Deer Hunting Starts

October 5th was the start of bow season in Virginia and Oldest Son was ready.  Last year he got his first deer while hunting with our neighbor and his hunt club.  They were using dogs to run the deer and he got one using the shotgun.  All the time spent with our neighbor got him thinking that he needed to hunt with a bow, because it is more difficult, or more of a challenge, or more manly.  I'm not sure exactly the reasoning, but I figured he probably wouldn't be able to verbalize his desire to use a bow.

There is an advantage to using a bow, and in Virginia that includes crossbows.  The season for bows is the first phase of deer season.  Bowhunters get a full four weeks head start before muzzleloader season.  That means all the deer are still out and about in the mornings and evenings before they start getting spooked by the shooting and go nocturnal.

This season actually started in May, when we granted Oldest Son's wishes and bought him a compound bow for his birthday.  From that time until opening day, he had been practicing both at our house and with our neighbor.  This practice consisted of standing up on our back deck, and shooting down at targets at 10 and 20 yards away.  He would also go over to our neighbors house and shoot at targets off his deck at various distances, practicing his technique and form.  He felt that he was ready when the season started.

October 4th came and Oldest Son realized he didn't have any broadheads for his arrows.  A quick trip to the sporting goods store and he was ready for October 5th.  It was Saturday, I was ready to sleep in.  But that was not his plans.  Instead, I would be joining him for his first bow hunt.  Really?  On a Saturday morning?

5:15am on a Saturday morning comes way too soon when I would rather be sleeping in.  But being the supportive parent, I woke up Oldest Son and then got dressed in my best camouflage, if there is such a thing.  After spraying down our feet and legs with scent cover, we walked out to the double tree stand.  Yes, we walked out to the tree stand behind our house.  Actually our neighbor's house, but it was close enough not to drive.

We were in the tree stand by 6am so that we would be there and quiet before the season officially started a half hour before sunrise, which was at 7:05am.  About 7:15am I reminded Oldest Son that we would only be able to stay another 45 minutes or so before I would have to go and take Youngest Son to his soccer game.  The Good Wife was with Middle Son at his cross country meet.  It was a busy Saturday as usual once school starts.

Right then I saw a deer approach from the left side of the tree stand on the side I was sitting.  The deer walked behind some trees and I instructed Oldest Son to stand up.  Looking to the left, I could tell it was a buck.  I turned back to Oldest Son and he was standing with the bow drawn.  A few seconds later he let the arrow fly.

The buck let out a grunt and took off running.  As he ran, I could see the arrow in the back hind quarter of the deer.  He hit it, but not in the best position.  I wasn't sure if we would find this one.  After getting Oldest Son to sit down for a few minutes so he could stop shaking from all the adrenaline flowing through his body, we got down out of the tree stand and started tracking the deer.

Oldest Son put a new arrow in his bow in case we came upon the wounded deer.  While we were tracking the deer, he mentioned that the broadheads he bought have a money back guarantee if you don't find your animal.  I'm not sure how they verify that guarantee, but I thought we might get to try it.

After tracking the deer for about 45 minutes and 3/4 a mile, we found the deer.  Dead.  It had bled out.  The broadheads had done their job.

It was a big 11-point buck that measured out to about 140 points!  See the smile on Oldest Son's face?  It stayed there the whole weekend.  I could have asked him to do the worst chore I could think of, and he would still be smiling.

Luckily for us, the deer had run around towards the back of our house, so we only had to drag it about 200 yards to get it to our back yard.  After gutting the deer in the woods, we started pulling.  This thing was big, even after being gutted.  Now I know how older, out of shape hunters have heart attacks and die hunting.  It is getting the deer out of the woods!

It was unseasonably warm, even though we had gotten the deer out of the woods by around 10am.  After the neighbor came to congratulate Oldest Son on his potentially once in a lifetime trophy, we decided to get it mounted for him.

By the time we had it loaded on the truck and headed to the taxidermist, it was getting warm.  When we dropped it off at noon, the temperature gauge in the truck read 92 F.  Yes, that is not a typo.  It was 92 F the first day of deer season.  Deer season is supposed to mean fall weather, cooler temperatures and leaves changing color and falling to the ground.  Instead it meant deer meat heading south and flies all over the place.

I'm not sure how much of the meat was still good by the time we dropped the deer off.  The taxidermist was going to process what was left of the deer since the back end had gotten messed up pretty good.  At this point it doesn't really matter.  Oldest son got a trophy buck on the first day of the season hunting with a bow for the first time.  I'd say my 14 year old is becoming a man.  Well done Oldest Son.

General Update #2

Not being able to come up with a clever name for the title of this post, "General Update #2" seemed like an appropriate, although less than exciting title.  After going through photos from this past year there are some more items that need to be shared, whether you find them interesting or they simply put a smile on my face.

One task at the homestead that got done was actually done by my neighbor, not by me.  Although I did help, it was basically following orders and directions and doing what was told.  That seems to be the best way when you need your neighbors skills, equipment and time to get the job done.

The front of our property along the road has been eroding since we moved in over three years ago.  My neighbor, being the owner of an excavation company, New Day Corp., had all the equipment.

He called and asked if I had time one Sunday afternoon last fall.  Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I made time, even if it wasn't available.  He showed up with a full size dump truck with an equipment trailer loaded with two skid steers and an assortment of attachments.  The attachments would be able to scoop, grade, grate, compact, chop and throw.  This was a one man wrecking, or in my case excavating, crew.

