Northern Red-bellied Snake

I was moving some dirt with my backhoe when I spotted this bright reddish-orange object. It was a Northern red-bellied snake (Storeria occipitomaculata).

These are very small snakes and this one is full grown at about 12 inches.

The head of this snake is about the size of a pencil eraser. The mouth is so small it would have a hard time biting anything.

Breakfast With Turkeys

A flock of "free-range" turkeys stopped by our house early this morning looking for breakfast.

Woodpecker Rescue

It's not uncommon to have birds get trapped in the upper floor of our barn then they think they can fly out a closed window. Unlike most of the birds that I rescue, this was a young woodpecker with a sharp beak and thought my thumb was a tree branch. I'll wear gloves next time.

Bobcat

Checked some of the game cameras at our West Hill property and got these photos of a Bobcat.

Fall Hunting Season

The Fall hunting season will soon be here.

Free Range Turkeys

The local flocks of wild turkeys are so familiar with my pickup truck and daily wildlife drives that the turkeys don't stop feeding when I drive by. It's starting to feel like a free range turkey farm.

Sunset

After several days of cloudy/rainy weather the sky started to clear in the evening yesterday. This rain cloud, to the north, was still dumping rain at sunset.

Clearing sky to the west provided this sunset.

West Hill Bears

You never know what you'll find on a game camera. We had some game cameras at our West Hill property since late March and checked a couple of the memory cards today.

Along with the usual deer and turkey photos was this cinnamon bear (Ursus americanus cinnamomum)

Cinnamon bears are a subspecies of the black bear.

Two bears fighting in front of the game camera. The bears were so close to the camera that most of the photos were close-up photos of fur. June is the mating season for bears and these two may have been fighting over territory.

Tomato Crop

This year's crop of tomatoes is coming in at full bore. Canned 17 quarts of tomato purée yesterday and will be working on stewed tomatoes tomorrow. Each of these tomatoes are over 5 inches across.

Size comparison of the tomatoes with a baseball and softball.

The three tomatoes weighed 6.8 lbs. (3.1 Kg.), with one of the tomatoes weighing in at 2.5 lbs.

Spaghetti Sauce Batch #3

This year's crop of tomatoes is still producing and batch #3 of spaghetti sauce is done. Another 16.5 quarts of sauce for a total of 49 quarts.

Not So Wild Turkeys

Yesterday I was doing my evening wildlife drive at the cabin property when I had to stop because of turkeys blocking the road.

The turkeys didn't leave the road so I slowly drove forward, the turkeys responded by slowly walking in front of the truck for the next 100 yards until I turned off the road to check the food plots.

I went back to the same area today and the turkeys were about 100 yards from where I last saw them yesterday.

I was able to drive within 20 yards of the turkeys as they were having a meal of grasshoppers.

On this evening's wildlife drive the turkeys were still in the same area.

Shedding Summer Coat

As we approach the unofficial end of summer, Labor Day, some of the neighborhood deer are starting to shed their summer coats. This young fawn still has its spots, but is starting to shed in the face and neck.

Spaghetti Sauce Batch #2

Cooking down our second batch of spaghetti sauce on a propane burner in the garage.

Ready to put the spaghetti sauce in jars.

16 1/2 quarts of spaghetti sauce.

Turkeys and Food Plots

Its been a week and a half since I've planted some wildlife food plots and this marauding flock of turkeys has been pillaging the food plots. I chase the turkeys out of the food plots every day, but they don't go very far. I chased them into some thick brush yesterday and when I walked over to the brush they were 10 feet away watching me. It's hard to throw rocks into thick brush.

Their primary target has been the food plot with winter wheat, alfalfa and clover. They think of this food plot as a big winter wheat bird feeder. They destroy the alfalfa and clover seedlings while digging up the winter wheat seeds.

We've had a half inch of rain in the last couple of days This food plot of brassica, rapeseed, turnips and white clover is starting to "green up". Maybe the lack of winter wheat seed in this food plot will limit the amount of devastation by turkeys.

Time To Make Spaghetti Sauce

This year's crop of tomatoes are starting to ripen.

These early peppers will go into the spaghetti sauce.

Just a few of this year's abundant crop of large onions. (The baseball is for size reference)

This year's crop of garlic curing (drying) at the barn.

The first batch of spaghetti sauce, 16 quarts.