(We
eat good! Click here to see)
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Weather: Sunny Hi
temp in the 50’s/ Lows in the 30 |
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The troops left the
southern post around The Good to be back at
the Chateau for another round. A quick inspect showed that A quick peek in the
field spots a nice 8
pointer behind the barn. I made a
quick call to the Floridian brigade to pass the news and give em a wake up call. The cell signal was lousy but they got
the message Unpacking and camp
prep was the order of business with leftover |
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Weather:
First light around 6:30a. Partly Foggy, Heavy Fog in AM breaks around 10a Hi in
upper 50’s, low in mid 30’s |
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Deer
Count: Ryan 3, (plus a gimme
from TH) Mouse
Count: 4 |
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Up at One shot off of
Hooper’s land around 7a started the morning. A few shots in the distance but
the morning is quiet. The fog continues to lift as it roles in –
in waves making it difficult to see anything for a few minutes until the wave
passes. This continues on for most of
the morning. At shot down the
mountain at Rick spots three Does
by the Dynamite shack on the way up. Watches them for a few minutes and
decides to push on to the double stand on the top of the mountain by the old
antenna. On the way up spooks two deer
by Russ’s double near the swamp. Then on the top spooks another one. Okay
time to get off the freaking ATV and go by foot. Just as he doe’s, Matt comes
cruising by in his truck.. So much for a quiet hunt. The early part of the
afternoon turns out to be a quiet one. That is until the scuttlebutt started
in the swamp area. A shot at 4:10p out of the area, another at 4:20p and then
a final at 4:30p. A call for
assistance on the radio from Russ reports that Ryan has two deer down in the
thickets and needs help. Arrived to
find two nice size Doe’s and the boys busy field dressing the one farthest
away. The stories can wait – gotta get busy we are
losing light. An easy drag out of the
deer to the truck with the ATV makes short work of what used to be a huge
manual effort. Some cigars and story
telling about the events as the rest of the daylight leaves the sky and its down to camp to start the processing. Arrived back a camp
to find a 3 pointer hanging on the arch. First thought it was Curtis’s but a
later story from Tina turns out Joe and Curtis found the deer lying in the
field behind Don’s house. No one claimed the deer so I guess we have a
Poacher on our hands. Two shots on the
deer with a very large caliber gun (probably an Ultra Mag)
One of the hams are screwed up an it looks like a
second shot taken in the neck. (Con’t
Next Section) |
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Bustin’ down Ryan’s first deer!
The spoils. One goes to Camp
dinner with the liver of course!
Power Nap between hunts
Hanging the next two!
Put
some muscle in it Ryan - its a big deer! |
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Monday Nov 27th (Con’t)
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Well with three deer hangin and one in the cooler we have a lot to do! Ryan makes a fire and tends to the
woodstove, Russ and Rick get busy skinning the deer so that they can hang for
the night. As we are working on
the deer a crunch
and thud comes from the street and a gasp from Tina who was out walking the
dog. A pickup truck ran up the
embankment by the train crossing and just about flipped over. We headed up to
see what the commotion was. “Jeff” claims
a deer ran in front of his vehicle that caused him to swerve off the road.
Hmm.., Jeff looks a little under the weather and he probably gonna feel pretty bad in the morning when he realizes his
relatively new Chevy pickup is just about totaled… Tina and Wayne head back to call for a tow
truck, we get to business with the deer processing. We finish up the
skinning the deer and take care of the entrails thanks to a smoking hot fire
that Ryan built. No need for a gut pile here! Now its late and we are hungry. Head out for an attempted
dinner service at the Lackawaxen house around 9:15p
but they are closed. Just as well we
head back to camp and we make up some burgers for on the skillet. That worked! We head to bed, we decide to sleep in tomorrow… huh??? |
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Proud
Papa!