Since I was so busy following his instructions by moving dirt around where he needed it to do the actual hard work, I wasn't able to get many photos.  I did get one as he was cutting down the angle of the front to make a nice smooth grade instead of the cliff that had been created through the dirt eroding away after each rain storm.

The boys weren't too excited about helping out, until my neighbor asked me why I wasn't letting the Oldest Son use one of the skid steers.  That is all it took for him to jump into one of the machines and start assisting.  We were done with a large part of the work, but he was able to drive it around and pick up all the debris that was pulled out of the top soil that was used to even out the area.

In the end, we were able to throw out some grass seed and use the attachment that chops and spreads straw to cover the seed.  It is a nice gradual transition and now is covered in grass and protected from erosion.

Having friends with the right kind of equipment is such a blessing.  At the end of the front property excavation project, my neighbor would not accept any sort of compensation.  Even though he provided the equipment, the grass seed and the straw to cover the seed.

Another friend was called on a couple times this past summer to do some work on the yard.  He had sold his property where he kept his horses and now lived in a regular neighborhood, but he had kept his tractor and was looking for opportunities to use it.  I just happened to give him those opportunities!

I had let the pasture grow a bit taller than I should have and it got beyond the height that my lawn mower would be able to handle.  He brought over his tractor and box mower and knocked it all down for me.  A couple weeks later he came over again, this time with his post hole digger to make my job of fencing in my garden a lot easier.

All this tractor work did help the Good Wife understand how useful a tractor would be in my own garage.  But that was a whole other discussion!

Last fall the Oldest Son was able to get his first deer while hunting.  He was with our neighbor and his club while they were running dogs.

Whenever I would question him if it was really a deer and not a dog because it wasn't too big, he just reminds me that, "Oh yeah, you didn't get one!"  That tends to shut me up pretty quick.  I better get something this year so I don't get shamed quiet again.

Although this post is already quite large with all the photos, I wanted to leave you with something to make you smile.  The Oldest Son and his friend went with me to a sporting goods store and they were looking for a camo jacket for hunting.  The only one left of the style and size they wanted was on a mannequin on the top shelf.  Being the responsible father that I am, I stepped back out of the way and turned on the camera, because something good was about to happen.  We like to refer to it as, "How many rednecks does it take to buy a camo jacket?"

Three.  One to be the base, one to stand on his shoulders and one to film the event, just waiting for something bad to happen!

A Year in the Life...

I'm back.  For those of you that follow my blog, you may have thought that I fell off the face of the earth.  Although some of the events that took place since my last post (October 22, 2012) made me feel like I had fallen off the face of the earth, I am still here.  The earth being a round sphere also makes it a bit difficult to "fall off" the face of the earth.  The best I could do is just run in circles.

So many things have happened and I want fill you in.  I'll hit the highlights in this post, and then give you additional topical updates on the bees, chickens and other things around the home in separate posts in the next week or so.  Here we go...

My posting vacancy started with a Thanksgiving week family trip to AZ to visit dear friends we left behind when we moved to VA.  The one thing that I wanted to do while I lived in AZ that never happened was put on the priority list of my visit.  I quick suggesting to my old college roommate, who was also my co-worker in Phoenix, and we were on our way to Antelope Canyon.

It really is that beautiful and amazing.  The colors that come down from above and bounce off the sandstone are incredible.  Our guide told us that when they have a flash flood through the canyon, it can add or remove up to nine feed of sand, raising and lowering the canyon floor.  NINE FEET!  It is hard to believe until you see footage of a flash flood in that area.

Our guide did a great job of keeping other tourists out of our photos.  During the busy months the five licensed tour companies take an estimated 1500 people through the canyon per day.  If you haven't been there and seen Antelope Canyon, I highly recommend it.

Upon returning to VA after our family vacation, I got laid off from my job.  How is that for timing?  Never having been laid off before, I was a bit nervous to say the least.  I think the Good Wife took it all better than I did.  My severance package took me through the end of the year, so at least I could enjoy the Christmas holiday.

First some friends from AZ that moved to WA before we moved to VA came to visit us for Christmas.  We happened to be touring through Washington, DC when the NRA was making their public statement after the Newtown shooting.  We got swarmed by foreign reports looking for sound bites.

I'm not sure why they latched onto us for questions, other than we were the only ones in the area wearing camo jackets and blaze orange hats.  They figured we must be pro gun.  They were right!

Once they headed back to WA after a very nice visit, I headed to WI with the boys.  Remember, I'm unemployed at this point, so why not?  I left the Good Wife home to work some extra shifts at the ER.  At least she said she was working!

They were having some very cold weather in WI during our visit to my parents, so the boys got to experience walking on water.  Or at least walking on ice on water.

Once we got back from WI, it was time to get to work.  Finding a job that is.  They say it is a full time job finding a job and I have to agree.  Sitting at the internet surfing job sites doesn't work.  Getting out and meeting people face to face and networking is what works.

We did take a little time out to go squirrel hunting at our friends cabin.  We saw tons of squirrels in the fall while hunting turkey, but didn't see any on this trip.  We did come across a snake though and Oldest Son dispatched it quickly.

