The Boys are Back in Town

They never saw me sitting on the porch taking pics of them, but were driven to run away by the relentless flies. The long lawn is an endless window on the wild world. In the past few weeks there have been woodchucks, myriad bunnies, and an opossum trotting across. Sometimes there are both colors of foxes too, and deer right often. These are the first bucks in velvet I have seen this year although the boss says he has seen plenty of does with fawns.

He started mowing hay over the weekend and baled yesterday. Nice green hay and big fat bales. With the rain today that will be in abeyance for a bit. Good day for a nap.

Scouting

This story was written on November 7th. However, due to the cloak-and-dagger nature of deer scouting, you had to wait to read it until deer season ended here. Now it can be published.

November 7th, 2017:

It is getting hard to get my walking in these days. 10,000 steps is more than it seems. It takes a lot of time to cover enough ground, and on these rocky hills a good deal of effort to get it done.

Thus this morning I started early, while the rest of the house was asleep, almost as soon as it was light. It was cold compared to recent weeks, and grey and rather gloomy. 

The birds were nothing exciting. The usual winter sparrows plus a few leftovers from summer. A couple of geese, a handful of jays, some lingering robins and the like.

I didn't mind a bit; just getting out and seeing them is reward enough for me.

Thus when I was done and headed down behind the barn I was content and full of happy comfort.

Suddenly I became aware of a loud rattling in the dead, brown goldenrod behind me. Now, even a Downy Woodpecker can make a lot of noise in dead vegetation, but this was loud. It made me a little nervous as it kept coming and coming and yet I couldn't see any thing at all.

I realized that it had to be a deer to make as much noise as that and then I smelled it, the rank stink of  buck deer. A buck smells a lot like a goat only less sharp and more musky. Alan taught me to recognize it on a trip to Montezuma a few years ago and now I find a lot of deer that way.

I waited and waited as it crashed around out there, still seeing nothing but I sure could hear it. Eventually all went quiet and I started back down to the house.

However, something made me stop and look back up the hill. Out of the western half of the field sprang a little four-point buck that lept across the farm road. 

Hot on his heels was a magnificent, calendar-picture, six-point, or maybe even an 8. It was hellbent on catching him, flashing fore hooves slashing at him as they ran.

They were so close. 

They never saw or smelled me though and only got out of camera range so quickly because they were intent on other things..one on getting out of Dodge, and the other providing the impetus to do so promptly.

I would share this with you today, but alas, I scout for just one guy....and he is in New Jersey right now.

Anyhow, that is the scouting report for the first week of this past November.

In the Midst

Probably this guy

Of writing chores and Thanksgiving dinner prep we had to clear off the kitchen table. Seems somebody got their first deer and we will be processing meat this afternoon.

I am STILL making a blueberry pie....

Congratulations, Amber!

Venison Stew

We are between beeves right now. Just a couple of packages left from the last one. Next one still out on the hill eating grass. 

However, everyone is working outside today and will want a hearty meal....so...

Venison stew. This is how I do it....

Toss some cubed venison into melted butter, in the right sized pot for the mob. Five-quart today. Or into oil. Or your choice of fat du jour. Venison is lean; it needs the enhancement of some fat or oil.

Next mince some garlic and toss it in there too. Or garlic powder if you don't have fresh. Onion if you want it.

Summer time-pick some thyme, oregano, orange mint, top onions, etc. ...whatever is out in the garden. Chop and add.

Winter time-Italian seasoning works fine. I also have a big jar of basil, thyme, oregano and orange mint that I grew and dried a couple of years ago. That goes good too.

Saute slowly until the meat is good and brown. This is an all day dish.

Add a couple tablespoons of vinegar and cook a bit longer. Vinegar tenderizes and smooths out the potentially gamy flavor of wild meat. I am lucky enough to cook after a  talented butcher, so gaminess is rarely an issue but.....

Add water enough to cook some carrots and potatoes, cubed the way you like them. Toss in a couple of beef bouillon cubes if you need a little saltiness. Add a little of whatever is in the garden or freezer if you wish. This batch will get some mature green beans, as the garden is full of them. Even a couple of diced tomatoes can be good. 

Simmer slowly for a couple of ages, hours or so until everything is tender. If you are a dairy farm mom like I used to be, you can cover the pot and do this in the oven on moderate heat...say 325 or 350. I even made soup in the oven back when the house was where we came when the work was done. 

There are a lot of ways to thicken this. I generally add a large can of cream of mushroom soup. Not exactly gourmet, but, hey, we like it. Then if when nearly ready to serve it is still not thick enough I add some instant mashed potatoes. Or flour and water. Or Bisquick and water. Adaptable. Yep.

Beef is done in pretty much the same way....when we have beef. With it already feeling so much like fall, I expect this will make a pretty popular supper for 7 tonight. Or maybe 6 if Peggy wants chicken tenders instead. 

