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New additions

A mama hen showed up this morning with new chicks.

Ready or not.....

It looks like summer is here. The last few days the temps have been in the 80’s and climbing higher every day. Didn’t quite make 90 today, but it came close.

I took time off from chores today and took Sis and the dogs out to play. It was already hot by the time I rode away from the truck and trailer, so I kept the ride short and didn’t stray to far from water.

The creeks are running high and swift from melting snow in the high country.



You can’t see much of the falls through the trees, but it is running nothing but white water.



Almost back to the truck, and we passed an irrigation pond where the dogs could water up and cool off.



I was in town a few days ago and stopped at the Forest Service office to inquire about road and trail conditions. No roads have been graded yet, but the 2 trail heads closest to me are at least accessible. No trail crews have been out. As usual the FS is crying about lack of funds, and I was informed that there my not be any trail crews this year. Be prepared to clear trail yourself in the National Forest.

Bear trouble

This post is a little different from my usual; funny in some ways, but not so much to the person involved I suppose. Living out here in the country as I do, encounters with the local wildlife are to be expected. If you have problems it is generally expected that you will handle them yourself. That’s the theory anyway, although it doesn’t always work out that way. It all started a few days ago.

I received an email from a neighbor up on the hill behind me. A bear had broken into her chicken coop a couple of times and killed some chickens. My neighbor moved here from the city a number of years ago, and she is now a County Supervisor. She can be expected to do things by the book. She called the Federal Trapper who’s job it is to take care of problem animals like coyotes, cougars, and bears which prey on domestic livestock. That usually means on ranches where they are suffering losses of cattle and sheep, not a few chickens in a backyard coop; but my neighbor is a County Supervisor, right?

The trapper came out that afternoon and set a large cage type bear trap. He told my neighbor that if the bear came back again that night, and failed to get caught in the trap, he would be back in the morning with dogs. Long story short, that is what happened. The trapper’s dogs treed the bear and it was dispatched. End of story; but not quite.

I heard from my neighbor again this morning. She has a couple of house dogs, just mixed breed pets. Last night the dogs started raising a fuss, and my neighbor looked out the window in the direction of the chicken coop. There was a bear on her porch looking back at her from about 2 feet away! She hit the panic button, took the dogs with her, and hid in the bedroom where she called the trapper again. When the trapper had killed the first bear he had left the trap at her place, but he had shut it down. Since this bear hadn’t killed any chickens, he couldn’t do much about it, and it is doubtful if he could get a permit to take another bear from there anyway. He came out again this morning and prowled around the neighborhood a little bit. Come to find out, another neighbor close by had shot an old horse and hadn’t gotten around to burying it yet. In effect, a built in bait pile! He told my neighbor that she can expect to have bears scavenging around for awhile. Fun times!

Trial run

My new ENO hammock arrived a couple of days ago and I wanted to set it up just to get the “hang” of it, so to speak. Let me preface by saying that my main interest in a hammock is the comfort many “swingers” claim they provide. Especially those with bad backs! I’ve had chronic back problems for years, and it has been many years since I have slept on the ground. My standard camp setup is an army style cot with a foam pad. My back packing days are far behind me, so I am not concerned with weight or bulk. Even back when I was packing with horses and mules, I took along a light weight folding camp cot. The claims by hammock users of the superior comfort they provide, without a sore back in the morning, lured me on; and I decided I just had to give it a try. So new hammock in hand, I loaded the dogs in the pickup and took a drive up the mountain behind my house.



There was no threat of rain, but I put up a tarp anyway for the shade it provided. Hanging the hammock between a couple of trees was a simple matter. I put a Thermarest pad in it just as if I was actually camping, and even tossed in a sleeping bag.

First impressions:

I bought the Doublenest model, and I’m glad I did. It provides some wiggle room for a single person. If 2 people actually use one of these I assume they must be VERY close friends who like to cuddle. I’ve never used a mosquito net so I see no reason why I should suddenly need a hammock with a built in net.

The only way I could keep the sleeping pad from sliding out the end was to tie it to the carabiner behind my head using the straps at the end of the pad.

A pillow is necessary, at least for me.

Could I sleep comfortably on my back in this hammock? Not a chance; but then I don’t normally sleep on my back.