I'll give a separate post later about the bees, but it was a good and bad year.  Good in that all my hives made it through the winter.  But bad because we had so much cold and rain in the spring with a couple weeks of mid-summer temperatures, that all my hives ended up swarming.  I'll elaborate more later.

I was able to find a new job here in the Richmond, VA area so we didn't have to go anywhere.  That started in mid-March, so I am finally settling into my new position and enjoying the work.

We did another batch of meat chickens this spring.  One of the Oldest Son's friends wanted to experience the butchering, and jumped right in and did a large portion of the killing.  He also got projectile pooped on during the process.

We took a family vacation, that was planned before the layoff, to Morocco to visit the Good Wife's parents.  We all had a great time and I will post separately about that.  Concerning our rural living experiences, the Oldest Son got to learn how to butcher rabbits.  That was a highlight for him on that trip.

Our egg chickens are doing fine, but we have a coyote or fox that is slowly picking off our chickens one at a time.  That is making us keep them locked up in their run for most of the day until the boys get home from school and let them out to free range while we are around.  Some of our broody hens hatched out a few chicks and the Oldest Son bought a rooster at a chicken swap.

Are you starting to see a trend here?  Oldest Son seems to keep getting us involved in more and more activities when we are trying to take more time to ourselves and slow down a bit.  I don't think it is going to happen until he heads off to college.  The scary part is, it will be less than four years!

I know this is a very abbreviated post since I finally broke radio silence after almost a year.  In the next week or so, I'll have more detailed updates on the chickens, bees, our trip to Morocco, meat rabbits and our garden.  I'm glad to be back!

Dahlgren's Raid Re-enactment

One of the benefits of living on the east coast, and Virginia in particular, is that you are surrounded by history.  Everywhere you look, there are signs commemorating various events and landmarks that are important to our nation's history.

Our county got a special treat at the end of September when Dahlgren's Raid was re-enacted throughout our county.  For those of you who have never heard of Dahlgren's Raid, here is a primer.  It was run over the weekend in various locations in Goochland County, VA.  To start the weekend's events, they held a demonstration and educational session for the county elementary schools.  I took the afternoon off to join the Middle Son for the demonstration.

There were Union troops in their full attire, along with all the accessories, such as sabers, pistols and rifles.  Even their horses were outfitted in period saddles and halters.

They did a horsemanship demonstration showing how they would lineup and maneuver a line of horses in preparation for battle, with sabers drawn.  They also explained how the front row would have their sabers turned down and the back row would have their sabers pointed up, so that if the front row person fell off their horse with the saber, it wouldn't be sticking up on the ground and possibly hit a horse or another rider coming behind them.

Pistols were fired, both on command at "at will" from a line of horses.  Obviously these were blanks, but it was still impressive.

Several soldiers dismounted and fired their rifles.  It was also shown how there was a horse tender that would hold the horses still while the other men fired their rifles.  Interestingly, it was one of the better riders that would hold the horses, so they could control the horses during the battle.

They also rolled out a cannon onto the battlefield for a demonstration firing.  This was a highlight for the kids, so they fired the cannon several times.  It was very loud and commanding.

It was a great afternoon for the kids and adults that came to view the demonstration.  It was a warm day, and the soldiers were obviously very warm in their thick uniforms.  The interesting thing about this demonstration, is that it was done in a field less than a half mile from one of the schools.  The reason it couldn't be done on school grounds, is the zero tolerance policy for guns and knives.  That's political correctness gone wrong.  But at least they were able to work around that and make it happen for all the kids to see.

Cornish Cross Meat Chicken Butchering

The time has come.  Seven weeks and three days from the day they were hatched.  It was time to move the chickens from the pasture to the freezer.  A small bit of work would be required to make that transition, and this time we were ready, having learned from our previous chicken butchering venture.

The process was reviewed, bottlenecks analyzed and new equipment prepared.  It was go time!

Cornish Cross Meat Chickens - Week 5

So maybe I'm not as diligent as anticipated in getting photos and posting in a timely manner.  There won't be any more promises made at this point, since life seems to get in the way of everything that needs to be done.  Priorities?  Another post another time.  Back to the topic at hand, meat chickens at five weeks old.

OK, last time, the pictures were from four weeks, and the post was late.  This time, both the pictures and the post are late.  These pictures were taken Wednesday evening, which technically was a day short of six weeks of the hatch date on these chicks, although we didn't get them until later that week.

Everything that was read online about the Cornish Cross chickens is that they have a 10-15% mortality rate while raising the chickens.  We had been fortunate at receiving 132, having two DOA (Dead On Arrival), and then losing three in the first couple weeks.  Not counting the two that were DOA, that is only a 2.3% mortality rate, which is really good.  Unfortunately, things aren't holding so well.

Earlier this week we had a hot spell into the upper 80's, with humidity.  It wasn't pretty, and one of the coops ran out of water before I got home from work.  One chicken was not looking good, and died that night.  Shovel in hand, out to the woods, and bury the dead chicken.  A bit of lime over the chicken to help it decompose and to keep the dogs from digging it up.

Wednesday evening, after pulling one of the chicken tractors forward, the Middle Son declared that one was left behind.  After questioning, I found out that it wasn't so much left behind as it was dead and didn't move while the tractor did.  Shovel in hand, and back to the woods.