Dense

We have been having a lot of sammiches and mac and cheese and the like lately...all well and good, of course. We are at the mercy of an excellent cook and when she gets in the mood we surrender happily.

However, this morning I decided that it was time for some serious protein. Thus there is a gigantic block of venison sausage baking in the oven. Yeah, after this debacle I decided to try something different.

Since I have never in my life remembered to get out sausage to thaw it before cooking, and since it is packaged in very large blocks, due to people being sick and tired of vacuum sealing all day for two days, I am baking the whole darned frozen block with a little butter. I imagine that I will be able to cut it into squares pretty soon.....

It is in the oven in a big broiler pan tucked in nicely with a bit of foil. That stuff is dense. I figure we will be eating it in various form for a week, but as long as I get some for breakfast this morning I am good with that. 

Saving the Mugo

We had a nice little Mugo pine down in the village. Alan bought it for me, and it grew quite nicely. We missed it when we came here, so he planted this one fifteen years ago when we made the Long Lawn.

It has grown and grown and gotten nice and fat. Catbirds, Song Sparrows, and the Willow Flycatchers love it in summer....it makes a fine staging area.

It was thriving....

Until yesterday when it underwent a severe pruning. You could throw a cat through it now if you were so inclined.

You know you have married well when your significant other not only takes a bar of Irish Spring out to hang it for you, but also shaves his head...in the middle of the winter...... and donates all his hair to the deer repellent effort.

Now we wait and see if it all works. If not Jade has a couple of ideas......

Not for Nothing

I sure hope Santa can run.

Or that he has some sugar cubes. 

Liz was at the sink washing bowls from making cookies and rolls, and I was waiting to get water to mix dog food, when across the heifer hill, tails blazing whiter than the snow, ran a pair of does.

I don't want to rain on any parades or harm your cornflakes in any way, but I am pretty sure that it was Cupid and Vixen.

And they were already flying low if you know what I mean. Didn't see any sled either, other than the Firecats on the trailer and lawn.

I sure hope he catches them before tonight.....

Hmmm.....Liz has two quarts of molasses here....nah.....better not.....

What do you say

About these drab wintry days? I try to write something here every day, but we have been so busy with holidays and deer and deer and holidays that I have fallen down on the job. Had the first of the venison sausage this morning. Practice makes perfect and all, and it came out great this year. Good job, Al and Liz. If you want to see the processing efforts visit the View at Northview over in the sidebar.

Meanwhile, Uncle Alan picked up a Christmas tree yesterday and had a ball decorating with Peggy. She wan't all that interested at first, but once she realized what was in all those old cardboard boxes and what you did with the little silvery balls and shiny horses and doggies, she was enthralled.

And so were we, watching and laughing. I was out here in the kitchen when I heard the Border Collie ornament come out of the box....

"Ooh, look Uncle Alan, Finn!"

I have a resin carousel music box Ralph's brother and sister-in-law gave us that she was over the moon about. And the train that my dad gave us that goes under the tree, she was raving to her dad about it when he got home from work.

So the days have been full with stuff......

And...today we have to cut that second buck. Should go faster as we are not going to grind him, but just cryovac large pieces for roasts and chuck roast style cooking. 

Guess I had better get busy getting ready for another busy day.

Meanwhile, in a Tree Stand Nearby

In the stand before the sun came up. Sitting in the cold pearly reflected light, listening, when the sounds began.

Clack. 

Antler or brush?

Clack, crash, crash, clack, clack, clack, clack, definitely deer.

Definitely two deer.

Then came a loud scuffling, snorting, crashing, banging and bashing. Cough! Bark! Cough! Did you ever hear a deer bark? There is nothing quite like the sound.

Two bucks were fighting right in the 30-acre Lot. I am told it was the most amazing experience in the world, listening to that battle out there in the dark, senses heightened by the lack of light, only the scent of the rut and the sound of the fight to tell the tale.

Later came the light and shortly after sunup came one buck, a heavy 7-pointer. The victor. Maybe, maybe not.

Like in fishing it was of course the smaller of the pair. The big one got away.

It was the first shot of the  season (other than sighting in) of the .308 Winchester recently added to the collection here.

We will be eating well this winter....

What do you get

When the deer flies are bad? Why, you get to see a frantic little lawn Bambi, with much ducking and dodging and shaking of ears, running around your yard. Poor little critter was wild with the misery of the darned things, which I can attest are plumb awful.

He trotted around the lawn for a while and then ducked down into the brush, which was probably where mama left him in the first place. Wonder if this is the little one that was born up under the leaning tree in the heifer pasture. Seems like a good year for fawns.

How do you like the little lines of spots up his back and neck? I thought they were pretty neat. ***Some of these shots are mine and some may be Alan's as we both took some. 

