Nov. 12-18, 2023

Weather | 11/12, 34°, 61° | 11/13, 34°, 63° | 11/14, 35°, 62° | 11/15, 39°, 67° | 11/16, 43°, 60° | 11/17, 39°, 51° | 11/18, 25°, 57° | 

• Sunday, 11/12: Whizbang, But No Deer
  
  • We vacuumed dust and hair out from the back and bottom of the refrigerator. It's been loud and after the cleanup, the fridge sounded normal, again.
    
  • I checked out an online website called Whizbang cider.net, where Herrick Kimball describes how to make cidermaking equipment. His designs are interesting and simple.
    
  • I hunted at the Black Medick blind in the east woods, arriving at 3:30 p.m. Wind was from the southwest. I saw tons of squirrels that pounce around in the dried autumn leaves and sound like mastodons. Canada geese were honking about on Wood Duck Pond. I caught a glimpse of a deer through the trees north of me. It was marching along quickly, heading east to the recently plowed field. I bet it was a buck, but I couldn't tell, since I only saw it briefly. When I walked home, I heard several vehicles leaving on the gravel road...a sign of hunters going home. Maybe deer might settle down, now that some hunters from St. Louis left for home.
    
  • On the final dog walk, we noticed a very clear night sky with bright stars showing without any twinkle, indicating a steady atmosphere. Jupiter was especially bright.
    
    
• Monday, 11/13: Seeing Deer, But No Shooting
  
  • This morning, we saw several deer. When Mary opened the curtains in the west living room window, there were two bucks standing near the Kieffer pear tree. We saw five more deer in the west field while we let out the chickens this morning.
    
  • Our dogs really love chasing squirrels away from the pecan trees. It continues.
    
  • Mary cooked up one of the five pumpkins and put four quarts of pumpkin meat in the freezer.
    
  • I finished putting up lights in the machine shed.
    
  • I started hunting at the Bobcat Deer Blind around 3 p.m. It was unseasonably warm, requiring fewer layers to stay warm while sitting in the blind. Again, there were lots of noisy squirrels. Before sunset, I caught glimpses of deer running from the north field into the woods along a ridge far to the north of me. Just before the end of legal hunting, which is a half hour after sunset (today it was 5:22 p.m.) I heard several foot falls west and south of me, but it was too dark to see anything. Once I shucked shells from my rifle's magazine, all creatures were gone. Since we know of a deer stand just beyond our property line west of the west field, I wore and turned on a flashing red light while walking home, as a safety measure. I think these folks were back in St. Louis, because I didn't hear four-wheelers, but it never hurts to employ extra precaution.
    
    
• Tuesday, 11/14: 10-Point Buck I Let Pass
  
  • Mary heard a white-throated sparrow singing this morning. HERE is their song. They don't usually sing until later winter.
  • I affixed wine labels to the 27 bottles of cherry wine and stored them in a couple coolers in the upstairs north bedroom.
    
  • Just before 3 p.m., I crawled into the Wood Duck Deer Blind for an afternoon deer hunting session. Right after getting settled, I heard peeping sounds uphill and east to me. Then I caught view of several northern bobwhite quail just north of me walking down the slope. One male bird stood on a downed tree and looked at me for several minutes (see photo, below). They eventually meandered off. I watched about 20 crows drink at the pond's edge and then land in tree branches. They were loud. The normal battalion of squirrels scampered about. One raised a 10-minute raucous just above my head at sunset. Who says the woods are restful and quiet? As the woods darkened, I saw a buck north of me. I think it came from the field east of me and walked down the hill. It munched away at brush, then slowly walked down to the dry creek bed and toward me. At one point, it was only 30 feet away. I counted four points on one side of the rack, so with the brow tine, it would be five on one side, or at least a 10-point buck. He was big. I figured the venison from that deer would be like chewing on a neoprene tarp, so I let it walk on by, even though I had an excellent bead on the deer through my rifle's scope. It moved slowly on. I looked at the time and it was exactly the end of legal shooting, or 5:21 p.m. The sound of me removing the shells from my rifle's magazine quickened his fading footsteps. I didn't hear a single shot from other hunters, so hunting pressure has dropped. I'm going to give it a rest for tomorrow and maybe even Thursday.
    
  • I updated my wine diary from postings on this blog, catching me up to the end of August.

  

  A poor iPhone photo of a bobwhite quail.

