I am a terrible blogger....

I am asked constantly to share/blog about our outdoor adventures. "Our" as in Luke and me - Julie and the girls have different likes and passions. I found this old blog I started years ago to try the "blogging" thing. Last entry: sometime in 2012. Pretty bad huh? There are several reasons why I am not good at it:

1. I hate to write. Julie says I am good at it and should write more. I have actually thought about writing a book paralleling archery and growing as a believer. You know: a good solid base, anchor point, follow though, etc etc... maybe one day!

2. I am too busy. It is hard to find time or make time necessary to sit and write. I have family, church, bees, and usually a hunting/fishing season going on. Why write about it when I can experience it right?

3. I receive joy in other ways. Some people LOVE to sit and journal or write. Yuck!! Why sit at a pc or iPad when I can be in a tree, catching a bass, or doing a bee removal?

4. I am not required to do this. It is voluntary and just "another thing" to have to do. I have enough "things" that require may attention.


Needless to say, I am a terrible blogger. I have tried - a few times. It has never worked out for very long. I have never followed through. Things get in the way. More important things come up. I forget. I am too tired to think about what to write.

Sorta sounds like the excuses we make for church or personal alone time with God doesn't it? You put your excuse right here _______________________________. I have my own and it is usually the same reasons I hate blogging. Bottom line if I want to succeed - I have to be intentional. Make it a priority. Create margin in my life and cut some things out or re-prioritize.

Soooo.... all of that to say this: I am going to try again. Follow along if you want. It will be sporadic and hurried sometimes. After all - squirrel season starts today!!!!

Shooters

There is a lot preference that comes into play when shooting a deer. Some think, "If it's brown - its down" and others tend to be very picky. Depending on what you want to experience during your hunting will depend where you fall. For me I will not shoot any bucks under the age of 3 1/2 and will shoot about any size doe early/late in the season. For Luke he has the green light to shoot whatever he wants to. I have no desire to shoot a spike or a "basket 8" but that is just me.

To hunt a mature whitetail is very challenging. Shooting those 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 year old's are pretty easy to do since they act like teenage boys (read between the lines).

Here are a couple bucks I am after for this year:

Age, genetics, and nutrition are crucial for mature bucks. I got nutrition and genetics - now to let the small ones pass.

Preparation is key...

I was talking to a friend last week while at Boy's Camp (UPBC) and we were chattin' about deer hunting. I made a comment, "We hunt 365 days for deer at our house." He questioned my ethics in a fun sorta way since he didn't understand what I meant.

When I say "We hunt 365 days" it means more than just killing. It means preparation before and after the hunting season. Let me take you through it:

Post season: After the season closes and Winter sets in we (Luke and I) like to scout in the snow. You can see a lot better w/ snow on the ground and "fine tune" your tree stand sets, find new travel corridors, or add new stand locations. We also turn from deer hunting to coyote hunting. Coyotes are really hard on deer and especially fawns.

Spring season: During this time we shed hunt, put out trail cams and Trophy Rocks, and work the food plots.

Summer season: This time is all about trail cams and watching those bucks grow. You would be surprised how fast antlers grow. Here is a buck we call Mr. Ugly. Notice the trailcam dates. Mr. Ugly is on the right in 2nd pic.

Summer also means lots of sweat equity by trimming shooting lanes, mowing food plots, and hanging new stands. Sweat now = success in October.

Shooting. Shooting. Shooting is also key for getting ready. Luke is shooting 3-4 times  days to get ready and strong enough to be legal (35#).  I get to share a whole season with my son. How cool is that????

Then comes Oct 1st and opening day. We hunt for real and when it is over we start all over again. Deer hunting is about the experiences, time alone w/ God, and sharing memories w/ family and friends. Why only do it for a weekend? If you do - you are missing out.

Luke's 2011 Youth Deer Hunt written by JBWHTAIL

We had a great time with all who attended. Six youth hunters attended, we started with four and a fifth to arrive after a football game on Saturday morning. Our sixth hunter was a surprise, Travis, Brownsburg archer's son. Travis decided mid-day Saturday to give the 20 gauge Remington youth model a try, one shot and he was hooked!

