Harvest time!

Time for a garden update, and all I can say is WOW! Here is my garden project this year.
I have been picking for about three weeks now. It started with a few yellow squash, then a few zucchini, a few peppers and eggplant every few days. Now, I get bucket loads of the stuff every day. This has been a pretty good growing year. I took a quick trip to Ohio to set some stands and camera's, and do some other work, over the weekend, and missed picking for two days. When I got back, the first thing I did was hit the garden to see what I had to be picked. What is on this table represents most of what I found...some has already been given away and cooked for dinner.
We have been eating fresh vegetable dishes for a few weeks now, and I am fortunate that my wife and kids really enjoy the produce. For dinner tonight, it was yellow squash, zucchini, peppers, a few pieces of left-over chicken chunked up, and grilled hot Italian venison sausage, topped with fresh tomato slices and grated parmesian cheese. The vegetables (minus the tomatoes) were sauted in garlic and olive oil, the chicken, (already cooked) was added just before they were done. The sausage was grilled, then sliced into chunks. All the ingredients were placed into baking dishes, topped with sliced tomatoes, and parmesian cheese, then finished in the oven for about 15 minutes. There was plenty left, and it will be served again tomorrow with some garlic bread.

I am about to run into some serious problems though...the green beans have been only sparodic so far, but they are about to come on in full force. This is a picture of just one plant, and I have 4 rows of plants like this. I will be picking two, 5 gallon buckets of beans every three days by the end of the week.

I also have not hit the peak of the egg plant, or cucumbers yet, and the squash are just now at their peak, with plenty of growing left to do. Tomatoes will be heavy this year, but not until August, and I have a few hundred of them hanging on the 8 plants I planted. My peppers have not peaked yet, and the canteloupe and watermellon have only begun. I have probably 75+ canteloupe on the vines, twice that many watermelons.





I have a dozen nice pumpkins too. Overall, it's been a great growing season, and now the work of picking the produce before it rots on the vine begins.

The timing was perfect this morning. As I drove across the 34th street bridge out of Ocean City New Jersey, I punched the button for my favorite Country Music station. The radio was a little scratchy. The station was WXTU, out of Philadelphia, and reception is not good at the Jersey Shore, but it was just good enough to catch the familiar line from Alan Jackson, “where we you when the world stopped turning on that September day”… That line also happens to include the title of the song. That is one of my favorites, and even though it wasn’t the most clear playback, it was good enough. Just as I settled on that song, I looked to my left and saw a big American flag, planted in the salt marsh, waving in the morning sea breeze.




I’ve seen sights similar quite often. In fact, I passed another flag further up route 49 in Cumberland County, near Union Road, proudly standing on a small mound in the middle of Cumberland Pond, rhythmically waving to all those passing by. The radio station was playing an appropriate collection of songs, all patriotic, American themed selections. After that Alan Jackson tune came “An American Child”, and then Toby Kieth’s somewhat new hit, "Love me if you can", where expresses no apologies for his strong support of traditional “American” values. There were many more, all along the same line of thought. As we approach the celebration of our Independence, I expected as much from that radio station, as Country Music artists seem unabashed in their support for traditional American values, and express that regularly in their music.

I wonder though how many of us notice those flags, and think of what they stand for. To be honest, I cannot remember if there ever was a flag flying in a lake, pond, marsh or field before September 11, 2001, but immediately afterwards, I noticed them, everywhere. Many of them are still up, and some, well, I couldn’t tell you because I don’t notice them as much any longer either.

I can remember where I was that September day. I was speeding up the New Jersey Turnpike shortly after the plane hit the second tower. You can see the New York City skyline from the turnpike easily…but not on that day. On that day, all I saw as I raced north was a heavy black cloud where the famous and instantly recognizable array of buildings previous stood against the blue sky. It was erie. For miles, the turnpike was a parking lot. My pace was dramatically slowed as I tried to find room on the shoulder. All traffic was stopped, people were walking between cars, standing on the shoulder of the roadway, leaning against the concrete barrier, staring in disbelief, looking towards that all too familiar skyline that was now shrouded in smoke, ash and death. As I got closer, the sights and smells reminded me of something I’ve experienced before: there was no doubt this was a war zone. I’ve seen this before I thought, but this can’t be happening here…in MY country. But it was. This is something that only happens “over there” I thought. Not any longer.

