DANG IT MAN...THAT HURTS !!!

I had started down the ridge to my hunting stand just at daylight this morning when I felt an intense burning sensation on my stomach. At the same time, I felt 4 or 5 impacts on my face mask. I realized that I had stepped on or very near a hornet's nest. Abandoning any attempts to continue to slip to my stand, I took off like the deer I had seen crossing the road this morning. At least one persistent defender followed me the whole 20 yards to my stand so I had to go on past to lose it. I must be getting wimpy because 8 hours later it's still swollen and still hurts in spite of several applications of Benadryl Cream.

THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE DEAD

Bow season for deer is open now. I had court this morning so I didn't get into the woods until around 1 PM. I literally ran into this Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake just before I got to my stand. I always kill a venomous snake around a house or populated area but one that is out in the wild is usually another matter. I tried 3 times to go around this one in the path and all 3 times it struck at me so using my back-up .38, I dispatched him/her/whatever it was. It had 9 buttons on the rattle. You can just make them out in the second picture. The arrow is 31 inches long so the snake probably will go 37-40 inches and weighed around 4-5 pounds. I've seen around 12-15 deer so far but not had a good shot at any yet. Almost all of the deer I've seen this year have been smaller than normal. I don't know if I'm seeing yearlings (last years fawn) or if the deer really are smaller this year.

Deer hunter's dream

Deer hunter's reality

Computer still not back to 100%

Some of my lost programs I didn't even miss till I needed them to work on something. What I really miss the most though is some of the music I had on the hard drive but don't have a disk for. I could go online on some of those peer to peer sharing thangies but that's where I got a lot of my bugs from originally. Anyway...

I went back to Eric and Heather's again to bow hunt this last weekend. We both missed one and saw several more.

Eric this afternoon leaving his tree stand.

Looking down from the woods at the mansion. For those who didn't catch the first story on this...the mansion and 2600 acres were a gift to someone who has so much money that it's their SPARE mansion and they only use it when they go to Charlottesville to watch the UVA ballgame.

Visiting Old Friends

Decided to go hunting for a while today as the weather was nice. Didn't see anything until I was on my way back to the truck. The picture above is a FRESH bear track. I know it's fresh because it is on top one of my boot prints where I went in.

Weekend Trip

Went to Albemarel Co. Va. this weekend to hunt with my youngest son who is a Virginia State Trooper. One of the troopers he works with lives in the basement of a spare mansion (not the house in the picture...that's where the caretaker lives) owned by one of those people who have so much they really don't know what all they do have. So his co-worker got us permission to hunt the woods at the end of the pasture in the next picture. There were quiet a few restrictions on what we could and couldn't do, where we could and couldn't shoot (guess where we saw the most of the deer). The snow in the woods was about 2-3 inches deep with a sheet of ice on top about 1/4 inch thick. That was a lot of fun, especially climbing back up the same hill you just slid down, twice. We saw over 100 deer, mostly driving to the farm or back out or in the field where we weren't allowed to shoot. Deer aren't stupid, why would they want to fight the ice and snow when they could be in a nice grassy field with lots of extra feed and nice fat cattle to keep them company. I did get one shot but had problems with my ammo. Don't ask...I don't want to talk about it!!! Fortunately I still have some meat in the freezer from the deer given to me by my friend.

I'd Forgotten Just How Much Fun It Was

No, I didn't kill this one. It was given to me by a friend who has no more room in his freezer. I'm happy to get it but at the same time I have mixed feelings about those who continue to hunt when they don't need to. Me, I'm a meat hunter. I really don't care how big the antlers are on it as long as it's legal. In fact I would rather have a young tender spike or fat doe as compared to a big buck in rut. The meat from the first two is much better tasting in my opinion. Anyway I'd forgotten just how much fun it really is skinning, quartering, butchering and packing up the meat for the freezer. But that's how I spent most of my Thanksgiving today.

Little Dog Lost

Today was the opening day of rifle season. I did manage to get into the woods and on my stand before daylight this time. Since it was a balmy 17 degrees I was wearing several layers of clothing. Around noon, I walked back to the truck for a cup of hot coffee and shed some of the now unneeded clothing. On the way back to my stand, I met the coonhound pictured above.