Here is a picture of the youth, back row, Adam, Cameron, Craig, Chris (future Marine) Front row Travis and Luke (the "provider")

    







Bean and his son Luke arrived early Friday afternoon and Luke of course wanted to try a little squirrel hunting.........

Then he and dad was off to fish, story is dad caught the most but Luke caught the biggest. A three pound largemouth bass.

Saturday Morning four youth are up and ready to go, biscuits and gravy down away they go. By nine thirty we have one deer down (Cameron) and one clean miss (Craig). The shooting houses we built a few years back really helped as it rained all of Saturday morning.

   






Lunch is served, and the youth are ready to roll again. Luke and dad are back at deer hunting, the rain has stopped and they are in an oak grove, no deer but lots of squirrels and a flock of Tom turkeys. The rest of the youth are shooting guns and our scheduled fifth hunter shows up. Travis has now shot the 20 gauge and is deciding if the recoil is too much. As we prepare to send the youth out for the evening Travis decides he will try deer hunting. The evening hunt produced 2 more deer.

Our hunter who had a football game in the morning came back with a nice doe.

Luke and dad decided to try the "Donnie Baker blind" on my encouragement. This is a pop up blind that sets on top of a boat trailer. On Friday night I had seen several deer feeding in a field below it. Around six pm I sneak out to a ridge about five hundred yards away and watch the field with binoculars. It isn't long until I see a nice 8 point buck feeding in front of the blind. I text Bean and say "nice buck in front of you”, Bean is surprised I'm watching. Over the next 90 minutes several deer are walking around them and then comes the text...” SHOWTIME”!  A doe is directly in front of the blind at 70 yards and needs to move closer for Luke to be comfortable. Bean asks how much time left and I say ten minutes, if on que the doe moves closer and the shot is taken. We leave the area and return to the house for additional light (coleman lantern). Less than 50 yards from the shot we find the doe with a perfect shoulder/heart shot. Here is Luke and his doe, the largest deer taken.

Sunday we had the remaining three hunters hunt the morning with no shots offered. This is Chris's last hunt as a youth with us as he is soon to be 18 and we hear off to enlist in the Marines. We lost one of our youth hunters and gain another in Travis.

Cedar Branch Farms enjoys both our youth hunts (turkey and deer) it is great to experience the youth as they begin their hunting journey. I've got to relate a comment told to me by Bean.

Bean had given Luke a choice he could hunt near home for a buck or a doe, or he could go to the youth hunt on Cedar Branch where it is antlerless only, Luke chose Cedar Branch Farms.

With youth it isn't about buck or doe it is a chance to hunt with family and friends. We hope at Cedar Branch Farms all our guests become like family, we have the friend’s part down pat.

A special thanks goes out to Brownsburg archer, Tom comes down each hunt just to help out. We appreciate the volunteer time and I think we created a new hunter this weekend. I see some youth gun in Santa's bag already!

Ground blind project

Well, with deer deason still 3 months away it is time for Summer projects. I saw this ground blind on a forum from Texas and thought the concept was really good. A good ground blind runs $100-350.00 and the one will cost about $80.00 and last a lot longer than the kind you can buy. Some guys have used them 7-8 years already and still going strong. The only downside to it is it is semi-mobile where the others will take down easier. Not worried about that as it will stay where it is.

The materials are:
18' x 5' cattle panel: $18.99
2 7' t-post: $4.25 each
3 1" x 8' pvc pipe: $2.00 each
scrap wire
plastic sheet
outdoor carpet

First I cut off the bottom wire of the panel and that leftspikes that we will shove into the ground for support. The I bent the panel into a circle and used the long wire I cut off the bottom and made a header and footer for the door. You do not connect the ends of the panel together but leave about 3-4 feet then wire the header and footer which will give you your doorway.

I then attached the pvc pipe by cutting then bending wires at the top of the panel. I connected the panel and pvc pipe by sliding the pipe on top of the bent wire and wiring is secure.

   








This what the shell looks like. I have yet to get the carpet and plastic. They will go on next week. Pretty neat idea but very cost effective and dry.The carpet will go on and then we will cut out sections for shooting lanes. Will update when finished.

cam update

Got a few pics on the cam to share. Got four different bucks showing up so far. None are really that big but fun to watch grow.

