day out, full of ups and downs

The day started out great.  I headed out to the woods to enjoy some time to myself.  I can always count on a certain pond to be holding ducks so I made it a point to swing by it early to see if I could get some protein for lunch.  Sure enough.  I came up on the pond and there must have been over a 100 ducks on it. 

The sunrise through the trees wasn't bad either. "Up" for the day.

Well as luck would have it, when all those ducks rose up on the far side of the pond a small group circled back around and went right over me.  One shot rang out, one duck down.  I had my protein for later.  Another "up" for the day.
  

I sat on the side of the pond for a bit just to enjoy the sunrise some more and watch the ducks come back in.

I easily could have stayed and shot ducks all morning.  This one landed not 5 yards in front of me in the water.

Well after that I headed into the woods.  I decided to scout a new area just to see what kind of deer sign I could come across.
 

As I was making my way through the trees I was coming up on a clearing and noticed on the edge of the clearing were 3 does making their way towards me.  I wasn't trying to be quiet but the deer hadn't made me so I hunkered down and got the camera ready as they were coming right at me.  They got to about 30 yards and the wind blew behind me and about 10 seconds later the bigger doe had her head up, and about minute later they were bounding off.

Here's the clearing, unfortunately no pics of them so here's to hoping for next time.  Still a fun encounter though.

I found a decent spot for camp and began to settle in and get the camp chores going.   Here's the old swedish pack and my duck/goose gun.

I brought the thermos today as I was anticipating having to wait on the pond for a bit and wanted to have a warm cup of coffee to keep me company.  I didn't have to wait but having a hot cup ready as soon as I arrived at camp was pretty nice too.

I decided to chop down a dead standing tree.  It was on the bigger side for the Wetterlings Large Hunters Axe, but I had chopped similar size trees with it so decided to have at it.

I'm not sure when it happened, but I looked at the bit after some chopping and noticed a piece of steel had broke off.  First "down" of the day, and a big one to say the least.  I really liked this axe.  It hadn't let me down until now.
  

 Well I hope Wetterlings makes this right.  We'll see.

Well after that let down it was still time to keep the good times rolling.  Having a sweet custom knife to use helped get my mind off the axe failure.  Here we are getting the fire prep ready.

Gotta love fatwood and ferro rods.

Now it was time to prep lunch.  A duck-ka-bob.  Featuring duck breast, red potatos, and yellow onion.

Breasting out the duck

food prep of slicing up the meat and veggies

Finally cooking

This is going to be good

Well "down" number two of the day happened when the food was cooked.  I had it in my little plate looking delicious, I set it down on the log, and went to get the salt and pepper from the pack, turned around and the plate had fallen off and all the food was in the dirt.  I scooped up the duck and a little bit of the onion.  I went ahead and ate it.  The dirt added a nice kick of nature's seasoning.  But this was not the way I planned to eat this meal.

Here's some shots around camp

I ate my dirt seasoned duck and then enjoyed some more coffee while kicking back as the fire burnt itself out.

I did bring some venison jerky from the buck I killed last week.  It was outstanding.

I'll have to do a post sometime on this old swedish rucksack.  I changed some things about it but I really like this pack.  One of the nice features is the leather lashing straps on the bottom.  Perfect for a bedroll or in this case, carrying my wool coat after the day warmed up a bit.

Well I got the fire out and packed up the gear and started to make my way back out.

When I came back up on the pond a lot of the ducks had came back.  You can see them flying up here just above the treeline in the center. 

Well this day had its ups and downs, but all in all it was still a good day.  Beats working any time

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A blessed morning hunt

Today was a good day.  A beautiful crisp morning, about 30 degrees, little wind, and a spot to myself.  I sat in the corner of the field on a slightly elevated hill overlooking the area.

This got started quick.  About 10 minutes into the hunt, it was still dark, but a deer had made it's way out in the far back edge of the field, walking the treeline.  It took awhile before I was finally able to tell it was a buck.  He weaved in and out on the far treeline.  Never offering a shot.  I gave a few grunts at him and he stuck his head out, but again no shot.  

I waited a few minutes and grunted again, then suddenly from my right another buck came trotting right into the field.  He was certainly a good buck so a quick whistle stopped him at a slight quartering away shot, the bullet connected, I and the now 45 year old bolt action had done our jobs.  I was anxious for the shot, but after I watched him go down in the field about 30 yards from where I shot him, I got the shakes for about 15 minutes. 

This is the best buck I've taken.  I'm not too picky on the deer I take as I enjoy the meat, but taking a good buck now and then feels pretty good too.  It was truly a blessed hunt all around.  Couldn't have planned it any better.

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A little woods time

I got out for a little bit the other day to enjoy a quick lunch with my buddy.  The afternoon was perfect weather, about 50 degrees and not much wind.  We took a simple trail towards a small lake.  Here's the beginning as we headed out.

We scouted the area a bit

Pack and axe for the day.  We found a little spot in some cedar trees and made it our small camp for the afternoon.

I finally got a chance to use a fire kit I won in a giveaway on BladesandBushcraft.   The kit below contains an antler tip ferro rod, a small antler handled knife from a file, also on the knife handle is a socket to use with a bowdrill, and a tin full of fatwood pieces and jute twine.
 

Cut up some fatwood shavings. 

Well I'm not going to lie, getting the shavings to light wasn't the problem.  The shavings weren't staying lit quite long enough to get the tinder to take.  The wood and cedar shavings I had were a little damp, just enough that I knew I would need a sustained flame to get it to take.  So between that and a 4 year old I was trying to keep entertained I chose to go the quick route on the fire.  I split a piece off the fatwood and lit it with my lighter.   Not the most bushcrafty approach but I did get fire and kept the show rolling for the little one.

Heating up some water

Hot coco is a good way to warm a kid and put a smile on their face

So with hot coco taken care of it was time for the PB&J sandwich's.  Here's bel enjoying lunch in the woods

 We took a couple swiss cake rolls too, another crowd pleaser.  We fed the fire and relaxed for a little while. 

 After that we headed to the lake shore to do some rock chunkin.

water level was down on the lake. 

I thought this stump made for a neat silhouette shot of the knife. 

We have mussels in about every lake I've been to here in Oklahoma and they are usually coin sized, but Bel found a shell from one that was the biggest I've seen here.  Knife is about 9 1/4" for scale.  

and we are now throwing rocks.  Some kids seem to be completely enamored with throwing rocks.  I seriously don't know how long she would do this until she got tired of it.  

Well it's about that time to make our way back

this last shot is Bel after she climbed her proclaimed "Mountain"

All in all it was a great afternoon out.  Enjoying one of your favorite pastimes with your young ones and seeing them enjoy it too is sure to put a smile on your face.  Helps keep things in perspective too about what's important in life, and then there's everything else.


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