And it CAN happen again. As we go about our daily lives, it’s easy to forget, it’s easy not to notice those flags flying in those places where flags never flew before. It’s easy to look past them, or even if we do see them, forget why they were planted there in the first place. It’s easy to sit around the picnic table, or the bar-b-que grill, stuffing ourselves with more food in one day than some of our soldiers get in a week, and bash our Government, and our President as we Monday Morning quarterback his every move. That is easy, maybe a little too easy. What is not easy is seeing another day like that September day. Yet if we forget about those flags, if we think that we already earned our freedom and don’t have to work at keeping it, there Will be another one of those days, and maybe more than one. We’ve all most certainly heard the saying "Freedom Isn’t Free", but how many of us actually think about it? Do we think that freedom “wasn’t” free, meaning that “hey, they already fought for our freedom and won, God bless those patriots from 1776”. Or do we realize that freedom isn’t free also means we have to keep fighting for it?

Fighting for freedom isn’t the sole duty of our soldiers either. It’s the duty of all citizens. Something as simple as voting for the politician that preserves our freedoms, instead of the candidate who thinks we need less freedoms because we can’t be trusted with them, is also a vital step in preserving our freedoms.

We have a lot to think about this July fourth…our Independence Day. Notice those flags. Pray for those soldiers and their families, pray for our leaders, and if you get a chance, find that Alan Jackson song, “Where were you when the world stopped turning” and listen to it, either the for the first time, or just once again. Nothing could be more appropriate for our Fourth of July celebration.

Have a great Independence Day holiday.

DV

Is it September yet?

Sunday, my family was gathered at my mothers house for her birthday. It was unbearably hot...98 in the shade, and I was standing over a mini grease fire under the grated surface of the gas grill. Seems the beef patties my brother bought were not the most lean hamburgers we have had( I know, I know, should have been ground venison, but I wasn't the one providing the food), and all the fat dripping from them ignited quite a blaze in the drip pan. Anyone for blackened burgers and hotdogs?

The heat of summer had me longing for cool autumn days and crisp, frosty mornings, and of course, bow season. For most of the afternoon, me and my two brothers sat around reliving old hunts through probably somewhat embelished hunting stories...well, at least theirs were embelished, mine were remembered exactly as they happened. We had a good time telling hunting stories, and it reminded me of why I have been keeping hunting journals for many years now. Not only do the journals provide great entertainment of re-living hunts of days gone by, but I have been using them for, and actually began keeping them in the late 1980's for the purpose of, logging good information on deer habits, and what patterns have worked in the past.

My log sheets contain boxes for detailed weather and wind conditions, moon phase, the equipment used, deer sighted, etc. at the top of the page. Below those boxes is a large narrative section in which I recount the details of the hunt. I often attach photo's and maps to plot the approach route of any deer sighted. I have used the information kept in those journals sucessfully a few times. In years with a heavy mast crop, I go back and check previous seasons to see what the deer were doing, and have found patterns to be pretty consistent. I have actualy been able to note which white oak trees deer preferred, and found the same to hold true years later during times of heavy acorn production, when acorns litter the ground and it can be a daunting task to narrow down the best place to be. Knowing what specific trees deer have preferred in the past has helped me greatly. Also, in times of sparce mast production, knowing what trees have produced has enabled me to find those secret little honey holes where there are acrons in years when they are scarce. That also works with crop rotations. Deer patterns change depending on whether we have corn or beans planted on the farms we hunt, and those close to us, and I have found it useful to study what deer have done in previous seasons with the same crop plantings.

Over the last few seasons, my journals have become very illustrated. I print them out on a good HP project paper, so they have taken on a magazine-like quality. I have also been doing the video taping thing since about 1991, and absolutely love taping hunts. Since upgrading to high quality, 3ccd mini DV cameras in 2001, I have over 100 hours of videos lying around, a small sampling of which you can find in the October, December, January and March months archives on this blog. I also have dozens of finished videos on three separate hard drives, and several years worth of home videos I've compiled. I go back and watch them myself from time to time in addition to looking over the journals. It's a great way to relive those hunts. I'll try to make time to upload some here, but time is something I don't have much of to spare, and it takes a long time to upload videos, so I don't know how many I'll get on-line.

Sitting around talking hunting with my brothers, re-reading those journals and watching some of our videos has me asking...Is it September yet???

It'll be here soon, and I'll be ready.

DV

I’m back, and so is the heat!

