Sadie Says - Mom's Painting

Hi HO all!  If you don't know who I am yet , let me introduce myself! My name is  Sadie Sioux, or at least that is what my Mom calls me.

Mom thinks I need to reprise my once in awhile posts to keep everyone on top of  things happenin' here.

Well, I am here to give a report on Mom's slow as " Molasses in January" painting progress she started ,let's see now... When was it? wink wink

Sorry for the picture quality...it is kind of hard balancing, focusing, and snapping with a busy hind leg.

Uh, I guess I'd better tell you what Mom has added since letting you know what she has done since beginning way back when. wink wink

Okay, from my point of view she has added some trees, put a low sun coming up through the trees, and since she isn't a natural born artist she trying to figure out the colors - shading to make it all work. Let's just say she won't be upset when it hangs high to change the perspective.She is one of these people who learns by doing , and she does that on a regular basis.

My nose is beginning to ache from pounding the keyboard so I'll stop for now.

Be talkin' to you again soon !

Hunting Sheds

One activity that seems to be growing more popular the longer I read the hunting blogs-the search for the prominent adornments of the male Whitetail Deer.

I have taken  some time recently to search for the tine cast-offs of the bucks passing through. They are feeling the pain - taking it out on trees from less than an inch,ripping them totally off, to 4 + inches in diameter. The only thing now is to find those big antlers causing so many headaches.

Since starting my quest for the year I have found four singles; classifying them from good to best.

Sadie,Miss Kitty and me, were out February 2, and walked over a spike shed twice before realizing it was there underfoot. Sadie, was the one to draw my attention towards the ground - her action cued me to tell her to "drop it"! There wasn't anytime to get a picture of it, "as it lies".

After finding the spike , I led the animals back to the house, and went to the other side of the property on my own,  rambling about where a bunch of small trees were being coaxed into a sure death with a complete loss of bark.

February 2, 2012 4:57 p.m.

Spending another hour and a half wandering the trails I looked to my left...

AH YES! There on the ground by a shedding rub was a small four pointer at the end of the deer trail. I was headed out of the timber, resigned that I  wasn't going to find anything over here, when my surprise came.

The shed is laying about halfway between the two trees closest to the front of the picture. Make a triangle and you will find it at the top.

Can you see it?

February 9, 2012

Taking Sadie for a long walk, about a week from our last antler search ,I decided to follow the perimeter fence in a pasture.

Wandering for no more than 15 minutes that afternoon before this find came into view across the field.

Last year I found a small matched pair at the opposite end of this little pasture/crop field corridor.

So far the tally for this year is CDGardens - 3, Sadie - 1.

The active searches should take me into mid March, and passively looking will never end as things become uncovered over time.

Starting left to right -  1.)Third finding - pictured above on 2-9-12. 2.) Spike and small 4 pointer found 2-2-12. 3.) Far right antler was found late afternoon last Sunday, on a spur of the moment jaunt to exercise Sadie's nose and legs. I was glad she didn't see it first, it had already been gnawed by animals...small teeth marks scored the antler with the G2 tip becoming extremely thin and the G4 tip gone.

Are there any other methods to collect sheds other than the time consuming wandering some of  us choose to do?

A couple of ideas have come to mind in order to find some matched pairs of racks around here.


Wire Cages

The first option I might consider for upping my count are tall wire cages that I had initially placed in the middle of my small sampler deer food plots.

After getting the plots sprouted, the cages gave me a good showing of plant vigor. Everything outside the cage was eaten off.

Come winter 2009, on my chicory plus plot, before shed time,my cage got ripped out of the ground, and flattened by a mad buck. He had gotten caught too early...Sadly, no tines left behind.


Handy Gadget

Another idea that came to my attention through a recently received email from  Wildlife Obsession was this Rack Trap.

It looks like a great way to snag an antler or two! Less effort with a big benefit.

Here is what they say about this Bio-Logic product:

Collecting Shed antlers is one of the best ways to identify how many and which bucks on your property survived hunting season. When used correctly the rack trap is a easy way to attract deer and collect their antlers. This easy to install device includes heavy duty camo ratchet straps and can be attached to most trees.

Unlike other shed traps that entangle the deer's antlers causing potential harm,The Rack Trap Antler Trap is designed to simply and effectively apply pressure to the antlers, encouraging the natural shedding process as the deer is feeding.

Whether you decide to walk the deer grounds as I do, set up an antler trap of one kind, or another... Good Luck in your search !

Visit to Habitat for Humanity ReStore Part 2

A week ago I got the chance to make my first visit to the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. It had a plethora of new, and used items available that has great potential be incorporated into someone's building plans. 

This aisle is one we spent a good deal of time sorting through the displays.

Des Moines has a couple of areas of large turn of the century homes - once owned by the founding businessmen...I can imagine these cast iron tubs being apart of the modern fixtures of that era, or a little beyond.

I was trying to imagine how one of them might work in our situation. A consideration also made was who would be lifting that tub in, and out, of our pick-up both here and at home. Well, the cast iron tubs remained on the showroom floor for someone else to arrange to take home.

My childhood home had a claw footed cast iron tub which comes to mind - my paternal grandmother's parent's built our two story farmhouse. I don't know much of their history, they passed away before I met them.

Hubby and I were checking out a bunch of things that day. Floor coverings of course are among many things yet to procure off the check-list. We found some linoleum, but decided we would pass it by that day. Waiting to get things in the order they are needed.

This was one of the used kitchen sets available upon our visit.  It created an  interest in me, not being sure of our total area, and almost positive we probably wouldn't be able to find additional matching cabinets, I left it. However,I bet it has found a home since our visit;a great value for someone at the price of $700.

They do carry new cabinets you can order by by style, color and your own configuration. Another option for those trying to find just the right look to fit their creative mental conceptions.