Thursday evening, our local beekeeping club had their monthly meeting that I had planned to attend, so Scott did the evening watering and feeding.  Calling on my way home, there were two more down.  One was found dead, and the other was culled.  Asking about what he did with the dead chickens, Scott said he walked towards the woods and chucked them in there.  So much for the shovel method.

The chicken that was culled had a problem with its leg and wasn't moving or able to get to the food and water.  We had been setting it next to the waterer and putting food in front of it, but the other chickens had been walking on it and it hadn't been growing.  No sense wasting food on a chicken that wasn't going to get to size.

With the seven total that have died, we are now up to 5.3% mortality.  Higher than we had with the Red Rangers this spring.  Apparently in all the reading online, people forgot to mention WHEN the chickens had died.  At this rate we may hit the average rate of 10-15% by the time butcher day comes around on October 13th.

However, the chickens that are alive are getting big.  They are growing day by day.

The picture above makes the chickens look like monsters with their glowing eyes from the flash.  Unfortunately I remembered to take the pictures of them too late in the day and it was starting to get dark.  Hopefully the rest will hold on for the remaining week and a half so we can do the job rather than nature doing the job for us.

Fall Meat Chickens

Summer has come and gone, and with the cooler temperatures, comes a new batch of meat chickens.  As all great planners know, the ability to change plans and adapt on short notice is crucial.  That is true in all facets of life, not just chicken farming.  But it became relevant at the end of this summer.

The same crew that ventured out this spring on a meat chicken journey, decided that the journey was worthwhile, and worth doing again.  Everything had gone well, so the plan was to follow our template on the first go around, with the small change of expanding our numbers.

The Red Rangers were ordered and all we could do was sit and wait for them to arrive at the end of July.  This would give us approximately 10 weeks until Columbus Day weekend, the first weekend in October, to get them to weight for butchering.

The day came in July, and no calls that our chicks had shipped.  Checking online, there was only a notice that the supplier had run into a "predator problem" and that starting the week we were supposed to get our chicks, they would be shipping no more chicks the rest of the year!  Oh no!  Now what?

Queens, Queens, Queens. It's All About the Queens.

Earlier this year my hives had some queen issues, such as queens missing which resulted in hives with laying workers.  Combining the laying worker hives with queen-right hives removed the laying workers, and gave the hives another attempt to make their own queens once they were separated again after a few weeks.

Making a split from the hive at Possum's garden into a single hive body and a nuc, one of them made a queen and she was able to get mated and return to make the hive a strong hive.  The other one not so much.  So I bought a couple queens from a breeder here in Virginia, figuring that if it was close to this area, the queen would be used to our weather and environmental conditions and have a better chance of being a "good queen".  

In the mean time, one of the original hives seemed to lose the queen.  There had been some queen cells and no signs of a laying worker, but no queen, no eggs and no brood.  But patience was needed.  Maybe she was there but not mated yet.  Maybe she was out doing her mating hive.  Something I'm not the best at with the bees.  A bit of the ADD in me wants to see results and wants time to pass quickly to see things unfold.  

In one final attempt to get all my hives "queen-right", I bought two more queens from a breeder in Tennessee.  Not being too scientific in my queen purchases, I found someone that had queens available and could ship quickly, so that I wouldn't fall into another laying worker situation.

These queens came in a UPSP envelope, not a box, which was a bit of a surprise.  They were also in the JZBZ cages, not the wooden cages that the first ones came in, which made me do some searching on the internet to find out how to best introduce the queens in these new cages.

One of the things I had read from several sources said that the queens tend to have a better acceptance rate if the attendants are removed from the cage.  Hmmmm.  That sounds like an interesting challenge.  

The queens were shipped on Monday and I received them on Wednesday.  The post office called letting me know they had come in so I could pick them up.  (I love our small town Post Office.  They are so friendly and call right away when bees and chicks come in.)  The weather wasn't being cooperative though, so it took a few days before I could get the time to get the queens into the hives.  

The boys had some friends over when the re-queening was going to take place.  As I headed up to the boys bathroom (because that is the only bathroom with an outside window that opens up) they wanted to join me.  OK, the more the merrier.  I went in and had them close the door behind us and opened up the blinds.  The small cap was opened up and a few of the attendants came out and flew to the window.    With a slight shake and shuffle, a few more came out.  But I couldn't seem to get the rest out.  I opened up the main cap and they all came out, including the queen!  No problem.  The window was open but the screen was still in place.  Quickly the queen went up the window and all the attendants huddled around.  Of course, she headed up into the top portion of the screen where I couldn't reach her.  Using a butter knife, I was able to herd the queen down to the open cage and quickly closed the lid.  One down.  

I decided to get that queen into the hive before attempting to separate the second queen from the attendants.  Running, or walking fast, out to the hive, the new queen cage fit right between two frames, so the removal of a frame wasn't necessary.  They frames were separated with the hive tool and the queen cage lowered in, and then the frames pushed back together.  The lid put back on and some syrup given to the hive to keep them distracted.

Checking on the original hive that appeared to have lost a queen the week before, and hadn't had a queen or eggs or anything for a couple weeks, a pleasant surprise was waiting for me.  As I got to the fourth frame, lifting it up to see if I had any signs of a laying worker, there she was, right before me.  Right in the middle of the frame, a big fat queen.  And looking closer, plenty of eggs and larvae in the frame.  The hive was "queen right" and things were good.  Close it up and let them be.  