Coon hunters are a little strange to begin with but one who runs his dogs the night before opening day of rifle season is way out in left field. I tried to shoo said coonhound on towards the road and he did go for a ways but soon was back on my heels following me. Getting lost is part of coon hunting, so all dogs come equipped from the factory with a collar inscribed with the owner's name, address, and phone number. Using my cell phone I notified the owner that he could find his dog tied to my truck.

After waiting for about 30 minutes, I decided to go back into the woods and continue to hunt. Now the coonhound had other ideas and wasn't about let his new human just walk off. So he started baying in that deep rich coonhound voice that carries for miles. My stand was about a mile down the ridge and I could hear him all the way. Just before I got to my evening stand, he stopped so I figured his owner had shown up and claimed him. About 5 minutes later, I heard what sounded like a deer running through the leaves behind me and then felt a very cold wet nose on the side of my neck. I said a few very choice words to the owner of the wet nose and he got the idea right away. But still not about to let go of his new human he ran off about 20 yards and lay down behind the log in the picture. If you look slightly left of center and underneath the log you can just see him curled up in the leaves.
Now one thing you can be sure of is that coonhounds and hunting from a stand don't go together, so after a few minutes I gave up, called his owner again, and walked him back to the truck and waited for said owner to show up. Since I had walked about 4 miles already today I decided that it was nap time so I went home and took one.

Opening Day AKA I must Be Getting Old

Yesterday was opening day of muzzling loading season for deer. Usually I get up a couple hours before daylight and am on my stand and ready to hunt long before the first streaks of gray break across the horizon. Yesterday I didn't even make it into the woods till well after daylight. The clock went off at 4 AM and I jumped (well actually sort of fell ) out of bed. I went to the front door to check out the temperature, saw the frost on the ground, read 24.1 degrees on the thermometer, and crawled back in bed to argue with myself about the foolishness of getting up so early. After about 10 minutes the more sensible side had convinced my wilder side that it would be best to sleep another hour or so. The winning argument was that my favorite place to hunt (pictured above) would be so crowded that it would be hard to find a place to park and with so many idiots in the woods it would be safer to go in after daylight. You can imagine my surprise when I pulled up to find only one other vehicle. As a matter of fact the only other vehicle was a couple of game wardens as I was coming out around noon to shed some of my extra clothing. That was the first time in about 20 years that I had had my license checked. The really funny part of this story is that I saw 2 does driving in and 2 more driving out but not a single deer while in the woods. So, I'll try it again Monday. Maybe I can get in the woods before daylight this time.

Deer-track Soup

Anyone who deer hunts by themself will tell you that getting a deer is the easy part. After that the real fun begins. First you field dress your kill and then comes the wonderful experience of dragging it and all of your equipment out to where you left the truck or at least where you think you left the truck. Anyway I prefer to hunt uphill so the drag will be downhill. But it doesn't always work out that way.
My grandfather used to tell a story about a monster buck that he estimated would weigh 200+ pounds. He had parked at the top of the mountain and followed an old logging road about 2 miles down the back side when the buck stepped out of a thicket in front of him. He was about to shoot when he remembered where he was and let the buck go. When asked later why he didn't shoot he said that it was easier to make some deer-track soup than to drag that old buck 2 miles uphill to the truck.

For those of you who don't know how to make deer-track soup...when you come in from hunting and you haven't seen anything but tracks all day long and someone asks you about your luck you tell them you'll be eating deer-track soup for supper today.

Are You Sure That's the Way Back To the Truck? AKA Are We Having Fun Yet?

Are You Sure That's the Way Back To the Truck? AKA Are We Having Fun Yet?

Now that another deer season has rolled around it's time to dust off the compass and maps and become totally confused once again. Not that I have ever been lost in the woods you understand but it's just that I seem to get confused a lot. Well maybe not exactly confused, I certainly know where I am and where I want to go it's just that I usually can't get there from here.

Two things have always worried me when I'm in the woods. Getting lost or running into a bear. Once when hunting in Bath county with Dad I managed to do both at the same time. I was making a circle back to our camp for the noon meal when I foolishly allowed a momma bear and her cub to get between me and where I wanted to be. Not being that familiar with the area I crossed one ridge too many while trying to miss the bear family. To make a long story short I finally made it back to camp about an hour after dark. That certainly put me in a fine mind set for hunting about 50 yards from camp for the rest of that trip.

Now I really haven't been that confused since then but occasionally I realize that I'm not coming out where I thought I would and I get that wonderful thrill of pure unadulterated panic that just makes my day.