Next to the Last Day...

The morning began by sneaking out the back door at 6:45 AM. Took up a lookout post by a tree not far from what was a very busy deer browsing area the day before at 7:00 AM. Well, ya know what...They showed up from behind me. Was I ever one unhappy person when I heard the deer snort and take off since they were able to see and smell me from the direction they had arrived in. I decided I would go inside for awhile only to find another group was following on the heels of the first. In the afternoon I headed for the back timber. Wouldn't you know it; upon picking a spot the very object of my hoped for goal ran as fast as they could across the ravine and disappeared. I stood in one place for almost 2 hours. There was only one other deer that passed in the neighborhood after being spooked by the gun fire going on at the property just north of me. The weather was very moderate for a mid December day. It was cloudy with mist, but for some reason the moisture didn't hit me as I tried to be invisible , concealed in the rose brush.

Countdown to the End

Hi everyone! Thought I would stop by and let you all know that I have been busy using my domestic skills. My husband asked me to make "Pumpkin Bars" after Thanksgiving. The twist being instead of pumpkin I used "Hubbard Squash". It takes some processing to get the squash ready to be added to the other ingredients. We discovered when I made the first batch of "pumpkin bars" a few days after Thanksgiving that the hubbard squash made for a tasty substitution. He ingested the whole baking sheet full on his own one bar at a time, of course the freezer was a big help in the freshness factor. He thought they tasted so good he asked me to repeat the recipe to help provide dessert for

his Experimental Aircraft Association Christmas Party on December 14th.

Back to the topic of our blog entry for the day. Yes, time is swiftly coming to a close for our last shotgun deer season of 2006. The deer continue to make their presence known. They start having a pattern to their behavior and repeat visits to various locations , as soon as you get it figured out they change it again. Today, I sat for an hour and a half in the fore-noon in one spot. A lot of activity all around . Not far away a " very young deer" stood watching me. I saw another head peering out from a space to the left of the first deer. Thinking it was the same "very young deer" I continued to remain seated in my three legged chair. My legs needed to stretch after being crunched in one position for a long time. As I rose from my chair a rush of sorts erupted from the rose brush. The group of young deer that had taken refuge took off running in a wide circle in the opposite direction, not to be seen again in the same place later . Returning for another 2 hours in the afternoon to what I thought should be a good place for activity because of the buck rubs , bed, and well worn deer trails ended up without seeing anymore creature activity of any kind. Yet again I went into the house to warm-up and catch-up on some e-mail. The end of the day was fast approaching. The deer knew not to get to close...stay in the open. Friday the 15th ends without the use of either of the 2 landowner tags I purchased to help the Iowa DNR try to keep the population in check . Better luck tomorrow ?