But now what to do with the other queen?  I did have another nuc that I had made and had a laying worker the week before.  Only capped drone, and several cells with more than one egg.  Typical laying worker signs.  This nuc had been written off, and I was planning to use their good frames to fill out a few of the other hives that had a few frames not drawn.  I had the extra queen and all my other hives were queen-right or had a new queen just installed.  Time to roll the dice.

Pulling a frame full of brood from one of my strong hives, I shook all the bees off the frame.  To replace that frame, I pulled a frame of drones and double eggs from the nuc and put it into the strong hive, figuring they will clean up that frame and put it to good use.  First I put the frame full of brood into the nuc and then placed in the new queen.  However, I didn't pull the candy cap on the queen cage off.  They needed a bit more time to get acquainted before letting the queen loose.  Closed up the hive and added a jar of syrup on top.

Coming back five days later, the bees in the hives were feeding the queens and being very calm around the queens.  They weren't trying to attack her or kill her, so I pulled the cap off the candy and put the queen cage back into the hives.  Time for the locals to release the queens.

Checking back 2 days later, the queen in the nuc had been released and was no longer in the cage.  The queen cage was removed and the hive closed up so the queen could do her thing.  I didn't want to stress them out any more by looking around for her.  This hive is still a question if everything is still good.  

The single deep hive body with the new queen still hadn't released the queen.  Running back to the garage, I grabbed a small nail and put a hole through the candy that was still in the cage.  There was only about an eighth of an inch left and it was very soft.  The queen in the cage was put back in the hive to be released.  The status of this queen is also unknown.  

There should be time Saturday morning to get back into the hives to see if the queens are both there and laying eggs.  It is still a roll of the dice on those two, but I can only hope for the best.  Fall is quickly approaching and the hives need to get right.  Luckily they have a lot of honey in all the hives, so that shouldn't be a problem if they can just get a couple rounds of brood raised before winter.  The good news is the other four hives are queen-right and strong, with lots of brood, lots of honey and ready to for fall and winter. 

On a separate topic, in an attempt to get them some pollen, a friend from work, who was pulled into beekeeping this year by my stories every morning, and I decided to try open feeding a dry pollen substitute.  Taking an old bucket from a bakery, the center of the lid was cut in half and removed.  A brick was put into the bucket to keep it in place along with a tin foil bread pan filled with the pollen.  The bucket was put outside in the garden.

 

It only took a day or two for the bees to find the bucket.  The Good Wife asked me to remove the bucket because of all the activity around the bucket.  It was moved to the old garden and the mint and basil, which are both good for the bees.  They have taken over two bread pans full of pollen substitute, but I don't think it is just my bees.

  

Watching the bucket, lots of them head in different directions after loading up.  I'm thinking that some feral bees may have found my bucket.  That's OK.  Maybe one day I will capture a swarm from a feral hive and they can thank me then with some good genetics and some tasty honey.

Vespa Crabro Germana Invasion!

For those of you that are not up on your latin or familiar with all the insect species out there, the vespa crabro germana is also known as the European hornet, or in central Virginia, also known as the Bell hornet.  Either way, they are scary looking creatures.

Now I'm not one to go looking for a fight, particularly against a creature that has the capability to fight back, but there are several reasons that these buggers have got to go!

Old Trees and Big Leaves

A few posts ago I mentioned how much I like fall and the colors that accompany this season.  In case you can't remember, I'll give you another iimage of the season.

The other day we were out at a golf course doing a video shoot for some of our product and the leaves were falling around us with every breath of wind that came through the trees.  However, a few of the leaves seemed exceptionally large.

I've never seen leaves that big, at least not from a tree that wasn't a palm tree!  Do these leaves come from a particular species of tree or are they just really old trees which tend to grow larger leaves?  Amazing!

Fall Colors

In case I haven't mentioned it yet, I love fall, and particularly October and November.  In case you are wondering why...

Need I say more?

First Deer Hunt

The time had come.  Muzzle loader season had started in VA.  A new CVA Optima was purchased due to the odd rules of Goochland county.  This is the first year that rifles are allowed, and only from a tree stand.  Otherwise, Goochland is a shotgun only county.  However, muzzle loaders are allowed during a separate muzzle loader season between bow and shotgun season, and they can be used during shotgun season, so that seemed like the right weapon to buy.

After getting dressed in my fairly new hunting gear, I headed over to one of our friends that was going to guide me on my first deer hunt.  He had already set up a couple tree stands behind another friend's house.  We headed out in the afternoon and got up in our stands by 4:30pm.  We sat quietly waiting for a deer to come strolling through.  It was a good spot next to a stream and a couple large deer had already been taken on this lot.

After two hours of sitting still and enjoying nature, darkness descended and hunting was over for the day.  We saw more hunters than deer as it was opening day of muzzle loader season.   I'll have to wait until next weekend to give it another try.  Hopefully we'll be more successful and be able to put some natural venison into our freezer.  Although it wasn't a successful day as far as bagging some game, it was still fun and I am looking forward to giving it another try soon.

Deer Hunting

Living in the country, the Oldest Son has several friends that do a lot of hunting, and particularly deer hunting.  Since I grew up in a family that didn't really do any hunting, it isn't something that I am able to pass on to my sons.  But Oldest Son requested that we go deer hunting.  So where to start?