Well, I’m back to writing a few words after a little break. It may have been a break from writing, but in reality it was no break at all. Since going back to work on May 1st, I have been very busy. Long work hours were also coupled with the normal things that spring brings: kids ball games, yard work, family parties, yard work, and did I mention yard work. The heat has also returned as we are entering our first heat wave of the season in southern New Jersey. Temperatures are blazing up to 96 today, with high humidity, and will be about the same for the next four days. I finished my chores outside by lunch time today, and am now taking a break indoors with a cold drink, hacking away at my keyboard.

This year I’m trying to grow a garden again. In past years, I have had a large garden, but due to ever increasing time spent at work, I have not had time to maintain something of that size in more recent years. Gardening requires a good bit of time and effort. I don’t really want to call it work because to me, it’s a also a form of relaxation. I skipped doing the garden for a few years due to lack of time, but last year had a small plot planted that did very well. This year I expanded it some, but it’s not as big as what I had done in the past. Hopefully, I’ll make the time to keep up with it, and enjoy the fruits of my labor all summer long. Considering the skyrocketing food prices, I’ll certainly welcome the fresh, free produce right out my back door. This is a picture of my garden when it was bigger, I can't maintain something of that size now, it's just too time consuming.


Even so, this year I have planted much more than my family will be able to use, and probably more than I could give away before it goes bad. In my part of the State, small roadside produce stands can be found all along the roadways, and travelers and locals alike can find fresh fruits and vegetables at a variety of locations. They may have one more to choose from this summer, if I still have my green thumb.

My garden this year consists of several rows of green and yellow wax beans, about 3 dozen watermelon plants, sugar babies and crimson sweets, 18 cantaloupe plants, a dozen jersey tomatoes, grape tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, frying peppers, green bell peppers, summer and yellow squash, zucchini, acorn squash, cucumbers, egg plant, with pumpkins and ornamental gourds to be planted soon. I should have added strawberries as I just returned home from paying $5.00 for a quart. Next year, I’ll have strawberries for sure.

I really enjoy gardening, as well as hunting and fishing, and coming in right behind them is cooking what I grow and take from the woods and waters. My family eats a variety of meals made from the garden all summer long. Add in a grilled venison or tuna steak, or filet of flounder, striper or weakfish, and life really doesn’t get any better. On the menu today will be a venison loin slow cooked over charcoal with some mesquite wood chips soaked in water thrown on for that smokey flavor. I’m going to grill some squash, and make a tomato and corn salad to finish it off. Afterwards it’s a strawberry and banana smoothie for dessert and a run through the sprinkler for the kids while mom and dad sit in the shade.

Hope your weekend is a good one too.

DV

Bad times in this country...or not?

I couldn't sleep last night. I don't know why. I still can't sleep comfortably lying flat, due to my surgery, so I sleep in a recliner in the living room. I lay there last night listening to the rain hit the roof as a strong storm moved through, digesting the news from a program I had just turned off. Seems like the US is going down the crapper, according to MSNBC and the Democrats, which, I guess you could say are one in the same. According to them we are in a recession, or depression, or quagmire, or whatever else sounds bad this election year. I guess I should just be depressed too...that is until I took stock of my day today, which wasn't much unlike any other day.

Still out of work, I awoke early to usher the kids off to school and the wife to work. It was a gray, gloomy day. The rain had stopped, but the clouds hung low and the air heavy and damp. After a breakfast of a couple of hard-boiled eggs, black coffee and a banana, I went to physical therapy for my shoulder. I do that 3 times a week, for about 90 minutes a session. It was productive today, that brought a smile to my face.

Afterwards, I stopped to share a cup of coffee with my Mom, and see how she is holding up. We buried her mother, my grandmother, on Wednesday. Her death was not unexpected, she had been very sick for about two months, but previous to those 8 weeks, had lived a pretty vigorous and full 91 years, something that most of us would be happy to do. My Mom was doing well, which brought a smile to my face, so my brother and I decided to take a short walk out behind her house to check our turkey blind. Turkey season is rapidly approaching and I wanted to make sure the blind was ready. We never made it to the blind. Less than 100 yards from the house, a thunderous gobble shattered the gray gloom of the overcast day: no need to go any further. I watched as two long-beards followed a hen towards our blind. We high-fived and smiled, then walked back into the house, visited with Mom a little longer then parted ways. My brother went to split some firewood for the both of us and I went home for lunch.

As I pulled in my driveway, I noticed a male bald eagle circling overhead. That was a happy sight and would be the third time I have seen him here, twice before right in my backyard, probably looking for my wifes cat. I fixed a quick (yet satisfying in many ways) lunch of venison sausage and Zatarins dirty rice. It was leftovers from last nights dinner, but as I re-heated it, I fondly recalled the hunt that ended with that deer in the freezer, and you can find it by going back to the November archives in this blog to Last Minute Buck.

