Da Hammer

I planted around Easter and then again the following rain event about two weeks later.

The drought got a lot of what I planted at Easter as I got 1.5" of rain the night after I planted stuff came up and the drought claimed a lot of it before the next rain two weeks later. Out of 20 acres planted I have 14 acres that look really good with a mix of soy beans, clay peas, alyce clover, joint vetch, a little corn, milo and buckwheat.

Two weeks later I planted our lease and it's doing very well where the deer haven't eaten all of the beans,peas and sunflowers. However I mixed in alyce clover and joint vetch in the mix figuring that stuff would get hammered and the clover and vetch is doing very well and in the majority of my fields the beans, peas and sunflowers are doing well.

The biggest take home for me this year is the fall planting I did have a good bit of red clover in it, something I have never planted before. I have not seen deer eat clover in a way they are eating the red clover over the last 2 months. You can't keep them off it and they are in it day and night and now my drilled spring plantings are coming into their own and it's really looking good. Very happy with where we are right now as far as planted fields.

Planted a lot earlier this year than normal to try and keep turkey nests safe in fields and it seems to have worked.

Also seeing a good number of hens and poults some of which are flying already so hopefully signs of a good hatch this year.

I am so glad I attended the build. Fish was an amazing person and so willing to help his legacy certainly lives on.

Interestingly my hunting camp isn't far from Monroe and I was talking with two members a few months ago and somehow Josey, his family and the fundraiser with the pirogue came up when they saw me out in mine working on a beaver dam. They recognized the style of pirogue and remembered it from the fundraiser. That night is still talked about in Monroe which really blew me away.

Long live the OB! Oh and I still have my coozie! :cheers:

I have an ETEC and still like it a lot but it's a bitch to get worked on.

Rookie Boats on the MS gulf coast does good work on them I typically go there if I have issue. They can still seem to find parts for them so thankfully they are still fixable for now.

I am by no means an expert on catching them however we normally catch most of our triple tail later in the summer when it's sweltering hot.

They are around other times as I see others catch them but that's when I can figure out how to catch them.

We have had pretty good gobbling this year. It slowed a bit on the limb the last 2-3ish weeks but it's been a good year for it all by me.

I am done for the year hunting as have something this weekend but I rate our season as very successful.

There are never any good words for the loss of a dog. No matter how long they live no matter how great of a life they live it's never long enough.

Relive and enjoy the happy memories with her. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

I agree with you but when they get desperate at the end of the breeding season they get pretty crazy.

The problem is the end of the breeding season doesn't always align with the end of hunting season. This year hens are nesting with many eggs per nest so I think we are absolutely in the "gobbling lull" right now. If it works out the last week or so will be very good. Last year that desperation was the last week of May things were so delayed. Previous year was last week of the season.

Time will tell this year

I think you are right.

I know Fish tried to lay everything out in the posts so for prosperity they could be re built. However loss of images and website failure/dissapearance over the years took most of it I think.

If anyone has something I wouldn't mind building a few more with my boys, they are the right age. I can somewhat remember how to do it by looking any mine...

I remember cutting the bow stems was a big step for him.

Wildlife Investments really seems to have a great group of people to help handle most everything. Their Podcast and youtube videos are very well done and informative as well.

If we ever try a consultant on our place they would be my first call.

I think you will get very mixed opinions on CWD.

Myself would prefer not to eat an infected deer nor would I want to feed it to my family. That being said I don't get my deer tested.

The second part of your question processing. I process all my deer myself, I don't trust anyone with it. Many processors will mix your deer with others when making ground meat or sausage. Once that happens you have no idea how someone else cared for their deer after the shot, how clean they got it or anything else.

I can skin and quarter a deer in about 20 minutes by myself. To de bone, cut and trim the meat takes about an hour and a half. It's not hard at all just a little time consuming. After that stage you need equipment to grind or stuff sausage. However up to the grind stage you don't need any special equipment except a knife.

The weather was late but better late than never I suppose. We hunted my place which is a deer/turkey place with some flooded duck holes south of Vicksburg.

Saturday I had myself and a friend go hunting and birds were everywhere literally couldn't shoot them out of the pond. Called guys at the camp and they came out after we had our limit in under 30 minutes. Ended up with 6 limits of mallards and non mallards by far the best hunt we have had there in over 8 years. Went back the next day for the youth hunt with my sons and they picked up right where we left off.

I hate it got like this the last weekend but at least it did. Our duck hunting has never been that good except when the conditions become perfect as they were last week. We still have birds all over the place...