Tuesday afternoon, even though it was 86 degrees and 25 MPH winds, I went and sat in a tree stand near a corn feeder, thinking that I would probably see some deer, maybe even a nice one.A nice one wasn’t to be found, but I did spy, and took a picture, of a young buck.                                                                                                                                                               This was the first one that had stood still for me since August 4, in my yard, near my compost pile, and, thinking back, since this stand is the nearest to our house, it could have been the same one.

Several doe came to the feeder and this young one couldn’t understand why the feeder had stopped throwing corn

We had a cool front come in early Thursday morning with .1 of rain and, to change my habits, I went out at 8:30 AM and stayed until 11:00. No luck and no camera ‘shots’. The big ones still aren’t moving, the does are bunched up and the rut around here hasn’t kicked off.
Who knows, maybe today?

Day 1-Saturday
Opening morning of deer season dawned bright and clear, with the temperature hovering around 60. No one told the deer that they should be up at sunrise and the usual fusillade of shots didn’t happen, just a few scattered bangs.

Ice tea, sweet or un-sweet, must be the State Drink of Texas. On this trip, ice tea saved the day!
Layla, decided she would start Deer hunting and on a warm, sunny afternoon in early November we were alone at our lease in McCulloch County, and had selected our ‘hides’ for the afternoon.. She had chosen a small ground blind along a draw on the north side of the property and I was snuggled, near a feeder, into a clump of buck brush on the edge of one of our small, Texas, ‘mountains’.

A group of Turkeys was visiting the feeder that I was protecting and I was trying to pick one out, when, boom, from Layla’s blind! Quickly collecting my wits and gear, I followed “the sounds of the guns” until I saw her. A big smile on her face, standing over a Deer and as I hurried closer, I saw the horns.

She had just shot her first buck! She was excited, happy, laughing, and as she ran up to me, said, “I saw his horns, put the scope on his heart, shot and he fell in his tracks!”  Picking her up and hugging her, I offered my congratulations and told her we’d get it mounted!

  Layla’s first Deer
We gutted the buck and loaded him into the back of our Jeep Scrambler. Before we headed to the processor in Richland Springs, we stopped by the camp house and fixed us celebratory glasses of ice tea and headed out.

Driving east on U.S. Highway 190, we noticed a smoky smell and looking around, couldn’t see any signs of a range fire, so we proceeded on. A half, mile farther, looking into the rear view mirror, I saw the source of the smell. The Jeep was on fire and trailing smoke!

Quickly pulling on to the shoulder, we both hopped out and I crouched down to inspect the source of the fire. The smoke was pouring out just above a skid plate that was hung below the transmission and closer inspection showed a mass of weeds and debris had collected in the space between the two pieces of metal. The only thing we had to put the fire out was our ice tea and gathering both glasses and crawling under the Jeep I slung/threw the contents of both on to the fire. Luckily, it worked!

Not having my gloves on, they were in the Jeep, I found a stick and started poking the weeds and debris out. My stick broke so I reached into the space and, ouch! I had grabbed a sand burr that had been picked up during our off roading. Getting my gloves, clearing out the space was no problem and we headed on, “tealess” to get the buck processed.

Thinking through as to how the fire got started, driving through the weeds and brush, we had, unknowingly, packed this space tight and the heat, magnified by the tight space, had ignited, hence, our fire.
Thank goodness we had our tea!

Monday morning, on my way to town, on my ranch, not 400 yards from our house, there stood a beautiful 10, point buck, an easy B&C 160 pointer. The morning was cool, his neck wasn’t swollen and he was just standing watching me drive by. Of course, by the time I got my camera up, he had trotted into the thick stuff. The last time I saw him was about a month ago in our hay field. Too bad for him if I seem him this Saturday!

The last 2 mornings, I’ve been sitting in deer stands trying to determine deer movement. Yesterday, when I climbed up into the tree stand, a spike was feeding in the food plot, but my creaking up the ladder spooked him off and I didn’t get a ‘shot’. But, here came a squirrel passing through and I got a good ‘shot’ of him.
The condition of the food plot is awful. The oats are barely discernable and after getting a perfect rain two days after planting, we’ve gone 3 weeks without a drop. The oats are up but really need moisture, and to compound the problem, the deer are clipping the young shoots off.
This morning I was sitting a corn feeder and got a ‘shot’ of 2 deer picking up the kernels.
I’ll be back out Wednesday afternoon and maybe, ‘Big Boy’ will stop by?