So I like to grow things....

There is a lot more to deer hunting than just taking a weapon out and shooting something. Yes, some people do that and that is ok (if they practice a bunch first). BUT for me it is a 365 day obsession that seems to grow more every year. There is:

Practicing with my bow and gun.
Year round scouting - bino's and cams.
Tree stand placments and trimming.
Ground blinds to set up and build.
Coyotes to shoot.
Path to stand sites to clear.
and.... food plots.

The following pics are of my Biologic clover/chickory plot that is just under 1/2 acre.

A couple visitors. The coyote shows its face it will be ventilated. Two nice bucks and I look forward to seeing what they become throughout the Summer.

Turkeys + bass = memories

Well, last week finally the weather broke and we had a few good sunny days.

Last Friday I went with Andy Roberts to one of his "honey holes". We got to the woods before daylight hoping to hear some turkeys gobbling on the roost. Turkey are pretty hard to hunt when silent. They end up seeing you and bust out of the area. Well, no gobblers were gobbling so we decided to set up on a small finger of woods sticking out into the field. We put out a few decoys. Turkeys are a very visual bird and sometimes seeing a decoy is all it takes.... case and point - this hunt.

After watching several deer pass us by we were beginning to wonder if any birds would come out. After several series of soft-calling on my slate, Andy whispers, "Tom coming!!"  I hit the call and his head turns and locks in on the decs. He comes straight to the decoys and never made a sound or strutted. Andy shoots him at 25 yards. It wieghed 23 pounds, had a 10 inch beard, and 28mm spurs. His first turkey was a nice one.

Now the fishing. Rachel, Luke and I went to a private pond on Saturday. We caught about 100 bass. Luke caught two on one lure - one bass on each treble hook. That is the 3rd time he has done that in his young life. I have NEVER done it. Rachel became a master fishing a floating 4" Rapala. What a great day. We kept 20 for eating. I am not a bass fan but these were pretty good and the pond owner asked us to remove them. Here are some pics:



Huntin' Camp

I remember growing up, I was able to go to my uncles huntin camp. It wasn't very big as it was an old one room school house converted to a place where memories were made. I think my uncles owned just a acre or so the camp was on but it was beside hundreds of thousands of acres owned by a paper company and with a cheap permit you could hunt all of it. Camp had electricity, a kitchen, bunks, and a john out back - all you need it seemed. I can still smell the mountains in the Fall, the musty cabin, and bacon in the morning as Uncle Larry made breakfast. I remember the truck ride to our spots, the old logging road I hunted, and all the camp-isms I can't write about. I never got a shot at a deer - but it never mattered. It was about the experience, time with my dad, and family/friends. My only regret is not doing it more, which I am sure would have led me to regretting not doing it even more.

This past week Luke and I went to southern Indiana on the youth turkey hunt. We went to huntin camp. We had the honor of spending time with a group of guys and their sons/grandsons at camp. Thanks Bill and Joe for having the youth hunt again and sharing your place and more importantly your passion for all things outdoors. Thanks for helping me invest into my son the outdoor experience. I wish you could have seen Luke's eyes when I asked him if he wanted to go - priceless. Thanks Bill for letting the boys shoot and blow things up while you helped them with form and safety and all the food you prepared. While everyone else slept you peeled potatoes, got breakfast going, and stayed up late getting things ready for the next day. Thanks Joe for the taxi across the flooded tundra, setting up the blinds, and sharing your knowledge of where to go. Although your grandson was there as well, a visitor could not have picked out yours because you treated each kid as honored guests.

We got no shot at a turkey. We did have a hen walk within 5 yards of us in the morning. Two bucks in front at 15 yards and four behind us in the afternoon. Here is a picture looking out out blind at our set up. Notice the truck tracks - the hen walked down them.

Here are the fearless hunters. Luke decied we needed face paint.



The field we were hunting.

Luke is ready for the shot. Notice my redneck bi-pod.  Don't laugh it works great and cost me .75 cents. All I need to do now is camo it.

Some of Bill's cooking skills. We had deer, hog, rabbits and squirrel. It was awesome!!

