New Rifle

Hoping to get out and hunt coyotes and groundhogs some this year.

pop up squirrel

Poor little cardinal didn't know what happened.

Squirrel Condo

We have always enjoyed watching and feeding the urban wildlife. In addition to new squirrel feeders, we built a squirrel nest box. Construction is of 1" cedar with solid brass hardware. We hung it last week on the big Black Walnut in the fencerow behind the house. Yesterday it seems this little gal discovered the box. She gave it a good inspection and sat on top of it for a while. This morning she has been busy cutting twigs and carrying them back to the den. Maybe we'll get to see some babies in the spring!

Hunting in the Snow

In the past 5 seasons, we haven't had much opportunity to hunt in the snow. This year, we've had plenty of opportunities. Every night we have been getting anywhere from a dusting to an inch of fine powder. Saturday morning I sat in the woods awaiting sunrise and admiring how the flakes shined like glitter in the moonlight.

The Gumball Machine

We built a couple new feeders for the squirrels this fall. It does a great job of keeping the squirrels out of the bird seed and it is great fun to watch!

First Deer!

I finally brought home a deer!

We have been deer hunting together for 4 years now and this is my first. We have done plenty of reading and learning, but this just boiled down to spending time in the field. We finally have a spot that we like (public land of course) that isn't crammed with other hunters. We're starting to learn the lay of the land and getting better at deciding where to sit.

Yesterday we spent 12 hours in the cold and came up empty. I don't think it got above freezing the whole day. I only saw 1 deer the whole day. Unfortunately, he saw me first. It was noon and I was hungry. I had just reached into my pouch and pulled out a granola bar. As I sit rattling the plastic wrapper, trying to tear it open with frozen fingers, I heard a noise. I looked up to see a little 6 point about 20 feet in front of me. He immediately turned and bolted. Within 2 jumps, there were enough trees between us that I didn't chance a shot.

This morning was even colder at 19 degrees. This doe walked right in front of me about 15 minutes after opening light. I had to drag her over a mile back to the truck. Julie helped me along much of the way. After seeing how much work it is dragging a deer out of the woods, I promised Julie that I will drop everything to come help her out when the time comes.

The bonus weekend is in two weeks. I'll be setting Julie up in my spot, hoping that she gets her first as well.

The Next Generation

Our oldest daughter started shooting with us several years ago. She will shoot anything from handguns, to shotguns, to rifles, but her favorite by far is .22 benchrest shooting. The younger daughter has never been interested in shooting and wanted nothing to do with firearms. She has shown interest on a couple occasions, but when it came time to go to the range, she always backed out when it was time to go.

While over for dinner last week, she asked when I was going to take her shooting. I was a little surprised, but thrilled that she wanted to go. She had saturday morning off from work, so Julie and I cancelled our hunting trip and went to the range. We stopped by her place on saturday to pick her up and sure enough, she was ready to go!

She is an excellent learner. While in the car on the way to the range, I went through the 10 Commandments of Firearm Safety with her. At the range, I held the Colt Officer's ACP and showed her the function of the slide release, mag release, and safety. I explained how to align the sights. I helped her work on shooting stance. We learned that she is a left eye dominant shooter. She soaked up all of this information like a sponge. I could point to any part of the pistol and she could tell me what it was called and what it did. She even told Julie that she wanted to take the rifle out squirrel hunting!

We had a great time at the range and I was pleased to have passed our firearms heritage down to the next generation.