Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Practice, Practice, Practice
Dancer and I decided to go to the archery range this morning where I normally practice shooting my bow. Today it is pretty chilly so I decided to shoot indoors.
Here's the place I practice every so often...I'm not the best archer out there by any means, but have fun doing it! The picture turned out darker than it is:
The archery range is fairly cheap around this area...$40.00 for single and $50.00 for a family membership for the year. Plus the range is open 24/7, so if you can't sleep, you could pass the time by shooting in there at 3:30 a.m. if you wanted to. Not that I have done that!
Here are some pictures of the range and club...
It has a nice woodburning stove in it to keep you warm, but I always come out of there in the winter time smelling really smoky for obvious reasons.
Here's Dancer by her favorite thing at the archery range...goodies!
She usually enjoys a 3 Musketeer but today it was a bag of Cheetos (One of your great Grandpa W.'s favorites). Off to the far right is the kitchen and next to the Pepsi dispenser is the entrance to the range.
Here's a picture of the Kitchen...
So Dancer decided to take a picture of Daddy shooting...(look at the perfect form) Ha!
The club will have 3-D shoots at least once a month in the spring/summer/fall months...which I will have to show you that sometime. Until then, I will continue to practice, practice, and practice some more!
Here's the place I practice every so often...I'm not the best archer out there by any means, but have fun doing it! The picture turned out darker than it is:
The archery range is fairly cheap around this area...$40.00 for single and $50.00 for a family membership for the year. Plus the range is open 24/7, so if you can't sleep, you could pass the time by shooting in there at 3:30 a.m. if you wanted to. Not that I have done that!
Here are some pictures of the range and club...
It has a nice woodburning stove in it to keep you warm, but I always come out of there in the winter time smelling really smoky for obvious reasons.
Here's Dancer by her favorite thing at the archery range...goodies!
She usually enjoys a 3 Musketeer but today it was a bag of Cheetos (One of your great Grandpa W.'s favorites). Off to the far right is the kitchen and next to the Pepsi dispenser is the entrance to the range.
Here's a picture of the Kitchen...
So Dancer decided to take a picture of Daddy shooting...(look at the perfect form) Ha!
The club will have 3-D shoots at least once a month in the spring/summer/fall months...which I will have to show you that sometime. Until then, I will continue to practice, practice, and practice some more!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
It's gone!
Yesterday, the weather was nice so I thought I would go wander around Dad's land. I came to his patch of food for the deer and look what was starting to come up...
...I thought this was great to see clover and I saw a well travelled trail coming from the bog to visit the food plot.
I looked around for a while and peered into the woods and I noticed I alot of trees down. I looked for a cheap treestand that my dad put up a few years back which he didn't secure with a lock and chain to the tree. Well, he paid for that because as you can see...We had an unwanted visitor! A thief stole dad's treestand. What is left is the stabilizer bar...
I had a treestand stolen approximately 5 years ago. It's not a good feeling knowing there are people out there that will take something that belongs to you and also trespassing when they should not be, when there are no trespassing signs posted everywhere. Don't the trespassers/robbers understand that they will be prosecuted if they step onto my dad's land??? I think they will get caught eventually. People just believe they are above the law. I worry about people like that!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Silly Raccoon...
Around Northwest Indiana, we had many inches of rain with major flooding for the third time in 14 months. This flood did not close schools this time, but bus routes had to be rerouted. The picture you see is your Grandma Gail's backyard shed.
The flood as you can see was devastating to all that live by a creek, ditch, or river, and dispersed animals from their normal home to find other places of shelter. The above picture where all the water is usually is an agricultural field, but it has momentarily become a lake. Here's another picture...
Grandma Gail had a visitor because of the flood...
This raccoon ended up in her garage because the person, who normally picks up her lawn mower to repair and/or tune it up for the long mowing season, forgot to securely close the door to her back door of her garage. This raccoon ended up climbing over a partition in the garage to another part of the garage and
dented the front end of her car by knocking over an old potato tin jar. What luck! Any who, Grandma Gail and I had to take care of the coon. We decided to trap the raccoon and displace it to one of my different places that I can hunt. (Thanks, Dad!) We took the raccoon in my truck...
then set it down in the woods, placing some food down to tease him out of the trap!
We really didn't need to place anything down to coax him out of the cage, because once I opened up the trap door, he flew up that tree...
and he finally started to feel a little more comfortable in his new home.
Silly Raccoon!
The flood as you can see was devastating to all that live by a creek, ditch, or river, and dispersed animals from their normal home to find other places of shelter. The above picture where all the water is usually is an agricultural field, but it has momentarily become a lake. Here's another picture...
Grandma Gail had a visitor because of the flood...