After lunch, I began to go through the pile of bills on the kitchen table. There is also a pay stub there that shows the same thing it did almost three years ago when I maxed out in my pay grade. State budget cuts have frozen contract negotiations, and things are still at a stalemate. April and May are bad months. My property taxes are due May 1st, and if you live in New Jersey, you know how painful that is. For those of you that don't, let's just say I could buy a new Saturn almost every year for the amount I pay in property taxes. Then there is the mortgage, homeowners insurance, car insurance and car payment all due by the end of the month. Oh yeah, our car insurance is about the highest in the nation too, and to insure mine and my wifes vehicles, costs about as much as my quarterly property tax payment, if you can believe that.

My propane bill is due...what was once $.79 a gallon for heat is now $3.49 and filling a 500 gallon tank brings a lump to my throat. Our electric rates have gone up between 12 to 14 percent a year for the last few years, and with all the extras...cable TV, internet service, cell phone bills, etc... the "pinch" is starting to leave a red mark. As I go over my ever enlarging bills, I realize that if I hadn't scrimped and saved for several years, and then only bought the house I could afford, I could be in trouble right now. I could have taken the easy route, or bought more than I could really afford, but right now I would be paying for biting off more than I could chew.

As I finished filling out my insurance papers I noticed a ray of sunlight breaking through the clouds. I picked up my cup of coffee and walked towards the window to catch a glimpse of blue sky and saw a huge long-beard strutting and spitting right in my back yard, as he followed a hen into the neighbors yard. That would be the first time I have ever seen wild turkeys in my yard. The sun shining off the colorful plumage of the gobbler brought a smile to my face. I raced for my video camera but by the time I returned, both birds had vanished as if they were only a mirage in the first place.

Inspired by the sight, I decided to get outside for some unconventional physical therapy. I grabbed my ultra-light fishing pole with a Pather Martin spinner tied to the line, and headed for the farm pond down the road. As I neared the ponds edge, a rabbit burst from the briar tangle on the bank, and two mallards exploded from the still surface of the pond and streaked across the sky. I smiled again.

My first cast was quicky met with a strike, and a small bass landed. That scene was repeated 4 more times and unbelievably, I caught a bass on each of my first five casts. To say I was smiling would be an understatement. I fished for about an hour, catching another five bass, about 12 very large bluegills and 3 crappies, two of which were truly huge. I had alot to smile about as that was one of the best fishing trips to that pond I've ever had.

I returned home and set about making dinner for the family. Venison sloppy joes on whole wheat rolls, with green and yellow wax beans from my garden last summer. The beans aren't the best after being frozen but still beat anything out of a can. In the process of thawing out the beans, I glanced out the kitchen window and spotted five deer making their way across the back of my property. I smiled again, as they playfully chased each other around the woodline, knowing they would not be harmed.

After dinner and the dishes were done, me, the wife and two kids made our way to the back yard to play a little pitch, hit and catch with the softball. This will be Samantha's first year playing softball so were are getting in a little extra practice for her. I was relegated to mainly watching, and cheering, as I can't throw or swing. She is doing well. Watching them play happily made me smile as well. I decided to make a quick run to the convenience store as they wrapped up "practice". The gnats were getting bad so it was going to be an early evening. At the store I picked up a cup of coffee and small container of Moose Tracks Ice Cream to share, while we watched a movie on the televison later in the evening.

After leaving the store, I drove along the country road back to my home, carefully sipping my hot coffee. My attention was diverted to the winter wheat field that is now bright green, as a brown form moved across the back of it. I could clearly see it was a deer. My eyes made their way back to the road in front of me just in time to see 3 deer skip across the pavement towards that green field. I tapped my brakes as a reflex, but the deer had made it passed the white line seconds before I reached them. As I drove slowly by, they stared at me from the shoulder of the road, then sprinted across the neon green growth towards the naked hardwoods. I had to stop for gas on the way home too, my truck gets bad mileage and visits to the gas station are very frequent. At $3.15 a gallon, they are not very pleasant either.

As I arrived home, the sky was fading from pink to black. I parked, got out of my truck and smiled as I watched two geese flying low across my back yard, honking, and heading for what's left of the ponds that once dotted the woods. Now, there are mostly houses there. The dam was taken down, draining the small lake that once held bass, pickerel and sunfish, because the residents of the new housing development feared their children would drown there. This is what it used to look like.



