J-birds place

[j-bird]

it was a weird weekend at my place.... Friday night the MIL went to the hospital....she is back home, but I don't remember seeing that on the schedule!

Saturday started off well. The Vols beat Bama (my daughter was at that game - she is a student at UT). Not only was it a wild game, but the after math was more than I expected. So I was right....she hasn't joined a college. She has joined a cult! Also on saturday I got some work done. A shooting house needed some attention. The damn tree rats are trying to eat it! I am so glad I used metal on the other one. Keep in mind this sits up on a metal grain cart out in the open weed patch. There isn't a tree for 30 yards or more! But apparently, they LOVE to eat the crap out of plywood...painted or not!



I was also out trimming shooting lanes and the like and lost my I phone in brush and weeds that are waist tall and the area the size of a basketball court. I will also note that the area has essentially no cell signal so we couldn't just call it either.... I looked and looked. We tried calling and texting it, we tried using the "find my phone app", we even tried a tracking app for families and the position it gave us kept changing! I went back out sunday morning and we finally found it....still changed and working! So - note to myself and anyone else out there. Put your phone in a closed pocket! I lost mine because I had in on a belt holster and then went and fired up my clearing saw that pivots on my hip and we think that is what did it.

One of these days I'm going to actually go out and hunt!

 

[rocksnstumps]

Tree rats or porkies?

Heard they like to chew on plywood for the glue. Was turkey hunting one spring on public land and heard really loud chewing noises walking down a trail. Looked up and noticed a porcupine just going to town on the plywood floor of a homemade deer stand that was amplified like a drum from that floor way up in the air.

 

[buckdeer1]

get life 360,have used it several times to find my phone

 

[Bowsnbucks]

After doing so much for your kids for so long and having that be the primary focus of your life.....it's tough to sort of start to live for yourself again. So now the habitat work is going to be more about hopefully helping me work thru some of this and re-finding who I am. My kids will always come first, but I got far more time on my hands now than ever before. Work is great, but keeps me busy while I am there, but so far I have not had any of that follow me home....which is a nice change

We know the feeling J-bird. My wife and I were 100% involved with our boys from birth to college. We weren't ready for the hard-stop when they were done with sports - and hanging with us anymore. We felt like we went from going 95 miles per hour to a full stop. They hunt & fish with their buddies now - I understand that - but I miss the days afield with them. At least I got them a start at the outdoor / sportsman activities. My wife and I talk about those younger days, and wish we could "wind the clock back" ........... if only for a day here and there. Cherish those kids & love every minute you get with them. Time passes too quickly.

Good luck with finding some hunting and habitat time / projects. Best wishes.

 

[Bill]

Tree rats or porkies?

Heard they like to chew on plywood for the glue. Was turkey hunting one spring on public land and heard really loud chewing noises walking down a trail. Looked up and noticed a porcupine just going to town on the plywood floor of a homemade deer stand that was amplified like a drum from that floor way up in the air.

same thought. Porcupines love that glue.

 

[j-bird]

Tree rats or porkies?

Heard they like to chew on plywood for the glue. Was turkey hunting one spring on public land and heard really loud chewing noises walking down a trail. Looked up and noticed a porcupine just going to town on the plywood floor of a homemade deer stand that was amplified like a drum from that floor way up in the air.

Tree rats! We don't have porkies that I am aware of.

 

[j-bird]

get life 360,have used it several times to find my phone

We have it and it only sort of works. The GPS capabilities of it only put us within about 50 yards of it. Once the phone was lost, Life 360 kept saying my phone was in different locations. Useful enough in a cut corn field maybe, but not enough in waist high brush.

 

[j-bird]

We know the feeling J-bird. My wife and I were 100% involved with our boys from birth to college. We weren't ready for the hard-stop when they were done with sports - and hanging with us anymore. We felt like we went from going 95 miles per hour to a full stop. They hunt & fish with their buddies now - I understand that - but I miss the days afield with them. At least I got them a start at the outdoor / sportsman activities. My wife and I talk about those younger days, and wish we could "wind the clock back" ........... if only for a day here and there. Cherish those kids & love every minute you get with them. Time passes too quickly.

Good luck with finding some hunting and habitat time / projects. Best wishes.

I will still have a few moments left so I look forward to those. Maybe one day I will be able to pass that interest on to some grandkids.... The only constant is change.

 

[j-bird]

same thought. Porcupines love that glue.

nope tree rats. I have seen them scramble when I walk up to the shooting house before. Never seem to have a gun when I need one....plus I run the risk of blasting holes in my blind! I'd like to think I'm a better shot than that....but....

I need to just cover it in metal at some point. Let them little tyrants chew on that!

 

[PatinPA]

nope tree rats. I have seen them scramble when I walk up to the shooting house before. Never seem to have a gun when I need one....plus I run the risk of blasting holes in my blind! I'd like to think I'm a better shot than that....but....

I need to just cover it in metal at some point. Let them little tyrants chew on that!

