Holiday Week Hunts

I'm a bit behind on my blog posts as I've had a looooong last month recovering from an injured back and 2 other unrelated illnesses.

After a successful week of hunting to kick off the month of November, I headed back to the cabin the Friday before Thanksgiving to meet Justin for a few more days of hunting. Originally my dad was supposed to join us as well but a slip on ice led to an injured shoulder and he wasn't able to pull his bow back. That actually put a sour spin on the week for me but I was still hoping to get Justin on some deer.

After arriving at the cabin on Friday evening, I quickly walked around the property to pull trail camera cards. The cards revealed plenty of deer activity over the previous couple of weeks.

Returning to the cabin after pulling trail camera cards

It turned out to be a good few days of hunting even though we weren't able to put a deer on the ground. I only had an antlerless tag in my pocket, so naturally I had bucks parading by me on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday morning I took a long walk to scout a location for late muzzleloader season. I was hunting from the ground and had the same big 8 pointer that I saw in early November walk into 25 yards giving me what would have been a perfect shot. 

Nice buck across the food plot from me on Saturday evening

Beautiful sunset on the Ridge Sunday evening

It was during that same hunt that I noticed my lower back starting to hurt and it got much worse over the next 2 days. I ended up not hunting on Monday and Tuesday at all as I was to the point that I could barely even walk because I was in so much pain. Justin ended the trip with some deer in range on Tuesday morning but he wasn't able to get a shot off. 

After being layed up with a back injury during Thanksgiving week, I came down with a case of bronchitis for 2 weeks followed by a bacterial sinus infection. After a month, I'm finally on the road to recovery with just a lingering cough. 

I did manage to sneak a trip down to the cabin on the opening day of Late Muzzleloader for a hunt with my youngest daughter, Bridget. The weather was unseasonably warm (in the mid 50s) and the deer just weren't moving but we had a good time anyways. 

Navigating the woods to check trail cameras

The cutest little hunter there ever was

Passing time while we wait in the box blind

Enjoyed a beautiful sunset

Filling out the hunting log

Rut-cation 2019

I left home on the evening of November 1st ready for what could have been up to 9 days straight of deer hunting. After getting everything unpacked and ready, my neighbor Brent joined me to kick off the weekend. Nothing is more exciting to a bow hunter than the first week of November. The weather forecast was looking good and anticipation was high.

I pulled the trail camera card from the camera behind the cabin and it revealed a lot of activity during the month of October, including a few really nice bucks. With a northwest wind, I knew right where we needed to hunt. I sent Brent to the newly positioned Ridge tree stand while I threw a ladder stand on my shoulder and hiked a half mile west to the open gate location that I had so much luck last year.

After getting the stand setup in the dark, the action heated up fast. I had a doe wander in along the fence line from the north with a very large 8 point buck trailing her. She made it into 20 yards while he stayed out at 40. The doe then started to work away from me and he followed. I gave a couple of grunts that initially got him fired up but he ended up pushing the doe in the opposite direction. As I was texting Brent to tell him what I saw, he sent me a message saying that he shot a good buck and saw him go down at the bottom of the deep ravine. I was very excited but wanted to hunt a little longer before going back to help him.

I didn't have to wait long as another 8 point buck came in from the west and worked his way right into the same shooting lane that the doe had been in at 18 yards. After I shot, my initial reaction was the shot was too high and I may have shot above the spine. After waiting about 15 minutes, I got down to retrieve my arrow with the intention of walking back to help Brent before pursuing my deer. My arrow was covered in good blood and I could see an extremely good blood trail leading across the ridge in the direction the buck ran. I decided to follow it just far enough to see down into the next ravine over and locate where he headed up the neighboring ridge. As it turned out, he was laying in the bottom of the ravine and hadn't run 60 yards before dying.