Now, it's barely a puddle. That didn't make me smile.

As I finish writing this wrap-up of my day, I realize a few things. First and foremost, I have alot to smile about, and secondly, I drink too much coffee.

Sure times are tight. Everything is getting more expensive, but I also realize that I have ALOT of things, and that is part of the reason there are so many expenses. I don't think it's fair to say times are really tough if we are complaining about car insurance, property taxes, cable TV, cell phone bills or internet costs going up, when we are fortunate to have those things in the first place. Can it really be said times are tough when we have soooo much?

As I look around and see and hear friends and associates complain about how bad the economy is, or how we are in a recession, or, as some talking heads now proclaim, a depression, I wonder if we really know what that means. The people I hear say these things have at least as much as I do, and in many cases they have more, yet they seem to dwell on how bad things are. Is it really that bad, or are they just spending too much time listening to the press in this hotly contested election year?

Maybe the whole recession/depression thing is a matter of perspective and those who see the doom and gloom, just haven't looked at the sunlight shining on the colorful plumage of the strutting gobbler, or are able to fondly recall how dinner made it to the table, or the seen the splendor of a bald eagle flying overhead, or smiled at the kids playing in the back yard, or the geese flying across the pink sky, or the deer frolicking along the field edge, or the...

Spring turkey primer.

Well, with spring turkey season already open in some places, and rapidly approaching here in New Jersey, I thought I'd throw up a turkey hunting video we made from a past season. I have alot of fun video taping hunts, and we seem to capture some pretty good turkey hunts. You may have to turn up your sound a little, the audio was not that good. Hope you enjoy it.

Making gains

Well, I know it's been a while since I updated this blog, but I was having some issues with rehabing my shoulder that have finally been solved.

It has been hard for me to sit at the keyboard and type for any length of time. That type of motion put pressure on my shoulder and caused pain after a short period of time. I was also experiencing very restricted motion and alot of pain in my tricep area that was limiting what I could do in physical therapy. However, last Friday that changed.

We had a family vacation planned to Disney World in Florida and I was told by my doctor it would be okay to go, but to be careful and be sure to wear my sling. So I went. While waiting in line to catch a bus at Epcot on Friday night, I had taken the sling off to straighten my arm and excercise my elbow. At the same time, two young, very rowdy kids were playing in the line and bumped into me with a pretty good bit of force, almost knocking me over. As I started to fall, I instinctively reached for the handrail with my right hand...the same side I had surgery on. My quick movement over-extended my arm past the point of pain and I felt several pops in my tricep and a severe amount of pain that lasted several minutes. I never did reach the hand rail, but avoided a fall.

For the next day, the back of my arm was swollen and sore but I had more freedom of motion than I previously had in that arm, and while it was sore, it actually felt "better" to be able to move it more. My fear was that the anchors the surgeon placed in my bones had popped out, but the pain was going away, not getting worse, and my movement was rapidly getting better.

Yesterday, at physical therapy I was doing very well, and have made great gains since that episode in the bus line at Epcot. The pain is mostly gone, I have much more strength and much improved range of motion. I explained what happened to my therapist and he guessed that I probably had scar tissue that had grafted the muscle to the bone, and was restricting my movement, and causing the pain which also inhibited my therapy. That sudden movement for the handrail caused the adhesions to break loose and now I'm on my way to a quicker rehabilitation. That is good news.

I still have a long way to go, but I'm making progress more quickly now. Turkey season will be coming up soon and while I still cannot shoot a bow, and may not be able to shoot a gun, I will be taking my niece and three brothers out with a video camera and attemtping to capture their hunts on tape. By the end of the season, I may even be able to pull the trigger on one of those gobblers myself.

Good Hunting.
DV

Getting the Bird Flu...

...or maybe the Bird Fever, as in Spring Gobbler Fever. It's getting close to turkey season now, and while I love bowhunting whitetails the most, spring turkey hunting is a close second. There is just something about sitting in the pre-dawn darkness on an early spring morning, listening to those thunderous gobbles, anticipating the fly-down, watching the outdoors come to life as the sun breaks the budding tree tops, it's hard to beat. The following story is one I wrote for NJ-HUNTER.com several years ago about my first longbeard. Joe has since totally redone his site, and while he has re-posted some, many of the old stories are no longer up there. Since it's the time of year when about all we can do is read about hunts passed, and dream of ones to come, here is an old blast from the past I enjoy re-reading myself, hope you enjoy it.

Another First.

