Nov. 11-17, 2024

Weather | 11/11, sunny, 40°, 59° | 11/12, sunny, 30°, 52° |11/13, 0.07" rain, cloudy, 40°, 55° | 11/14, cloudy, 45°, 47° | 11/15, sunny, 27°, 58° | 11/16, cloudy, 35°, 50° | 11/17, cloudy, 49°, 64° |

• Monday, 11/11: Moving Wood Duck Deer Blind
  
  • This morning while we were letting the chickens out, we heard snow geese flying overhead, but we never saw them. They must have been extremely high.
    
  • I checked the spiced apple wine this morning and the specific gravity was 1.028, so it dropped five thousandths overnight. The nighttime specific gravity was 1.022 for a drop of 11 over 24 hours.
    
  • Mary and I walked down to Wood Duck Pond. We first looked at the current deer blind. So many dead trees near it means it must be abandoned. It's not safe. We walked around and picked a new location for a deer blind. It's somewhat in the open, so I'll have to build a blind that is superior at hiding me from the deer. It's on the west side of the dry creek bed, opposite from where I've parked the last several years. In 2010, I had a deer stand about 100 feet further west of where I'm building this one. From this new location I can see the pond and the forest floor west of the dry creek bed as I look north and east. I can also spot animals coming down the hill to the west of me.
    
  • We spooked up two coveys of bobwhite quail as we walked around near the pond. When we first walked to the pond's edge, about eight ducks took off. We couldn't identify them, but we know they weren't wood ducks.
  • Mary mowed our quarter mile lane. Even on a cooler day, like today, that's a hard job.
    
  • I went back to Wood Duck Pond with the tractor and wagon loaded with saws and tools. I tore down the cattle and hog fences at the old blind and moved them to the new location. I'll start assembling it tomorrow.
  • On the way to Wood Duck, I spotted a bufflehead duck swimming in Bass Pond. It was nervous with the sound of the tractor, but stayed in the pond. They have a striking appearance. HERE is a link to a photo of a bufflehead.
    
  • We heard barred owls calling from all over the place about 30 minutes prior to the sun going  down.
    
  • We enjoyed a bottle of perry tonight. It was made last fall and bottled in January 2024. We drank it at room temperature, which we decided is better, because when iced, some of the flavor disappears. The spice is lighter than the spiced apple wine. The pear taste comes out nicely. It's got a light, happy flavor.
    

• Tuesday, 11/12: Garlic Mulched & Deer Blind Construction
  
  • Mary mowed part of the east yard and finished mulching the last row of garlic in the far garden. It's now good for the winter.
    
  • I wired together the cow panel and hog panels of the new Wood Duck Deer Blind. I want to be a little more discreet, so I used a four-foot square sheet of quarter-inch lauan paneling I found in the old cow barn as a roof, instead of bright silver steel barn siding. I sawed five-foot long logs from a nearby ash that fell to the ground. Then, I stacked and wired the logs into the cow panel on the west side of my semi-circle blind. I've got more concealment work that I'll do tomorrow.
    
  • I saw tracks of a large deer on the trail I'm using to get to my new blind that runs parallel to the dry creek bed. I also watched a duck gliding the west shoreline of Wood Duck Pond. Without binoculars or a scope on a gun, I couldn't see what kind of duck it was.
    
  • A huge, thick halo appeared around the moon while we were walking the puppies at night.
  • We are finally getting weather matching the month of November. Snow is expected in next week's weather prediction.
  • A check of the spiced apple wine in the morning resulted in a 1.017 specific gravity. By nighttime, it was 1.010, so I racked it into a 3-gallon carboy and a half-gallon jug. Most of the jug was applesauce slurry, so I'm expecting mostly thick fines from that container when I rack for the second time in a few days.
    