Dead buck in the bottom of a ravine

Good 8 point buck on the ground after 2 hours of hunting

Brent headed my way and after a significant amount of effort, we managed to get my buck drug out of the ravine and back to the cabin. We then fired up the ATV and headed for the ridge to retrieve Brent's buck. It was a long drag up from the bottom of the ravine but we finally got his buck back to the cabin as well. Both of us were extremely excited and for the first time since purchasing the cabin, we had killed 2 deer in a single day (there is only 1 other time that we had even killed 2 deer in 1 trip)

Brent with a nice 8 point buck taken from the ridge

First time doubling-up at the cabin

Brent headed home in the afternoon and I spent the rest of the day skinning and deboning my deer. It was a beautiful evening and ended up being just about a perfect day and a great start to the week. 

First time using my hitch deer lift

All cut up and ready for the cooler

Dad arrived on Saturday evening and ended up hunting through Tuesday. He had a few good hunts but things were definitely slower then Saturday. I spent Saturday morning squirrel hunting but then opted to head into town to buy a doe tag. Even though I tried to put dad in the best tree stands each day it seemed like I would see deer and he wouldn't. I was sad when dad left for home on Tuesday night as it was my goal to get him on a deer this year and we just couldn't get it done. 

My friend, Justin, arrived in camp on Wednesday afternoon. A cold front was moving in so the temperatures were dropping and the wind was extremely high so we didn't see much for the evening sit. Justin and I had some great sits on Thursday and Friday but we were not able to get any shots (again I seemed to have a parade of bucks come by every hunt). Justin had to head home on Friday night so I did the same. It felt great to be home after a fun an relaxing week at the cabin. It was a successful week of hunting and I managed to get in some squirrel hunting, cooking over the fire, and odd jobs done around the cabin as well. Even though dad and Justin weren't able to fill their tags, I personally had the best week of hunting of my life. I had 12 sits over 7 days and 7 of those I had bucks in range that I would have happily shot if I still had a buck tag in my pocket. 

The plan is to return for another 4 days of hunting in a couple of weeks. I know that Justin will be coming down for sure and even though I have my tag filled, I'm still looking forward to it. Hopefully we will be able to build on the success that we have already had!

Opening Weekend

Abigail and I took a day trip down to the cabin on the first Saturday in October with the goal of doing some mowing and sitting for an evening hunt. It was a rainy day but I threw on my raincoat and fired up the John Deere while Abigail enjoyed a movie in the cabin.

Mowing in the rain

There is a country song in here somewhere

After finishing up, I quickly worked my way around the property to pull trail camera cards. There was a lot of activity over the last month but I wasn't expecting to see much with the crappy weather. We opted to sit in the small field blind, but with the exception of a couple turkeys, we didn't have much action for the evening. 

Hanging out in the blind

2 hen turkeys kept us entertained for awhile

Although mostly uneventful, it was great to spend some time with one of my daughters at the place I love most. 

Labor Day Weekend

Bridget and I headed to the cabin late Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend to meet my parents for a weekend of work and fun. With so few trips made down this year, I knew there would be a lot of work to do and I was happy with cooler than normal temperatures to complete that work. 

We set to work mowing right away with mom and dad on the riding mower and me with the trail mower behind the ATV. As I made my way down to the big field, I was disappointed in the amount of weeds and grass growing where I had planted a food plot. Half of the field was set to be mowed off and planted and I decided to spray off the weeds on the other half and over seed what I had planted previously. 

Big field food plot overtaken by grass and weeds

Luckily, the food plot in the small field was doing much better so I just had to mow off the weeds in the half that wasn't planted yet. 

Brassicas on the small field looked great!

Of course, it wouldn't be a Labor Day weekend at the cabin without a few challenges. While I was mowing, the belt on the trail mower gave out. Dad ran into town to get a new one and I decided to get the disc hooked up to start preparing the 2 food plots that need planted. The disc hasn't been used for nearly 2 years and I quickly discovered that the bearings had seized up. I was able to find replacement bearings online so we opted to disassemble the disc and send the disc axles home with dad and have them shipped to him to work on over the winter. 

With the disc out of commission, we strapped some old rail road ties to the drag harrow and did the best we could. 

Our best disc replacement for the weekend

New shoulder spreader loaded up with rye

With the last light of the evening, dad and I worked on trimming along the drive before sitting by the fire and enjoying some smores. 