Can I lay on my side in this hammock? Well sort of.

Could I sleep comfortably like this? Remains to be seen.

Right now I have mixed impressions. I suspect there may be a learning curve to sleeping in a hammock, but I’ll give it a good honest try later this summer when I start doing some serious camping. Even so, I can see where it might be a handy item to have along just for lounging around in a camp during the day. In fact it folds up so small that I might just leave it in the truck all the time, in case I want to hang out in a shady spot through the middle of the day. It only takes a couple of minutes to sling it between trees.

The bears are back

It’s been ages since I posted anything here, mainly because I didn’t feel I had much worth talking about. Things didn’t work out exactly the way I had planned this winter and I didn’t get out as much as I usually do. Hopefully things are about to change.

Yesterday was a pretty nice day weather wise, so I took a break from spring chores and took the dogs out on the mountain behind my house for some much needed exercise. I let them run ahead of the pickup until I thought they had enough, and was about to stop for lunch when I saw a pile of bear scat on the side of the road. The first I have seen this spring. I set up a calling stand nearby, but nothing showed up. If this crazy weather we have been having will settle down so I can get a better handle on the chores that have built up around home, I hope to be getting out a lot more.

We finally got a morning when it wasn’t actually raining or snowing, although pea soup fog. I thought that if I wanted to get out with the dogs, this was the day to do it, so I decided to take a little walk to a spot behind a local ranch and set up a calling stand.

As I drove past the rancher’s house there was a little bunch of deer out in the field. I would have liked to have shot some video, but I’ll have to do that some day when I don’t have Chigger along. He is at the stage now when anything he sees is fair game. Bear was in the back of the truck, but Chigger was up in the cab with me. When he saw those deer he went into orbit! He wanted out in the worst way, completely out of control. I didn’t stand a chance with the camera as he tried to claw his way out. We have some work to do. I can’t blame him entirely, as I have been turning him out on anything that crosses the road, which up to now has mostly been squirrels, but I obviously need to get a better handle on him. Saying he was wild is an understatement. Airedales are terriers, and the terrier blood sure boiled this morning.

Farther along the road I parked the truck at the gate and turned the dogs out. It would be a little walk, so I left the electric caller in the truck. I thought the video camera and tripod would be enough to carry, and I always have an assortment of mouth blown calls in my pack. There were still patches of snow, and I saw a few deer and squirrel tracks. When I reached the spot I wanted to call from there was a bobcat track.



The track was to old to do anything with it, but I set up to see if I might call something up. I kicked the snow off a down log and put a plastic grocery bag on it so I would have a dry place to sit. The last time I had called from this spot a coyote had come in behind me from a field, so this time I set up with the camera facing that direction. I had the dogs tied to a couple of trees, and Bear was watching in more or less the same direction while Chigger paid more attention to the timber behind me. I thought I had the area pretty well covered, but nothing showed up.

There was another spot that I would have liked to have tried, but the ground wasn’t frozen and was water logged from rain and melting snow. I knew the rancher wouldn’t appreciate me tearing his road up, so we called it good for the day and poked along home. Now the clouds are rolling in thick, and it is beginning to sprinkle. Looks we are going to get it again.

In case there is any doubt....

Ready or not, winter is here. I woke up this morning to 8 inches of new snow on the ground. Heavy wet stuff, the kind we usually get here. At least that means warmer temperatures. It has been unseasonably cold lately for so early in the season; breaking records in fact.

It hasn’t been very long ago since I posted a photo of a few deer in the field behind my house. This is what that same field looks like now.



My pigeons come out of their loft for a short time in the afternoon. I can’t chase them out of there in the morning.



We had a little excitement in the neighborhood yesterday. A 2 story house on the hill across the road from me burned to the ground. Fortunately it was unoccupied. I don’t know the people who lived there, but I learned today that the house was for sale and vacant. Our fire department has a poor record of putting out house fires out here in the country. They usually arrive in time to save the foundation.

Neighborhood pets

We got our first snow of the season this morning. Not a lot really, less than an inch of dry powder. The guys who get paid for guessing what is coming say there will be more tonight and over the next few days.

