Well it has been a whirlwind autumn here. We gathered in the garden, the pumpkins and squash and the last of the peppers hurricane Rita brought a revival to the ailing peppers and the summer squash, so the garden was a pretty good success story this year. We dug some fresh horseradish and ground that, I found a better way to grind it this year, First put it thru the food processor, then put it in the blender with a little bit of vinegar- fewer tears and finer consistency. We sold all of the remaining pups at the hunting and Fishing days celebration at the DEC regional office celebration in September, and we got several requests to be notified when the next litter is being expected. Hope went thru a heat cycle and appears to be in fine shape. Lately we have been having trouble keeping the dogs from wandering, twice Jack and Pica have hitched a ride with a stranger. I guess we just have to be more vigilant and participate more in the dogs’ excercise programs. The horses’ pasture has been curtailed for the deer season and this also allows the ground to shape up during the off season, and I don’t have to chase horses daily because the deer tore down the fence. We even went to a couple of big red football games. Meghan is in the Cornell marching band, and it was fun to go back to Ithaca for the afternoon.

Deer season in western NY started out chilly and white, for the first day. There didn’t seem to be as many participants this year in spite of the fact that the season opened on Saturday morning to encourage those who wouldn’t have been able to have make the season opener if it occurred on Monday. The ground was white and the day remained cool all day long. I saw a few deer , but nothing that made my trigger finger itch. Sunday morning started cool, but clear, but still lacked the normal activity of both deer and hunters. The hill where I hunt was especially quiet. At around 9:00 am I made my way to a stand that was unoccupied, I had thoughts that this might be a good place to use later in the season, so I hopped up in the stand to check for squeaks lose bolts etc. There was a bolt missing that held the seat in the upright position, I made a mental note to bring a bolt with me the next time I come to the woods, but the shooting lanes were all clear, and the stand seemed to be secure. A squirrel that was cruising around burying his nuts and checking things out, came over to the tree and started up the trunk, I smiled as I looked down upon him, and thought about how small the platform would be if he was to get much closer, however he turned around and headed back down the tree and off thru the woods. I heard him scurry back under the tree and looked down to see him and there stood a buck with a forked rack, in fact it was a rather sizable buck with a reasonable rack. I debated for a moment whether to use my scoped contender or to use my short barreled revolver. I pulled the contender from the warmth of the holster under my jacket, however when I looked through the scope all that I could see was a big orange ball- the morning light was still so flat that it was impossible to see thru scope without picking up its glare. The buck was walking away from me, but directly into the morning sun. As he approached the thicker undergrowth I knew that I had to somehow alter his progress, I had a brand new grunt call –on the seat of the truck-however I have sat thru enough seminars that I had an idea of the type of noise that I wanted to produce, and there wasn’t much time before the buck would be obscured by the vegetation, so I grunted-I almost broke out laughing at the noise that I made, but it worked, the buck paused and looked my way. I still had a lot of glare and it was hard to make out the buck’s shoulder clearly, so I grunted again. This time the buck took two steps in my direction. He had moved enough so there was no longer the glare in my scope, I pulled the hammer back and fired. At the shot the buck dropped. He collapsed and lay on the ground with his head up. I watched him for a moment, the shot was a spine shot, but a bit far back. In a moment, the buck tried to mount his front feet, I reloaded and shot him again, this time through the neck. That was the end. I climbed out of my stand and walked over to admire him. I paced the distance to be forty five yards. I marked the spot as a way point on my gps. I filled out my tag and field dressed the buck, then decided to walk back to my truck and bring it closer to the deer rather than drag the deer all of the way to the truck. This also gave me a chance to shed my heavy woolen clothes for the drag. I purchased a package of fluorescing trail markers this year, I used these to establish a trail through the cedar swamp and they worked very well. They allowed me to establish a quick and easy route through the swamp that could be followed while dragging out the deer, and after getting thru the swamp, I retraced my steps and collected the trail markers.
I weighed the buck when I got him home, 135 lbs. The weather warmed some, but cooled down enough at night that could let the deer hang for a couple of days until I got time to butcher him and put the meat in the freezer. I still have a muzzle loader tag to fill, as well as a couple of doe tags, so the season is not over yet. We have some new projects started in the cabinet shop, we’ll work more diligently on them when the cold weather keeps me from other projects. And speaking of cold weather, we have been retrained at Swain and we are ready for another season of giving Snowboard lessons . This morning there was eight inches of fluffy new snow on the ground. There will be choices to be made this weekend!