Cabin Fever

To get them to stop for a pic, you can put some curiosity scent in a small spray bottle and give a few squirts (or drops). Anise oil, pure vanilla extract, or apple juice all work.

I shoot a TC Black Diamond.They are accurate, but as stated above, a pain to clean compared to todays models.

Got a few around anyway!

I shoot one that is 12+ years old! It shoots great and has never let me down! I didn't even know that High Country was still in business until recently.

Been wondering where the bigger bucks have been. Moved this cam 2 days ago to a spot ~10 yards from one of my stands. Not the best pic, had to enlarge to get a better look.

Here's a good site for cam reviews and forums. http://www.chasingame.com/

Great looking plots!! Talk about a buffet!!!

I was in the same situation a couple weeks ago. Went looking at bows at Bass Pro. You know, my bow is ~12+ years old, but it still kills deer just as dead as any bow they have up on the rack! I've pretty much decided to save the money and continue shooting old faithful! It shoots great, not the fastest like the new bows, but I've never had a deer get out of it's way either!

My son has been having football practice over the past few days in the pouring rain and in the waterlogged fields. Today when I got home from work, I about barfed smelling his musty/nasty smelling cleats (that were brand new 2 weeks ago), as they stunk up the entrance way terribly! Knowing that he has practice again tonight, I thought I would try spraying some scent killer that I had left over from last year in them to try to make the odor more tolerable. I sprayed a few squirts in each cleat, not wanting to soak them. I could not believe it, but it "instantly" took away ~90% of the odor! I had to put my nose IN the cleat to be able to smell it! I think I'll give them a few more sprays tonight when he gets home, so hopefully it'll be gone for his game tomorrow night. Guess that stuff really does do something!

Looking through that clear plastic cup, it must have gotten an idea what it's like to have beer goggles on!

I my way into work this morning, I was driving through a town and saw a skunk wandering alongside the road. It began crossing the road, but was acting irratic. I stopped the car to give it plenty of space. It stopped to look at me, and when it did, it looked like it was carrying something. When it turned broadside again, I realized it had it's head wedged into a clear plastic cup! It walked out of the road and into a driveway, watching me through the cup! If I wasn't on my way to the office and closer to home, I would have tried to help it out. It was already stressed and on edge, so I wasn't about to risk it pulling the trigger on me!

Thanks for the compliments! It's pretty cool and very "rustic". Its sits back ~1/2 mile down our lane from the road. Very quiet back there! Friends that I have come out say it's like being in the Adirondacks. The previous owner found out he had cancer, quit his job, cashed in his 401K, said he always wanted a log cabin, so he built this himself! All the logs were cut right there on the property. The cancer got the best of him and died very soon after completing and the family put it up for sale. It had a dirt floor in when my father bought it and had rags stuffed in between the logs to keep the weather and critters out. We dug out the dirt floor and put in a wood floor and used spray expanding foam between the logs. Pretty cool inside too. No water or electricity. Wood stove for heat, propane stove, propane refrig, and propane lights. Loft upstairs. Lots of work, but also, lots of memories...

Geez, I wanted to get my foodplots in before the rain, to give it a nice head start, but enough already!!

Great camps everyone! Here's my cabin.

I brushhogged other fields last Friday and hit 2 more yellow jackets nests! Got stung several more times!! I've been planting and mowing these fields for 12 years now and have never had a problem! Now this year, I came across 4 different yellow jacket ground nests and have been stung ~25x in the past 10 days!

Rob - Please don't do that! I fell 20' outta my stand 2 years ago while checking my stands before season. I ALWAYS wore a safety harness, but the opportunity was there to check stands that day, when I didn't have it with me. Figured I'd do it to get it out of the way, but just be extra careful. I'm still in pain every day, but thankful to be alive. It cost me $$, big time (emergency room, doc copays, PT, surgery, time out of work, ect...)! NO deer is worth not wearing a safety harness 100% of the time! I'm now strapped in with a linemans belt while hanging stands, a lifeline when climbing up and down, and of course the tree strap when in the stand.