Trimming trees and brush along the lane

After mass on Sunday morning, dad and I got to work on moving tree stands, trimming shooting lanes, and cutting a new trail on the ridge to a new stand location. We grilled for lunch and were joined by Erin, Abigail, and Hunter for an afternoon of fun before Erin headed home with Bridget. 

Cutting out old dead falls from the new ATV trail

Mom giving the girls a ride in the wagon

A rare family photo at the cabin

In the evening, dad and I worked on cleaning out the box blinds and I began mowing the big field, a task that hasn't been done in many years. 

View from the small field box blind

Sweat soaked shirts drying on the line

Monday morning was spent cutting down trees that had begun growing in the big field before I finished mowing it off. We also put up 3 additional trail cameras and both dad and I shot our bows. After lunch, we loaded the trucks and headed for home. It was a great weekend and the official end to our off season work. I'm looking forward to another fun and successful season hunting down there this fall!

Big field all mowed off

Mid Summer Work

I'm a bit behind on blog posts so I'm going to roll my last 2 trips down into this post.

I made a trip down on July 5th to get some mowing done and food plots sprayed off. Thankfully, the grass was not nearly as tall as the previous trip which made mowing a little more pleasant.

It was a very nice day to spend outside

Shorter grass but still making hay

The clover on the ridge food plot was looking great and I could tell by the number of stems that had been nipped off that the deer were using that plot often. 

Clover is growing well on the ridge food plot

Plot screen growing well on both fields

In preparation for planting later in the month, I hooked up the sprayer and got half of the small field sprayed off. It almost pained me to do it because the rye and clover plot that had been planted last fall looked great and was the only active food plot, other than the ridge clover plot, remaining on the property. 

Beautiful looking rye and clover plot

Broadcast sprayer filling up

Overall, it was an uneventful and fast trip down, which is my favorite kind this time of year. 

On July 21, I picked up my friends Megan and Dan and we headed to the cabin early. After a week of extreme heat, we lucked out with cloud cover and cooler temperatures. Megan hoped on the riding lawn mower while Dan and I started prepping and planting 2 food plots. It is so nice to have help on trips like specifically because of how long it takes to get the mowing done. 

Megan getting done all of the mowing

Dan using the brush mower to knock down the weeds on the big field

I've been working my way towards a more no-till style of planting with my food plots and had some success with it last year. It is more of a mental challenge for me than anything because the plots don't look as pretty as a freshly tilled and planted field. The advantages, however, are leaving the dead plant matter on the surface helps to hold in moisture and not tilling helps to keep new weed seed from surfacing and taking over my plots. 

1/2 of the big field food plot planted to turnips, radishes, and rape

Half of the small field food plot planted to brassicas as well

My process involves either burning down with herbicide, or mowing off the existing plot (depending on the amount of soil showing), broadcasting the seed, and running the drag harrow over the plot to lightly settle and cover the seed. In an ideal world, a rain following planting will help the seed to settle and germinate quickly. 

Plot screen is still doing great

Ridge food plot is handling the browsing pressure well

We made quick work of everything and managed to return home before lunch time. My next trip down will be in a couple of weeks. I will be working on food plot prep for planting Labor Day weekend. 

Welcome to the Jungle

Weather, half ironman training, and other unexpected life events kept me away from the cabin for 6 weeks. I headed down last Sunday afternoon to get as much done as possible, but knowing that my time was very limited. With all of the rain, I wasn't surprised when I opened the gate to see waist high grass waiting for me. 

Welcome to the jungle!

I got to work on mowing right away and was quite literally making hay. 

Putting the Deere to work

What a mess

After getting the lawn and drive mowed, I hooked up the trail mower and got to work on the ATV trails and mowing off the rye in the small field. 

Clover in the ridge food plot is looking great

2 younger bucks were in the rye when I started to mow the field.
You can see them staring at me in the middle of the picture.

I didn't have time to get the spring oat/clover plots planted, but I knew that I needed to get the plot screen in. After filling the bag spreader with seed I couldn't get the hand crank to turn. With no other option, I spread the seed by hand. I had mowed the previous plot screen down when I was turkey hunting in April, but for the 2nd year in a row I didn't have a chance to burn off the duff. I'm hoping that a good rain will get the seed worked into the ground and produce a good stand but only time will tell. 

