Apricot Seedlings

Last July, while visiting Chuck and Nikki in Iowa, we stopped at their friends Jim and Amy to pick Apricots from their trees. We enjoyed the fresh apricots so much I decided to try to propagate some apricot trees from some of the apricot pits. To start the germination process I stratified the seeds by placing them in moist paper towels and storing them in the refrigerator for 12 weeks, until the seeds started to sprout. The sprouted seeds were then placed in potting soil and placed in our solarium. The seedlings are now ready to be placed in a cool location and allowed to go dormant until spring.

Cookies for Santa

Twas the day before Christmas and grandson Reed wasn't taking any chances with Santa Claus. Time to bake some gingerbread cookies for Santa.

The cookies for Santa must have worked. Lots of presents under the tree including a fishing pole from Grampa Rob.

Reed also got a drone from dad and Star Wars items from Uncle Ryan.

Deer and Warm Days

Record breaking temperature moved into the neighborhood and with deer hunting season over the local deer have been out during the daylight to enjoy the green grass in the fields (and lawns).

Gas Drilling

Yesterday was warm and sunny, and a good day to get some drone photos of the gas drilling operation at our family trust property in Forks township.

It only took a couple of days to move this drill rig onto the well pad and start the drilling operation.

Another view of the drilling operation. Drill rig in the center, crew quarters on the left and drill pipe storage on bottom left. The operation in the upper right removes the the drilled rock tailings from the drilling "mud" solution. The tailings are sent to a landfill and the drilling mud is reused.

A close-up view of the drilling operation. In the upper left of the photo is Ernie's new deer blind that is located inside the fence surrounding the drilling operation. New wildlife food plots are being planned.

Deer Hunting

The rifle deer season started on Saturday and we've started out with two nice buck. Still looking to get a doe to fill the freezer.

I got this 7-point, with a 19 inch spread, on Sunday after I passed up on a smaller 6-point.

Matt got this 8-point this morning.

Coyotes

I was checking more of my game cameras today and found some daytime pictures of a coyote. I have seen a large increase in the number of game camera sightings of coyotes this year but since they are nocturnal hunters I rarely get daytime photos of them. These photos were taken 30 yards from my deer stand and maybe I'll see it again while I'm in the deer stand.

Game Camera Photos

I was checking some of the game cameras today and along with lots of deer and coyote pictures I found these:

This black bear, and possibly a second bear, were photographed multiple times on different cameras on the morning of November 20th, the first day rifle bear season. Maybe they were looking for a good hiding place until the season was over.

Turkeys playing Follow the Leader.

Bullfrog

With the local ditches and streams running high from the overnight rain I decided to check the pond at our cabin for any issues. We've had a warmer than normal fall this year but the last thing I expected to find in mid-November was a large bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) sunning itself at the edge of the pond.

The Rut

The whitetail deer mating season, known as the rut, is in full swing. This is my favorite time to photograph the bucks since they only have one thing on their minds. I found this buck chasing a doe and not paying any attention to me.

Bobcat

For this evening's wildlife drive I decided to park my truck on the road to our cabin to see if any big bucks would cross the road. No bucks but shortly after sunset this Bobcat walked within 5 feet of my truck. After posing for some pictures the Bobcat walked into the grass stalking a meal. By now it was getting too dark for a good photo of the Bobcat jumping at least 6 feet and missing its meal. I watched this Bobcat for another 10 minutes as it walked the road to our cabin.

Frost

After a warmer than normal October the temperatures have abruptly shifted to an unwelcome colder than normal. This morning's temperatures were in the low 20's and there was still a coating of frost on this thistle at noon.

Apples and Deer

Colder weather and a brief snow storm moved into our neighborhood this morning and prompted us to look for some apples to make a pie. As we approached an apple tree behind our barn we found this deer and two more bedded down next to the apple tree waiting for some apples to fall.

