GreenDrake

Thank you all. We all have to bear that one time or another.

The moment I have dreaded finally came Saturday. I had to put my dear Dixie down. She was the sweetest most amazing bird dog I have ever owned or had the honor to hunt over. 15.5 years old. I am still torn up.

This boy is patrolling my woods. Got a female being followed by a different but equally large male too.

Nephew and I doubled up at 6:55 this morning. Fun hunt.

Final product!!!

Got a nice batch today. Cleaned and ready for blanching and vacuum sealing tomorrow.

Shotgun. Mostly pass shooting in the winter. In the summer its tight shots over decoys.

I got out for a couple hours this afternoon at a dairy. Birds were hungry. Killed 38 pigeons and 12 crows over a feed bunker. Solo shoot. If my nephew was with me it would have been awesome. We killed about 300 pigeons and 100 crows this winter. We weren’t able to get out too much. Im hoping our sumner pigeon shoots over decoys is better than last year. Last year the wheat was not in the good shooting areas so we did not do well at all. No big 200 plus bird mornings.

My wife and I over-seeded 8 acres of clover today. Hoping we get enough freezing to draw it in good. We shall see. Was fun to get out and play. I have some wind damage in the woods. I have a bunch of junk poplar (I think) thats like cork. Very dark smooth bark. Twists and falls over. Most are hung up too. Ill pick around and drop them. Pain the backside.

I have 6 of them now…started with 2 snd they were great …. Of the 4 new ones…two are dead and will not stay powered up. They turn on and immediately shut down…two of them constantly stop sending pictures, despite a strong signal. Another eats fresh lithium batteries in a week. I am sorely disappointed.

After a disappointing archery trip to illinois, my nephew and I were able to redeem ourselves. I killed this heavy bodied target 8 on my new land in the NZ and my nephew connected with a beautiful 9 in the SZ. Im much prouder of these NY deer than I would have been with an Illinois kill. So overall, we had a great season.

Illinois trip is very disappointing. None of us 4 have had a shot yet. I finally saw 2 decent bucks yesterday morning n the jungle behind my stand. Other guys saw a couple here and there. They guy who has the leases and who we paid took off back to New York on Monday. Showed us additional stands before he left. None of the stands are maintained and zero trimming or shooting lanes for at least 4-5 years. One guy in our group had 3 stands with broken straps. Not cool. My heart breaks for my nephew. This was his dream hunt and booked it through a good friend he trusted. He is here too…he hunted other areas and killed a marginal 2.5 yr old 10 pt. NOT what you come here for. The lack of basic maintenance and unsafe stands is what soured me. This is set up for crossbow and shotgun seasons now. The property owner killed a beauty Sunday. Crossbow shot at 72 yards!! We are gonna bail on this hunt overnight and get back for the weekend. Ill take hunting my 200 acres at home over this anytime. Trips like this make you appreciate what we have back home. May not be 140-170 inch deer in each wood lot …but i will take it any day.

Couldn’t get out this week. Had to get everything accomplished at the office before we head to Illinois this afternoon for a week on a bow hunt. People will think i am crazy , but I would rather stay here and hunt my farm. We put a lot of work into it snd have a couple nice deer we want to see on the hoof, especially that big 6. This trip is my nephew’s dream hunt. He is a great young man and deserves this trip. Wish you all safe and good hunting.

I won’t get out again this week up my land in 6k before I leave for Illinois on Friday for a week. Still stressing over leaving the office for a week of hunting but I owe it to my nephew to do this trip with him. Its a bucket kist hunt. We have had 15-20 does and young bucks out in the plots at the same time on our 3 hunts. Last picture is of a big 6 I am considering taking. Third year he has been a 6 and I love big 6s. We have 2 nice 8s that I think will get a pass this year. Its just my wife snd me on the 160 acres we bought 3 years ago. No one hunts the 7-800 or more surrounding acres. We are trying to see what potential we have to grow some big deer.

I pulled cards this morning and was shocked to see a newly born Fawn. October 11. Ill try to post pictures.