take another shot. I found one. The second shot was where the first should have been. It was time to take a picture and send out the news.

He is definitely the nicest buck I have harvested thus far, although, there are quite a few much nicer than him that I have had close encounters with, but they got away…which is exactly what keeps me going back into the woods.

This guy has a unique rack, with 9 points total. One side is a typical 5 point rack, but the other side has a split main beam, which makes it like two fork horns on the same side (2-2 points). I don’t know how much he weighs, but I would guess just a speck above average (probably around 135-145 lbs.). He is hanging in the front yard tree as I write this story, ready to head to the processor tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to me…one day belated.

Serious Firewood....

Each year we have a couple Saturdays in the fall dedicated to processing firewood for the coming year.  I spend quite a bit of time, ahead of time, getting logs and trees identified, hauled out of the woods or someway or another prepared for these two days...so we can make the most of the volunteers who come to help with the processing.  This year we had quite a bit of wood to process, for several reasons.  First, we sell and use quite a bit of firewood here at the camp...so, if the trees and logs do not present themselves in one way or another, then we have to go out and find appropriate trees or logs.  This year however, we had a lot of wood to work with, provided in a couple different ways.  Last winter we harvested some trees here on the grounds (see the separate story on this by looking at my Jan, 2010 blog entry).  As a result of this harvest, we had a lot of "tops" of trees to deal with, along with other trees that were damaged in the logging process.  In addition, we also had quite a few trees damaged by storms this past spring and summer, so as a result...a fair amount of wood was naturally provided for firewood. 

Nevertheless, on these two work days, the primary object of the day is to process firewood.  Whether cutting or splitting or hauling or whatever.   This year...splitting was the main thing, due to a fair amount of cutting that had been done ahead of time by my loyal volunteers, Walter Pettifor and Johnny Coontz.  The volunteers that showed up on the Oct 30 work day did a great job...and on the Nov 6 work day...well, a small army showed up.  Besides a hand full of the regular volunteers, we also had a group of 26 SAU guys come out and have a retreat on the Friday night before the work day, and then they all pitched in and helped create a small mountain of split firewood in the 4 hours they all spent working together.  Plus, several of our local firefighters and our local police chief all came out the same day too.  Needless to say, it was a great day!