This raccoon ended up in her garage because the person, who normally picks up her lawn mower to repair and/or tune it up for the long mowing season, forgot to securely close the door to her back door of her garage. This raccoon ended up climbing over a partition in the garage to another part of the garage and
dented the front end of her car by knocking over an old potato tin jar. What luck! Any who, Grandma Gail and I had to take care of the coon. We decided to trap the raccoon and displace it to one of my different places that I can hunt. (Thanks, Dad!) We took the raccoon in my truck...
then set it down in the woods, placing some food down to tease him out of the trap!
We really didn't need to place anything down to coax him out of the cage, because once I opened up the trap door, he flew up that tree...
and he finally started to feel a little more comfortable in his new home.
Silly Raccoon!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Happy St. Patricks Day
When you see this clover? What do you think of?
Most people believe that a 4 leaf clover will bring you good luck. Well, I've found 4 leaf clovers before but good luck has never come by that way!
A three leaf clover actually is a symbol of Christianity or of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit.) Whatever you believe in is fine with me.
But being a deer hunter, when I see this picture of a clover. I think of one thing. Nutrition! Deer love imperial whitetail clover from the Whitetail Institute of North America. They receive a lot of protein from clover, an astounding 33%! There is not another meal for deer out that has that much protein, and more protein means bigger animals and bigger antlers. The shamrock is my idea of good luck for hunters!
So when you are wearing your shamrock symbols, or wearing your green this Tuesday drinking your green beer, raise a glass for me....
and think hard and repeat, "Old Hunter will get a monster deer this year!" Maybe through the use of Whitetail Clover, I'll finally have a giant whitetail walk under my treestand and maybe the luck of the shamrock/clover will bring me to whitetail heaven.
Happy St. Patrick's Day Hunter and Dancer! **No drinking of alcohol until you are of age!** Dancer the year 2024 for you...Hunter 2029 for you!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Recent Trail Camera Pics
The past 3 weeks, I left my trail camera out, hoping to see a big buck still roaming around the bog. Even though no big bucks or small ones showed up with a full rack of antlers to smile for the camera, I was lucky enough to have a dependable trail camera take these. Here are some of my favorites:
The deer in the falling snow I believe is a buck minus the antlers...if you look at his left ear(double click on the pic to see a close-up)..to the left of it I think i see where the base of the antlers were.
Herd of deer travelling down a well trodden path
The next evening this doe showed up...and a minute later..her friends came to the camera as well.
Take a look how now their coats are changing back to their spring/summer coat to camouflage them a bit better...
from a gray color to a light brown hue.
Isn't it cool to see the transition of their many coats? I love this trail camera!I have a lot more pictures from my Cuddeback digital but these were my favorites...which one was your favorite pic you viewed?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Clothes of a Deer hunter
Many years ago, hunters, like my grandfather and my dad, heading to the woods or field used to adorn themselves with a red and black flannel wool shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of boots, along with some wool socks. (Sorry- I couldnt find a free picture online of the outfit, but use your imagination and you can easily picture it.)Later, after a long day's hunt taking them off and warming them up around the fire. Little did my dad and grandpa and all early hunters know, one of the most valuable hunting tools ever discovered was sitting in the bottom of their fire pit.
But today, technology has even hit the clothes market of hunting. Look down any deer hunting superstore's clothing line , such as BassPro Shops or Cabelas and you will observe Scent Shield, Scent Blocker, and my favorite, Scent-Lok. The clothes actually has a layer of activated charcoal penetrated into the particular pant, shirt, underwear, or bib to help conceal the hunter's odor.
Instead of older hunters who just hunted into the wind, hoping the deer would come from upwind; now, the hunter may look downwind without creating such an odor impression. The deer will still smell you because of their unbelievable nose, but the clothing will make you seem like your 200 yards away instead of just 20 yards, increasing your chances of harvesting that big game animal.
Here's a picture of a professional hunter Greg Abbas, with his Scent-Lok gear on.
Hunters not only use these carbon activated clothing which can be reactivated throughout the season by placing them in the dryer for 40 minutes, but also they spray carbon scent eliminators to shield the last layer of human scent. The one brand I use is made by Wildlife Research Center called Scent Killer. Supposedly it kills 99 percent of human odors. I'm not a scientist...I'll take their word on it.
But today, technology has even hit the clothes market of hunting. Look down any deer hunting superstore's clothing line , such as BassPro Shops or Cabelas and you will observe Scent Shield, Scent Blocker, and my favorite, Scent-Lok. The clothes actually has a layer of activated charcoal penetrated into the particular pant, shirt, underwear, or bib to help conceal the hunter's odor.