There has been a little group of does and fawns hanging around here all summer. I happened to see them crossing the road this morning and grabbed a couple of shots. Not the best, as I was using pretty high telephoto and bracing the camera against a door jam. Didn’t have time to even think about the video camera.

Chigger and the squirrels

I didn’t plant a garden this year, so I haven’t been shooting the ground squirrels around here. That’s a mistake! It doesn’t take long for them to get out of control, and recently at least one decided it would like to spend the winter under my house.

A few days ago I saw one sitting on a stump in my back yard, so I picked up a .410 which was handy and shot it right out of the window. Of course the dogs knew I had shot something, so I turned Chigger out. The digger hadn’t dropped right where I shot it, but crawled off down toward the creek. Chigger found where it had been and trailed it up. He didn’t have to go far, but he found the squirrel and ragged it around. Then I set a cage trap where I had seen the squirrel going under my house.

That evening Chigger was laying where he could look out the window, and he started whining and growling. I looked out, and the trap had been sprung. I turned him out, and when he found the squirrel in the cage he went nuts! Thought he was going to tear my trap apart, rolling it all over the yard. I finally pulled him back and shot the digger with a .22, then dumped it out. Chigger practically tore it apart. I was able to get it away from him and hung it up on a clothes pole. Chigger was trying to tear the pole down, but I kept fooling with him and he started barking treed. He was eventually able to get the squirrel down, and by the time I was able to get it away from him again there wasn’t much left of it.

That was several days ago, and the weather has turned cool and nasty since then. I haven’t seen another squirrel - until this morning. Chigger was laying near the window again while I was sitting here at the computer. He started making quite a fuss, so I went to see what was going on. The trap had been sprung again! I picked up the .22, and a camera this time, and turned Chigger out. He went around the side of the house in attack mode, and had hold of the cage before I could get to him. I was trying to get it away from him before he cut his mouth up, and wasn’t entirely successful. HE’S STRONG!

I finally pulled him back long enough to shoot the squirrel and dump it out on the ground. I let Chigger rag it around some, then had a time getting it away from him. I hung it up on the clothes pole as I had done with the other one, and Chigger started treeing hard right away. I petted and praised him, and he treed even harder. He was able to get the squirrel down off the pole, and by the time I got it away from him again there wasn’t much left. Now I see a problem. If I want to shoot a gray squirrel to eat, I’m going to have to tie Chigger back first, or there won’t be much left for me. And now I have to do some repair work on my trap before I can set it again.

Last of the pack

Sadie was the last of the old pack of Casey, Kelly, and Sadie; all hunting Airedales. She passed on in her sleep last night, not unexpectedly. She would have been 15 years old next month, my oldest Airedale so far.

Sadie was a little female that no one wanted until she arrived at my place at around 14 months old. She had been passed from owner to owner for various reasons, but when she got here she stuck. When she found out what bear hunting was all about, she discovered her place in life. Like her running partners she really preferred lion, but there are generally more bears around to run and that is where she shined. She loved to run and tree a bear, and if one felt like staying on the ground that suited her just fine too. She generally changed its mind and made it rethink the matter. The bear usually ended up in a tree. In her later years, after Casey and Kelly were gone, she accompanied me on many a calling stand. That is what we were doing in the above photo; setting up to call coyotes above a place called Horse Thief Meadows.

Signs of fall

I headed up the mountain this morning with the notion of giving the dogs some exercise ahead of the forecast change in the weather; and of course to set up a calling stand or two. I put Bear and Chigger out in front of the pickup and let them hunt the road ahead of me. It was cool this morning, and the dogs moved out at a good clip. I had high expectations of them treeing a squirrel or two, but nothing seemed to be moving. When I thought the dogs had enough I loaded them in the truck and drove to a good location to call. I couldn’t even call up a blue jay! With the cool weather and approaching storm front I thought game would be moving; but we saw neither fur nor feather all day.

We’ve had frost a couple of mornings, and the trees are starting to show off their fall colors. I parked by some pretty maples to eat my lunch.



The dogwood are turning from their summer green to fall red.



I’ve heard the clang of cowbells passing my house the last couple of nights as cattle are making their way home after grazing in the mountains all summer. The bear are coming down to lower elevations too.



