Showing posts with label deer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deer. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Journal: Wednesday, 12/24/08

►  Heat wave.  Foggy, gusty south wind and 49ºF/9ºC @ midnight.

►  A little light rain during the early morning hours.  Only .3" in total for yesterday and overnight.

►  Mostly cloudy, but patches of blue sky starting to show through ... northwest wind ... 53ºF/11ºC @ 10:30 AM.

►  We are in the process of receiving a new cold front.  This one is neither supposed to drop the temperatures too much nor be messy.  (47ºF/8ºC @ 11:15 AM)

►  Clearing with the arrival of a new cold front progressing very slowly if at all.  (44ºF/6ºC @ noon)

►  Today ended up being a great day with lots of sunshine.  Too bad good weather isn't going to last long.  (43ºF/6ºC @ 4:30 PM.)

►  There's no meteorological excuse for Santa not finding our place again this year:  Clear skies, light northwest wind and 32ºF/0ºC @ 8:45 PM.

►  Midnight:  Clear, calm and 29ºF/-1.5ºC.  I hear no sleigh bells.

►  Weather Summary:  High = 54ºF/12ºC.  Low = 29ºF/-2ºC.  Temperature @ midnight = 29ºF/-2ºC.  AM = Temperatures continued rising gradually throughout the morning.  Skies remained overcast.  .3" of rain fell in the early morning hours.  PM = Skies cleared in the early afternoon leaving us with a beautiful, sunny day.

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Monday, December 1, 2008

Journal: Monday, 12/01/08

►  A very light dusting of snow is being blown around by a gusty north wind.  29ºF/-1ºC @ 1:30  AM.

►  Time to throw a couple more logs into the wood stove and then go to bed.  (28ºF/-2ºC @ 4:45 AM)

►  Blog Post on Nature in the Ozarks:  Buck Deer in the Garden


►  So far today is much better than yesterday -- and better than today's forecast too. (Partly cloudy, blustery north wind and 40ºF/4ºC @ noon)

►  Unfortunately, the weather seems to be coming into compliance with our forecast. Clouds are moving in and we appear to be heading toward overcast. (40ºF/4ºC @ 1 PM)

►  Jo made a run into town.  She had some orders to mail plus routine grocery shopping, etc.  Jo said the line at the post office was long, but she'd used Click-N-Ship and her packages were ready to be mailed.  All she had to do was hand them to the clerk, which is exactly what she did.  Some of the other people in line acted as if they did not appreciate her jumping to the front of the line, but she really didn't.  She stacked her packages on the counter in front of a closed clerk's window.  She didn't take up any of the one working clerk's time.  And, anyone who wants to spend the time online can use the Click-N-Ship service.

►  Jo also bought some "extra" food.  When we do Christmas Showcase down in Little Rock, we stay with a friend.  A couple of other artist also stay.  Everyone brings food and we have potluck meals in the evening after the show.  Jo is making King Ranch Chicken.

►  Spent several minutes looking for my knit cap before heading outside. Only when I gave up looking and decided to put on a ball cap instead did I discover the knit cap on my head. Nap time? (Still 40ºF/4ºC @ 3 PM)


►  Back from our afternoon walk. Can't believe I found a violet blooming.  (Varying between partly and mostly cloudy, moderate north wind and 35ºF/1ºC @ 5 PM.)

►  After alternating between partly and mostly cloudy all day, our skies finally cleared around sunset.  We got a good look at the conjunction of the moon, Venus and Jupiter.

►  Jo is loading her kiln for the last glaze firing before our last art fair of the season.  Not all the glazed pots will fit.  Which pots go into the kiln and which stay behind?  What are we going to sell this weekend?  (Mostly clear, light north wind and 30ºF/-1ºC @ 8 PM)

►  Last pre-show glaze firing underway. 29ºF/-1ºC @ 11 PM

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Journal: Wednesday, 11/26/08

►   Blog Post/Photo on Nature in the Ozarks: Thanksgiving Cactus


►  Bedtime. (49ºF/9ºC @ 4:30 AM)

►  Let the coffee consumption begin.  (Clear, calm and 65ºF/18ºC @ 10:30 AM)

►  Major warming trend today.  72ºF/22ºC @ noon.  Wind calm and the sun is shining brightly in a mostly clear sky.  Beautiful!

►Temperature holding at  72ºF/22ºC @ 2 PM.  Loving  the sunshine we're getting lately.


