Sinkin' The Gator

We have had a lot of rain around here, and every bottom turned into a swamp.
We had a couple dogs doing circles in the deep part of the swamp, which meant some of the boys had to hike in and a couple rode in on 4 wheelers to get the dogs, and drag a few deer out.
One of the boys went over to the barn and got the John Deere Gator and was doing pretty good through the thick stuff, but then he found spring.

Before any of the wheelers got back, they decided to use a come-a-long a winch him out

Did not do much good, wound up having to use the winch on my Kawasaki Bear Tracker, and the snatch strap on a Honda Foreman.

We got him out.

After that, and all the deer were skinned, we all went down to the Turkey Shoot at Potomac Hunt Club

My son Bobby won a meat round

My brother Karl won a couple meat rounds and some money rounds.

Just so you know, you get some people shooting at a target with equal guns, and equal loads, at the same distance, and the one with the pellet closest to the mark, or the most pellets to the mark wins the round.

The money goes for a good cause, and it's a chance to get together with some good guys and just have some fun

We use an old Belgium made Browning 12 Ga, and have a Remington 870 to shoot with.

I did see a few Thompson's, Ithaca's, and even a Mossberg that gave a few good shots

Hondo And The 9 Point

At the hunt club last weekend, one of the guys got a nice 9 point buck.
I was on the other side of the swamp picking up dogs, so I did not get a shot of the deer on the ground when he shot it

By the time I made it to the skinnin shed, Hondo and Garnet were almost done with it. My son Jesse wanted to get in there and help

The proud hunter. We are gonna hear about this for the rest of the season

It was a tall rack, and wide, but did not seem as full as it could have been.

Either way, I would have been happy to have it on my tailgate

Deer Season Begins

Our First day of deer season here was rain rain rain

I did prepare, and got in a blind early in the morning near some thick pines hoping to catch something coming in from the bean fields.

No luck.

Our dogs got a few hits, but the runs were short lived, and as I switched channels on the radio to listen in on the other clubs in the area, it seemed that they were not having much luck either.

After lunch, we did a drive in a thick, pine piece bordered by a beaver pond and bean fields.

The guys got around at different spots and the beagles went in.

Sure enough, as soon as they got in, they hit it hot, and we put a few on the ground.

I think I am getting old because I did not even take my 50 cal. or my 12 gauge out of the truck all day, I just enjoy listening to the dogs run

Sad Sad

Here are the leftovers from our last crab feast of the season.

A sad day.

We have had some frost, and the water temps are dropping, and for the recreational crabber, you can't catch enough in the 2 pots and the short line you are allowed to use to make a good meal now, so it is time to wash it all down and put it up for the winter.

Bow season is in now, and black powder comes in on the 31st, so I will be in my stand Saturday morning.

Later in the week, I will post about my new 50 caliber black powder rifle, so check back in a couple days.

as for now, I did pick some of the leftover crab meat, so It is crab cake time : )

The Tree

My brothers and my two sons tackled a red oak the other day at a neighbors house. It was dead, and was close to falling across her shed and clothesline.

My brother Karl put his spikes on and walked up the tree and took out some of the lower branches

The tree was so rotten in the top, he could not get to far, so we had to rope it off and notch it. We tied it off to his F-350 Ford to persuade the tree to come down where we wanted

A shed on one side, and a basketball court/picnic area on the other

It came down right where we needed.

The base of the tree where we made the notch to bring it down was about 35"

My brother took home about 3 cords of firewood, and I took my other brother a truckload for his smoker and fire pit, and I was still able to go back and get a full truckload to take to my house
This was our good deed for the month, to help a lady that we grew up with. Out of all the kids that used to run around our little neighborhood, I think my brothers and I are all that are left that ever come back