Little bit of luck and little bit of work

 This week really started out on Sunday night when one of my landowners shot me a text to see if I was going to hunt ducks on his property Monday. I hit him back with probably not Monday but within the next couple weeks. He sent a pic with in the neighborhood of 35 geese on it, so I let him know that I would be down Monday.

I hit up a couple people to see if they wanted to go and I got a yes and a maybe. So Monday morning I found myself on the way to Fort Wayne. When I got there I put out the decoys and stubbled up 2 layout blinds and waited for the ducks. I didn't have to wait long as I had 4 buzz me then come back around 15 minutes later, I dropped 1. Not long after that I had to move the decoys because of a wind switch. Just after I moved the last decoy I saw a flock of geese coming at me from the West so I got down and ready. They came in pretty easily and were going to set down right in the decoys until I sat up and started dropping 'em. I put 3 down on my first volley,  I reloaded I got back on the call and was able to bring them back and drop one more. The last goose I shot was on a marathon for a pond not on my property, so off to the races, old dude VS wounded goose. He made it a couple hundred yards before I was able to put my hands on him. But I finally got him, when I picked him up I noticed..... yahoo surprise he's banded, first one of the year. So, I walked up to the third one I shot and dispatched him and did the same with the second. When I got to the first one I shot I picked him up and saw..... yep another band. Totally awesome 4 geese and 2 bands, I brought them over and threw them in the other blind, before I got into mine I decided to take a pic and send it out to the 2 guys that could've been in on this. As I was taking them out I saw the first band and picked out the next goose and saw the second then I picked out the 3rd goose and saw the 3rd.... wait a minute 3rd band??? is the other goose banded too?

  Holy crap it is, so I shot 4 geese from a flock of 25 that were all banded, that's luck. So I took the pic of the four geese and duck and sent it out. I put the geese back in the layout and continued the hunt within a half hour I had a pair of ducks that came in and didn't leave. So with 1 goose needed and 1 duck I knew it was only a matter of .... dang that's a huge flock of geese. I saw and worked the flock of 50 or so geese into the spread I had 1 land and when the rest got into position I dropped my last goose. I went out and picked him up (no band) and waited for only a handful of minutes before I was able to end my day with my last duck.

That was a super fun really wet (still drying out) day. 

Really good start to the season.

Now for the work part of the segment... pay attention Mrs.Neff

So I've been having an issue with an over abundance of canned goods clogging up my cupboard where I keep them. In an effort to fix the issue I purchased a can organizer, the problem is the organizers that I have found are all too tall for the space I wanted to put them. I finally found one that I thought would work if the stars and moon align just right and someones measurement were off juuust enough. Well, this organizer was 11 1/4" tall and the bottom of my shelf was 11" on the bottom.

  I was hoping that it just might slide in, I was even prepared to help it in. Well neither worked so the easiest fix it to take out the shelf which in this case needed cut out. The shelf was I think glued in on the support that was just under it and wouldn't budge so I borrowed some Milwaukee tools and I was in business. As it turns out all I needed was the oscillating tool to do this job.

 After the cutout all I had to do was jam the can organizer in there.

 Next week all I have to do is get a new shelf and install it on top of the part I cut out. 

Problem solved.

All I wanted to do was...

 I just wanted to tag out on either a deer or a turkey, neither of which happened. I did have a couple deer come in and give me ample opportunities to tag out, but I held off because they were kinda on the small side. So, now I'll be going into next week with 3 seasons to choose from. Not only is it deer season, and turkey season Saturday begins the duck and goose season, and we all know which season I would rather be in. So even though I swore last year that I would wait until Halloween week to shoot a buck I may forgo deer season for the waterfowl opener. I guess you'll be just as surprised as I will when next week's blog comes out.... talk to ya then.

Short and ...

 Nothing sweet about this report. I got out Wednesday and Thursday morning for turkey and saw nothing. However I did see more leaves falling today so I'm guessing the birds will be in there next week. The cooler weather is also going to hit next week so hopefully there will be a little more deer movement. Nothing else going on here just waiting for the cooler weather and duck and goose on the 23rd. Hopefully I'll have a better report next week.

Lazy week compared to last week

 Last week was a pretty busy week on top of working Wednesday I also.... 

1. Put away all my rods, backed the drags off and covered all my reels.

 2. Changed lower unit oil and oil in both outboards.

3. Cut up 2 bed liners I got from line X and attached them on the bottom of the boat I use to haul decoys to the field. Last year I burnt holes on the strakes and needed to put a new bottom on it. Hope this lasts a little while.