Still a full hour before first light, I went over a mental checklist to ensure I had all of my gear. I took another sip of hot coffee as I waited for the defrosters to do the job on the thick crust of frost covering my windshield. The thermometer registered 30 degree’s, and as I walked outside at 4:30am, I discovered it was every bit that cold. It seemed like an exceptional deer hunting morning, except for the fact that it was May 7th, and the first day of Turkey Season for the permit I carried. Last week the temperatures had soared into the 90’s each day, with not a cloud in sight. Now, just two days after blistering heat, the mercury was flirting with the upper 20’s. The windshield soon cleared and I was off to meet my brother for what would be my first day of turkey hunting.

Turkey hunting in New Jersey is a relatively new adventure. The Division of Fish Game and Wildlife (now know as the Division of Fish and Wildlife) began trapping and relocating wild turkeys throughout the State in 1979. In 1981, New Jersey held it’s first turkey season. The season lasted for three weeks and 900 permits were made available for portions of Warren and Sussex counties. In 1985, the season was extended to five weeks, as the Division continued to relocate turkeys. In 1997, the first Statewide Turkey Season was held in New Jersey. Through continued restoration efforts, even the Southern counties of Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Atlantic and Cape May produced huntable populations of America’s favorite game bird. The area I would be hunting was one of the last to be opened, but held a good population of turkeys.

We had done some scouting, and gotten a scouting report from a friend, of a flock passing through the back of an old weed field each morning. Our informant had told us the birds were as reliable as the sunrise, moving east to west across the field. The field was only about 40 yards wide, and maybe 75 yards long. The north side of the field was bordered by a thick stand of immature pines. The remaining three sides were surrounded by oaks and laurel thickets. My brother Brian and I set up in the pines to the north. We placed a jake and hen decoy 25 yards from our position and about 25 yards from the east edge of the field. We were settled in by 5:40am and started to call softly. All we heard was silence, not one gobble. At 7:30am, someone drove back along the west edge of the field in a truck, and entered the woods on an old woods road, stopping not far from the edge of the field. We picked up the decoys and headed for our next location 200 yards away. Just a few yards short of our intended calling spot, we busted a gobbler out of the area. Now this was getting frustrating. It was now 8:30am, so we drove to another spot to see if we could get a gobbler to respond. Again, not a peep out of the birds.

Brian left for work at 9:00am, so I was on my own. I walked the 4-wheeler trail that snakes for a mile through the woods we began hunting at first light, yelping every 100 yards or so to see if I could get a response. Still no gobbles. At a location about two thirds of the way down the trail, I stopped, yelped a few times and waited for about 5 minutes. It was about 10:30am now, and I had heard one gobbling from this very spot at 10:30am yesterday while walking the path. As I turned to leave, I saw a tom looking at me from 20 yards away. He quickly fled, but since this area is new to turkey hunting, and no one else seems to be hunting these woods, I quietly set up against a tree, waited about five minutes, and began calling softly. With a few minutes, I had a nice sized gobbler staring at me from 15 yards away. I then received my first lesson in turkey hunting; switching from call to gun will not go unnoticed by these cagey birds, even when they haven’t been previously hunted. He was gone before I could wish for a good sight picture. I continued to call for the remainder of legal hunting hours, then called it quits at 12 noon without another encounter.

Tuesday began a little warmer, and very foggy. We hunted with a friend, “T” Wilson. T has been hunting turkeys about as long as anyone in New Jersey. He has some prime locations, and is a very seasoned caller. The drive was painstakingly slow and treacherous, along winding back roads and through the thick fog. We finally arrived at just after 5:00am and met T in his butcher shop. T does a thriving business creating venison specialties such as pepperoni, jerky, summer sausage and scrapple. This week he showcased his latest; Dutch Apple Venison Sausage. He explained, “it’s venison sausage with apples and cinnamon, taste’s like apple pie” . Apple pie sausage? "I’ll take your word for it", I replied. We set off to one of his favorite haunts, set up and T began calling softly as first light tried to penetrate the thick fog. After an hour with no replies, we decided to try another spot.

