46rkl

No live from the woods today but live from the restaurant. An afternoon of golf and out for dinner at Fratelli’s. Great Italian and good craft beers. Having Fiddlehead IPA out of Vermont. Did run across a nice scrape under an old apple tree on the golf course.

Well, it got interesting the last 45 minutes tonite. First two doe walked into the bean field behind me (off of my land), followed by two spikes who spent their time chasing the doe and sparring with each other. Fun to watch but in the meantime I heard what sounded like a horse galloping on the paths on my land. As it came around the corner from my left, it turned out to be a nice eight point. Never had a chance, it flew by me, turned out into the field and ran a big circle around the doe and spikes and returned on the same route, sprinting back past me and out of sight. By the time he passed me the second time he was panting heavily. A little odd, but that’s deer hunting. Also had two large doe come in to about three yards but I don’t like that straight down shot. Had an opportunity on one of them but by then it was well after shooting time and I didn’t want to miss the start of the Bills game while recovering the doe. May regret that later but that’s what happened tonite.

Hoping for some evening activity here in 8H. Warm and only a slight breeze. I’ve got an 8 point on camera moving by here at 6:20 so let’s see if he’s gonna make it a habit.

Staying anchored to the ground today in this spot on the edge of the clearing. The Oak is dropping acorns by the bushel in this wind. We’ll see...

A great fall day with a cornhole tourney, venison dinner and a campfire. All complimented by home brewed All Together NEIPA. Besides being in a tree stand, it doesn’t get better than this.

My wife mentioned that I should just sit on the deck for the evening watch. I chuckled and headed out back to my stand. I see nothing. Not even squirrels moving in the swirling winds. Coming back into the yard I walk right into six of them under my apple trees. Two nice big doe and four smaller ones. Too late and too dark but I coulda.... It never really works out well when I don’t listen to my wife.

I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, just stating my stance on lead. Highly toxic and persistent heavy metal. I want to avoid exposure as much as I can. Every pellet that hits a pheasant, for example, leaves a lead trail as it passes thru tissues. If it were just a case of removing the pellets there would be much less concern on my part. I don’t want to eat lead tainted meat if I can possibly help it so I shoot lead free alternatives. That’s better for me and anyone else who is eating wild game I’ve harvested. The secondary poisoning of wildlife would be enough to convince me by itself. Better in every way to just ban lead ammo for hunting.

Very last jalapeños from the garden for this year. Vacuum packed most but making poppers this afternoon.

If you had ever taken a course in parasitology, you’d never even think about eating any animal parts raw. Way too many things that can do very nasty things in your body.

This beast was taken about a mile away from my place. If only..... I don’t know the young man who got this slob, a buddy of mine sent me the pic. He’s set a very high bar for the future.

The 25th amendment stipulates that the president inform congress that he is incapacitated and is temporarily passing power to the Vice President or that the Vice President convene a meeting of the cabinet to vote on the transfer of power. It does not happen automatically. As to the wingnut conspiracy theories, REALLY? The President and his staff have ignored every bit of advice by medical professionals right from the start so this is not really surprising. We can only hope that symptoms are not life threatening and both the President and his wife fully recover. I’m not a fan but I would never wish this on anyone. Never let your politics get to the point of hoping someone dies from a disease. Life is more important than politics any day.

Nothing better than seeing your offspring growing and finding happiness with a lifetime partner. Congratulations and don’t worry, the deer will be there for you when you make it back. Awesome place!

That’s the way I like to “drag” ‘em! Let that John guy do the work. Congrats.

One lone doe walking right on top of my tracks from this morning. She turned away and passed by me at forty yards thru some thick brush. Nice morning but swirling wind is frustrating.

Very sad news. Condolences to his family. I travelled through ANWR on a rafting trip on the Hula Hula river for ten days with my wife and young son. We were part of a group of ten, including my sister-in-law, her husband and son and a friend of theirs. I had read about the deaths by Grizzly of a young couple on their honeymoon. Floating along one day we passed two crosses along the riverbank and everyone got real quiet. Grizzlies were a common site, multiple sittings daily. We set up electric fencing around our compound every evening (although the sun never set) and never had any real problems. Just a few close encounters. The funny part was that our guide handed me a Ruger Super Redhawk in 44 mag the first day of the trip and asked me if I would carry it since he was such a lousy shot. That was the greatest adventure I’ve ever been on but a very sobering moment that reminds one where we sit on the food chain..... without any self defense, that is.

Today’s harvest. Lots of jalapeños left to ripen so here’s hoping.

Killing frost here did in just about everything in my garden. Time to clean it up and plan for next year... Better than Upper Saranac Lake, where we just returned from. 24 degrees on Thursday night!

Drinking Raquette River Brewing IPA while on vacation on Upper Saranac Lake. Life doesn’t get any better than this... unless it’s a ten point slob at twenty yards.

I’ve done four of them and the procedure has improved vastly over the last eight years. Much more... comfortable..but very important. Don’t be the tough guy who won’t let a doctor any where near their butt hole. Real men get colonoscopies! Live to hunt for many more years.

Done mowing all the paths and the clover patch for the last time. I was going to sling a set of arrows but the beer was calling. Rohrbach Railroad IPA.

Working on something very similar right now. Hope it comes out looking half as good as yours. Great view from there!

On most of my hang on stands I have a safety line that I use to climb with and then I clip my safety vest to loop on the tree. I don’t leave the ground without being clipped in. I’ve made it to 62 with only one near accident and I certainly don’t bounce well anymore. As to the idea of making my own safety lines, I did that ten years ago but now I just use factory made lines. Every tree with a safety line and a loop around the tree.

I have used OnX extensively hunting in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. It’s also good for finding public lands in NY or anywhere for that matter. I find that the actual owners of private lands tend to not be very up to date with real estate transactions but you always know where the boundaries are. The downloadable maps work great for areas without internet coverage. overall, it’s a great resource that I use a lot.

Picked up the first Southern Tier Harvest today in Wegmans. Always a favorite and a real sign that hunting season is upon us very soon!

Bad storm the other day. Nearly 5 inches of rain and a 76 mph wind gust. Just as my sunflowers were getting full flower head. Also lost tomato plants, beans and eggplant. A real mess.