The Gun Blogs

Two velvet bucks were in the pasture across from the lake so I pulled over and watched them with binocs for a bit. The biggest one was a deer that's been on cam a lot. I don't have a name for him but I'm sure he's in last years file. He's out past his G-1s with thick bases. The other was out about three inches and very thin. Side by side you could see that the bigger buck was about 1/3 larger in body mass. They still looked skinny in red summer coats. They casually jumped two fences and ambled into the woods close to one of the camera sites.

Maybe a 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 old deer. I'm not sure I am shooting any at the lake this year.

The corner of the pasture had ten Black Vultures, all looking like gangly first years, picking at the remains of the coon carcass. I drove through slowly and they watched from about 15 yards away, but nobody flew.

The coon trap was empty and silent and strangely: still set. Lots of corn on the ground and corn and catfood in the trap. Are coons THIS smart that they would abandon a site after one catch? I figured at least an idiot squirrel.

Nothing on the camera. It's the useless Moultrie 100.

I stirred the coals of the burn pile and got it flaming again. I'm still carting in logs from all over the lot and rolling pine sections cut by the illegal alien tree crews that TXU hired to clear the powerline right-of-ways in the spring. They cut several trees for me while they were in the area. Believe me, they weren't working THAT hard. Several times I drove in to find them sitting around on my yard admiring the view. I always walked down to try out my Spanish.

The redhead is covered with chigger bites she got out here. I'm untouched. She must have brushed a egg-case worth somewhere and they all spread out and dug in. She had a hard time sleeping last night with the itching. Pretty miserable. Good reason to burn the lot off once a year.

I'm hitting all the poison ivy with Round-up. Very satisfying. Seems to be handling it.

You really get to know a yard when you are in charge of keeping it. I'm trying to keep this one in line with just a couple of hours every two days. My step father kept it to golf-course standards. I'll be lucky to maintain a clearing in the forest. It RAINS twigs. When it gets bored with that it drops a treetop. In between it lays on a coat of leaves. I'm finding big chunks of concrete, barrell hoops, bits of dead appliances. They are all going to a dumpster in town.

Two shiney black pine beetles came out of the end of a rotten log I laid across the fire. I'm sure they had never been out in the light and open before. I flicked them out with a rake tine and tossed them into the duff away from the heat. Not everyone gets second chances, but they did.