After getting things cleaned up and put away, my friend David stopped by on his way home from Saint Louis. We chatted for a bit and then headed for home. I looked at my calendar and am making sure that it isn't 6 weeks before I return again. 

Shed Hunting And Turkey Hunting

It has been a long time since I have posted on this blog, but honestly, it was a long time between trips to the cabin. On the weekend of March 30 - 31 I headed for the cabin to meet my dad as well as Justin and his oldest son Otto to do some shed antler hunting and scouting. The recent snow melt and rain made for a muddy mess but it felt great to be back at the cabin.

Very happy to be back at the cabin

We didn't find any sheds, but on Saturday evening dad and I did see 9 deer while out walking. In fact, a group of 5 walked right up to us as we were investigating a spot to set up for bow hunting. 

One of 5 does that got within 40 yards of us

After doing some more walking, including checking out a couple of ridges that I have never walked before, Justin and Otto headed for home. Dad and I got out our bows to do a little shooting before heading out ourselves. Even though we didn't find any sheds, we were able to find a couple of new spots to try out next deer season. 

Starting our off season practice early this year

Originally I was planning to hunt the 2nd turkey season, but with a week off due to a job change, I opted to switch to 3rd season and hunt during the week. I headed for the cabin late Tuesday night arriving after 11:00 pm. I quickly got unloaded and to bed with my alarm set for 5:00 am. 

I already knew where I was headed after discovering a good amount of turkey sign while scouting a few weeks prior. It wasn't long into my walk that I could hear some gobbles coming from the ridge that I was headed to. To my surprise, as I walked down the back side of the ridge towards the lake, I ran into some roosted turkeys only part way up the ridge. I quickly found a tree to sit against but was not happy with the setup as I had very few shooting lanes due to thick brush around me. I could see 2 hen turkeys on the roost about 40 yards away and could hear 4 different toms roosted within 100 yards. 

After the turkeys hit the ground, a few got to within about 30 yards but it was so think on the ridge that I wasn't able to get a clear shot. Eventually the turkeys worked their way off and the woods went silent. I spent the rest of the morning checking out a couple of different spots with no success. At lunch time I headed into town to get a training run in before returning to the cabin for a nap. 

I headed back to the woods just before 3:30 but decided to pull the cards from my trail cameras before heading for the same ridge that I sat in the morning. As I was walking out to the big field from the camera on the ridge I looked up and saw a turkey in the big field food plot. I quickly made the decision to setup on the ATV trail just off the plot and try to call to the turkey. At that point I wasn't sure if it was a hen, jake, or tom but I didn't have many options that didn't include spooking the bird. I sat against a tree stump with my gun propped up on my knee and made a couple of soft yelps with my slate call. Immediately the turkey gobbled back and I knew that I was in business. Over the course of the next 10 minutes, I called 2 more times and it sounded as though the turkey had worked closer but was heading towards the south end of the food plot. I got up on my knees slowly so that I see over the rise into the food plot and could see the turkey's head just to the left of the trail entrance only about 30 yards away. 

I slowly sat back down and waited for what felt like an hour (but was only about 2 minutes). First I could see the tail feathers of the tom as he was in full strut working back and forth, then I could see the top of his head. Before long I lifted his head up and took a few steps forward into an opening. I wasted no time putting the bead of my gun on the base of his neck and squeezed the trigger. He dropped immediately and just like that, my turkey season was over. 

Turkey down!

Proud to harvest my 3rd turkey ever

These birds are a lot bigger and heavier than they appear

After making some phone calls and sending some text messages, I carried the bird back to the cabin for some pictures. I got him all cleaned up and drove into town to get some ice before returning with plenty of daylight left to get some work done. I spent the last 2 hours of daylight mowing and taking a shower before some thunderstorms moved in. I had originally planned on spending 3 whole days at the cabin, but with a turkey on the ground and very little work to be done, I opted to hook up the boat and head for home early after doing a little work in the morning. 

Clover and Rye doing their job this spring

Things are really starting to green up

Did a little longer range practice with the bow out to 40 yards

I'm not sure when I will get back down to the cabin, but I will for sure be down for spring planting on Memorial Day weekend.