Recycling

Remember the poachers last deer season? The guys who shot the buck in the rump and shoulder after dusk, on our posted property, right next to the boys in the driveway?

Well, Alan found that buck a good while later, injured, full of rot and death, and put him out of the misery the not-so-good hunters inflicted.

He could have called DEC...we had already been in touch with them over the incident..and gotten the animal, which was not edible, picked up and had a new tag issued to him. However, we already had venison enough for winter, and he wanted to mount the antlers, so he kept him.

As suggested by the DEC officers, and as we have done in the past, we put the carcass out for the scavengers. Usually coyotes and crows fill that niche, but sometimes we get Bald Eagles.

The bones, long since picked clean, lie in the thick grass of the field behind the house. I had been thinking maybe I should move them down in the woods for the mice to chew, but hadn't...

Then this morning I thought I saw a turkey out there. Something thick and black and clunky was hunkering down there....I got the binoculars and, no, it was not a turkey, but a Turkey Vulture, picking away. Now there are several. I can't imagine what they are finding to eat, but they seem to be enjoying their bony breakfast.

The Moon on the Breast of the New-Fallen Snow....

"Gave a luster of midday to objects below...."

Yeah, a snapping, snarling little squall dumped a smattering of snow on us last night. Just enough to make it feel colder than it was, and it was plenty cold enough. Then the wind rattled the trees and scooped up the flakes and gave them the old who-flung.

I came downstairs in the middle of the night and it was bright enough to throw sharp shadows from the trees and through the banister in the front hall. 

It caused me to remember a couple of words from another Christmas classic........

"Bah humbug!"

On Dancer and Prancer, on Dunder and Blixem....
only there were an even dozen there this morning, not just eight
Kind of like spare tires right?
Only spare deers.

Bones

Coyotes dragged this set of vertebrae and ribs out in the field, whence I removed them, so they wouldn't end up in the hay machinery. This was a large doe, the one Jade got last fall....and yet all these bones only took two fingers to pick up. It was a surprise to find them to be so light.

The same critters found this Mountain Dew bottle somewhere and played with it
 just like Mack does and then left it in the middle of the hay field too.

Deer's Ears

In the driveway......as seen from the sitting porch.

Opening Day South

Be careful out there! There are a lot more people in the woods and fields than on a normal fall morning. Some of them are not exactly woodsmen, but hopefully no one will squeeze the trigger until there is an actual deer in their sights.

Beautiful day for it though. Cold, frosty, with a peach and gold and green and blue sunrise just now flowing over the horizon like cool, bright water in an exotic fruit drink. Mango anyone?

Birds aren't up yet, so I don't know first bird for the day...oops, there it is, a Chickadee peeping on the feeder......but a Bald Eagle visited right behind the house yesterday.

And of course when I was creeping up the lawn trying to get some good shots, some power company tree trimmers walked right up behind me to ask it they could cut some box elders....I am always glad when they are polite enough to ask before hacking down trees. Plus delighted to tell them that they could cut as many box elders as they wanted to. What are the odds though?

Their timing stank to say the least.

There were Crows earlier. Lots of Crows. Red-tailed hawks, what I thought was a Harrier, (no pics of the latter) plus the normal cast of characters at the feeders, which they now empty in a day or less.

It's supposed to snow tomorrow night. Guess everything is on the move.

And, as always on this special holiday for Upstate NY deer hunters, the Youpers.... Second Week of Deer Camp



.

Firearms Related Post

Alan got his dad a thirty-thirty for his birthday. He has always wanted one. He got downright choked up with the boy brought it home.

It is a pretty gun....and deer season is coming.

Mini Moose

Do click these photos for a better look

 On the way home from the farm show yesterday we stopped at a favorite pond that lies just along a sharp curve in the road.

A couple of years ago an obliging Great Blue Heron allowed us a nice opportunity to get some pictures, so we always pause to look.

Yesterday was no disappointment. There was a doe and fawn right in the water. The doe was eating off the bottom like a moose, head submerged to the ears.

Some ducks paddled by. One was right behind the fawn in a most photo-bombitous position.

It was pretty cool. I love stopping there.

And then this morning...I have to lean on the big five-bar gate to the pasture to tie it shut when I take the cows out. I was doing that this morning....not being tall, my chin and ear are right on the gate...when a fat grey squirrel bustled out of the building the gate is fastened to and started across it.

I kept waiting for him to see me. I was in a bright squash-blossom-yellow sweatshirt. 

He just kept coming.

And coming.

And coming.

Until he was about a foot from my face. Had he continued he would have had to squeeze under my ear to get to the fence.

I almost let him.

But I was afraid he might bite me.

So I said "boo". 

Instant magical transformation from grey squirrel to flying squirrel. 

I didn't know they could jump that far.