Christmas With Reed

"We are ... Penn State ..."

A non-video game.

Operation, a game of skill. Later in the evening, at our house, I heard Reed requesting help. I entered the room and ask Reed what was wrong. His reply, "This guy is loosing a lot of blood and dying".

Another holiday tradition, building a gingerbread house.

Reed relaxing with his friend the Grinch.

Why I Hate Red Squirrels

There are several walnut trees around our barn and it's not unusual to see gray and red squirrels gathering nuts for the winter. There are families of gray squirrels that live at the end of the driveway and act like Walmart greeters, whereas the red squirrels live at the barn and have an attitude problem.

The red squirrels are destroying this plastic floor drain at the barn.

A trap was set in an attempt to limit damage to the floor drain. For several days the red squirrel was able to avoid capture and snack on the bait.

The trap was sprung ...

Victory is near ...

Within a minute, Harry Houdini the red squirrel is out of the trap!!!

Within one day, Harry Houdini or a stunt double was back looking for more snacks.

Dancing Turkeys

With the Fall turkeys season and Thanksgiving over for this year, these turkeys stopped by my deer stand for a visit. These turkeys saw my truck parked next to the deer stand and it looked like they were dancing with each other as they strolled up within 10 yards of me. After a few dances around the truck, the birds continued their dancing stroll to the edge of the field where they stayed for over an hour. Maybe the turkeys were doing their "Happy Dance" because they survived hunting season.

Deer Hunting

The rifled deer season started on Saturday. I saw several deer from my Cabin property deer stand on the first day, but didn't see any bucks that were legal. Went to the West Hill deer stand yesterday and bagged this 8-point.

Birdwatching

Today was cold and windy, with occasional snow squalls. Since the fall turkey season ended last Saturday, today was a perfect time for some local turkeys to visit our back lawn.

Rifled deer season starts next Saturday, so I went to check on my deer stand. My grouse friend was back drumming on his favorite stump, located less than 50 yards from my deer stand.

The Grouse Is Back

We got our first measurable snow overnight and I was out checking for wildlife. It appears that the grouse fight from a couple of days ago was for claiming territory and the victor was back.

The grouse was establishing his right to this territory by beating his wings to create a sound known as “drumming”.

Grouse Fighting

I was out looking for turkeys yesterday when I found two grouse fighting.

They may look like two "love birds", but they where chasing and pecking each other for 10 to 15 minutes.

They continued to fight as they moved out of the brush and into the field.

The grouse on the right was losing ground and looking for the exit ...

This grouse had enough of the fight and flew off. His opponent wasn't done with the fight and flew after him.

The Rain Won't Stop Bucks In Rut

Today's rain put a halt to my firewood cutting, so I spent some time looking at bucks on the hill. I found this crazy buck standing in the rain, in the same spot, in the goldenrod for for over ½ an hour. When he did move I found there was a young doe bedded next to him.

Looking For Turkeys... Found This !!!

It was a beautiful fall day for turkey hunting. No luck finding turkeys but I did find this guy relaxing in the shade.

Happy Halloween

You never know what is hiding behind a game camera!

West Hill Bears

Time to check the game cameras at our West Hill property. After finding some deer, turkey and coyote photos I found a bear photo...

After a couple more photos of this bear, there was a photo of a smaller bear. Momma and a cub ...

A couple photos of the cub (#1) and another cub (#2) starts to come into the photo on the left ...

Correction, cub #2 and cub #3 are following cub #1 for a total of 4 bears.

Check another game camera from West Hill and on Oct. 18th, all 4 bears were in the field at the same time.

Turkey Hunting

It's the first day of the Fall Turkey Season and the morning started out with a heavy frost in the low 20's. After a few cups of coffee the temperature had warmed to the mid-40's, time to look for some turkeys. We were at the cabin property at 11:30 and by 11:45 Roy had bagged his bird.

The Skybox Diner

After processing the buck Matt shot in archery season, I placed the bones and scraps in a wooded area for the wildlife.

"Welcome to the Skybox Diner, we're open all night for your dining pleasure."

"Would you like to select one of our special choice cuts of aged venison trimmings?"

"The full rack of venison ribs... Excellent choice! Please be seated, your order is ready."

Birdwatching

Doing some birdwatching today.

Fall Leaves

The view of our barn from the cabin property.

Miner's Pond

Archery Season

Archery season for deer started a couple of weeks ago but this was the first day Matt went out hunting. He was in the West Hill deer stand at 6:30AM and had this 10-point buck down by 8:20AM.

The Bears Are Back

The fall hunting season is starting and it was time to check a couple game cameras near my deer stand. No big bucks, but I did get some bear photos.

What is this bear looking at?

This bear is fascinated by something ...

The view from a second game camera. The bear is looking at a piñata for bears that I created. I put old fish carcasses in a shopping bag and hung it 5 feet above the ground. Other wildlife, such as raccoons, buzzards and opossums can't steal this meal.

The piñata has been broken and the treats fall out.

Lip smacking good.

There was a second bear at this party. This bear had an ear tag in its left ear and both bears appeared at the same time in a photo from the second game camera.