It is so hard to believe that November is here already. October was such a busy month. A marathon at the beginning of the month, beginning of some serious hunting, and lots of yard/garden work really filled up the time. As mentioned in previous posts my running kind of takes a back seat for a few months after my fall marathon is over. This last week was again fairly normal as far as running. I ran each work day again. Four of the runs were on my usual route and one of the really windy days I ran inside on the treadmill. Again all of these runs were 5 miles in length and within a minute +/- of 40 minutes. On Sunday the last day of the month I was able to fit in a morning run of 8.5 miles in 1:05:11. With a couple more months to go there should be no problem making 2000 miles for the year. Totals through October.
WTD 33.5
MTD 117
YTD 1874
ODO 27040
Hunting:
On Saturday morning I made it out to my stand well before light. I snuck out as quietly as I could and was sitting quietly by around 6:15. This was the same stand I shot the deer the previous Saturday evening. I wasn’t quite sure what impact all our walking around the previous weekend would have on this location, but I know it is a good spot and thought I would try anyway. Until shortly after 8:00 there was no action at all. I had lots of things to do so I was thinking I would only stay until 8:30 or so. All of a sudden I caught some movement in the tall grass directly in front of me. It didn’t take long to notice the good size rack on the top of this deer. At first I thought it might head directly across the ditch out of range. Then it made an immediate right turn and headed straight for the scrape I’m hunting over. When it was behind a bunch of trees about 20 yards out I drew back and waited. The deer walked right into the scrape and scratched it with his hoof as I released the arrow. The arrow didn’t pass through, but I knew it was a good hit. I watched it run 40 yards out and stop for a few seconds. It then started walking back towards me stumbling a bit. When it got back within about 20 yards it just fell over. No drama like with the previous week’s tracking adventure. When bow hunting it is always a bonus to be able to see your deer go down. From my experience it doesn’t happen often. While watching this deer another small buck (4 point) made its way on the same path as the other and stood right below me. It walked it's way over to it's buddy and couldn't figure out what was going on. It ended up just walking away. I climbed down and went to tag the deer when I realized I had left both of my buck stickers in with my gun back tag. I had to run home to retrieve it and then head back out. Because this deer was so close to the owners house (at their request) I have to either carry the guts out with me or gut it elsewhere so the dogs don’t get into them. I chose to take it away from there and brought the deer out to the conservancy to take care of that. While there I ran into a guy named Charlie who told me he thought he had a trail cam picture of my deer. In fact he told me he had pictures of two 9 pointers one with 5 points on the right and one with 5 points on the left. He sent me both of the pictures and I think these are the same deer I got the last two weeks. Kind of neat to have the trail cam pictures to go with the harvest shots.
I’m happy the year is unfolding as it is, but sad only that it will keep me out of the woods some during this exciting time to be out there. Maybe I’ll just go out with the camera or at least not shoot anything else unless it is a true giant. With gun season(s) coming up there is lots more hunting to do, but this sure changes the complexion of the rest of the season. The freezer is full, so there is not much need for me to take another unless I can find someone else to take it.
Gardening:
Because I got the deer on Saturday I was able to spend Saturday afternoon mowing the lawn for the last time this year (probably) and all of Sunday on lawn/garden cleanup chores. It is amazing how much you can get done in a day and a half. I was able to put all the planters, hanging baskets, and lawn furniture away. I was able to clean up the last of any remaining leaves and spread them on the garden. I turned my whole compost pile one last time before winter, and harvested lots more vegetables like carrots, Brussel sprouts, beets and lettuce that are still growing out there. I noticed I had a buck rubbing up some of my evergreens in the back again. This just started in the last couple days. I sprayed some stuff on them that is supposed to keep deer away. Kind of funny that I plant stuff to attract them and then have to keep them off other things. Now what will I do with myself these next couple weeks if I don’t go hunting and have all my chores done. I guess that is a good problem to have at this time of year and certainly a rarity for me.
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