Thanksgiving

Well another Thanksgiving and deer season has come and gone. Got to go hunting with Rob which was great as we don't get to hunt together as much anymore. Didn't see any deer though, which was the theme for my shotgun season. We still have that young deer that has been hanging around all fall. The good thing is she has some friends 5 different bucks, which none we seen in the daytime, and big doe #63, who now resides in my freezer. It rained, sleeted, and blew all week. Only saw 4 deer all week, now have to wait till January for muzzleloader. Taunya and I did get to stop in to see Dennis and family, Mike, and my old friend Tony Vanhook. Spent a night a Scotty's freezing in the Man Cave, drinking, smoking cigars

 and telling lies. Got some good Thanksgiving leftovers too. Time in ease into another Christmas and New Years. Lets see what that brings

Fall projects

As everyone who knows me knows fall is my time of the year. Sunday concluded Ohio's 2 day antlerless muzzleloader season. It was far my best, Why, not because I got a deer, I didn't. it was because I had a young bobcat right at my feet. As I was watching some turkeys 100 yds off in the distance a motion out of the corner of my eye and here was this young bobcat 20 feet away staring me down. We made eye contact and he bounded straight at me, then stopped a mere 5 feet away. He must have decided I was much to fat to try to eat in one sitting, so he melted off into the woods to look for different meal. That was the coolest thing I've ever had happen to me in the 40 plus years I've  been wandering around in the woods. I've been working in some more coin rings, except this time I'm rolling them over so to stamping in on the outside. Getting a certain size has proved difficult, and now have way more rings than fingers. It's therapeutic in an obsessive compulsive way. Also thought you know what else I need. Tree house/deer stand. 2 pieces of unistrut,some scrap wood and some screws, and there you go. A commanding view of the field and river is outstanding, plus a great place to ambush a big buck. I promised Taunya that her little fawn was off limits. Besides her mother was killed by a car in front of the house a couple months ago.

Backyard fawn

One of the cool things about Otway is you'll never quite sure what you'll see when you go outside. There was a eagle perched on a limb overlooking the yard / river, but by the time I got back with camera he was gone. A little while later this little fawn is just nibbling away at the clover behind the garden. Saturday while making venison snack sticks in the smoker she was back in the yard again, if she only knew what I was eating. The guy up the road how I got the wooden eagle and the welcome bear, had a totem pole, small, but I had just the right spot

Labor Day

What a busy weekend. First Scotty came over for few day to visit and try some Vinton county hog hunting. Jason had hogs hitting the feeder regular, but we weren't rewarded with any pigs. Hoarding mosquitoes were vicious, and drove us away before the hogs came. Plus sitting for hours in the pitch black staring at a red led floodlight plays on your eyes and patience. But when ever Scotty and I get together we  always to seem to have fun. The shenanigans we get into remind me of Dad and Ivan. Saturday was the ribbon cutting ceremony for Otway covered bridge, we had a good turn out, close to all 86 of us. Scotty left on Sunday and Rob and Lori came in an hour later with his new Kawasaki 800 UTV, and off to Wayne NF for some riding. Rain and overgrow trail made the going tough and wet. With Taunya and I braking the way we got soaked. Monday wasn't much better, Taunya wisely sat out, but at least the sun finally came out and we returned dry. Don't get many visitors down our way, but two in one weekend was pretty awesome.

Otway covered bridge

The covered bridge restoration is complete. 6 months and some changes and open for traffic. The engineer said there wouldn't be any windows and that's what caused some rot in the first place. It looks good, but it would look better with windows. Plus the old bridge had a star at each end which gave it some class, which the new one doesn't. I'm glad it's been saved and restored, it just doesn't have the class the old bridge did, now its new looking and clinical. I guess in a few years when the cedar weathers it will look better, we'll see. At least Otway has a tourist action now. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is this Saturday, hoping for big turn out,

Raptor on the brain

Ever since Dennis and I's Colorado trip I keep seeing raptors in everything. We stopped by this rock shop called the Gold Mine in Canon City, as I was buying some rocks I spied this nice piece of red pipestone, thought I could make a couple eagle head peace pipes, which I did. Then after repairing the chainsaw I needed something to try it on. Well I still have from cedar from a tree I cut down at the farm over 20 yrs ago, which is hard to believe after moving a few time and dragging that damned wood around. Anyway I look at it and what did I see another eagle. Now it's on the front of the house. Maybe its because we had two close encounters with red tail hawks in Colorado, that yielded some good pictures. Or like the first one that just stared at us as if it was trying to say something. I guess I should just go with. Like Dad used to " Yeah, keep that we might need for something" I reckon so.

Where the deer and antelope roam

Dennis and I just got back from a week trip to Colorado. And what a trip, 200 miles on the Ranger cruising the Rocky Mountains. First 2 days camping at 10,000' ft in Crested Butte, typical mountain habitat, pine and aspen, no humidity and beautiful weather. Riding the logging roads and trails were nothing short of wonderful. The ATV trails proved to be challenging, but nothing we couldn't handle. Steering on my 150 started getting stiff, so we thought we had a power steering pump going out, but dry u-joints  on the steering column seemed to be the problem, but a little WD-40 and we were off to Buena Vista. At 8500' ft the terrain was much different, high chaparral as Dennis put it. It was like in a cowboy movie, all I could thing of was the cool ambush spot along the trail when the stage coach used to travel the road. Dustier and dryer too. Antelope with great horns and a close encounter with a red tail hawk was the best wildlife along with a few deer. No elk or eagles, damn it. But a  great trip nonetheless, although a GPS glitch and not following my brothers' sage advise lead us to great, great, flat, barren, almost uninhabited Great Plains of eastern Colorado, added another 1 1/2 of driving that we ready didn't need. Coupled with no gas stations for 150 miles we ran out of gas 7 miles short of the interstate. 5 gallons of gas in the back of the Ranger was good, but lack of  proper funnel was another story. Anyway we made it home without incident. It was soon good to get spend some unimpeded time with my brother. Like laughing as a Stellar's' jay that would land on his chair and try eat right out of his hand. Reminiscing about our parents, our brothers, our friends, that's what I'll cherish the most. In life it really is the small things.