The downside to sitting here is you normally don't see deer early. So you have to be prepared to sit quite a while.

You are not far above a busy county road that is noisy and you can hear every thing going on at the dairy farm below. Today at 6 45 and at 7 15 the phone in the barn was ringing loudly. Kind a wrecks the wildness of the spot.

I wasn't dressed warm enough. Despite an over coat I was shivering by 8 am. At 8 30 I had just convinced my self to hang in there a little longer. When suddenly I spotted antlers, big antlers 50 yards below me. A buck was slowly working his way to bed just below me. There is so much foliage that I was having difficulty seeing just how big he was. He had tall impressive bronze tines. A big chunky body. When he lay down in a dense patch of brush I could only see part of his rack.

I was now stuck and I was not really getting any warmer. I glanced further down the ridge and spotted the horizontal line of a second deer's back. Another buck! This one was obviously a 2.5 year old with a nice 8 point rack.  Too young to shoot but a nice buck .He was making his way up towards where the other buck had laid down. After 45 minutes of slowly feeding he lay down just 15 yards from the other buck and about 40 yards below me. He was in full view. I watched as he groomed himself in the sun. Just like one of my cats!

I prepared for a long sit. I was determined not to spook them. But 30 minutes later I felt the breeze on the back of my neck.  Both bucks exploded out of their beds and flew down the hill !

I was both disappointed and relieved! As I climbed out of the tree  I heard a snort and a doe was staring my way. Guess I should have looked better before climbing down.

An early season close encounter of the big buck kind!!  Great start Jim!

Great Morning Jim. Hope you dress for it next time lol.

Wow, great morning, Think you could of had a steady draw if it came to it??

Is great to read your reports.  Makes me feel like I'm there.  Thanks

outing #4 Bwana stand.

The wind was right for hunting the upper food plots and since it was on the way I was able to check out how much water is still sitting in the retention pond currently under repair.
 
We are going to rent a pump tomorrow to pump out the water so we can lay down the darn liner. Talk about irony. But the deer are hammering it already. It smelled like an elk wallow when I walked up to it. It's going to be the best thing I have done for the farm in a while for sure.

On the top are two food plots running East and West in Front of the Bwana stand. The white area is forage beans again this year. I couldn't believe how much the deer have eaten in just the last week. But the whole field ( roughly an acre)
was at least a foot shorter tonight then it was a week ago. Simply amazing.

The spine of the hill runs between the two fields.  So you can't see over into the beans from my stand. The hill drops off too fast.

The 2nd field which actually shows on the sat photo is a huge failure this year. Operator error some how. Almost the entire field is just weeds.

The wind tonight was out of the SW. Shortly after getting settled in, I spotted a deer running towards me thru the prairie grass. I stood and got the bow in hand. Almost perfect except the deer below and in front of me at 7 yards is a buck fawn. Little tiny bumps protruded from his forehead. Looked like little Hersey's kisses. He obviously got a pass.

The next three deer were one doe followed by three spikes. They came into my side of the field on a trail about 25 yards East (behind me). They fed a little in the weed field. I guess a little of the right seed did grow and then they crossed the mowed trail on the hill crest and went in to the beans.

Then just at last light a whole parade of  7 does and fawns came into the weed field from the West. I thought for sure I was now going to have to sit until it was pitch dark. But when they got to beans something spooked them back towards me . Four of them ran directly under me and down the ridge behind me.

I have a couple of pictures from tonight but will have to post them in the Am . Forgot the camera down in the yurt.

last nights photo's from on stand

outing #5 Aspen over clover.

with lots on my plate today and a short window this am, I chose an easy spot to get to. Either it would happen here early or not at all .

A short walk up the dirt road takes you to this sweet little food plot on the Northern end of the farm.
 

The stand (red arrow) hangs in an Aspen tree over the logging road deer enter and leave from .
 
 
by 8:30 nothing had come into the field and the  neighbor's barking dog convinced me to head in. I hunt this spot sparingly because it is so close to the next door folks.

I may not get to hunt tonight. We are going to focus on getting the pond done before more rain moves in on Friday.

 

 

This is better than any magazine. Keep the stories coming

littlebigman, you have some amazing property!!! best of luck this year, awesome thread....

I'm in and watching as well. Great to check in when I get home. Nothing beats trad bow huntin'!

Good Luck with getting the liner down.

wow am I tired.

1st we trenched all the way around where the top of the pond liner would be. Then we drained the pond.


Then I spent the next five hours picking rock out of the trenches and picking rock out from where the liner would go.

then we put the liner down. Tucked the edges into the trenches and replaced the rock to hold the liners in place.




tomorrow, the dirt goes back on top, some packing and seeding the edges  and then back to bow hunting!

Great work bud!  Wished I was there to help.

Well, it's obvious how much work that was! Great effort, slowing the water is always good.
So many beings benefit from ponds, Nice job.

One of my favorite threads

my projects always seem to take twice the time I estimate to complete and cost twice as much as planned. Oh well, we will be done for sure tomorrow.




hunting will resume in the am!

Go get em Jim ..beautiful pond work that liner will work GREAT!