They chewed the powder coating off my ladder stand the other year.

 

[j-bird]

They chewed the powder coating off my ladder stand the other year.

Wow! That's pretty determined!!

 

[tynimiller]

things have been both physically and emotionally a bit draining this year. It started back during last hunting season.... My youngest, who was my little hunting buddy didn't hunt with me much as she was involved in getting ready to graduate HS. That sort of sucked the wind out of my sails a little bit to be honest (probably more than just a little bit). It's funny how, I started all of this for me and MY hunting....and yet, now it has very little to do with that at all. So I sort of slipped into a funk... I just lacked the motivation and the "give a damn" just went out the window. I had one in college who was struggling (emotionally with that) while I had the youngest busy with HS and then college. The youngest finished in the top 10 (maybe the top 5) of her HS class and has since started school at Tennessee (we knew it was a big football school - we didn't know it was a cult!). The one in Atlanta is doing much better this year which is great. The boy still lives at home but he essentially eats there and sleeps there and that is about all we see of him....so we are new to this "semi-empty nest" thing. After doing so much for your kids for so long and having that be the primary focus of your life.....it's tough to sort of start to live for yourself again. So now the habitat work is going to be more about hopefully helping me work thru some of this and re-finding who I am. My kids will always come first, but I got far more time on my hands now than ever before. Work is great, but keeps me busy while I am there, but so far I have not had any of that follow me home....which is a nice change as well. I will try to be a little more active here as I actually miss some of the actual discussions as FB is just frustrating..... Any how, let get back to talking about deer and habitat work!

I feel a shift has occurred for you as it has for me - for quite different reasons but it seems we both find ourselves now re-navigating to a place of what motivates us and breathes that desire back into us. Here's to the journey my friend!!! Like you I need to log in to this site more! God bless!

 

[j-bird]

Been out in the tree twice now... have seen deer both times, but either too far or not what I was looking for (little yearling buck had no clue I was there).

Feels good to be out and decompress a little bit...

This was my sit when the little yearling buck came thru from right to left... yesterday evening. I am on a steep bank with an ag field behind me, with a food plot and about a 2 acre switchgrass bedding area beyond the trees you see. These trees run along this "ridge" if you will and the bucks like to cruise thru here to scent check the bedding area and food plot. It provides them cover but also fairly easy walking. Now I just need to find a buck I like!

 

[Troubles Trees]

Atta boy Jbird, good luck out there this year bud!

 

[j-bird]

It's been warm and windy here the past few days, and we are working on a full moon soon (tomorrow). I went out yesterday evening and the wind and temps finally dropped once the sun went down. Ended up seeing 3 deer, but too far (a doe and her fawns). Here I sit at the edge of a large cut bean filed with a small plot of standing beans and a clover plot with some mast trees (not yet producing). There is a little draw to my right where the deer come up to enter the plot on this side. Still archery season here in IN.


Next saturday is our firearms opener and the temps are supposed to drop like a brick so hopefully that bodes well for us.


We was digging around looking for more hunting gear and I found my first trail cam. I am sure some of you that have been doing this for a while remember the old ones that actual had a 35mm camera in them! Getting the photos back from being developed reminded me a lot of getting baseball cards as a kid....you just never knew what was going to be in there!!

 

[Bill]

Hopefully those temps finally drop.

 

[j-bird]

Hopefully those temps finally drop.

Right now it's supposed to rain Friday with a high of 59.....then the front moves thru and the high for sunday on thru the rest of the week ranges from 41 to 45..... I think that will be the "switch" we are looking for.

 

[Bill]

Wind started blowing here late after noon when it was 73 degrees. It’s now 43. Our opener is Saturday, low of 16. I’ve been in Shorts for two weeks.

I wanted a cold spell, but damn!

 

[j-bird]

Well Indiana had their Firearms opener on Saturday. The temps dropped and the snow came down... That opening morning was one of the best hunts for deer activity I can remember in some time...even if we didn't tag one. The full moon was roughly a week ago and the cold snap got the deer moving. We saw 9 deer total multiple times.... We had 2 opportunities at the same "shooter" buck, but just didn't have things align.

Anyway....it wasn't too bad all tucked away in the "battle wagon" (stayed out of that west wind and stayed dry). We ended up with at least an inch of snow if not closer to two that morning....It was all gone by the evening hunt on sunday. The boy has the week off to hunt all week so hopefully he has some luck. I will try to squeeze in some evening hunts yet this week as well, but I am off to Knoxville to get the youngest for thanksgiving break on saturday - round trip in one day. So hopefully she and I can get out that sunday.

 

[j-bird]

Wind started blowing here late after noon when it was 73 degrees. It’s now 43. Our opener is Saturday, low of 16. I’ve been in Shorts for two weeks.

I wanted a cold spell, but damn!

The cold came like it was supposed to here.... winds at 10 mph or more and highs in the low 40's, even got a couple inches of snow in a pan of a few hours on saturday here.