First was the hunters safety course.  Since I had never had a hunting license, I needed to take the class with Oldest Son to get my license.  For the record, Oldest Son only got one question wrong on his test, and his father still did better!  Now we were licensed and ready to hunt, but the season hadn't started yet.

Virginia has a youth hunt day before the regular season starts where anyone with a license between 12-15 years old can take any deer on one day.  Oldest Son went with some friends to their cabin to give it a try, but didn't see any deer that day.

Several friends we have made here in VA go deer hunting, and several were more than willing to take us out and show us the ropes.  But being an engineer, I like to get some hands on instruction before being set loose in the woods.  Too many things can go wrong and I wanted to be sure that I was prepared.  So it seemed appropriate that a class was in order.  Luckily for me, Jackson Landers teaches a class up in Charlottesville.  This is a two day, hands on class that goes through hunting tactics, shooting range experience with various caliber rifles, actual hands on butchering of a deer, and cooking of the deer that the class butchers.

WARNING - The below photos may be graphic to people that are not used to hunting or butchering animals!

There was a surprise snow storm up in the hills west of Charlottesville on the Saturday that we were at the rifle range.  We went up to a public range in the George Washington National Forest southwest of Staunton.

The trees were still in color, the grass was green and the slow was covering the ground.  This made for some postcard photos, and a cold day at the range.

It turned out to be a cold day, but the sun was out and our minds were more on the range than the weather.  We got to shoot all sorts of rifles, including .30-06, .30-30, .270 Winchester, .22 and .308 among others.  Not sure what other calibers were there, as these were the main ones that I tried.  We started with a .22 out a 25 and 50 yards, then moved onto the higher power rifles at 100 yards.  At the end, a few clay disks were stuck out at 150 yards.  Jackson had a new hunting knife as a trophy for whoever could hit one of the clay targets in the fewest shots.  One guy hit it on one shot.  My first shot I anticipated, and pulled it to the side.  My next shot was dead on.  One shot too late.

The next day was butchering after some more class time.  One of the additional instructors, Fergus Clare, got a fallow deer from a deer farm.  Unfortunately, the deer farm will be closing this year, so Jackson will only be having two more classes this year.

Everyone in the class got a hand in skinning the deer.  It was done in a worst case scenario on the ground, without hanging the deer in a tree.  He told us that if we could process a deer on the ground, we could do it anywhere.

Everyone took turns as Jackson and Fergus showed us what to do.  I got to cut off a quarter and take out a backstrap, along with assisting in the skinning.

Interestingly, there was a lady filming our class as she is working on a documentary on Jackson.  We'll have to wait and see if any of us in the class move on to become a star.  Although one of the students is an actor, I'm not sure if this class would help his career.  Surprisingly, she stuck right there with everything as we processed the deer.

This class is geared towards adults that want to start hunting deer.  It has appealed to the slow food and locavore movement, where people are wanting to take responsibility for where their food comes from and have meat that is not stuffed with hormones and antibiotics.  A wild whitetail deer is as free-range and natural as it gets.  This class showed us how to use all parts of the deer.  As you can see below, by the time we were done, there wasn't much left of the deer.

Now that the deer was processed in the field, it was time to head to the kitchen.  Jackson showed us how to clean up the cuts of meat and how to get a much meat as possible from the deer for consumption, including grinding the lesser bits for use in things such as tacos, etc.

We started out with a few medallions pan seared with some olive oil and salt and pepper and some fresh thyme.  Then it was on to the backstrap with some butter, salt, pepper and thyme.

Backstrap being prepared for cooking.

The hind quarters were then cut up to show us how to get the most out of that portion of the deer.  For being a smaller doe, it did provide quite a bit of meat.

The meat was delicious.  We talked a bit about the misconception of the "gamey" taste of venison.  That is due to the poor handling of the meat between the death of the deer and getting the meat into the freezer.  Picture Bubba driving around town with his deer tied on the hood of the truck over the hot engine for a few hours showing all his friends his prize buck.  If handled properly, you can not even tell the difference in the taste of the meat from very lean beef.  The meat that we ate was incredibly tasty.

I can't say enough about this class.  It gave me the confidence to go out and try to take a deer by myself, although I hope to go with one of my experienced friends at first, just to have the backup assistance if things go wrong.  This will be something now that I can pass on to Oldest Son and later Middle Son and Youngest Son if they have the interest.

Virginia State Fair

Originally being from Wisconsin, the state fair is a huge spectacle with all sorts of food being the focus of the event.  Some of these foods are corn on the cob, grilled in the husk, then peeled back and dipped in an old coffee can full of melted butter, ten sprinkled with salt and pepper.  Another is the hand made cream puffs that are made inside a refrigerated building you walk through to get your creamy delight, enjoying not only the sweets, but also the cool temperatures.  And of course, there is the brat.  If you say it while you are pinching your nose closed, you will get the nasally accent that a true Cheesehead will have as they order up their brat, with or without kraut.

So the Virginia state fair rolled into town and we got a great deal on season passes through Groupon.  Have I mentioned how addictive Groupon is?  Car detailing, restaurant deals, and now the state fair!  Some friends of our grabbed the deal on Groupon along with us, so it was off we go!

