Dec. 1-7, 2025

Weather | 12/1, 2" snow, 20°, 25° | 12/2, sunny, 13°, 29° | 12/3, cloudy, 25°, 39° | 12/4, sunny, 3°, 25° | 12/5, cloudy, 10°, 35° | 12/6, p. cloudy, 21°, 42° | 12/7, cloudy, 25°, 30° |

• Monday, 12/1: More Snow
  • Light snow fell all day, adding up to about two inches.
  • A nice aspect about fresh snow on the ground is all of the wild animal tracks that you see. Based on the tracks, bunnies are very active and we have quite a collection of deer wondering through our lawns. Tracks show that one deer walked right up to the west living room window. Our normal collection of deer ate pears under the Kieffer tree at various times through the day.
  • We took the day off from doing much of anything.
  • We watched two movies, which were Miss Potter (2006) and Little Women (1994).
  • Mary and I realized that this is the first time we've been without a dog since 1993. There are some activities that become automatic with dog ownership for us, such as walking the puppy first thing in the morning and before going to bed. Walking outside at night is something I really miss. Each time an apple is sliced, the urge is to feed a piece of apple core, minus the seeds, to the dog (Plato loved apples).

• Tuesday, 12/2: A Deer Zoo
  • We noticed several robins and white-crowned sparrows flying about in the west yard this morning.
  • A very large deer hoof print showed up near the rain gauge on the lane. It was about the size of a cow's hoof print. We're guessing it was put there by a big buck. 
  • I fixed a 5-gallon gas can spout and then added Ethanol Shield to the gas. The additive works well at protecting small engines from the ill effects of ethanol in gasoline. All gas in Missouri now contains about 10 percent ethanol.
  • I split firewood from large logs we stacked next to the woodsplitter a few days ago. Three wheelbarrow loads were stacked in a crisscross fashion inside the north wall of the machine shed. Three loads that came off a tall red oak stump were dry enough to go into the woodshed. I have two more thick chunks to split.
  • Our lawns are a deer zoo. A herd of 5-6 deer spend extended dinner times under the Kieffer pear tree while pawing snow aside and munching on fallen pears. They're marching all over the place. Snow on the trail to the far garden is pounded down by the deer (see photo, below). They're wandering through the yard at all hours of the day. I had a young deer with a very dark coat peer around a black walnut tree at me while I walked to and from the compost bins at dusk. After I came inside, it walked with curiosity to the compost bins to check out what I was doing. This is an unusual year. In years past, you never saw deer for a couple months after the antlered firearms deer season ended. It's not the case this year.

  

  A young deer on path to the far garden.

• Wednesday, 12/3: Winterizing Chicken Coop
  • After Mary finished the morning chicken chores, she chased a murder of crows out of the north woods that were harassing a red-shouldered hawk.
  • She used a shop vac and a small brush to clean the coils of the refrigerator.
  • With single digit temperatures predicted for tonight, I spent that afternoon tightening the chicken coop. Two 10" x 25" pieces of chicken food bags went into the north coop windows to deflect cold air. I put old dog bed stuffing in the north chicken door and screwed a piece of lauan to the inside. Another piece of stuffing went into a crack on the northeast corner. I stapled a piece of feed bag over that. I put several long screws at the outside base of walls to close up cracks showing on the inside where the walls and the floor meet. I folded up pieces of feed bag and put them between the lower sash of two windows and their sills to fill air gaps. I stuck a piece of foam on the inside of the chicken door to seal off air gaps and hung the oil-filled electric radiant heater in the center of the coop.
  • Our normal herd of deer appeared at dusk to munch on pears under the Kieffer pear tree. 
  • We watched two movies and they were The Book Thief (2013) and The Big Year (2011).

• Thursday, 12/4: Deer, Deer, and More Deer
  • I did more work at tightening up the chicken coop by stuffing pieces of feed bag in cracks where the south wall meets the floor. My efforts at keeping out air leaks is working. After the sun shined through the windows, the temperature in the coop was 42°, which is good considering outside temperatures were cooler.
  • Our resident deer herd enjoying pear snacks keeps increasing. This morning, we watched an eight-point buck (see photo, below) walk to the Kieffer pear tree, eat a pear, then walk north to follow a young doe. As I was finishing up chores at dusk, I counted eight deer walking through the south orchard after having dessert under the pear tree (see photo, below). We're starting to call them deer lice, because we see them everywhere.
  • Mary and I noticed several Bob White quail tracks across the lane when we walked down to get the mail.
  • Mary saw a red-breasted nuthatch perched on the south porch. These birds are usually further north in the winter.

An 8-point buck walking to the Kieffer pear tree.

3 deer (one's behind the other) SW of our house.