The fog was thick; pea soup thick. Visibility was down to less than 40 yards in some places. For the next hour and a half, water droplets formed on the vegetation from the fog, and fell from the trees like the rain we have been praying for, but the fog refused to lift, and the birds refused to gobble. We decided to take a break and grab some breakfast at 9:00am. After about 45 minutes of talking turkey and eating sausage, the sun won the battle and the fog was nearly gone. We decided to head back to T’s house and search for a gobbler in the small wood lot bordering his property. As we made our way down the drive leading to his shop, we noticed that his penned gobbler was going crazy. The bird was pacing back and forth at the rear of the pen, gobbling at the back field on every other step. His neighbor sat in his truck, reading a book and watching the empty field. As I closed the door, a gobble instantly echoed back from just inside the wood line, in the southeast corner of the field. After a quick chat with his neighbor, T returned to tell us that 3 long beards and three hens had just walked into the woods in the corner next to the woodpile. We quickly crept along the opposite side and set up less than 100 yards from where they slipped into the woods. Calling soon produced a gobble, and another, but they were heading further away. For the next hour, we continued to get an occasional gobble, each time further away than the last. And so ended the second day.

Wednesday morning arrived somewhat warmer than the previous days. With temperatures near the 50-degree mark, and daytime highs forecast in the high 70’s, it seemed like maybe spring really had arrived. First light found Brian and I setting up in the same location we had tried Monday morning. With the decoy’s set, we were settling into our positions when we heard a gobble 200 yards east of the field. He gobbled again. Brian started some soft clucks, which were immediately answered with another gobble. In the next few minutes, the tom covered the 200 yards to the field, gobbling 5 times on the way in. His last gobble was right near the southeast corner of the field. Silence prevailed for two minutes, then, suddenly, he came charging from the east edge of the field, straight at the decoy’s. I dumped him at 25 yards with one shot from my Remington 870, one second after first seeing him. In another instant, he would have knocked the decoy’s over and been out of the field. I’m admittedly new to turkey hunting, but never even heard on one charging in that fast. We both jumped up and the high-fives began. My first turkey, and man was that fun.

At the check-in station my bird weighed 19 pounds, sported a 10 inch beard and 1 1/8 spurs. A fantastic way to begin what looks like will become another addiction to fight. If it gets as bad as deer hunting, I just might have to quit working and feed my habit.

A glimpse of Spring

Last Saturday and Sunday we had some very mild weather for early February in this part of the Northeast. Temperatures poked into the 50's here in Southern New Jersey, so I took the opportunity to do a little winter trout fishing in one of our local, stocked ponds. I've fished here in the spring a few times and done okay, but a few friends told me the winter fishing is great because there is alomst no pressure. So Sunday morning, I loaded up my kayak, scraped the frost from my windshield and made my way to the pond. There was one fisherman on the bank, and a skim of ice making it's way several feet out from shore. It was a beautiful day, blue skies and warm sunshine, virtually no wind, and a mild 45 degrees by 11:00am, but no fish for me, or for the bank angler. The three eagles flying overhead didn't fare much better, and the only finned friend I saw all morning was a dying carp struggling on the surface.


One thing I did realize though is that I desperately need my reels fitted with new line. It seemed like I spent more time untangling knotted line than I did fishing, but hey, at least I discovered that early. I'll have plenty of time to get my gear ready for the start of the Spring fishing season, and it can't get here soon enough.

Ouch!!!

Got out of surgery late last night and things didn't go as well as I had hoped. When they went in, they found alot more damage than they had expected, the surgery took alot longer than first thought, and my rehab may be much longer too. My doctor, who is one of the best and most reccommended in our area, said in 17 years of doing shoulders, that was the worst one he has seen. I was not encouraged by that, but will hit the physical therapy hard and get back to 100 percent soon. I'm right handed, and it was my right shoulder, so I'm trying to do everything left handed, and it's proving quite challenging. This short post took me 15 minutes to type, but I was thinking ahead wrote a few up that I will post from time to time over the next few weeks. Right now, I have have to go learn to cook some venison steaks on the grill one-handed. I know that may seem extreme for lunch the day after major surgery, but hey, it's almost 70 degrees here today and we don't get many 70 degree days in February so I can't pass up a chance to fire up the grill.

Wrapping up Fall, getting through Winter and looking towards Spring

On January 31st, at least in my part of New Jersey, deer season ended. I've spent the better part of the last two weeks getting my tree stands down and checking them for needed repairs, and taking inventory of the rest of my equipment to see what made it through the season, and what didn't I usually have stuff scattered around the back porch, the garage and my shed, so it takes a little while to get everything together to put it away. I finished up today by taking all my bins with clothes and my bow and accessory boxes to the attic. My wife cheered. Is it just me, or do all outdoorsmen and women have three times the amount of gear we really need, and still don't have enough. Come to think of it, I better get my shopping list together, my Christmas gift cards from Cabela's can't be just sitting around collecting dust now can they.