The deer seemed reluctant to leave their comfortable beds and the tasty apples.

The deer quickly reviewed their options on this apple tree and decided to look for another apple tree.

Fall Turkey Hunting

This past Saturday was cold, windy, rainy and the starting day of the fall turkey hunting season. We found a large flock of turkeys on Saturday but weren't able to get close enough to get one. I went out scouting deer this morning and drove within 20 yards of this flock, but didn't have my shotgun. It's still early in turkey season.

Fall Fungus

The warm/wet weather this fall has been beneficial to fungal growth. It only took a couple of days for this Dryad's Saddle (Polyporus squamosus) mushroom to develop on a Box Elder tree along our driveway.

Young Dryad's Saddle mushrooms are considered edible, but this one is over a foot wide and doesn't look as tasty as the Chanterelle mushrooms we found and froze this summer.

Halloween Friends

As people prepare to celebrate Halloween by decorating with images that are centered around fear and phobias, one common image is spiders. Here are some of my Wolf Spider (Hogna carolinensis) friends that live at our barn.

I have a couple of Wolf Spiders that hang out inside a water hose at the sink in the barn. I am reminded of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" nursery rhyme whenever I open the water valve and spiders come running out.

I have a Wolf Spider that lives next to the door at the barn. This spider reminds me of a "Wal-Mart greeter" that always says hello when you enter.

Wolf Spiders are members of the family Lycosidae and can be identified by the orientation of their 8 eyes. A row of 4 small eyes above the mouth, then 2 larger eyes in the second row and the last 2 eyes in the third row on top of the forehead.

Wolf Spiders don't build webs and are primarily nocturnal hunters with keen night vision, much like wolves, which is where they get their name. Wolf Spiders prey upon small insects and have no interest in humans. They will not seek out interactions or attack you unless directly handled. Wolf spiders will bite if mishandled or trapped next to the skin. A Wolf Spider's bite is like that of a bee sting and will generally subside within 24 hours.

Pepper Plants

With no frost so far this fall, the pepper plants in our garden have continued to produce and we had stuffed peppers for supper yesterday. I brought this pepper plant into the solarium for a few more fresh peppers this fall/winter.

Not all of our peppers were big producers. I was able to start one Eastern Rocket pepper plant from some old seed. The Eastern Rocket is a very mild hot pepper and this plant only produced produced one pepper in the garden. The seeds from this pepper were harvested for another try next year.

I also moved the Eastern Rocket pepper plant into the solarium and it immediately took off producing new leaves and flowers.

Sweet Potatoes

October has been warm and wet this year and while the sweet potatoes in our garden were still growing it's time to dig. The excessive rain this year caused a lot of the sweet potatoes to grow long/narrow but a few of them looked like small footballs. I dug up 3 five gallon buckets of sweet potatoes which will cure in the solarium for a couple of weeks to allow the skins to firm up and to let starches convert to sugar.

Wheel Bug

Insects keep waiting at my door to be photographed. Today's bug caught my attention by the ridge protruding from its back. After some Internet research I identified it as a Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus), they are named for the spiny ridge or "wheel" on the thorax.

Wheel Bugs are one of the largest true bugs reaching a length of up to 1.5 inches and a species of large assassin bug.

Visible in this photo is the wheel bug's reddish beak, located beneath its head. Wheel bugs capture their prey with their front legs and then plunges its beak into its victim before injecting it with enzymes, paralyzing it and dissolving its insides.

Katydid

I found this Katydid waiting for me at the door to our barn.

The name katydid is derived from the male’s repetitive chirp, which sounds like “katydid, katy-didn’t.”

They are primarily nocturnal and rest during the day in trees camouflaged to look like leaves.

Praying Mantis

Grandson Reed was visiting us for the weekend and made friends with a Praying Mantis.

Reed enjoyed playing with the mantis and wanted to take it home as a pet ...

Before heading home Reed agreed to release the mantis in our lawn.