• Friday, 12/5: Deer Hunting Prep
  • I walked around to all three of my deer blinds to check for deer tracks. On the way to the Boys' Fort Deer Blind north of the machine shed, I spotted two deer that looked at me for quite some time, then ran west when I left the blind. A barred owl that was in an overhead treetop swooped ahead of me as I walked out of the woods and looked at me, before flying away. There aren't many deer tracks at the Wood Duck Deer Blind. Wood Duck Pond is frozen and deer aren't visiting it. There was a mess of deer tracks all around the East Woods Deer Blind, but pulling a deer out of there would be tough. My best bet for tomorrow's start of anterless season will be the Boy's Fort Deer Blind, since it's the closest to the house.
  • I got hunting stuff ready, including all of the items I need with me when I go out in the morning. I checked that I had enough gas in the tractor and started it to make sure it ran fine. I sharpened knives needed for butchering a deer. I even made eight Ritz cracker with peanut butter sandwiches for a quick bite before I go out in the morning.

• Saturday, 12/6: Second Deer in the Freezer
  • We got up at 5:30 a.m. I got dressed while eating my cracker/peanut butter breakfast snack and was sitting in the Boy's Fort Deer Blind by 6:15. The moon was so bright that I saw everything clearly while walking to the blind. A half hour later, daylight emerged as did lots of squirrels. They're really thick in the woods.
  • Around 7:30, I saw a deer at the edge of the field south of me. It was blocked from my view for a few minutes by a cedar tree. Then it ventured east. Any further and it would be too close to the machine shed, so I squeezed off a right-hand shot and instantly downed the deer. It was just north of the north end of the chicken run.
  • I walked back home, then walked to the deer to discover it was a doe. After driving the tractor with the wagon to near the deer, Mary and I field dressed it. That doe ate all night and had a bulging stomach. I drug it over the snow about 30 feet to the trailer. Mary and I hoisted it in. I'm glad the tractor had chains on the rear tires. I got stuck once while making a left turn near the large Bartlett pear tree. I backed it up a few inches, went forward again and moved right  on through on the second attempt as the rear wheels churned snow. We washed out the body cavity with a garden hose (a very cold job), then hung the deer in the cold machine shed. We then went inside and ate breakfast while the deer cooled.
  • After breakfast, I skinned the deer. Normally, we let venison hang overnight in the machine shed, but the weather prediction called for overnight rain, followed by strong northerly winds, tomorrow, so we decided to process the deer today. The Missouri Department of Conservation asks when you telecheck a doe in via a cell phone for the measurement between the eye and the edge of the nostril. It's a young doe if that distance is 4.5 inches, or less. Even though this doe was young, it measured five inches. My shot entered the top of the neck just above the shoulders. I found the bullet in the pelt outside of the lower stomach. It somehow didn't touch any of the stomach, which was amazing! This girl ate well. There was lots of fat, the fattest doe we've ever butchered. We got 32 packages of meat, but two large roasts were held out of that count. They will be used to make crock pot venison sandwiches at Christmas. The grand total of venison packages in the freezer is at 101, which includes leftover venison from last year. We're in splendid shape with enough meat in the freezer for another year.
  • Since I didn't want a chance of getting the tractor stuck in snow, I loaded the plastic toboggan with the carcass, hide, and fat scraps, and made two trips to the north woods pulling the sled by hand. This was a younger deer, but it had big bones, making the carcass heavy. When that was done, I turned the tractor around inside the machine shed. My hunting days are finished for another year...two bullets and two deer...that's the way I like to hunt.
  • While I was out in the machine shed working on the deer, I heard trumpeter swans east and southeast of us. There's no mistaking that sound.
  • After cleanup and washing dishes, we watched four deer in the dark out our sunroom windows as they moved through the south orchard. The white snow makes it easy to see them after dark. Mary used the binoculars to see them even better, since the glasses amplify the minimal light. We discovered that Gandalf was watching the deer, too.
  • We celebrated the end of our deer season with a bottle of blackberry wine, which tasted really nice. I also cleaned up two Goldrush apples that we ate. They get better with storage and are an excellent apple.
  • We watched two DVDs, which were Christmas Vacation (1989) and A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965).

• Sunday, 12/7: Hibernation Day
  • Our deer herd was back eating snow-covered pears under the Keiffer tree.
  • We hibernated in the house, today.
  • I caught up on three monthly bank statements and brought the checkbook to a balance on the first try, which is remarkable after three months of not looking at it.
  • After dark, on the last evening chore, I heard snow geese flying overhead.
  • I looked at a bunch of videos from a company in Hunnewell, MO, which is 35 miles south of us. They make a bunch of items for building pole barn structures that look interesting. The company is called Concrete Pier System.