Hubby stopped to visit the ReStore a few days before our joint adventure. He sent me a cell phone picture of this awesome 8x10 area rug. I was glad to see it up close, and one day I believe at least one of similar design will be apart of the decor here at Timber Life.

The theme for our abode will need to encompass both the love of the outdoors and aeronautics; should prove an interesting feat to accomplish.

Eventually we came to some decisions, our initial excursion completed,and plans for return as the need arises.

Happy with our choices, we left with smiles on our faces....A great way to to start the day!

Nature's Happy Valentines Wishes

Yes, I would say this is certainly most often what comes to mind when one thinks of Valentines. A guy or gal with a vision of his/her love, one for the other in their eyes ...


Definitely one of Mother Nature's ways of bringing a quickening to the heart rate of the human animal.



Moving onto another aspect Mother Nature chooses for making our world complete is the wild animals that
bless our presence with color and song..

I was snapping pictures through my kitchen window of this Cardinal couple hanging out eating Burning Bush seeds last year at Valentines.

It didn't take long for me to envision something more...Using Picnik.com I was able to find some photo editing additions that enabled me to put together a nature inspired greeting.

Learning a few things about differences of  web based and print pictures - sometimes the best results for presentation is to keep it online. This one is included in that presentation type. I discovered it to be so recently.

My second nature inspired Valentine came to me January 10th, this year, when I was out snapping some images as the moon rose through the timber.

However, it wasn't until later, extremely early one morning, as I was going through my pictures and noticed that I had a Heart.  I needed to flip it over, but sure enough my hand had jiggled at the right moment to give me two distinct sides.

I want to wish all the lovers of outdoor pursuits,and those that are not so inclined as well, a Happy Valentines from Timber Life!

Here's hoping you will find a way to share what you find enjoyable with the ones you hold near and deer...:)

Local Habitat for Humanity ReStore

We are doing some housebuilding here at Timber Life, if you have been reading my posts a while you may have heard me speak of it.

The weather has turned off absolutely frigid the last couple of days and the nails are bending as we try to get the room walls put together. We don't have the ability to warm up our space.  We are dependent on the ambient temperature  for pliability of wood, as well as personal warmth...

With the inability to build yesterday, we decided it was time go find some fixtures to move forward when we warm up a little in the next week.

Our first stop for the day began at our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I wanted to get there early since the inventory changes from day to day. We arrived five minutes before the store doors opened for the scheduled Saturday: 9:00 - 6:00. Hubby and I were the third vehicle in the lot wanting to peruse the stock without having a lot of competition, but others had the same thought. The store was soon bustling with deal seekers.

We pulled into the parking lot about five minutes before the store opened

I want to applaud the location upgrade recently experienced by the ReStore. They had their beginning in a smaller building with a lack of parking; as they became better known they outgrew the space.

My visits to my Mom in Des Moines allowed me the chance to watch the reclamation of a building/business on Euclid Ave. and I-235, left vacant by one of the first lumber companies I became aware of on the eastside after calling the area home.

The Des Moines Home and Garden Show is in town this weekend too. A booth there is surely going to help  the public to become more aware of the alternative opportunities in recycling leftover, or unwanted building supplies. The inventory contains both new, and used.

My next post will give a little insight to what I saw...

A Retroactive Look of February Weather at Timber Life

Going through my blogposts I came across one, three years and a few days ago. Definitely a big difference in the amount of snow that year compared to this one at Timber Life. We were finally beginning to see some open ground with the growing strength of the afternoon sun.

This year we haven't seen any great accumulation of  snow. Sometimes it has taken a few hours,a couple of days to a week to disappear, but our tractor which usually has been called to duty already to get that stuff out of the way hasn't been used for that cause. At least not yet...

                                                     

                                                                 February 7th, 2012


Posted on February 5th, 2009





The deer have been populating open areas to feed. They are hungry and continue to search for food at all hours of the day now.

Timber floors still being covered with layers of snow, takes the deer out where the sun has opened ground in the thawing spells of last weekend.

These deer are only a sampling of what I saw and what has been seen.

Notice all the young ones...that number continues to grow because of the capability of 6 month old does to conceive and become mothers. I continue to see a very small deer,which I assume was born at the end of last summer, running with the herd.



Too much attention sent them off to look just over the fence for somewhere else to enjoy a nibble...

Returning to February 7th, 2012

Our deer population isn't as numerous as it was back in 2009 and before. Extreme winters,human hunting quotas and coyotes have been a factor in my opinion to a decline that seemed to become evident from my perspective last year. Maybe others see a different slant on the same picture.

The weather in the last week has brought some heavy fogs to blanket us. Yesterday, turned out to produce quite a show as the fog began to ascend at 11:30 in the morning. The sun didn't breakout of the clouds until much later in the day. However, before the temperatures warmed and sent the frost dashing earthward - I captured some visions of Mother Nature's crystalline designs to create works of my own for decorating my cabin in the woods...

Still Seeing Scrapes?

My pictures are getting dated already...A week and a half ago we had a layer of snow laying around , the warm temperatures weren't yet making much of a difference in the white stuff disappearing.

While out for a walk I discovered on  one side of the ravine dissecting the property  that the small trees seemed to carry new bark injuries with ground scrapes in close proximity . Signs of a late rut? Only a thought after seeing an antlered buck in the vicinity with does and their offspring frequenting the area.

Deer hoof printed frozen creek

The little creek running through the ravine still made a ribbon of solid ice for the deer to use as a path to get from place to place. Totally dependent on available moisture from land run-off there is varying levels from season to season.

On the opposite side of the ravine I found a different scenario, the bark was being shredded in what I believe to be the beginning of another stage in the life and times of the whitetail buck population in our area...