• Wednesday, 11/15: Mom's Birthday
  • Today Mom turns 89. I talked with her for just over a half hour today.
  • Mary made and baked four loaves of bread.
  • I split all but three chunks of firewood stacked around the woodsplitter in the machine shed. After purposefully letting the engine on the splitter run out of fuel, I pulled the gas tank and replaced the fuel line and gas filter. The engine is burning oil and the hydraulic cylinder is leaking at the base. I need to either put new rings and valves into the engine, or get a new engine. Probably the cylinder needs replacing, or new seals replaced in it. The hydraulic hoses are checked and also need replacing.
  • I didn't hunt today, since we're shopping tomorrow, and if I shot a deer, a late night of butchering would have postponed any shopping. Besides, the deer need a break from my presence to let them settle down.
    
  • I got the wine diary updated to Sept. 1st. There are several wines to record.
    
    
• Thursday, 11/16: Shopping
  
  • We shopped in Quincy, IL, today. We picked up some clothes at Salvation Army (T-shirts for Mary and sweat pants for me), and from Walmart, 40 more pounds of turkey (two turkeys), along with other food items from there and other stores. We now have four turkeys and over 80 pounds of turkey in the freezer. At 98 cents a pound at Walmart, we decided to stock up.
  • As we drove up the gravel road for home and just reached our property line, there were four huge Canada geese flying over our land. It's the first geese we've seen in weeks.
  • Our neighbors in the house southeast of us have dead deer lying on the ground. What a complete waste! I hate irresponsible hunters who waste good meat.
    
    
• Friday, 11/17: No Deer, Just Squirrels, an Owl, and a Fox
  
  • We heard a weird bird call this morning while walking the dogs and saw that it was coming from doves. Mary looked up the bird call online and confirmed that it was from a Urasian collared dove. It's the first time we've seen them on this property. We noticed them in Circle, MT, when we lived there.
  • Mary did a bunch of house cleaning.
  • Bill is taking a well-deserved vacation and visiting us for a week and two weekends starting tomorrow. He recently led a yearly inventory at his place of work through a weekend and received a nice letter from the company's vice president for his efforts.
    
  • I split the last 3-4 logs I didn't get to a couple days ago. The woodsplitter's engine runs much better. Obviously, the old gas filter was holding back the engine's power. I ran it at a lower RPM and it did great.
    
  • I moved firewood from the machine shed to the woodshed, including stacks that dried all summer and newly split dry wood. Some of the stacks of firewood left to dry were loaded with mouse nests filled with chicken feathers. Small branches from walnut trees I cut down near the house were covered with very fine sawdust, put there by insect larvae boring into the wood. I dumped all this off prior to moving the firewood. Now the firewood is stacked up to the top of the stem wall with the first ring of wood in the woodshed.
  • I hunted the Black Medick Blind (furthest south) in the east woods, starting at 3 p.m. The only deer I saw was one that ran away into the neighbor's field east of our property when I first arrived at the blind, which says I need to get out there earlier than 3 p.m. For about 30 minutes, I had three squirrels chattering at me. At sunset, I saw something dark and about 18 inches tall down the slope from me that ran very fast to the south. I think it was a grey fox. It ran too fast to see it's body. A barred owl sounded off just after sunset. It was in a tree just up the hill from me. I heard two loud shots northwest of me. It was probably from the hunting trailer blind parked a few feet north of our north property line. Some years, I get deer within the first few days of hunting season. This is not one of those years. I'll keep trying. Regular deer season runs through Tuesday, 11/21. Then there is a 12/2 through 12/10 anterless deer hunting season. There's also a 12/23 through 1/2/24 alternative methods deer season, but I don't care to hurl a lance or pick my butt off the ground while shooting a black powder gun, so I'll stay home on that one. If I was a bow hunter, I could hunt from 11/22 through 1/15/24, but I'm not into archery. Oh, and there's the second youth deer hunting season for three days after Thanksgiving Day. Missouri gives ample opportunity to hunt deer.
    
    
• Saturday, 11/18: Bill Arrives
  
  • Bill showed up around noon.
  • I added moth balls to plastic Gatorade bottles with holes drilled in them that I keep under and in engine compartments of vehicles. I gave 10 bottles to Bill to put under and in the engine area of his car. This keeps mice from destroying vehicle wiring.
    
  • I hunted from the Wood Duck Deer Blind, starting at 2:40 p.m. I saw five different deer at various times through the afternoon. All were too far to the north and I only caught glimpses of them through the trees. No shots fired by me, today. They were walking east and west along the north side of Wood Duck Pond. The normal army of squirrels was on parade. I saw a fox squirrel that was really big. After sunset, a mouse was rustling dry autumn leaves just outside the blind. There were a few gunshots, but off in the distance.
  • Bill, Mary, and I enjoyed a bottle of 2021 blackberry wine and watched a couple movies. The wine was very smooth, with a strong blackberry flavor.