The clouds have been building all afternoon, and it is starting to sprinkle this evening. The forecast says the rest of the weekend is going to be on the wet side. A good rain and some frosty mornings should make a difference on what goes on in the woods.

Regular readers here might notice the new logo at the top of the left column. OUTDOOR BLOOGER NETWORK. This is a new site with a directory of blogs devoted to the outdoors; hunting, fishing, and other outdoor pursuits. Just click on the logo to go there. Check out the directory for the various subjects and blogs available. I’ll bet you find some you would like to read. I did.

Backyard deer and a fox

The trouble with wildlife photography is that the wildlife doesn’t always cooperate. Several days ago I saw this little bunch of does and fawns in the field right behind my house. I happened to have a still camera handy, so I grabbed it and took this shot. Several shots actually, but this was the best. For the next few days I kept the video camera set up on a tripod hoping the deer would be back. A couple of times I saw 1 or 2 deer in the field, but to late in the evening to shoot any video. So far there has been no further sign of them.

A couple of days ago I took Bear out to set up a couple of calling stands. Drew a blank on the first stand. On the second stand I was using the electronic call, playing cottontail distress sounds. Only a couple of minutes into the call and I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. There was a fox in the brush, but it saw me at almost the same time I saw it; swapped ends and beat it out of there. I didn’t even have time to turn the camera on. Bear had seen the fox too, so I turned him loose for the run. At least he had some fun out of the deal.

A near miss

It was cloudy and cool this morning, so I took a dog along and hiked to one of my favorite spots to set up a calling stand. Had the video camera on a tripod, and before I even started to call Bear was telling me there was something down the hill in the timber. I called just a couple of minutes with an open reed mouth blown call, and Bear really got excited. Took me a few seconds to see it, but it was down the hill right in front of me, standing just at the tree line. A coyote or fox, I couldn’t be sure which, but I think a coyote. I thought I had it in the view finder when I hit the GO button, but I must have jarred the camera out of position. Bear couldn’t stand it any longer, and he started to bark. Whatever the critter was, it ducked back into cover and out of sight. I let Bear go for a little exercise anyway. When I rolled the tape back, all I had was a shot of the hillside. $%^&! Oh well, you win some and lose some. Better luck next time.

Private property woes

It looks like the timber company that owns most of the property behind me is going to be hard to get along with. That property has historically been open to the public for hunting and about anything else short of pot gardens. When I moved here, over 34 years ago, another timber company owned it. They were good neighbors and easy to get along with. A few years later another company bought it, and aside from discontinuing firewood cutting permits, everything remained pretty much the same. The present owners bought the property 3 years ago.

The last couple of years saw no changes to speak of. Now suddenly in the last 2 - 3 weeks, roads have been gated off and NO TRESPASSING signs put up. They can’t close the main road leading up the mountain, as it is public access to a trailhead, and has been recorded as such at the County Courthouse since 1938; but they are gating off the side roads and posting the property. The company has, or had, an office in a nearby town, but the telephone has been disconnected. A company representative lives down the road from me, but is making himself unavailable. Won’t answer the phone or return calls.

This morning I headed up the mountain as usual to set up a couple of calling stands and maybe bring home a squirrel or two for dinner. As I said, this road is public access. It was down right spooky up there, considering this is deer season. Didn’t see another soul or even hear another vehicle. When I came back down off the mountain I saw a sign that I either hadn’t noticed on my way up, or it was put up behind me. NO TRESPASSING, HUNTING, OR FISHING. I guess you can use the road to reach the trailhead, but if you step off it you are technically trespassing. Time will tell what develops over this, but the present owners of the property have made an awful lot of enemies.

It's berry picking time

Normally I would have already picked my elderberries by now, but this year the powers that be conspired against me. First there was a crew working on the road that leads up the mountain behind my place, and the road was closed to traffic. Then I became involved in a minor capacity in a search and rescue operation. That is a rather sad story, and I really haven’t felt much like posting it here. It could have turned out much worse than it did though, and I may still write about it, but at another time. Now, this being a Friday, the general deer and bear seasons open tomorrow, and I really don’t want to be out in the mountains this weekend. Maybe not this entire week. So I put off the elderberry picking for now and went after the black berries today.