I use the optional Hunter Safety System Rope Style Tree Strap, instead of the black strap that comes with the HSS. I can shoot 360 degrees with that.

I've had some years when I don't any pics of bucks all summer. Then, between October and November, they seem to come out of the woodwork, and the majority of my pics will be bucks!

DON'T RESIST!!!! Open your wallet and go towards the shiney 30-06!!

Not sure if he is doing some kind of new yoga pose or what? BTW, you can see my stand in the background.

The GOOD news.... So there were ~1000 yellow jackets using that nest and swarming. I went back 24hrs after applying Sevin and saw ~10 bees left!! I went back 48hrs after applying the Sevin and there were no yellow jackets left!! I was cautious, but hopped on the tractor and started discing again. I watched behind me, expecting them to come shooting out of the hole at any minute, but NOTHING! The Sevin completely wiped them out in 48hrs!! The BAD news....... I found ANOTHER yellow jackets nest on the other end of the plot!!! OUCH!!! Little Bastards!! They chased me for ~200 yards!! I stopped at the store and got another container of Sevin on my way home! Hope they have their entrance opened back up by tomorrow morning, as they are gonna get a good dose of Sevin!! I want to get these plots done before the rain this weekend!!

I've been in several situations (in foodplots, along fields, anywhere where there just aren't trees in a good spot!) where I wanted to put up a trailcam, but couldn't because there were no suitable trees. I decided to make a adjustable cam stand. It was simple, cheap, sturdy, adjustable, and turned out pretty nice! Thought I would share incase anyone else might want a rainy (or snowy) day project. I started out with one of those 4'-5' shepards hooks (that has 2 ground stakes to make it sturdy) and cut off the "hook" part with a hacksaw. These make it pretty easy to get into the ground, as you can just step on them to push into the ground. Then I cut a small piece of scrap wood to the size of my cam. I then got a small U-clamp, with wing nuts. I measured the U-clamp and drilled holes in the board, so the U-clamp would go through the board and secure it to the now shepards "pole". I also notched out the board, so the U-clamp would be flush when installed, keeping the cam flat when mounted. Secure the U-clamp through the board to the pole. Using wing nuts makes cam height easily adjustable on the cam stand when in the field. I painted it using camo paint, but cloth camo tape would probably work just as well. I also decided to camo it up further using a tree limb and a couple reusable tie wraps. I think this will work great and it's cheap. I really like the idea that it's easily adjustable also! Just loosen the wing nuts and slide up or down. I was thinking about mounting another cam to the backside and putting in the middle of a foodplot, that way I can probably cover the entire plot.

What do you plan on planting? If just clover, there are some varieties of clover (ie Durana) that don't require a lot of direct sun or maintenance. I don't know the sun requirements of some of that throw-and-grow stuff, but you may be able to get away with using some of that also. If you have a lot of other oaks on the property, it's not going to hurt to take a few out in the plot, to allow you to play around with foodplots. I don't have any oaks around in the ~mile square where I hunt, so it pains me to think about cutting any oaks! LOL I would absolutely LOVE to have some around, so its tough for me to say to go a head and cut a few of yours! I planted a few sawtooth oaks, gobbler sawtooth oaks, and chinese chestnuts just to have some hard mast for the deer and turkeys. I would gladly trade you some foodplots for some acorn producing oaks anyday!! LOL

Forest Hunter - They do make a Rage 2 blade specifically for shooting bows with short draw lengths and/or light draw weights generating less than 40 feet-lbs. of kinetic energy. http://www.cabelas.com/product/Rage-40KE-Two-Blade-Broadheads/745469.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3DRage%2BBroadheads%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts%26x%3D11%26y%3D9&Ntt=Rage+Broadheads&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

This year, I have very few crab apples on the trees on my property. The wild pear trees are pretty loaded though. I haven't walked back into one area yet on the neighbors property that has a lot of crab apple trees to see how they are doing.