Rambling Thoughts on Deer Season

It's been an interesting deer season so far for me. I've been hunting some, although not as much as I would like to. (Isn't that always the case!) I have enjoyed every minute that I've spent in the woods, but so far I'm still waiting for the main ingredient for venison jerky. I thought it might be fun to share some random thoughts about deer hunting I've had this season while sitting in a stand or blind.

Squirrel in the Soybeans

1. First of all, why is it that I am almost sure to see turkeys when I'm deer hunting and deer when I'm turkey hunting?

2. How does an animal as small as a squirrel make more noise coming through the woods than a 100 lb deer?

3. If you stare at an empty soybean field long enough, you can begin to see things that aren't really there.

4. Bushes, stumps, and other objects can magically appear to be deer, especially at twilight.

5. Never borrow a muzzleloader from someone and then take it hunting without shooting it first to check the scope.

6. If you do not follow number 5, be prepared to take two shots and then watch your deer leave the country without a scratch on it.

7. It's fun to walk by your hunting buddy's trail camera and make funny faces on the way to the stand.

8. Those nice bucks that appear on your trail camera in July and August will vanish exactly one day before the opening of archery season.

9. Raccoons must like having their picture taken by trail cameras.

10. Days when you're at work are sure to be the days your hunting partner will see deer.

11. No matter what happens, watching the sun come up over a bean field, or set in the woods as the owls start talking makes every minute spent hunting worth it.

12. There is no such thing as a bad day hunting, deer or no deer.

Good luck to all you hunters out there!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

OBN Photo Prompt: Fall Colors

Editor's Note: The credit for the pictures in this post goes to my wonderful wife, I was along for the trip but she was the photographer.

Over at the Outdoor Blogger Network they posted an outdoor photo prompt asking for a post showing fall colors. I thought this sounded like a good idea, so I decided to post up some fall pictures from a little further west than my neck of the woods. The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of my favorite places to visit, especially in the fall when the mountains really show off before winter arrives. I haven't been up to the parkway this year for a visit, although I did make it up to Boone, NC a few weekends ago. The colors were starting to really show, but sadly I didn't get a chance to make many pictures. I hope you enjoy some of the "greatest hits" (in my opinion) from the last few seasons on the parkway.

This is actually the spot where I proposed to my wife!

Looking Glass Falls

Looking Glass Rock

The view from Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak in the eastern U.S.

Travelling down the parkway

 I hope you enjoyed these as much as I do!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Backyard Ramblings

As fall is getting into full swing here in North Carolina, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the summer and share a few photos that I've been meaning to put up here on the blog for a while. I apologize for the lack of posts on here lately, a good bit of my time has been tied up working with the FFA chapter at school. I've really enjoyed it, but most of the activities don't really fit into the "outdoor" theme of this blog so I haven't done much writing. I have done a little deer hunting, but other than a debacle that occurred the last evening of muzzeloader season, there hasn't been much to write about. That particular day deserves its own post, if I can stand to write about it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this last look at summer.

I may have mentioned this in an earlier post, but my wife and I purchased my grandparents' house after we were married. When I was young, our yard was one of my favorite places. It always seemed to have more lightning bugs (or fireflies) than almost anywhere else. In the summer there were also June bugs, and I used to love looking for the nymph shucks of cicadas on the old oak trees. I remember calling them cicada skins as a child, and I used to have a fair sized collection by the end of summer most years.

This is a collection of pictures that my wife and I made in our yard this summer, and I think it helps remind me why as a child I didn't need 1000 acres of woods to entertain myself. I loved the woods, and still do, but I always seemed to find adventure just out the back door. Nature has always been fascinating to me. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do. 

Cicada nymph shuck

Black snake in the garden

It seems like I spend a good bit of time in the woods or on the water, sometimes within a five minute drive from home, and sometimes several hours away. However, it always amazes me to see what I can find in my own yard. I wish I knew more about mushroom identification, if anybody recognizes any of these I would love to know what they are.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Patience

Patience - it's a word that most people who enjoy the outdoors are very familiar with, but often don't give much thought to. I had this thought as I was sitting in a ground blind on Saturday waiting for deer that never showed up, and watching soybeans blowing in the wind. I wondered why, in this age of instant gratification and on-demand entertainment, that something that required as much patience as waiting on a deer to come by or a fish to bite is my preferred form of recreation.

As I sat there Saturday afternoon, I thought about the morning's hunt on a different farm. Walking in before daylight, I was greeted by the owls calling to each other just as they have for the last several years that I have hunted here. Once the sun began to rise, the turkeys woke up and added their voice to the forest conversation. Several flocks of geese flew over and contributed their honking to the sounds around me.

