2009 Iowa Deer Classic

The trip to the Iowa Deer Classic this year came on the second day, March 7th. Hubby and I arrived around 10:00 A.M. to get our tickets and get down to the show floor to see what was available.
My check list this year included getting information on the Shadow Hunter elevated blinds. Given the opportunity that would be the brand I would invest my money on. The other things on my check list included a ground blind,a bow,some trail cameras, to checkout the deer heads and sheds. I wanted to see the antlers rated from 180-200. I didn't take the time to see every deer head there, but I did find one that was impressivly scored at 227 1/2. It was taken in a county just to the southeast of us. Hope some day his offspring will find it's way in our direction. The crowd developed while we were looking things over,to the point trying to move from place to place became a challenge. A good indicator of the interest of the huntresses and hunters in Iowa. ;)

Out and About

Wednesday turned out to be a positively delightful respite weather wise. Even the morning temperatures were warm enough only to need a sweatshirt on an outing to check out all the noise from Hendrickson Marsh three quarters of a mile away. Timber Life gained a different set of 4x4 wheels on January 24th, to help traverse the terrain . Sure do appreciate what a machine can do. ;) This year proved to be a challenge, even with a tractor to maintain our travel route. The diesel fuel, for the first time in 6 1/2 years of tractor ownership, had a problem providing sure performance, even with winter additives. We were not the only ones to fall victim to the evil malady of "gelling". It is just hard to tolerate when things are so awful cold and the tractor quits working a quarter of a mile from the nearest stationary plug-in. You would think with the piece of iron coming out of Russia it would start in all kinds of cold, but it isn't to be. It sat until a day got up to 25 and the portable generator turned over to get the block heated up so the oil would move. Encouragement comes now that we can see the end of the drifts that had us driving through the field to gain access to home from forays to the outside world. Things are looking a bit rutty still, but there are signs this week of warmer temperatures. Maybe some wind to give us some drying. Then the Belarus 572 can once again "Spring" into action to create a smoother ride...;)