Giving Back.

Sometimes I get in a mood and feel a bit down and out. It happens as a Caregiver and it happens around Holidays.
Social Media is not helpul as everyone is posting these great photos of big family get togethers and cheery this ... and cheery that.

Not everything is cheery for some folks during the holidays.

However. Sometimes things happen to pull you out of the dumps.

I pulled the trail cams cards out of the spots where I have them and got this funny video of a nice trophy buck laying down while does trot on by him. This was taken on the second day of hunting season when two neighbors got really nice deer.

 Both neighbors are hunters for the meat and not just trophy hunters. 

I shared this with my young friend Olive on the ridge after she sent a photo of her husband with his beautiful buck.

Yes, I'd photographed the buck her hubby got earlier this year in my meadow. I recognized him. She was worried that I'd be upset and I told her that I'd gotten 'my shot' of him earlier in the year with a long lens, so I was happy for them to have meat for their freezer and a trophy for her husband.

Then I got a text asking if I'd like to visit for a cup of coffee. My answer was Yes, yes, yes, yes... 

I got to spend an hour with her and her little guy Orson, who is just turning 7 months old. Now THAT is a sure fire way to cheer anyone up. Spend time with a crawling happy baby whose face lights up with infectious smiles and whose eyes are so bright and cheerful.

I found out that she had wanted to go out and join the gun hunt, but her husband was busy with coaching the wrestling team in town again this year. I asked if I could watch her kids for her while she went out to hunt.

I saw her look a bit confused at first and then HER face lit up like...well, like a Christmas tree. 

"You'd do that?"

Of course I would! I love kids, I don't even mind crying babies or even fussy babies. Sometimes a person just needs to change the scenery or look forward to an event to change how they feel.

Friday afternoon during hubby's nap time, I'll got watch a 4 year old and a baby while mom gets to go out in the woods and get some much needed ME time on a deer stand. 

It is a win win situation for me. I get some different scenery, she gets a break, and I get to play. Hubby said he was pleased that I'd get to go play with someone my own age.

Hah. Olive has been there for me in so many ways through the past couple of years and rarely can I find a way to help her out. She is a strong minded woman and mom who never wants to impose and is seems always willing to give.

Sometimes Giving Back is just the best medicine.

Trail Cam Shots

Meanwhile the trail cameras have been busy.

The first shot is of the twins this June. Since then I've been able to glimpse them often as they wander through the pastures. 

As of this week, they have been pushed away from the doe. It has been fun watching them grow all summer in the woods.

This is an old scrub apple tree near the end of our driveway. Most of the apples have fallen now but the deer still like to stop and browse.

I moved the camera to a new spot where I noticed a LOT of deer beds. So far this has been the best spot to catch activity.

This could be an immature eagle...but since my old trail camera no longer shoots in color...I can't tell.

These aren't in order by date, but just thought they were fun.
The bucks are different ones. There is this one below with a little fork in one of his points!

This trail is used often by the coyotes also. I never thought much of this section of the woods because it has such a heavy canopy of Buckthorn and Box Elder, not much grows underneath it. However, upon close inspection, the trails look like mini highways.

The next photo...are these the twins?
I'm going to pretend to know better and say they must be. 

This next one was taken on the 19th of October. It appears that one of the fawns is nursing. 

I enjoyed getting a good look at this fella. I've seen him before and failed miserably with my regular camera.

Good thing I have a trail cam!

Yesterday Charlie and I worked up a surprise for the fella that put his tree stand on the edge of our land so he can shoot into my woods. Nothing drastic. 
This fella has 200 acres of his own land and 'leases' another 100 acres, but is compelled to sit on top of my fence.

Tsk Tsk.

Stuck inside...and Oh Deer!

Well sort of. When the VA sends out a certain medication, I have to be available for the delivery as Tom the UPS guy has to hand it to a live human being and it needs a signature.

The meds come once a month and it is always handled overnight. So after the order is confirmed, I have to be present until the package shows. 

It was clean up day anyway. Time to take Charlie's dog crate and put it upstairs. He is not like Morris at all. Morris loved the crate and would go in it any time he wanted to be alone and often at night. Charlie doesn't believe in crates. He will go in it if we have company [which we don't] or if we are gone all day for an appointment [hasn't happened in months!]. 
Charlie was quite upset that I moved the crate. However he is quite happy with being King Of The Couch!

I picked the torn and tattered blind that Daryl left in the woods from last bow and gun season. He didn't take it down and when it snowed, rained, and iced like mad last winter...the top of the blind collapsed. The fiberglass rods that held the roof up shattered in the cold. In short. The blind was destroyed. I waited for him to come and claim it, then Covid came and well... I was tired of seeing it laying in my woods. It now resides in the neighbor's dumpster.

The older one that was no longer used was in the back of the shed. I set that up so I could go in the mornings and have coffee and watch the pasture from inside the little blind. A few years ago I had been able to grab a photo of deer leaping the fence.