I made a few trips to Ohio to pull stands and look at another piece of property me and my brothers were thinking of buying, but the price is just a little too steep for the four of us. I had a total of 31 stands out, so it took a while to get them all down, well, actually, I took down 31, I left a few out there that will have to wait to come down. I started pulling them a little early this year because on Tuesday, I will be having surgery on my right shoulder. I have a few tears that need repairing. I've known I needed the surgery for about four months, I just kept postponing it until after bow season. So, for me, that is wrapping up Fall...getting all of my equipment put away.

Overall, it was a pretty good season, although it was my worst season in New Jersey in many, many years, I only killed 2 deer here. Ohio came through big though and I brought three deer back to the Garden State from there, including one nice buck. The freezer is full, I have some nice photos and great memories from 2007, so I'm looking forward to 2008 and what's to come. First, I have to get through the surgey and rehabilitation. After that, it's all fun again.

Winter is usually the time for me to check my stands, replace and rusted or worn cables and bolts, and mostly, do some post season scouting. I believe post season scouting is one of the most important things a deer hunter can do to set him or herself in the best position for the upcoming deer season. Several years ago I wrote a series of articles for a website that functions as an on-line magazine. The series was directed at what deer hunters should be thinking of doing, and doing all through the year. I had quite a bit of postive feedback from those articles, and rather than repost them here, I'll just provide the links to them as we go along. http://www.njhunter.com/read_article.php?id=27&type=featured The website is NJHUNTER.com, and it's quite a good place to visit. The owner of the site is Joe Mills, and he is currently the President of the United Bowhunters of New Jersey, congrats to Joe for stepping up. He also has a regular job, so is one very busy man. Take a few minutes to look around his website, I think you'll like it.

If you read the articles, you will see I have the deer hunting fever pretty bad, and I know it seems like all I write about. I do enjoy other things, but am most afflicted with deer hunting, bowhunting in particular, so that is why my posts are focused mainly on deer hunting. Turkey and fishing season are coming, so you will see I do have other interests.
DV

Bringing in 2008 with a bang.

Well, let me start by saying I’m sorry I have neglected this blog for a while. It was a busy Christmas season and New Years too. The first week of the year I was swamped at work and didn’t get home until almost 10:30pm most evenings, hardly saw my kids at all. I also became a Council Member for the United Bowhunters of New Jersey, and had been a little busy learning some things about this organization and what we have on the table for 2008, and I think it's going to be a very good year. I really didn’t think anyone would notice a few weeks without a new post, but I guess that feeling comes with the territory on these blogs, as comments are left infrequently and we just don’t know if anyone is reading. It was nice to see someone was paying attention though.

There wasn’t much time for writing, and less for hunting, but I did manage to get out with my niece on Saturday, January 12th. We went to the place I have been having all the problems with trespassers this year. The weekend before, my friend who leases the property with me, called and wanted to do a little rabbit hunting and walk the place to see what the deer were doing. Neither of us had spent much time scouting the farm because we wanted to keep the intrusion pressure as low as possible. After walking around, we found our efforts were for nothing. For the first few hours of the morning we walked the northern end of the farm, kicked up a few rabbits, missed a few shots, but eventually I managed to bag one bunny. In our travels across the farm, we found several dead deer, 5 bucks and 2 does to be precise. The field was full of ruts where some trespassers had been driving back our roads and into the fields, I suppose to shoot deer. I found a few shotgun wads in the field, along with two carcasses. A few more dead deer were found in the woods, and two were found, gutted, with the head and antlers still attached, dumped right along the road not far from our gate. I have no idea why someone would do that, but it’s typical of the type of outlaws we have to deal with in this part of Salem County.

While kicking around at mid morning, we did see four deer run from the cedar thicket on the north end, across the field, and into a briar tangle in the center of the property…that was somewhat encouraging. Unfortunately, I had previously told my niece and brother to buy the permits for this particular deer management zone in New Jersey. I had no other place in that zone to hunt, so we had to go there, despite all the poaching the property has endured.

On Saturday, just before 3:00pm, we made our way to our stands. It was a very mild day for January, with temperatures in the low 50’s and sunny skies…a perfect day for a new hunter to get a pleasant taste of the great outdoors. Not long after we got settled…well, I’ll let the video tell the story. I'll just end with this…this was only the second hunt for my niece and she did very well. She had a great time, and I had a blast being there with her. Check out the video to see what the afternoon hunt held for us.