 4. I had led lights with foam stickies stuck on the roof of the decoy trailer. This summer they were laying on the floor so I attached some 1x2s to the roof and stapled the lights to it.

 5. Had to bring my computer in to the computer shop because my gopro Hero 8 would connect but I couldn't find it anywhere.

With all that being done I only had a couple of things to get done this week. Since the weather forecast was rain all week I thought I would get a couple things done and relax.

Well, I did get a couple things done but I didn't get a whole lot of time to relax. Except for Monday, it seems like all I did was sleep, I did get out to get my shopping done though.

Tuesday I...

1. got my mouse baits gathered up and washed out and drying ready to bait.

2. put the rest of my goose decoys and wheeler in the trailer.

 3. hard wired my dove decoys for next year.

 4. made a windshield for my fish fryer.

 

  So with all that done and the threat of rain passing I thought I would get out in the morning and see if the turkeys were around.

I actually got up and made it out to my private property well before daylight. I got set up in my turkey killin' spot which is at a cross trail with a big tree behind me. As the forest awoke I strained to hear any sounds of turkey's in the trees. When 8:30 rolled around I came to the conclusion that the turkey's just weren't there yet. So, I got up and walked to my tree stand, thinking I would finish the day deer hunting.

I was almost ready to climb in the stand when I knocked an aluminum leg into another part of the stand and it made a loud "clank". Then the turkey that was roosted above and to the right of my stand started putting loudly. Realizing the error in my judgement I carefully climbed down. When I was on the ground the turkey flew off roost, so I went back to my chair and continued to wait. I know that once the birds are there, there are usually a dozen or so turkeys roosted together. So I waited... and waited and listened... and waited... and waited and listened and... nothing, it's now 9:30 and I thought that it would be weird but maybe there was only 1 bird roosted, so I got up and walked over to get back into my deer stand. I didn't want to waste an entire day staring at the woods waiting for something that wasn't there and by this time I thought if the birds were there they would've been on the ground by now. Just as I was grabbing for my ladder I heard a bird putt right above me. Once again I kicked myself for being stupid and retreated back to my chair, to wait until they turkey's flew down. The good news is I didn't have long to wait, the turkey's flew down at 9:45. The bad news is they flew down past my deer stand which is on the other side of a large hill 60-70 yards from where I was seated. So the only thing I could do now is wait to make sure they had all flown down before I made a move. I watched 4 birds fly down and thought that was all so I got up and slowly stalked to the edge of the hill and peeked over. To my amazement the birds were only 35 yards down the path. I took my crossbow off safe, centered the pin on the middle of one of the birds backs and let the bolt fly...

The next thing I heard was a clank and saw part of my bolt fly off to the left and part fly off to the right. As I watched the turkey's kinda meander off I knew instantly what had happened. When I got the turkey's in the scope I didn't see the rungs to the ladder that went up to my deer stand. I deflected the bolt off of the 3rd rung up 😵. Not only missing my bird but breaking a brand new bolt, completely destroying the lighted nock, and threw the badly deformed broadhead to the ground. 😭$$$

On top of all that, that was my last turkey broadhead so I can't even go back out until my shipment of broadhead's get to the house. Which by the way I am still a little surly over. I have another rage turkey broadhead that I shot my bird with last year but the blades and tip got bent and dulled. When I looked online for replacement blades I couldn't find any so I live chatted with Feradyne in Superior, WI. After getting someone on the other end I asked if they sell replacement blades for the turkey rages. Molly said they didn't, I asked why, she wasn't sure. Since these broadheads are 30$ for 2 and I now find out that I can't just get replacement blades for them, that pretty much makes them 1 bird throw away broadheads 😡 which I find to be unacceptable. She did say that I could get more collars for them. Well Molly, collars don't kill birds, blades do.

This is a pic of the turkey rage the collar is the black plastic piece below the blades.

 

So as you can imagine I was a little miffed in the fact that they thought it was nothing to just throw these broadheads away. I let her know that I will not be buying anymore of these broadheads in the future. 

Now I'm just waiting for the broadheads I did order to arrive. Hopefully I'll be turkey hunting next week instead of dove hunting.... 

Ah who am I kidding I got time for both. 😂  It's going to be way too hot for deer though. Next weeks highs are upper 70's and lows in the mid 60's all week. 

Really looking forward to some cooler temps.

By the way I settled on NAP gobbler getter broadheads, all the reviews on them are really good, and I can get replacement blades for them.

And after all that I decided to mow the lawn that I have neglected for the past 3 weeks... not going to do that again.