Instead of older hunters who just hunted into the wind, hoping the deer would come from upwind; now, the hunter may look downwind without creating such an odor impression. The deer will still smell you because of their unbelievable nose, but the clothing will make you seem like your 200 yards away instead of just 20 yards, increasing your chances of harvesting that big game animal.
Here's a picture of a professional hunter Greg Abbas, with his Scent-Lok gear on.
Hunters not only use these carbon activated clothing which can be reactivated throughout the season by placing them in the dryer for 40 minutes, but also they spray carbon scent eliminators to shield the last layer of human scent. The one brand I use is made by Wildlife Research Center called Scent Killer. Supposedly it kills 99 percent of human odors. I'm not a scientist...I'll take their word on it.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Building a Fire
You will hear the saying, "You don't just start a fire, you build it." Before any of this building can be done, pick a dry open place about 10 yards from the nearest tree or dried out grass. The essential ingredients you need to gather up before you can build a fire are tinder, kindling, and fuel.
Tinder is anything that will ignite at a low temperature, such as a fallen bird's nest, dried pine needles, or flaking peeled bark...or if you can't find anything in the woods use a piece of cotton cloth, or maybe if you were camping, a crushed up straw.
Kindling is placed onto the tinder to create more of a flame. It is used to bring the temperature of the fire up to the point where you can start putting less combustible items on it. Examples of kindling are: small twigs, wood split into small pieces, or cardboard if camping.
Both tinder and kindling must be kept dry, and definitely using pieces from small to large, or you'll never build the fire to get the temperature high enough to put on the easiest part of building the fire, fuel.
When I talk about fuel, it is not gasoline, but the largest pieces of wood placed on the fire to keep the temperature burning hot. Fuel can be dry dead branches, the inside of fallen tree branches, or if you are in treeless areas, you could use dry grass, twisted in bunches.
Okay, so now you two know what you need to BUILD a fire, but now what do you need to ignite the all important flame without using man made instruments. The only pictures I could find that I could use without stealing them were from flickr.com
This apparatus is called the bow and drill. It has four parts- bow, drill, fireboard, and socket.
The bow may be made using any tree branch approx. 1/2 inch thick and approx. 20 inches long. A cord or shoestring is attached loosely to each end of the branch. The drill, the straight up and down stick that spins to create enough friction to ignite the tinder, should be 3/4 inch thick and around 10 inches long. The fireboard should be made from a flat piece of wood that is approximately 1/2 inch thick with a depression drilled along the edge with the bow and drill. Notch the depression to the outside of the board. The notch is necessary so the hot wood dust and spark will fall into the tinder. The socket may be made from a flat rock or hardwood. In it a depression must be drilled to hold the drill as straight as possible as the drill spins. After using a lot of energy, moving the bow quickly back and forth, the black dust will eventually catch a spark and get the tinder ignited.
If you have trouble making fire, maybe go to one of our true forefathers and learn from the best...
Tinder is anything that will ignite at a low temperature, such as a fallen bird's nest, dried pine needles, or flaking peeled bark...or if you can't find anything in the woods use a piece of cotton cloth, or maybe if you were camping, a crushed up straw.
Kindling is placed onto the tinder to create more of a flame. It is used to bring the temperature of the fire up to the point where you can start putting less combustible items on it. Examples of kindling are: small twigs, wood split into small pieces, or cardboard if camping.
Both tinder and kindling must be kept dry, and definitely using pieces from small to large, or you'll never build the fire to get the temperature high enough to put on the easiest part of building the fire, fuel.
When I talk about fuel, it is not gasoline, but the largest pieces of wood placed on the fire to keep the temperature burning hot. Fuel can be dry dead branches, the inside of fallen tree branches, or if you are in treeless areas, you could use dry grass, twisted in bunches.
Okay, so now you two know what you need to BUILD a fire, but now what do you need to ignite the all important flame without using man made instruments. The only pictures I could find that I could use without stealing them were from flickr.com
This apparatus is called the bow and drill. It has four parts- bow, drill, fireboard, and socket.
The bow may be made using any tree branch approx. 1/2 inch thick and approx. 20 inches long. A cord or shoestring is attached loosely to each end of the branch. The drill, the straight up and down stick that spins to create enough friction to ignite the tinder, should be 3/4 inch thick and around 10 inches long. The fireboard should be made from a flat piece of wood that is approximately 1/2 inch thick with a depression drilled along the edge with the bow and drill. Notch the depression to the outside of the board. The notch is necessary so the hot wood dust and spark will fall into the tinder. The socket may be made from a flat rock or hardwood. In it a depression must be drilled to hold the drill as straight as possible as the drill spins. After using a lot of energy, moving the bow quickly back and forth, the black dust will eventually catch a spark and get the tinder ignited.
If you have trouble making fire, maybe go to one of our true forefathers and learn from the best...
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