stubborn1VT

Just got a text letting me know that the farmer (my brother) is mowing the hay field I was going to hunt tomorrow PM. Better to know now. It's my best north wind spot, so I'll have to adjust to that. Perfect timing.

Not much left to do but load my pack. Half a day's work today, then head to the family farm to scout a little. I'm not super hopeful, but it will be good to be out. Weather looks right! Good luck all. It's almost here...

There's been a decent 8 point hanging around my place, but the wind is wrong for opening weekend. I'll head to the family farm and that neighborhood. Hunt an old pasture with some apple trees opening morning, just because it's the opener. Won't hunt mornings again until we get a cold front. I will head over Friday and scout a little. Pick out a spot for Saturday PM. Probably sit an observation stand on Sunday PM. Spend the rest of the weekend helping my brother with firewood. He's halfway done with the 14 cord he needs.

Glad you guys are back in action. Thanks for sharing your adventures!

He's not a legal spike. It would be more accurate to calI him anterless. Guess we'll each call them what we like. Free country and all.

If the one in the pic is not a button, then what do you call it? What is the average weight of a field dressed fawn in the NE? - cuz it isn't 85lbs. With my years of experience I will call a deer with buttons on its head a button buck, you know, because of the buttons.

Thanks for letting me know. Only been around whitetails for 40ish years!

I still have the buttons. They were way less than 3", so I wouldn't call him a spike. Very similar to the one in your pic.

You can think what you want. No friggin way is a fawn over 100lbs at 5.5 MONTHS old.

I hear ya. Better to park it outside though?

Not necessarily true. When they are old enough to rub the velvet off their antler nubs they aren't this year's fawn. I have pictures of this doe and 2 fawns from last year too. First deer I ever shot with a Xbow was a 107lb button buck. Was that a fawn too?

Spread about 30lbs of fertilizer on my plot, since I had it. Everything is growing ok. Like most of you, I struggled with dry conditions. Now about half of my plot is too darn wet. Some parts are great. Some parts are squishy. Some parts are covered in standing water. It'll be what it'll be. Trimmed out my natural blind in the hedgerow. Paced out 35 yards in two shooting lanes and marked them with some ash branches that still had leaves on them. Checked two cameras. Big doe, medium doe, last year's fawns (one's a button) and 2 eight pointers. One is 2.5 and the other is 3.5. At least that's what I think, since I have pics of them from last year. Also a small flock of hens and poults. I plan on hunting here at the house early season. Partly because I still have some work to get done and partly because those bucks are hanging around. I don't have any great bucks on camera at our family farm, yet. Plenty of deer over there, so I'm hoping to take a doe or maybe two from the several hundred acres I can hunt in that area. Hard to believe it's almost the best time of year! Went to the apple orchard and got some cider, apples, and apple cider donuts. Shot the Xbow. Worked on firewood. If I can just get a couple more jobs finished up - the rest of the fall will be MINE!

THIS. Years like this we get more hay out of shady sections of fields. On a more normal year, we get more hay away from the shade because it gets more sun.

Looks like it's pinned, so it could be folded down.

I agree with this. I learned alot from partial plot failure. I have weeds and orchard grass. I planted based on a forecast of 3 days of rain. We got one brief shower. Managed to salvage the plot by overseeding before a batch of rain 2 weeks after the original planting and got decent germination out of that. The only areas that don't look good are along the edges where the tree roots reach under the plot and rob moisture. Dust bowl. Don't think you're rusty. It was a brutal summer. A few things I think might have helped me are: 1) using high end/ coated seed. I think it would have helped with germination 2) over packing the soil with a roller hurts germination. As dry as it was, I made too hard of a seed bed. 3) As dry as it was, I now wish I hadn't tilled up so much of the plot. I had grasses, clover and trefoil that I could have simply mowed, limed and maybe hit with a little low N fertilizer. Especially around the edges of the plot. Would sure beat bare dirt. We'll see how things look in a week. I overseeded bare spots with oats and a tiny bit of Hunter brassicas yesterday morning and then we got THREE+ inches of rain yesterday. My plots may turn out well after all!