New Location - Creek

In January I relocated a couple of trail cameras to new locations.  One of them was on the north bank of the creek and a bit east of the main north/south mowed path.

Chosen for the well-worn path in the snow the initial pics indicated that it was a good spot for deer photos.

Yesterday I fetched the SD card and uploaded two weeks of photos - all 239 of them.  Mostly family groups of two to four deer - does and fawns and some single deer photos.

This is certainly a busy place.

There is a crap ton of whitetails on the landscape!

Here's a sampling of photos.  Note the fallen tree that the deer have to sneak under.  Interesting that they'll sneak under it instead of going around it.

click on images to enlarge

Spot the Station

From my NASA feed...
 

Date: Friday Feb 12, 2016 Time: 7:07 PM Duration: 2 minutes Maximum Elevation: 26° Approach: 10° above NW Departure: 26° above NNW  Brutally, icy-cold clear night...

Maximizing Your Curling Experience

After a decade and a half of curling I finally figured it out.  Why this took me so long is immaterial.  What is useful to know is the outcome.

Rather than fret and concern oneself with which event or league to participate in it is a better idea that you restrict league play to perhaps one night a week and make yourself available as a sub for all the remaining leagues.  Excepting-for (obviously) the women's leagues.

Hardly a week will go by without multiple requests made for me to fill-in for someone who has to travel on business, care for a sick child or is sick themselves.

What I have learned is I can curl as much as I can stand and it is completely discretionary.  If I have a conflict I have a conflict.  If it is a 9:15 draw time (meaning home by midnight) I can politely decline.  Moreover, I get to curl with different teams and in multiple positions.  All the better to mean new faces, names and skill levels.  I'm curling more than I ever have before.

It is the perfect way to maximize your curling experience.   

How to Haze a Coyote

In rural America most the the wildlife tend to steer clear of us people.  Because they're hunted the game animals and predators are rather skittish.  I would add that for the first time this winter has brought the wild deer to our yard to eat our landscaping.  But that's an altogether different problem of too many deer. 

At the other home there has arisen a great clamor over the matter of coyote/pet/human conflicts.  Most of this is a consequence of plentiful and reliable food sources in the urban environment and I've written extensively on the subject.

Living with wildlife becomes problematic - whether it is deer, coyotes, raccoons or other critters - when they lose their natural fear of humans.One of the tools for putting the wily coyote in his place and teaching him that he's not top dog and not welcome is to haze them.

Here is a short instructional video on how to make life unpleasant for an unwelcome coyote.

The Meat Pole

It was last year during the gun hunts that a crisis emerged.

We had killed so many deer that we were running out of places to hang them.  I'm not making this up.  They were hanging in the shed and from a couple of apple trees in the yard.  

Don't believe me?  Check out this ghastly image...

click on images to enlarge

See?  I told you so.  What a sight.  And right in the yard no less.  Dead deer hanging everywhere.


Long story short, when you're out in a deer stand with your thoughts a couple of us spend a great number of hours brainstorming  a more efficient way of hanging the deer.  Maybe a permanent fixture or something that rolled around on wheels.  We settled upon a contraption that could be assembled and disassembled seasonally - and stored in the barn when hot in use.

A proper meat pole!

One of my pals - New Guy - sketched some plans for this complete with a list of materials.  The implementation part of the plan was to acquire the materials and build the pole sometime in the summer so it would be ready and handy for deer hanging by the time deer season rolled-around.

Since November I have misplaced the plans twice.  Therefore I'm posting them here in case they are misplaced again or worse case - permanently lost.  

Unless the entire world wide web goes down I think the plans are safe here.  

 click to enlarge

Shoeing

Got the entire famdamily in these photos.

Me, The Frau and the pooches.

Getting plenty of fresh air and exercise snowshoeing this winter.  

Life is good.

Schlafender Hund

After a day of fresh air and exercise I have learned it is best to leave sleeping dogs lay.  

And ask The Frau to bring me an adult beverage so as not to disturb the dog...