Saw this on the way to the blind

Later on, I was greeted by the sight of three hens feeding their way through the woods and clucking to each other. I didn't see a deer, even though I was in an area that I know the deer have been traveling through frequently. However, I didn't mind one bit. I just sat there taking in everything around me, and thinking about how blessed I was to be able to be right there at that moment.

Cabbage in the Garden

I often think about the life lessons that hunting and fishing have taught me. Patience is one of the biggest lessons that I feel like I have learned from my outdoor experiences. If I hadn't learned the patience to just sit still, I feel like I would have missed a lot in life. It takes patience to plant a garden and watch it grow all summer, to finally reap the rewards of the harvest, or to sit on the bank of the pond watching a bobber until finally a scrappy bream bites, or to sit in the woods and just take in everything around me. I wouldn't trade any of these experiences and memories, and I'm thankful every day for the people who introduced me to hunting and fishing when I was young, and through that taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of being patient.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

A Time of Change

September is a month of many changes. Dove season started the month off with a bang, and before long the leaves will be changing.   Archery season has arrived here in western North Carolina, and along with it the excitement and promise of another deer season. The weather is finally starting to feel like fall, with cool mornings and warm afternoons, but nothing like the heat of July and August. School is back in full swing, and the students have made it through three weeks already. The county fair will be coming up in a couple of weeks, and the annual antique tractor pull was held last weekend.

My window to the woods - from the ground blind

I love September, but it is also a challenging month for me. It seems like it is a month that is full of outdoor opportunities but short on time. I know that some of the year's best trout fishing can happen during the fall, and I have often said that I wanted to spend more time exploring the fishing on the local smallmouth river in the fall. On the other hand, the opportunity to finally deer hunt after almost nine months of waiting draws me to the woods. By this time of the year, I have been checking trail cameras and preparing stands long enough that I can't wait to get to hunt.

Smile!

My time for outdoor activities in September is also limited since school is back in session, and this is another reason I tend to hunt more than anything. Both of the farms I deer hunt on are a five minute drive from my house, and my house is a five minute drive from school so I am fortunate enough to have time to get to the stand or blind after work some evenings. Trout and smallmouth involve more of a commitment due to the distance I have to drive to get to them, so they are left to the occasional weekend trip when I can pull myself away from the woods.

The mineral site where my trail camera has been all summer

September marks a month of change for the deer I hunt as well. I have noticed that the deer that have been almost daily visitors to the mineral site I established have started to show up on the trail camera less frequently. I have heard a few people mention that they are seeing bucks that have lost their velvet or that are in the process of losing velvet. This is the time of year when bucks that have been buddies all summer begin to start fighting to establish dominance and the right to breed. Fawns will begin losing their spots, and the does will start weaning them before the rut begins in November.

Ripe Muscadines

September is also a time of change in the garden.  Most of this summer's crop has been harvested and mowed down, except for a few sweet potato vines. This past week, I set out a few cabbage seedlings, but I didn't do like some years and plant broccoli and cauliflower, or any greens like turnips or mustard. Most of the garden is lying fallow now, not to be disturbed until spring planting time comes again. The muscadines are finally ripe, and the pecans are getting close to dropping. I love being able to gather these, but it's sad knowing that the fresh fruits and vegetables of summer will soon be a tasty memory. The nights are getting longer and the days shorter, and soon darkness will come quicker than I would like.

Cabbage Seedling in the Garden

The month of September is a special time. All around, nature is going through the changes that mark the transition from summer to fall. I can't think of any other month where so many outdoor activities are available at the same time. As someone who loves everything about the outdoors, the biggest challenge that September presents is deciding how to spend the time I have to be outdoors. I must admit, that is a wonderful dilemma to have!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

A Shotgun Start

This past Saturday was one of my favorite outdoor events of the year - the opening day of dove season here in NC. I have lots of reasons why I enjoy dove hunting, but probably one of my favorite things about it is it marks the beginning of the hunting seasons here. The Monday after Labor Day usually marks the beginning of the archery deer season here in western North Carolina, and not too long after archery season opens, muzzleloader hunting will be open in October, along with the start of squirrel and rabbit season. As Thanksgiving approaches, gun season will begin for deer and the rut will be in full swing. After deer season, there is still time for some squirrel and rabbit hunting, and by the time these end in February, turkey season is not far away.

Sunrise in the corn field

With all that in mind, dove season is not something that only marks the beginning of hunting season for me. Some of my earliest memories of hunting revolve around doves and squirrels, long before I ever knew anything about tree stands or scrapes. It was a wonderful introduction to hunting, because as a child I didn't have to worry about being really quiet and still for long hours at a time when dove hunting. Some of us that dove hunt together every year have been hunting together since before we had our drivers licenses. We keep in touch throughout the year, but not nearly as much as we used to when we were all in school together. Dove season is one of the few times that I know I will see some of these people, and it's about catching up as much as it is about hunting doves.