The dining/picture/lying room.

The shooting tower and/or deer hanging-skinning tower.

We left home with the hopes of a successful hunt. We achieved that and even more - all without a bird. We went to huntin camp.

Luke's first 2011 bass and the "Mamba"

Luke and I went out fishing for a little bit tonight. The water was still pretty cold AND muddy but it was too nice not to go. I caught 5 crappie(one 11 incher) and 1 stinky shad. Luke caught 4-5 little bass, including the one pictured below:

I have also pulled out the ole recurve a couple weeks ago and have been trying to shoot 3-5 times a week. I got this bow back in 1993 and have not shot it very much since 1997. I have taken a few deer with it and that is what I hope to do this Fall. It is a Martin Mamba and is 58" long. It is made for 55 pound pull at 28" draw. I shoot almost a 30" draw. For every extra inch you pull past the designated 28" you add 2 1/2 pounds. So when I shoot it I pull back almost 60 pounds. Here are a couple shots of the beauty:

Here are my shoots tonight from 15 yards. What a great stress reliever.

Clover plot

The following pictures are of our clover plot. Imagine a field over 1/2 an acre and you will understand what it looks like. This clover plot is Biologic New Zealand and has chicory in it as well. The clover plot usually green up pretty quick giving  the deer and turkeys some great forage through the Fall. I think it has around 30% protein which is great for nursing does and buck antler development. The clover will do well as long as it has enough moisture, which usually doesn't happen in July and August sometimes. It can dry out and then a good rain will make it rebound pretty nicely. I usually get hundreds of pictures in the Spring of deer and turkeys.

Here are a few pictures of some recent visitors.



Now I would like to see some turkeys pretty soon.

Antler lesson...

After having a conversation with the wifey a month or so ago I decide there are misconceptions about a deers antlers.

They do not keep them for life. Every Jan-March the bucks will loose their antlers and begin growing new ones in the Spring. There are 3 basic things that enable good antler growth:

 a. Age - most deer killed every year are about 1 1/2 years old. The HUGE deer you see with
 big racks are usually 4 1/2 years or older. What happens with bucks is that alot of the
 calcium used early in life is for the skeletal system and by age 4 that is mostly done.
 Therefore, after age 4 you will see dramatic increases in antler growth. That it why I
 don't shoot younger bucks - but that is just me. Who knows how big all those 1 1/2 year
 olds would have been? Best buck management is not to pull the trigger.

 b. Nutrition - If a deer doesn't have the nutrition in needs to sustain good antler growth or milk
 needed for fawns in the Spring the deer will not reach its full potential. You would
 think that Indina with all its farming would be an easy place for deer to live and
 reach its full potential - not totally true. Although they do have beans/corn it is
 usually harvested and gone. That leaves Nov - March with forage that is
 sometimes lacking.  Deer survive pretty well, but to have a plan that supplies
 365 days of nutrition is needed to help them reach all they can be. Supliments can
 can help too. Not rock salt - deer are different than cattle. But make sure you
 don't hunt over it - a boo boo according to the regs.

 c. Genetics - Letting a buck get older and giving it all it needs for antler mass is all good BUT
 a deer can only reach its full pontential with how it is genetically programed. An
 eight pointer will usually only be an 8.....

Nothing we can do about genetics really, unless you have tons of acreage and take out some bucks that
lack what you want. But we can give them year round nutrition and let them walk and get older. Most people can't do that - to each their own. If I am taking out a new hunter and he has a shot a any deer, he/she has the green light. For me - I would rather shoot does than a small buck. Sometimes those old does are harder anyway.

There is more that I may post later.

New cam pics

I checked the cam yesterday (Thursday). We had 81 pictures in just 4 days. The deer are actually feeding on beets that Bradley and I planted last August. The deer are actually digging them up out of the ground. Again this show that this is a still a pretty hard time for the deer until things green up a bit. Forage is low and it amazes me how they find food.

Here are some of the pics:

In the beet patch.

Could this one be a mommy?

Now look at the bottom right. If this lil stinker shows itself at anytime - it will get plugged. Coyotes are really hard on fawns in the Spring.

It should be interesting to show how things develop through the year.