Photos from November 2018: Shooting Deer.

I moved stock tanks, cleaned gutters, and hooked up the heater for the stock tank. Next was the game of pick up sticks and toss them in the yellow cart so I could take it to the brush pile.

I cleaned out Lil' Richard's stall so he can go inside tonight. He is the only one who doesn't mind being in the shed. I fear the old pony is getting deaf. He never heard me come by him with the 4 wheeler and the rattling cart today.

It is supposed to start raining tonight and all through tomorrow. Sigh. Cold and rain.
I don't like that combination for the critters. 
I also went back and checked the trail cam for some neat shots of bucks who are getting quite active right now.

Below, a few of the visitors around the farm.

So now I'm still waiting for a delivery and wondering if he'll be late this evening or will it be tomorrow?

Well, I've done a fair bit of work and now I'm going to experiment with some Still Life Photography.

Pancakes for supper.

I'm diggin' it.

PS~ No deer hunting on our land this year. Well, other than with a camera that is.

Shooting Deer.

I think sitting still is one of the hardest things I've ever done. It wasn't bad early inn the morning. I brought my mini thermos of fresh hot coffee and sat quietly sipping it while watching out the blind that my Kenosha friends had brought and placed near the apple tree that sits in the Merry Meadow.

Here was one of the views.

It doesn't look like much at all. But with a little bucket to sit on or the chair that Daryl left behind, it wasn't bad. The cold winds didn't get to me and I brought that nice hot coffee.

I mean, what else is a tripod really for? I did find out that using a tripod was pretty useless when trying to 'shoot' deer. They don't stand still.

I 'shot' this doe through the screen on the side of the blind along the mule's summer pasture.

The electric fence is disconnected along this section of the pasture, as this portion of the land is in 'rest' mode. Also since the fence separates us from the neighbor's land ... we never let our mules out there during gun season. I sometimes have my reservations about the type of people that the neighbor's brother lets out on that land to hunt. [It is just safe to say that not all of those who walk that land in those 9 days are conscientious hunters.]

Here is the morning Doe smelling the air. She did a lot of head bobbing.

Then she moved a bit and I got a few more shots of her before she moved on.

I either moved in the blind and she saw me or that gust of wind that came from behind the blind gave away my smell. Either way, she turned and flagged her tail as she ran off.

I considered the outing a success because I got to take some nice photos of this one doe. But the little wildlife bug hit me and I decided to go back for an hour in the evening.

However I needed to dress just a bit warmer.

I walked out slowly to the blind at 3PM. A doe jumped up from the thicket of Buckthorn and ran north.
Oh darn.

I sat in the blind and listened to the wind gusts above me. It blew harder on the top of the ridge and the Meadow was half way between the ridge top and the valley floor.

I'd swapped to my long lens a Tamaron 18 to 200mm lens. It wasn't as sharp and clear as the 85mm prime lens I'd used in the morning and poor light is not its friend. It is a lot slower to focus, however I thought I'd give it a go anyway. Perhaps I could get a 'closer' shot with it.
Of course in my mind I was mulling over that used Nikon lens I'd seen, the 70-300 lens.
Oh sigh.
Now that I was enjoying sitting still and watching wildlife, perhaps I could do with a 'longer' lens.

And then the cheapo in me said "Wait, see what you can do with what you have."

My friend had mentioned a teleconverter. Okay.
Sigh again.

I finally pulled out my mini notebook and started to write. Just words. Things that were on my mind and bothering me. The call from the nurse who said my MIL was being evaluated for Assisted Living, was she a danger to herself alone? MIL had refused to shower or bath for months. I'd notified them in August when the Guardian took over.
I write: "Sitting alone in the blind right now is more satisfying than fielding calls about my MIL or trying to get my husband to get out of bed and move his body. 

Note: Let him win at Backgammon. He gets upset if he doesn't."

I put the little notebook down and just let my mind wander and decide that being in the blind just a few hundred yards from the house was a good thing. I didn't have to sit and watch my husband lean towards the screen and watch endless hours of Netflix.

"My feet are a bit cold. Next time I need wool socks in my boots. My hands oddly are warm. Strange right? 1/2 hour to go until chore time."

Oh! A doe!

She picks her way around and around. I wonder if she can hear the soft snap snap of the camera.

She moves off.

4:25.
Time to pack up.

The light is fading fast and there isn't enough light to take a good photo now. I stand up and stretch only to come to a standstill.

A large buck is walking across the middle of the Meadow.

Oh .. Wow!

It would have been nice if he'd have followed the doe up to the apple tree so I could've gotten a good photo of him.

I watch him walk off. Then I walk up the little trail past the oak tree and then back down towards the little house.

Shooting Deer with the camera had been nice. Quiet time was nice.

And darkness falls into a cold November night.