This year's dove hunting was a wonderful time, just like it is every year. Everyone was excited for the opportunity to hunt, and there was a good crowd hunting on opening day. We were hunting some recently harvested corn fields, and while there weren't huge numbers of birds there were enough to keep things interesting all morning. I didn't get a limit, or even close to it, but I did manage enough birds to have a few to eat. This wasn't due to lack of opportunity, it just took me awhile to get back in the groove after neglecting to shoot my shotgun much over the last year. It's funny to me when I look back over all the years I've been hunting. When I started, my main focus was trying to get a limit of 12 doves (back then, it's 15 now). Now my focus seems to be more about the whole experience of being outdoors with good friends. I'm still there to hunt, and I love grilled dove, but my total focus is no longer on "limiting out".

After hunting on Saturday morning, we decided to meet up and hunt a different field on Labor Day. After Saturday's 90 something degree heat, Monday was a refreshing change. I did have the new experience of dove hunting in a fog, and the weather was a lot cooler on Monday. We had some birds flying in spite of the foggy conditions, and the weather was much nicer than the usual Labor Day temperatures here in the South. I managed to get a few birds again on Monday, but fell far short of a limit once again.

Monday Morning Fog

Monday afternoon's hunt was a different situation all together. There were rain storms popping up here and there, and the temperature had risen. It rained on us for a couple of hours, and the birds just didn't seem willing to fly in the wet weather. I sat out the storm under an oak tree, hoping that the doves would fly once the weather cleared. The weather cleared up around 6:30 pm, but the action was pretty much over for the day. It was off to the house to dry, clean, and oil my shotgun to prevent any rusting.

After the rain

The next day, I got to enjoy my other favorite thing about hunting doves - grilled dove breast! My brother-in-law and I grilled the doves that we had, and also some venison tenderloin that somehow managed to make it from last season without being eaten. I have to say, it was a meal fit for a king! Sometimes people ask me what I do with the doves I harvest, and my answer is always the same. They are good eating!

Doves and Venison

It was a great way to start off this year's hunting seasons, and I will always be thankful for the good times and good friends, and the opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors. I hope every year's hunting seasons begin with a shotgun start!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

A Tasty Legacy

Living in my grandparents' house provides me with memories everywhere I look. On top of the memories, my grandfather also left a legacy in the form of a pear tree, a cherry tree, two apple trees, and seven pecan trees. The apple trees are the final remnant of my grandfather's apple orchard, which once had over fifty trees. This, along with his garden, used to provide my grandparents with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and I was able to reap the benefits when I was growing up.

One of the original apple trees

When my wife and I moved in, we decided to try our best to keep these old trees producing, and we also added three additional apple trees, two peach trees, six blueberry bushes, and two muscadine vines. The pear and cherry trees are still healthy and productive, but the apple trees are definitely showing their age. I'm afraid one day soon these trees may have to be removed, but I just can't bring myself to do it yet. Hopefully they can remain for several more years, but only time will tell. 

The old and the new

I can remember sitting in the old swing eating apples off these very trees as a child, and I also remember Pop (my grandfather) drying apples between two sections of window screen to help keep the bugs off. I wish I had asked more questions about caring for fruit trees back then, but as a child my main interest was eating those tasty apples. Golden Delicious were always my favorite, and we made sure to plant one of these when we added new trees to the orchard. It is the only one of our new trees that had any fruit on it this year.

Golden Delicious

I'm still in the process of learning how to keep an orchard and how and when to spray and prune the trees. The young trees we planted are just starting to produce fruit, but I hope to have peaches and apples off of them in another year or two. The muscadine vines are another new experience for me. I have eaten wild muscadines and bought them from other producers, but this is my first try at growing them myself.

Muscadines on the trellis

For anyone who is not familiar with these particular grapes, they grow in the South and produce grapes that are single or in pairs of two or three, rather than the classic bunches that you see in the grocery stores. They have a thick skin and fairly large seeds in them, but they are my absolute favorite of the grapes. They also are supposed to be the easiest grape varieties to grow in the hot and humid South. I love to eat them straight off the vine, but they also make wonderful juice and jelly. If we get enough, we may try to make some jelly this fall.

The muscadines

Sometimes when I'm working in the yard I look around at all the trees my grandparents planted years ago, and I hope that someday when I'm gone someone will still be enjoying the trees we planted. There's nothing quite like getting fresh fruit from the yard, and if I'm going to leave a legacy I would like for it to be a tasty one!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph