It is Here!

 The week(s) I wait all year for is finally here! It is the two (sometimes 3) weeks every year where there is chaos around here. What is happening around here you ask? What is causing me to get all excited?

The rut of course! The two weeks a year when all the does in the woods come into heat and are ready for breeding. Mother Nature is incredible, how it syncs up all the does in the area, so they come into heat at the same time giving them the best possible chance of having a successful birth in the spring. Some even say that an early rut means a mild winter meaning the does can have their fawns early and a late rut means a heavy snow and cold winter. Do you think Mother Nature knows what kind of winter we are going to have and changes things like this accordingly? Let's hope not as this year's rut was 2 weeks later than last year, meaning a cold winter!

This is also the time of the year when the reclusive big bucks go crazy and run around the woods looking for the "hot" does. Which is also the reason you see so many dead deer along the roads during this time of year, they run without really focusing on their surroundings. 

Does just do not let anyone breed them. They fight off the advances from less superior bucks and wait for the most dominant buck in the area. Once that is done, the buck moves on to other does. His job is done. He does not stick around for the birth, nor does he have any role in raising the fawn. Dominant bucks will breed up to dozens of does in the area. Does that are not bred during this period will come into heat approximately a month later and to a lesser degree a month later after that if they are not bred during this second rut. This is why you will sometimes see fawns so much smaller or younger than others the following year. 

What does all this mean? It means I get out in the woods as much as possible. This big guy has made it halfway through the rifle season, on 12 more days left and he is safe.

This guy (below) is new to our area, interesting and weird rack...

These next two pictures I took with my Lumix. Love the steam coming out of this buck's, mouth. The Magpie was being particularly photogenic, so I thought I would include it. 

The other morning, I was walking out to my blind. 6:00am, 20 minutes before first light but the full moon illuminated my way. Not quite enough, as I walked right into the fence, not the first time. As I bent over to crawl through the fence, I caught movement behind me out of the corner of my eye. It is amazing what goes through your mind in a millisecond. The first thought is "What was that!?!". We have mountain lions here about, but my next thought was maybe a dog got out and was following me. I was halfway through the fence and stumble backward as I jumped away from whatever was about to attack me. Landing on my backside I looked back and saw what scared the hell out of me. My shadow... The moon was so bright it created a shadow and I'll be damned if that thing did not follow me all the way to my hunting blind!

A couple of our friends have brought deer over to process in our heated processing room. So far, we have processed 4 deer and an elk.  Here is Barb and our friends Doug and Lisa processing a buck that Doug had got. I tilted the camera just right to leave out all the "gross" stuff. 

Our big news of the week is Jessica, and her family have arrived! Their first time to our house here in South Dakota. Grandson Dylan (15) sat out with me on one hunt where I filled my rifle tag, an experience both of us will remember for the rest of our lives. There is a photo, but I put it at the very bottom so those of you who do not want to see it can read the rest of this post and skip that picture. 

We are over the top with excitement to have our entire family here. We have been hiking, 4 wheeling, hunting, had our Thanksgiving together and just hung out enjoying each other's company. 

First up is our hike. One cannot come to this area for the first time and not visit Custer State Park for a hike. We chose The Poet's Table, a shortish hike that involves rock scrambling a ladder climb and incredible views. 

We started off at The Little Devil's Tower trail head. The entire gang came except Shane who had been experiencing some ankle issues. Even little Chloe came!

"Twinsies" cousins Lily and Kendall have been inseparable. Playing together all day, spending the nights giggling into the wee hours of the morning. 

Speaking of Twinsie, could Jess and Barb look any more alike? Then there is Barb and Forrest with a free drink token from a local brewery that they found in a geocache of sorts. 

The trail starts out fairly gradually, but before you know it, you are rock scrambling

Then comes the ladder climb, not a problem for anyone, even the doodle wanted to give it a try, but she needed help. 

There are several small caves in the area, there was one that was accessible that the kids wanted to explore. 

Up near the top, we stopped for a group picture. I tried to take a selfie off all of us, but it was an epic failure. 

Finally, we reached our destination, The Poets Table the 38th highest peak in the state. This is our second time here, the first be a year ago almost to the date. 

The history behind this hike is quite interesting as well. In the 1960's a man by the name of John Raeck arrived in the hills and took a job with the park. He fell in love with the park and stayed, nicknaming himself The Vagabond Poet. He even built himself a table and chair in a remote part of the park where he would write his poetry. This site is now known as The Poet's Table. 

Our early Thanksgiving on Sunday, with the family. Ryan and Alana came down with a finally cone-less Loki and of course, Sophie. I was a horrible picture taker, only getting this one picture.

Luckily, Ryan came to the rescue getting this priceless video of Barb when one of her favorite songs came on....

It is a fun song, she just cannot help herself! Wine, Beer, Whiskey by Little Big Town

I got a couple trail cam photos that I just had to include. You just never know what you are going to see. For two days this eagle stopped and landed on this log....never seen before and never seen since. 

