I went into work early on Friday so that I could leave after lunch and get a jump start on the weekend. I made it down to the cabin before 4:00 pm and was greeted with very light rain. The ATV battery was dead so I hooked up the charger, changed into my mud boots and headed out on a long walk to check the 2 trail cameras that I had up on public land. I was happy to see the first camera on the tree from a ways off, but quickly noticed something was off. One of the latches was open and when I opened up the camera I discovered that someone had stolen the card from it. Although I was happy that they left the camera (it was locked to the tree), it made me angry that someone would do that. The camera had been there for a month and I was hoping to gain some information on a new spot. In the end, I figure it was most likely another hunter that either didn't want me to see what deer were in that area or was mad that someone else had discovered "their spot". Either way, the joke is on them because it confirmed what I already suspected, that it is indeed a good spot.
It made me nervous as I walked more than a mile to the 2nd camera. I was relieved to see the camera on the tree but noticed it had been turned. At first I wondered if the card would be missing from this camera as well, but it wasn't. The cable lock was actually just a little lose and upon inspection of the pictures later, a deer actually came up to the camera and nudged it to the side. I did get a series of pictures of a man and woman out hiking and was thankful that there are at least a few decent people out there that left my camera alone. The pictures on this camera were very good and showed consistent daylight movement nearly every day on a trail that moves through a pinch point. Another new stand spot!
I took a different way back to the cabin in an attempt to find some entry/exit routes to this stand site and to look for shed antlers (of which I was unsuccessful). The ATV still wouldn't start when I got back, so I grabbed a rake, clover seed, and a spreader and headed for the ridge food plot. We had expanded the plot last year and most of it had a very good clover stand but we never raked it off before planting it and there was a lot of sticks, bark, and other matter covering the ground in several spots. I spent the next 2 hours raking off the plot.
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| A lot of sticks/bark covering portions of the food plot |
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| All cleared off and ready for planting |
After clearing off the plot, I over seeded the areas that were bare with fresh clover seed. Clover is a hard seed and does very well when frost seeded. With a few nights below freezing in the forecast as well as a couple days of rain, it was the perfect time to get some seed on the ground to allow the rain and freeze/thaw cycles to work the seed into the ground.
I then pulled the card from the camera on the SE corner of the ridge food plot and was very happy to see that it had a lot of pictures. The coolest series of pictures was of a big piebald buck. This is the first time that I have had a piebald deer on camera. I'm hoping that he sticks around all year so that I can see him in person next season. I also noticed that he already has quite a bit of antler growth for this early in the year.
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| Piebald buck on the ridge just a few days ago |
Before heading in for the night to dry off, I walked over to check the last camera that was on a ravine crossing to the East of the small field food plot. I was disappointed to find that the camera had malfunctioned and didn't write any pictures to the SD card. I decided to move the camera up the ridge to where 2 deer trails meet just South of the food plot and put a new card in it.
Thunderstorms moved through during the night so I didn't sleep very well and it was pouring rain when I woke up in the morning. I opted to stay inside for awhile and watch a movie before getting bundled up to brave the rain, wind, and mud. I grabbed a chainsaw and bucket and headed back to the ridge to cut up a tree that had fallen across the ATV trail. After getting it cut up and stacked into a nice pile (to be used for firewood later), I headed for the big field food plot where I spent nearly 3 hours removing cages, posts, landscape fabric and staples from our failed tree planting 2 years ago. In an attempt to build a permanent screen for the big field food plot, we planted nearly 50 blue spruce and red cedar trees. Over a month without rain after planting the first year and a severe drought last year killed all but 10 of the trees. Those 10 I actually dug up and transplanted to a couple of different places near the cabin. I wanted to get the cages out of there so that I could plant my plot screen closer to the blind this year again.
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| Cages all stacked to the side of the food plot |
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| Last surviving trees |
After 2 straight trips to the cabin with inclement weather, I am ready for some warmer temperatures and sunshine on my next trip. I don't like to complain about my cabin trips as I always like going down there, but this one was plain miserable and I was hardly able to get any work done on top of that. That being said, I will take my lumps now if it means having a great hunting season.
Until next time!
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