• Wednesday, 11/13: New Blind Nearly Done
  
  • While Mary made flour tortillas, I cut down a tall maple stump and finished stacking logs on the west side of the new Wood Duck Blind. A deer snorted at me from the east side of the pond while I was checking out the fold-up garden seat inside the new blind. I was talking to myself about how it all fits nicely when the deer heard me and snorted. 
  • I went home after Mary texted that chimichangas for a midday meal were ready in 10 minutes. They were topped with winter greens...yummy!
  • I walked back to the Wood Duck Blind and stuffed tall grass that I picked up along the trail to the ponds. I wove it between the sections in the hog fence. I'm amazed I haven't used this for camo in the past, because it works wonderful at concealing the inside occupant, while appearing very natural (see photos, below). I cut a couple oak branches that grew into the trail, placed them on the roof top so they draped over the side and added a heavy dead branch on top to weigh them down. Light rain started the moment I showed up for the second time and it turned to a steady rain, but I kept working to get all grass stuffed into place. I was pretty wet after driving the tractor home.
  • I got deer tags for the upcoming hunting season. It's all done online, which is nice and easy.

Southeast corner & entrance of new blind.

Northeast corner of Wood Duck Blind.

Southwest corner of blind. Stacked logs are braced.

East side of blind. My vision is through top of hog fence.

• Thursday, 11/14: Baked Bread & Finalizing Deer Blinds
  
  • Mary baked four loaves of bread, which always puts an amazing scent throughout the house.
    
  • I finished all deer hunting preparation in the field by first marking all new trails to blinds and the deer stand with reflective thumbtacks. A quick check of existing blinds and the deer stand showed all were in good shape. I added more oak branches to the top edges of the newest deer blind cut from limbs invading paths. I cut out a massive multiflora rose bush growing across the dry creek bed and other weeds and shrubs growing on the trail to the other deer blind in the west woods, the Black Medick Blind. There is a major north/south deer trail just down the hill from that blind. Finally, I checked out sitting in the new Wood Duck Deer Blind with my two 30-30 rifles. The 30-30 Marlin with a shorter barrel works best in that blind, due to its close quarters, so I'll have to put both rifles in use this year. I usually only use the 30-30 with the longer barrel.
    
  • I cleaned the two 30-30 rifles. Mary's Uncle Herman neglected cleaning the 30-30 Marlin with the long barrel, so all I can do is clean it to a point. The shorter 30-30 Marlin rifle cleans up nice and shiny inside the barrel. I bought that one from Ansel Marquette in 2010.
    
  • FedEx has improved, slightly. They find our location. They still have issues. When the FedEx driver showed up with our shipment of oatmeal, he discovered that the folks in Quincy failed to load our package into his truck. It will hopefully show up tomorrow.
  • Mary saw a belted kingfisher while she walked our lane to the mailbox. It followed her up the lane from the mailbox, then cut in front of her to the east, continuing with its rusty chain call. THIS is what they sound like. She also watched a sharp-shinned hawk haunting the lower reaches of bushes and trees in the yard. That's why we don't have little birds in the yard right now.
    

• Friday, 11/15: Tree Skirt & Sighting In Rifles
  
  • Mary started making a Christmas tree skirt. Last year she bought a green Christmas tablecloth that has a damask holly pattern on it. Today she used our round dining room table as a pattern to cut it into a large circle, cut out a small circle in the middle, cut a slit to the middle circle, then pinned a shiny gold bias tape to all edges. She made a similar tree skirt in 2001 and it's shot. Nick and Holly (cats) were born on the old tree skirt in 2009. Holly is gone, but Nick and his mother, Rosemary, are still with us.
    