Of course, no blog is complete without dog pictures and videos! Apparently, Loki and Sophie read the blog and saw Chloe and Zoey in that bear outfit a couple of weeks ago and wanted to get in on the action themselves!

After being on Loki's melonhead, I do not think it will fit a little dog again!

With so many dogs over, (6) there is bound to be trouble. Of course, Zoey was once again the instigator. Loki, Zoey, and Chloe were peacefully playing tug-of-war when all hell broke loose. 

And finally, the picture of the deer from when Dylan and I went hunting. Scroll down if you want to see it, otherwise, you can stop here....

P.S..... if there are any spelling errors, that is because I did not have my editor (Barb) proofread this. There is no way she would have let me get away with posting that video of her!

Fall has Returned to South Dakota!

After a snowy week last week, the temperatures have gone back up into the 40's and 50's, the snow is gone and fall has returned. 

This week was all about deer hunting. But fear not, there are no dead animals in this post. Just live ones! But I know most of you like wildlife pictures (and all but two of you like dog pictures and videos), so here we go!

Starting with the trail camera pictures. Most of them are of deer, but it did capture a turkey landing on the water tank and a red squirrel on a log as well which I thought were pretty cool! This first guy is a beauty, we actually have two bucks that look like this one. The 4th picture is very similar but is a different buck. 

Here is that turkey landing on the water tank. Each morning, I wake up at 4:45am and chill for an hour before going out to the woods at 5:45. The first thing I hear are the turkeys clucking to each other as they wake up. They roost in the pine trees on top of our tallest hill. They make a racket every morning and evening as they fly up and down from their roosts. 

A couple of years ago, we would hardly see a red squirrel. Now I think we have a dozen or so. All but one have behaved themselves and are living away from the house. Oh, they visit the birdfeeder daily, we do not mind that, but one has taken residence up in the shed and that is a big no no. 

The ugliest creature I have captured on the trail camera is this guy. ... Forrest was wandering the woods and thought it would be appropriate to photobomb the trail camera!

Then there are the pictures I look while out hunting. I take my Lumix out with me each time unless I am sitting out in the elements, and it is raining. The first pictures below are from a low secluded open area in the forest. It is also where that water tank is and where the turkeys land when they fly out of the trees. They congregate in this open area, fight and argue for a few minutes before breaking up into smaller groups to go about their day.

 

It is also an area that the deer like to come to eat the grass. One evening this guy came to visit, a nice buck but he is still young. In this first picture I think he saw me pick up my camera and is wondering what that guy is doing sitting 18' up in a tree!

These pictures are from a different stand. A ground blind on the other side of the hill where the turkeys roost. This first buck was quite entertaining. As you can see, he broke off one side of his antler. If you look very closely, you can see hair stick to the portion that is remaining. The testosterone levels in bucks skyrocket this time of year resulting in a lot of fights. He obviously broke of the other half in a fight, I hope whoever he was fighting with did not get hurt too bad! The next picture was taken in the same sequence when I turkey walked up to have a chat with him. The buck did not appreciate whatever the turkey had to say as the buck lowered its head and chased the turkey away.

The turkey ran towards me and then walked directly away resulting in these weird shots. 

They sure are weird, ugly, yet unique birds. Those hairs on top of her head are actually feathers. So weird. 

Then there is this guy, (44 second video) probably 1-1/2 years old. This time of year, they like to rub their orbital and forehead glands on branches leaving their scent throughout their range to warn other bucks they this is "Their" area and to attract and allure the girls. They then scrape the ground and pee down their legs over the tarsal glands on their hind legs leaving scent on the ground. Does that are "in season" and ready for breeding, in turn pee on it as well letting the bucks in the area know she ready.  After that he goes and chases off the doe he was showing off for. I am so glad that humans do not do this!

We did get out bowling this week! Our action shots did not turn out very good, so you only get this one shot of Lily and the final score of one of our games. Of course, I would not have posted it if I had not had won! 

Barb and Somer made bread a couple of days. I never realized how much work goes into making one loaf of bread, but it was so delicious!

Then on Sunday, Ryan and Alana came over for the Vikings game. It was chaos for the first 20 minutes or so while Loki (still with cone), Sophie and Zoey greeted each other. We started out the game inside the house with Sophie wearing a Jaguars jersey, much to Ryan and Alana's chagrin. 

After halftime, it warmed up enough that we could go outside to the gazebo. It got up into the mid 50's! We played dice games watching the Vikings win, going 7-2!

The dogs finally settled down and just relaxed. 

That is until Zoey got a little feisty and learned a new fun game called Pick on the Conehead!

Since she was being so mean to Loki, we decided to see how she felt with the Cone of Shame on. She was mortified and stood frozen in place refusing to move. It was pretty hilarious!

This next week looks like it is going to be filled with more fun as our daughter Jessica arrives with her family later this week. This is their first trip out to South Dakota and we cannot wait to show them around!