This year we made it to the fair for two days.  We had the season passes, so we had to use them more than once.  The first trip I convinced all the people involved, five kids and three other adults, including The Good Wife, to check out the animal pavilions before going on the rides.  Partly because I don't like the rides, and partly because I wanted everyone to get a real feed of what a fair is all about.  Although I did take a photo of the kids on the display board simulating a roller coaster!

We checked out the chickens, the ducks, got a bucket of mini donuts, looked at all the displays of vegetables that were entered into the competitions, watched a cow judging, which I have no idea what the judge is looking for.  Of course some time was spent with the kids climbing all over the farm tractors on display.  We also checked out the calving barn, and there was a newborn calf less than 24 hours old laying there next to its mama.

There was the arts and crafts pavilion, which wasn't appreciated by the kids, but the photos entered into the competitions were fun to look at.  By the time we looked at everything that wasn't a ride, it was time to go!  The only thing that kept the kids at bay, was a promise that we would come another day.  And so we did.

The next trip to the fair was all about the rides.  When I commented that we needed to check out the animal pavilions before going on the rides, I thought we were going to have a mutiny.  Off to the rides we went.

Each child got a wristband for unlimited rides.  From one ride to the next, watching them toss and turn, flip and fly and spin and roll.  My stomach was loosening up just watching them, and both of my feet were firmly planted on the ground.  After a little bit, they were hungry again, even though we had eaten at home before going to the fair.  So some french fries were bought and shared with the group.  Then more rides.  And more rides.  And...

Apparently french fries from a state fair and rides at a state fair don't mix.  At least not inside the stomach!  But after about a half hour, he was back at it and in the rides with the rest of the kids, and nothing left in his stomach.

Overall, we all had a great time at the VA state fair.  It isn't the size or food spectacular of the WI state fair, but it is still a lot of fun.  Of course, my favorite part is the animals, but I know the kids loved the rides!

Brunswick Stew at Possum's

Today was a sign of fall.  Yes, it is technically fall, being after September 21,  but it sure hasn't felt like it.  There are a few trees starting to turn colors, and we had a few days of cooler weather, but this week it has been raining almost every day and it has been about 80 degrees this week.  It's hard to feel like it is fall when you are still in shorts and tee shirts.  My long-sleeve tee shirts have been silently crying to me to get some use.

But this was the day that Possum selected for his Brunswick stew party.  For those of you not familiar with Possum, he is the one that saw me working my original two bee hives and asked me if I would put some bees at his 3 acre garden. He starts the stew around 6am in the morning cooking over a wood fire fueled by only hickory.  He says it adds flavor to the stew.  The main ingredients are tomatoes, butter beans, corn, celery, potatoes, chicken, turkey, stock from the chicken and turkey along with water and a selection of seasonings and spices.  Mixed all together and cooked in a monstrous pot over a wood fire.  The pot is so large that he doesn't have have a matching lid.  Instead, he uses a piece of plywood cut to a matching circle with a handle screwed on the center for lifting.

Possum filling a serving bowl from the main pot of Brunswick stew.

It was delicious.  The Middle Son and Youngest Son chose not to partake and Possum had hot dogs and sausage for them, cooked up in his smoker to add some extra flavor.

A lot of people were coming and going.  Possum said about 80 people were invited, and the party started at noon and goes until the pot is empty.  That's the way to have a country get together to celebrate the changing of seasons and the coming of fall.

Somebody is Watching!

From checking the blog stats here, it is known that a few people here and there have been checking out my blog and following my haphazard adventures to living the country life.  But now it is proven.  Concrete2Chickens has been given the "Liebster Blog" award by the nice couple over at Broken Road Farms. It was the bonding we had over waiting for our first eggs this summer from our first chickens.

From "Our Life on the Broken Road": "Liebster" is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The Liebster is awarded to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers.  Concrete2Chickens definitely fits into that category with less than 200 followers!



There are a few rules associated with the Liebster Blog award.  So without further ado, here we go.


1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.


     Thank you Broken Road Farms! This award may seem insignificant to some, but it means a lot to me to get some kudos from someone other than family and pre-blog friends.


2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

     This is not an easy task as there are a lot of blogs I watch and I don't want to offend those that are not listed below.  There will actually be six mentions, but one of them gave the award to me, so I assume I can't give it back.  With that in mind and Broken Road Farms already mentioned more than once, my top 5 picks are as follows:


     1 - Haphazardly Coherent - Full disclosure: Cookiedough was my college room mate and we worked together at my last job in Phoenix.  Even with that going for him, his blog stands on its own.  Most of the posts focus on two of his favorite things: mountain biking and food.  Not just any food, but unique combinations of food, and a lot of it on the grill.  His photography is excellent and I know he works hard to get better and better.  In 2010 he challenged me to do a Photo a Day with him.  Well, I made it through about May which is when we moved to VA and everything got really busy and I got distracted.  He powered through and completed the entire year with only missing about two weeks total.  If you haven't tried this yourself, you can't imagine how impressive that is!


     2 - Life in a Little Red Farmhouse - Although I have not met Kim, I feel a bit of a bond with her as we both have three boys and have moved to the country from city life.  Her posts are filled with great pictures, and that "Little Red Farmhouse" is awesome!  Her and her family built the house by themselves and made it the way they like it.  Some country, some modern and a little bit of whatever they want.  They also have patience beyond measure.  They have been taking horse riding lessons and spent a lot of time just training the horses without even riding.  I'm not sure I could have been that patient to wait.  And their menagerie of animals on their farm keeps me coming back to find out what they are going to be doing next! (After I wrote this glowing review, I realized that Kim has over 200 followers.  I still think she deserves the award though, so I am going to keep it listed here.)