  • I sighted in the two 30-30 Marlin rifles. Initially, they both were shooting high. I believe the rifle with the shorter barrel has a faulty scope. Changes on the dial made no difference on where the shot hit the target. I just need to remember that on that rifle, it shoots two inches high at 50 yards, so I need to aim low. The rifle with the longer barrel is now zeroed into the bullseye of the target.
  • Today was perfect for sighting in guns. It was sunny and calm.
  • Mom's 90th birthday is today. I talked to her on the phone. She had a great birthday celebration. Mom told the crowd at the Circle Senior Center luncheon of how her father traded a truckload of potatoes to the sisters at the Catholic hospital where she was born in Missoula, MT, as a way to pay for the bill of her birth. She said a truck in 1934 was about the size of a large pickup, today. "So, that's what I'm worth, a truckload of potatoes," she told the group, which drew a big laugh. I didn't know it, but apparently Grandad Robison grew potatoes and sold them in the early days, while he operated a dairy at Lolo, MT.
  • We ate Aldi turkey franks cooked over the woodstove fire this evening. With Mary's homemade piccalilli relish added as a topping, along with mustard, they taste great.
  • Afterwards, we enjoyed a bottle of last year's apple wine. We're finding all apple wines are better at room temperature, because apple flavor comes out stronger.
    

• Saturday, 11/16: Firearms Deer Season Starts
  
  • Today is the first day of firearms deer hunting season, November portion. This year it is Nov. 16-26. But not for me. Lewis County is now in the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Management Zone, which means that all hunters who bag a deer during the opening weekend (today and tomorrow) must take the deer to a sampling station, where they collect a lymph node sample for testing. I don't want to load a bloody deer carcass in the pickup and drive it to and from the Lewis County Fairgrounds before butchering it. Also, temperatures are high this weekend. So, I'll wait a couple days. Another factor is that with the CWD designation, our county gets an additional CWD hunting season that is Nov. 27-Dec. 1. Then, there's an anterless deer season that runs between Dec. 7-15. So, there are several days available to hunt deer beyond the opening weekend.
  • There were fewer rifle shots on the opening day, compared to what we've heard in years past. Maybe others are going with my rational of putting off hunting for a couple days.
    
  • Mary and I pulled out the last two air conditioners. As I removed them, Mary was ready with a shop vac to suck intruding Asian ladybugs. Surrounding the large AC in the living room window were hundreds of the crawling stinkers. We moved the ACs to the machine shed.
    
  • I strung several lights up in the machine shed in preparation for butchering deer. I moved the location of where I hang the deer to the middle of the building. It gives me a place to butcher deer, yet allows me to park the tractor and wagon inside the shed and not out in the weather.
    
  • Our order of tea came in from Harney & Sons. It smells absolutely wonderful.
    
  • I watched an old airplane fly overhead. It was louder than most single prop planes and it had a British Spitfire logo on it, so it was obviously an old World War II fighter plane. There certainly wasn't any stealth involved with those loud engines.
    

• Sunday, 11/17: Firewood Collection
  
  • I sharpened one of the two chains on the big Stihl chainsaw. Half of the teeth were well worn. They were all on the left side of the chain, where I must have hit something hard with the saw. It only took five strokes with a file to sharpen the right side, but 15 strokes on the left side. The sharp chain proved excellent while cutting firewood later in the day.
    
  • Mary and I took the tractor and wagon east of the garden, down the hill, to some downed maple branches. I sawed up and Mary loaded a full wagon load of firewood. Most of it was either standing, or above ground, so it was exceptionally dry and in great shape. Maple burns hot and fast, which makes it perfect for small fires when it's not too cold outside, such as is the case right now. We loaded small pieces into the woodshed and large pieces to split into the machine shed, next to the splitter.
    
  • Mary vacuumed bugs inside the house. They were mainly flies, today, and they were in a continuous motion from out to inside the house.
    
  • I sharpened knives. The weather forecast predicts a 100 percent chance of rain for tomorrow. So, I only sharpened one knife to use inside the house and two knives used for field dressing venison. If I get out, tomorrow, I can sharpen the rest after a deer is hanging in the machine shed. If it's too wet for me to venture outside, I'll have plenty of time to sharpen the rest.