The berries are as numerous as ever in my favorite patch, but they seem smaller than in previous years. I have a berry bush in my back yard too, and it isn’t doing well this year. I have to cut that bush back every fall to keep it from taking over the back of my house, and maybe I over did it last fall and it put all its energy into new grown instead of producing berries. Or maybe it is just a bad year for black berries. Be that as it may, the berries where I went today were really in need of picking. Bordering on over ripe, some would fall off the bush at the slightest touch; but full of juice and sweet as honey. I have the purple stained hands to prove it. I came away with a pretty good haul.



Tomorrow I will run them through my sieve to separate the seeds and any small stems from the juice and pulp which will be turned into jars of black berry jam. Then I’ll see about those elderberries.

Chigger's day out

I started out yesterday with a plan to check out a little used road on private timber company land. There are a couple of good spots up the road to set up a calling stand, a creek where I might possibly wet a line, and an old trailhead several miles farther up the mountain. The road and surrounding property are all owned by the timber company, and the road is not maintained. If there are no plans for a logging operation, the company isn’t going to waste money keeping the road up. The gate across the road had been closed all last winter, but with summer here and deer season not far off, I thought it might be open now as it usually is at this time of the year. No such luck! The gate was closed and locked, and I had to back down the road to a wide spot to turn around. I had another place in mind where I wanted to try calling.

I had Bear out with me the last time, so this was Chigger’s day. When I started up the dirt road I soon ran into bear sign. There were tracks of several different bears along the side of the dusty road, and bear scat was prevalent where they had been eating manzanita berries. There was more bear sign here than I had seen anywhere so far this year, and I stopped to shoot the video below.

I parked the truck where an old skid trail leads up a ridge. I took my camera pack with me, turned Chigger lose, and began hiking up the trail. There was some bear scat here too, but I also found old fox scat. Not surprising, as the spot I was headed to is one of my favorite places to call from. I have called fox there many times, plus a couple of coyotes and a cougar. It would really be unusual not to find fox and possibly bobcat scat along this trail.

The trail up the ridge leads to an old road that has been washed out for years and is inaccessible to traffic. A hundred yards along this trail and I walked down another old skid trail to the place I wanted to call from. I sat down on an old stump, tied Chigger to a handy tree next to me, and set the camera up on a tripod. I chose to use an open reed mouth blown call made from a deer antler; a gift from a custom call maker several years ago.

I was only a few minutes into the call when I heard a slight sound to my left. The fox had come in behind me, right down the skid trail I had walked in on. It was within 6 feet of me before it saw me, and I saw it. The fox stopped for a few seconds, gave me a hard look, then jumped sideways and beat feet down the hill and into the brush. Naturally this all happened to fast to even turn the camera on, let alone catch any of it on video.

Chigger had seen the fox, so I unsnapped him and let him go. To my surprise the fox was still right there in the brush! It hadn’t run off, and Chigger took it for a little run. He wasn’t gone long and soon came back up the hill to me. Then the fox began to bark at us! This was ideal, and Chigger went back down the hill again. He stayed a little longer that time, but it was really hot by now, 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon, and Chigger was soon back with his tongue hanging out. It was enough. Not bad or a dog that hasn’t quite turned 13 months old yet, and this was the first fox he had ever seen.

Still more scat

Farther up the mountain, as I hiked to one of my favorite calling locations, I came across yet another kind of scat. While I may seem to be preoccupied with different kinds of scat, paying attention to this sort of thing is a good indication of the kinds of animals living in or passing though the country. While tracks are a good indication of recent activity, they may not last long or even be visible on hard ground. Scat may lay around for a long time, and the knowledge of what animal left it, and what that animal has been eating, is useful information to a hunter or wildlife observer.

A different kind of scat

Yesterday I took Chigger out for a little calling experience which I will go into in another post. While driving up the mountain, I came across more bear sign than I have seen anywhere this year. Judging from the different sizes of tracks, it appeared that several bears had been feeding there in the last few days. I took the time to get the camera out and shoot the following video.

More lion scat

Here is a video that I found on YouTube that some may find interesting. It shows the use of a trained dog in a study to search for mountain lion scat for DNA testing.