     3 -  Rurally Screwed - I'm not sure how many followers Jessie has, so I am including her.  Jessie is another one that left city life and moved to the country.  And her husband is over in Afghanistan serving our country in the US Armed Forces.  She is also getting settled into country living and her posts are loaded with photos.  And Jessie tells it like it is.


     4 - The Locavore Hunter - Again, I'm not sure how many follower Jack has, but his blog is intriguing.  I just ordered his first book "The Beginner's Guide to Hunting Deer for Food".  The oldest son has a lot of friends that are into hunting and he wants to give it a try.  This is a whole new topic for me that I won't get into here.  Jack is also working on a new book called "Eating Aliens".  Although it sounds odd, it is all about hunting and eating invasive species that can actually make natural species go extinct in certain areas.  And I love reading his hunting stories.


     5 - Apple Pie Gal - I have just recently started following Apple Pie Gal, but I have spent a little time checking out some of her older posts.  She definitely has variety, from hunting, to gardening, to canning, to chickens, to bees, to just about anything.  And the best part, they have a tractor that any homestead would love to have.  They have done a lot of the things that I hope to do and her blog is a wealth of information to be learned.  Looking through her blog I noticed that she has already received the "Liebster Blog" award, but hey, people can get multiple Grammy's and Emmy's, so why not multiple Liebster Blog's?


3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.


     Done above.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

     I'm sure they will as all of them have been friendly and welcoming.  

5. And most of all - have fun!!


     Sometimes my posting has gaps due to either work or personal life, but I try to catch up, even if everything isn't in chronological order.  I hope that all of you have enjoyed following everything that is going on here at our home, and please, feel free to leave comments.  It is the small affirmation that what I am writing resonates with someone else out there!

20th Wedding Anniversary

August was a busy month.  Other than the Good Wife's family reunion, there was also the earthquake and the start of school.  But the big event was the Good Wife and my 20th wedding anniversary.  20 years!  That seems like such a long time ago.  It was three kids ago, two dogs ago, three houses ago, two states ago and about seven cars ago.

A little while before our anniversary, the Good Wife got one of those timeshare calls asking us to come and visit a resort in Williamsburg.  For our time, we would get two nights and three days in Williamsburg.  Why not?  It would only take 90 minutes of our time.

The weekend came and off we went, along with the three boys.  They joined us for the first night there since it was a Thursday night.  Friday morning, some friends met us part way and took them until Saturday evening.  The Good Wife and I were celebrating.  Now what?

You never know what you will see in when you get into a tourist infested area.

On the recommendation of a co-worker, we went to find Edward's Virginia Ham Shoppe.  We happened to come across one in Williamsburg and got a sandwich from their deli.  It was excellent.  They were friendly and kept offering us samples.  We could have stayed there and had a full meal.

But apparently that wasn't the original store.  We were on a quest.  The original Virginia Ham Shoppe was across the James River.  And the best way to get across the river is by the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry.

Although it looks foggy, it was smoke from the Great Dismal Swamp fire.  It was a nice ride across the river.  Something different.  Once on the other side, it was a few miles down the road and there was the original Ham Shoppe.

Surprisingly it was smaller than the other shop in Williamsburg.  We had such a good sandwich the day before, we decided to get another one for later.  We asked for the same sandwich we had at the first shop, and they wouldn't give it to us!  We wanted the pretzel bread but didn't want a hot sandwich.  They refused to make it for us.  They said they only make the pretzel bread in a hot sandwich.  We told them we had just had a cold sandwich with the pretzel bread the day before at the shop in Williamsburg, but they still refused.  I don't understand how stores can stay in business being that rude.  We selected a different bread, got our sandwich and headed back to the ferry.

Before getting back on the ferry, we stopped at a dollar store for some oyster crackers.  We wanted to feed the seagulls that followed the ferry.

They were everywhere.  And most of them were very talented and would catch them up in the air.  Several families came back to watch and we shared our crackers with the kids.  Everyone had fun.

Then it was time to go to our timeshare meeting.  We had no interest at any point, and were only fulfilling our obligation.  Three hours later, it was finally over.  Yes you read that right, three hours!  The only good thing was that our salesman took us on a drive through Williamsburg to show us the sights and told us a lot of the history of the area.  That was worth it, but that is about it.

We drove the entire Colonial National Historic Parkway.  It is a nice road through the woods between Jamestown, through Williamsburg and on to Yorktown.

We got to see the Yorktown Victory Monument and walk along the beach and have some ice cream.

Too soon it was time to head home.  We had fun, even though our "free" hotel was horrible  I don't even want to mention the name.  We had originally planned to go to Las Vegas and get our wedding vows renewed by Elvis.  We did that for our 10th anniversary and wanted to do it again, but that was when we were still living in Phoenix and much closer to Las Vegas.

I rented a tux, the Good Wife slipped back into her original wedding dress, and Elvis presided.  It was just the two of us and Elvis.  We had a lot of fun.  Who knows, maybe for our 30th!  I'm sure Elvis will still be alive and kicking in Las Vegas.