wolc123

I am interested in hearing how you make out with that. There is a similar stream at my spot up in the northern zone. I think it might work at times when the prevailing wind direction aligns with the current. That way, one could sneak in from downsteam, without the wind and water currents tipping the deer of of your approach. You would definitely need some good, high boots, and I would only attempt it on warm days.

I would also turn to into 2 guns, a Marlin 336 30/30 with a Redfield Revolution 2-7 scope, and a T/C encore 50 cal ML with fiber optic sights. That would give me a fair weather mountain deer rifle (something I currently "borrow" from my father in law. A foul weather ML is something I am lacking bit sure would have been handy last season when it rained thru most of the early northern zone ML week. $ 2k would get both of those plus a considerable quantity of ammo. I am guessing that 30/30 ammo will be back on the shelves, at regular prices, by May 1.

How much for the big gold spitoon ?

I think many hunters go thru the "trophy" stage. I also went thru a few years of it when I was young. Some of us get thru it, and eventually realize that MEAT is where it's at. I can only think of one frequenter of this site who does not show much hope of ever getting beyond the "trophy" stage. I am ok with that, because other folks reasons for deer hunting makes little difference to me. I appreciate the trophy hunters, because I prefer to not kill does (they take me longer to process). The "little bucks" that they pass have kept my family fed thru many a cold winter.

"Good", not "great". "Great", would be a button buck roast, but unfortunately, I have not been blessed with one of those since November '18.

Hot roast doe that has been vacuum sealed since Nov '19. It still tastes pretty good, especially when washed down with Spring Bock. I am waiting for it to warm up enough outside to move a cord of firewood up onto the porch. It is zero out there now, but almost 80 inside by the stove. It looks like it might finally warm up enough next weekend to get out for some ice fishing.

Right now, it seems that the odd ball ammo is the easiest to find. 28 ga was the only shotgun ammo on the Walmart shelves this week, at the two locations I visited.

No, that's our billiard room, but I did use beer taps for the handles.

Praying for your daughter Biz. I watched the game with our daughters, and they were both pulling for KC. I slightly favored Tampa, and was thankfull to hit on a square for the 1st quarter score. I will have to take them out on my winnings to thier favorite eatery, to ease their pain a bit. We are all hoping that the team formerly known as chiefs dont get by the Bill's next year. That will be our turn to make sure TB got his last ring.

Doe

Spaghetti with meat sauce and salad for us. The water is almost boiling right now.

Thanks for running a fun contest chef. This year maybe break up zones 8 & 9 to even up the odds a little and give you easterners a better chance.

No merit for several reasons: First, is the scent factor. Getting up in a tree helps keep your scent above a deer. You loose that advantage in a hole. Second, is water. It is usually wet in the fall and keeping water out of the hole would be tough. Third, is visibility. It is tough to see very far from down in a hole.

A Farmall cub tractor. "Cultivision" gave me a stiff neck, and the damn thing ate throwout bearings. I am glad it is somebody else's problem now.

I cooked a doe roast from the freezer, that I vacuum sealed in November of 2019, in the crock pot. It was very tender and our girls loved it. I am looking forward to leftovers for lunch at work next week.

Speaking of questionable wars, including the "more recent one" you mentioned, along with a couple other questionable ones: What two things do Jefferson Davis (Civil), Harry Truman (Korea), and John Kennedy (Vietnam) have in common ? Answer: They were all Democrats who led their country in wars that were not "won". Also, in all 3 cases, it was Republican Presidents (Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Nixon) who ended these pointless struggles. Think about that next time you cast a vote.

It may not protect as many others as you think. I have heard that the vaccine does not prevent you from getting Covid, or transmitting it to others. It just prevents you from getting sick from it, about 85 % of the time. At least that would free up some hospital capacity for those who do get sick, from Covid and other issues.

In my younger days, we used to rent a big old Adirondack lake house for a long weekend each year, for a snowmobile trip. It was decorated nice, with old wooden snowshoes on the wall and a fancy antique wood sled for a coffee table in the living room. One calm sunny, superbowl Sunday morning I wanted to ice fish. It had been warm earlier and there was a layer of water, under about a foot of powdery snow. Walking with just boots was impossible, if you wanted to keep your feet dry. Those wall decorations came in very handy for me on that trip. So did the sled. I ended up catching a few trout and some whitefish that were excellent smoked with apple wood. When I was finished with the "borrowed decorations", I put them back in position, no worse for the wear. They were very old, long wooden ones with leather bindings. They looked to have been hand-crafted by an eskimo in the 1800's. I have a set of short wood bear-paw style ones now, with one piece rubber bindings. I use them on occasion, for weekend excersize walks or for ice fishing. The snow is seldom deep enough to need them anymore. I get a lot more mileage, but significantly less excersize, from my cross country ski's.

I use an old 16 gauge J Steven's for the same duty, choked I/C and mod. It is not a pretty gun, but it gets the job done. My grandad left me two doubles, that and a 1925 12 gauge Ithaca. The Ithaca is prettier, longer, and lighter. I used it for a couple seasons on a trap league. The guys with the over and unders always got a kick out of it. I always told them that if God wanted them to use a gun like that, He would have put their eyes that way (over and under). After I got a real trap gun, I still used it for one round per season, when our team would have a "double" round. On my second last bird, 20 years ago, the main spring busted, and neither barrel would fire. A buddy on the team had a slightly newer Ithaca double, that he said was known as the "new Ithaca design". I think there was an "NID" in the serial number. My old Ithaca is a mantle piece now:

Lunch pounder:

Unfortunately, I did not get any more chances to try out the grinder/file modified butt-out for its regular intended usage last year. Late ML season was not productive for me. Maybe full-inclusion of crossbow will pass this year, in which case it could happen on October 1. Our burger supply is holding out ok, despite the little bit I chucked due to the orange plastic contamination. I am thankful to still have all my finger tips anyhow.

My dad had a rear blower on his 2wd John Deere CUT for a few years. Now he has a rear blade which he prefers. It never plugs up or shears pins and works for all types of snowfall.

This has been the lamest winter in quite a few years for snowfall. The last good one was about 5 years ago, when I could have held winter Olympic events on the snow mountain that I made in the front yard. I have not even had to push the snow across the road yet this year. I only do that when the piles at the end of the driveways get too high to see over. Pretty much everyone else on our road push it across every time. I don't like doing that, because it creates temporary hazards for drivers.

I would rather plow snow than blow it, but I would call it a tie between blowing snow and cutting grass. Neither of those is fun for me, but I do enjoy plowing snow. I use a 4wd tractor with a front loader and rear plow for snow removal. It is open-station with good lights on front and back. It has a block heater that I can turn on an hour or so prior to usage, from inside the house. It takes me about a half hour to clear a foot of snow from the driveways and parking areas around our house and barns with that rig. All of our vehicles are parked inside the buildings in the winter, which makes the snow clearing a lot easier. I have plenty of room for stacking the snow, and can reach over 10 ft high with the loader. On winters with lots of snow, I make a luge run for the kids, in the front yard, with the excess.

I had to break out the good stuff to celebrate our 16 year old daughter cooking her first dinner for us : pasta, broccoli, and cauliflower: