Jafo

Orange wool cap walking in, I generally cover it with my camo hoodie when I sit. I am on private property that is pretty remote. Not a lot of hunters there, and if there were, I would know them and where they were otherwise they would be tresspassers. I have only found one person tresspassing in the last 3-4 years and that wasn't during the season. I think orange+movement gives you away to the deer. Just my opinion. When I know I will be hiking/stalking a long way, I wear my orange camo jacket and orange cap.

I wish I knew what the rut situation is right now in 5H. Heading up there tomorrow for a few days.

Something similar here too. Been clinching all morning. Holding it in so long I'm starting to get bad breath.

Rain and sleet last half hour here in 5h... Popop blind sounds like a jiffy pop machine....

Feels a little warmer today.. suiting up..

1/2 hr, 45 min before sunrise.

Cold, windy n wet. Snow changed to drizzle...

Same here. Thick heavy snow. Low visibility 5h..

Back at camp.. lunch..

3 hours here in 5h.. nothing moving. Cold, light snow. Bout 10 minutes away from stalking..

Been in the tent blind for about 1/2 hour. Light snow here in 5h.. Note to self: bone crusher blind does not like snow. Pic to follow..

I did that one before. Turned out to be the card.

I have been working pretty hard trying to lure a bear into my hunting area. After a bit of reading about what others do, I decided to try and drip some anise oil on a spot in the woods and cover it up with logs, branches, etc., and then cover it with a cam. For a while I wasn't getting anything but a curious yote here and there. I left the spot untouched for 3 days and came back and everything was torn up to Hell. I was so happy! I went to my camera and wouldn't you know it, I forgot to put the SD card back in!!! I had partially ejected the card to adjust the settings on the camera and never put it back. Doh! I am not sure if it will ever come back seeing as how it never actually found anything to eat, it might just be ignoring my spot now, but who knows, maybe another one will come. I set it all back up. Feeling stupid..

Sometimes, Hericium can be watery, I just make sure I cook the water out before eating them, otherwise they taste slimy lol. Oysters will fruit as long as it is above freezing. I have been picking them in 5H all year. They seem to really love beech where I hunt for them.

Good advice. I stick to the two mushrooms I know: Oyster and Hericium. These generally only grow on hardwoods. Hericium (Lions Mane) is next to impossible to mistake for anything else. In fact, I found some today: I found some a couple weeks ago in the same area: All of these species of Hericium are safe in North America. A good place to start is shroomery.org, where you will get a lot of help identifying mushrooms. I personally never eat mushrooms that grow on the ground. It is just safer to choose the ones that grow on hardwoods. It isn't that ALL mushrooms that grow on hardwoods are safe, but a vast majority of them are. That being said, most mushrooms that are poisonous are not DEADLY, but you still do not want to try without knowing. Just because they won't kill you, doesn't mean they can't say, damage your kidneys for life. I am not trying to scare you, but you should know that you have to be careful. Oyster mushrooms are second only to Lions Mane in ease of identifying. It generally grows only on hardwood, the stem is ALWAYS on the side, never in the center. It has gills that go down the stem. It is not orange. It smells wonderful. Almost always, you will find these little black beatles in the gills. They grow in clumps. If you take the time to make a spore print, it is white to lilac. Once you learn that, you can find them safely.

Agreed, set up a trail cam next to them. When the bastards get caught, make sure you put their pic in every paper that will accept it. If there is one thing I hate more than anything else, it is thieves.

The only ones I have found were long past ripe. I have been finding some Coral Tooth (Lions Mane) all over the place though. That is what I call food. Tastes like you are eating lobster!

Since there seems to be some interest in the yurt, you might also like to know that I have some solar panels here hooked up to a couple of rather large marine batteries. The panels are those cheap ones from harbor freight (3 sets). I have two inverters, an 800 watt which I use most of the time, and a 2,000 watt for when I need a little more power for saws and such. An uncle of mine services LED signs in Alabama and every few years they rewire them with new LED's and they throw out the old ones. He sends me a box of them from time to time. They are 12v lights and come in real handy because they throw off a LOT of light using very little juice. I wired up a ring of them at the top of the yurt and it lights up the whole place. Here is a pic of it: I could run them for a month on these batteries without even charging them up. I have a string of 5 of them in the outhouse and they run on a single 9v battery. It lasts about a year before I have to change the battery.

In fact, I made dinner on the campfire tonight:

I just fry them up in butter. They taste like almonds and anise. Just had them.

Yes did have a great time. Lol I wouldn't call it a resort, but it is comfy. last night here.

Slow weekend bear hunting up here at 5H, but I did find something that will make that steak dinner a little better tonight! If I can't be bear huntin, might as well hunt shrooms. Fresh, perfect oyster mushrooms growing on a beech log. Been finding them up here for the last month.

Up at my blind right now. Nothing on the cam 4 last two weeks but feel like sitting here a while. Nice day in 5h.

It is pretty thick up here right now, hard to see. I saw no sign today which was unusual. The only thing I saw today were yote tracks. I have to admit, towards the end I was a bit footsore. First outing of the season. I moved a bit noisily once I tired out.