Who
needs a gut pile! Just get Ryan to build a hot fire… |
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Weather:
Day Break at (what time? Who knows!) Partly Cloudy, Heavy
Fog in AM lifts at 10:30a. Hi temp in upper 50’s, lows in mid
30’s. Weather
inside: Balmy 85 degrees
and very dry (thanks to the woodstove) |
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Deer
Count: Still 4 (Hard to shoot a deer in the cabin!) Mouse
Count: 5 |
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Well right about now
Pop is turning in his grave. It’s the
2nd day of hunting camp and just because there is some meat
hanging we decide to sleep in. What would he say!?. Be that as it may it was nice to take it
easy. A leisurely breakfast and a nap afterwards for some of the crew allowed
me to catch up on this log. Well if it was any
consultation, it was a very foggy morning again. This weather pattern seems
to be locked in here. Tomorrow or Thursday may bring change. Well today’s
officially meat processing day. Russ gets busy dressing the rest of the meat. Since we didn’t get a
chance for our traditional Monday camp dinner yesterday we are looking
forward to Venison Backstraps and Liver tonight. As Russ busts down
the rest of the deer, a shot goes off from Dave’s yard. About 15 minutes later some reports come in
from -
Joe misses a “12
pointer” (believed to be the 10 pointer we saw during the summer. He hasn’t
come down the mountain yet and we probably won’t see him for the remainder of
the trip. Someone bring the poor boy a beer... -
The “small buck” that was found
was reportably shot by Bobby’s son and they were
unable to locate it. (see the Lackawaxen
forensic notes from yesterdays deer processing…) -
Matt has now downed
two nice eight pointers. Dave is pissed since he downed the last one in his
back yard before he had a chance to get his license. He has been eyeing this
buck for a few days and planned on taking him. Time to put some restrictions
on this boy! Camp fire is
cranking… Backstrap Fillets on the open fire and
Liver and onions for dinner. Homemade Pumpkin Pie for dessert – cant beat it. Maybe we will hunt
tomorrow? |
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Floridian’s
sure hunt funny!
Meat
Processing Day…
It's a
worm!
Happiness
is meat hangin at camp
Got
Meat? Now that’s some Venison! Note the Buck Juice in the water bottle (for
flavor of course!)
Traditional Liver and Onions. Hey Dad - Russ
didn’t do too bad on the liver prep! |
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Wednesday Nov 30th – Cliff
Hanger Harry (Con’t)
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After about 45 mins of tracking I still don’t have any blood sign. “I’ll
do a final retrace of the steps one more time before I give up”. Then my luck
changes. Heading further down the ledge I spot a single drop o blood on a
leaf. Now I know he’s hit – gotta find him. I
tracked the trail another 20 yards literally on the side of the mountain when
I finally spot the buck collapsed on a very thin ledge. All-righty
then! Its dusk, I’m loosing
light rapidly and I’m on the side of a mountain with a large deer down. Can’t
reach anyone on the radio so it looks like I’m on my own with Cliff
Hanger Harry. The deer is too far down the cliff so the ATV is not
going to help here. I’ll need to get him further up the side of the mountain
where it will be safe to bring the bike in. After marking the bucks location with flags – I climb back up ledge and drop
off my gear underneath the ladder stand. Its going to be dark soon and when I
go to retrieve the stuff I’ll need to find it easily and I know the stand is
marked well. Another attempt on the
radio with no success and I head back down with the tow strap. The ledge is too
steep to paunch the deer on site - so I’ll need to drag him up whole. What a struggle! I can only make a few feet
at a time before resting. Apparently Harry doesn’t want to come home with me
as he keeps slipping down the ledge on occasion! It feels like I have been at
it for hours. It is just about completely dark now by the time I get the deer
to a spot I can bring the bike in. I
mark the trees on the way out with reflectors so I can get back to the prize
and head up the hill to retrieve the ATV. Along the way I keep
trying to reach the gang on the radio. The bike is near the top of the Rock
Oak Knoll so just as I get to it the radio crackles to life with a broken up
message. <static>at Camp…
<static>, I get a message and later Russ reports he
hears <static>… Deer Down… <static> at the Spring…
<static>. With that he grabs
Ryan and heads up the mountain to find Rick dragging the buck behind the ATV. After some story telling Rick’s retrieves
the gear at the tree stand and returns to paunch the deer at the top of the
mountain by headlight. We head down the hill
Russ and Ryan hang the deer and tend to the fires. Rick starts skinning Harry
down as we prepare to eat our monster steaks tonight. Tina pops in for some
intelligence report. She informs us that she saw the 10 pointer right down in
the yard near the old bathtub/spring around After a major steak
dinner, a quick clean up and its of to bed. A hell-of-a day |
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Weather:
Calling for Thunderstorms, heavy winds flash floods Lows in the 30’s Highs in
the 60’s |
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Deer
Count: 5 Mouse
Count: Now 9 |
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The groups up between
It already above 60
outside. The weather reports are calling for a nasty afternoon of storms and
wind. The goal will be to get packed up before the worst of it hits. Russ and Ryan take a
quick run up the mountain to pick up the bench seats and overhead covers from
the ladder stands. Rick heads down the river bank to cut a windfall down for
Tina. The remainder of the
time is used on packing up the coolers and gear. The weather is turning bad quickly as the
wind is picking up and light rain is starting. The Floridian group
departs around Well the hunt for
this year is over. Congrats to Ryan on his 2nd very successful
hunting trip. The week has gone by too
fast. Good eats good family and fun.
See you next year! |
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Another
generation joins the team
Heading
South |
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