Finally, after the cold winter it is time to be back in the woods. I am eager to shake off the winter and get back into the sunshine, nicer temperatures and even play in the mud a little bit. This year spring means turkey hunting, fishing and looking for some sheds on the hunting property. This will be my third turkey hunting season and I am hoping that the third time is the charm. The first year, we called one tom and three jakes in but didn’t bring any meat home. Last year, I went out with a guide and blew my shot by sitting in a spot that prevented me from shooting to my right. I did get to see the tom drumming and strutting right towards me but I couldn’t finish the job. This year will be...
No matter what animal I hunt, I always come back to deer. Hunting predators like bear and coyote are great and I'm eager to check off turkey and moose but I plan my vacations around deer season. After getting yelled at last season, we decided to build a permanent structure a little further into woods and close to the same property line. It was hard to visualize what it would look like and Dad had great plans for our third permanent deer stand. He built it in the barn and we tested out sizes, wall height and visibility. We were going to put it up in late January but time got away from us and February hit bringing about five feet of snow in four weeks. So instead, Dad used the snowmobile to bring...
So we made it to King's den. Now the fun starts. Once King was sedated and out, Jake and Mitch got ready to pull the cubs out. We stood closer to where they were in a semi-circle and watched. Lisa explained what was happening and the fact that this was more than likely, the first time the cubs had ever seen day light. Mitch taking the first cub out of the den. Mitch put the first cub against his chest and let go. The cub stuck to the wool jacket with it's claws, like Velcro. Jake handed him the second cub and Lisa stepped in to help. As Jake got King ready to come out of the den, Mitch tagged the cubs in each ear, weighed and measured them and described them for Lisa to write down. Lisa and...
Mount Katahdin from Route 11 in Maine. I had been awake for five hours when we pulled into the IFW office in Ashland at 8am. It was deceivingly beautiful out with the bright sun and deep blue sky but the wind kept the temperatures close to single digits. Still, we knew once we were in the woods, we wouldn't be thinking about the temps. Our group was fortunate enough to be going out with bear biologists Mitch Jackman, Jake Feener and one of the most well known biologists, Lisa Bates. It was a 17 mile truck ride into the woods from the office followed by a two mile bushwacking snowmobile ride to the den. This particular den had been marked in January when the biologists had shown up expecting to see mom and two...
I was cleaning up pictures and came across these two from a few years ago. The smell was horrible but after a while I got used to it. I don't know if it was the (lack of) quality pot that I used or the fact that I did this on my grill and then stove when I ran out of propane, but I had to throw it all away when I was done. At least I got a cool mount!
It is always fun to see a Bald Eagle, especially when you least expect it. I found this bird sitting in a tree, being carefully watched by two crows. It was a cold morning - around 5 degrees, so when I rolled my window down the heat from inside the car escaped and created a blurry look to the pictures. I wasn't willing to get out of the car in case the bird flew.
We had just gotten back from snowmobiling when Dad said that there was a turkey outside. We watched as more and more birds flew down and started pecking at the dirt spots on the ground. At their closest, they were about 10 feet from the back steps. I kept waiting for one to land on the snowmobile, but none did. We counted 14 in all. The spent about an hour pecking at the dirt and roaming around the yard. From there, they headed onto the mountain. A few of them stayed near a water spot for the rest of the afternoon. I am not sure if they were enjoying the block from the wind or if they were actually spending that much time pecking and drinking. Either way, they were around and in no hurry....
There is something about fishing that creates a community on the water. I don't really fish - I am learning, but I would not consider myself a fisherman, yet. I am planning on going fishing again this spring at GLS but it's been a while since I took to the ice to try and pull a fish out of the hard water. Recently though, I tried smelt fishing with my friend Jen. The rows of shacks. Open water not very far away The wind was blowing hard but the heat in the shack was so hot that we had to rig the door to stay slightly open. We even went for a walk down on the ice. As the tide was coming in, we could watch the ice shifting and rising just 20 feet away from where we stood. As the sun set and the tide changed, we got our...
After my incident last season, Dad decided that it would make more sense to be hidden in the woods and have more coverage than my treeseat gives me. This will help me get a better view of the more traveled deer trails and not rely on the deer to come my way. He wanted to build a permanent structure that would allow us to hunt in all weather conditions. So, Dad has been busy building T3. He constructed it in the barn to make sure all of the dimensions were right. Our first treestand was built 16 feet off the ground using a 12 foot ladder. Not ideal and clearly not built by hunters who knew what they were doing. The Sky Condo was considerably better with insulation and a tar papered roof. T3 is...