►  Back from afternoon walk up to  the gate and back. We saw a half dozen does and one Caterpillar -- with treads, roll cage and big diesel engine. (63ºF/17ºC @ 4:45 PM)

►  We seem to have misplaced a half dozen 3/8" X 4' dowel rods. How can that happen? (Clear, calm and 51ºF/10ºC @ 7:00 PM)

►  Accustomed to have the house to myself this time of night, but Jo is still awake. (Cat napping on the couch, actually.) She squeezed in an extra bisque firing and is waiting for it to finish before officially going to bed. (Clear, calm and 46ºF/7ºC @ midnight)



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Friday, November 7, 2008

Journal: Friday, 11/07/08

► Started Jo's kiln on another glaze firing. (51ºF/10ºC @ midnight)

► Fully closed lid on kiln. The temperature is getting chillier tonight than is has been for a week or so. (44ºF/6ºC @ 3:30 AM)

► Checking in under clear skies with a moderately gusty north wind. (53ºF/11ºC @ 10 AM)

► Back from PM walk. Partly cloudy with a moderately gusty north wind blowing. (56ºF/13ºC @ 5 PM)


► I saw a pretty good sized buck down by the creek behind the house around dusk. There were too many branches in the way and it there wasn't enough light for me to count the points on his antlers, but he had a nice rack. It was way too dark for me to get a photo. He needs to start staying deeper in the woods. Tomorrow is opening day of modern weapons deer season.

► Yesterday's really nice weather led me to leave the basement/shop door open for most of the day. The open door led a little field rat to venture inside. I saw it several times while working during the evening. The thought of herding it back outside crossed my mind, but I rejected that idea, figuring the rat would chose to hide rather than be herded. Trapping would be necessary. Late in the evening, I heard scratching over by the door. The rat wanted out. I assumed it would flee when I approached, but it stayed put, letting me open the door and then scampering out into the night.

► Had to crank up the wood stove this evening for the first time in well over a week. (42ºF/5ºC @ midnight)

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Saturday, October 18, 2008

Journal: Saturday, 10/18/08

Early Morning: Chilling down, but not quite as much as last night.  52º F (11º C) @ 2:00 AM.

Late Morning: Another beautiful fall day in the Ozarks.  (Yes, that's redundant, but I will never tire of saying it.)  A little warmer than yesterday.  The wind has become variable and picked up a little -- probably in the process of shifting around to the south.  66º F (18º C) at 11 AM.

Afternoon:

Houseplants:  Jo finished transporting all our potted plants and hanging baskets into the house for the winter.  I helped by carrying a few of the larger ones.

Young Buck:  A young buck came down for a drink at the small pond visible from our kitchen window.  Doesn't he know this is the fist day of muzzle loading deer season and he should stay hidden in the woods?  Having never been a hunter, I am not familiar with the terminology describing a young buck's antlers -- the degree of antler formation necessary before he can be legally shot.  This one had a long and a short tine on each side of his head.

Another Fall Art Fair:  Both Jo and I applied to the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Covington, LA.  Jo did the show last year for the first time.  Considering the distance from our place to southern Louisiana plus all the great things we'd heard about the show, Jo's sales were not up to our expectations, but they were good enough for us to give it another shot.  However, neither Jo nor I got into the show this year.  Both of us were placed on the standby list.  Today, Jo received an email saying someone had cancelled and inviting her to exhibit in the show.  Jo accepted.

Blog posts from last year's Three Rivers show:


So, it looks as if Jo and I will be heading south in a few weeks.  That means Jo will be busy, busy, busy in her pottery studio.  It also means that we need to find a new place for boarding Rusty and Bucket that's south of us.  In years past we boarded the dogs at our local vet's.  Her office was right on the way if we were heading south and only slightly out of the way if we were heading north.  However, due to a variety of unfortunate circumstances, she was forced to close her office early last spring -- and we were forced to find new places for boarding our dogs.  We found a vet up in Harrison that we like for boarding, but that's an extra 80 mile round trip if we're heading south.  We also used a vet's office to the south for boarding last spring, but did not think our dogs received adequate care.  We must find a new boarding facility.

Weather:  Temperature range = 74/48.  Clear skies.  Light and variable wind. 

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Thursday, November 22, 2007

Wounded Buck Attacks Hunter

Man versus deer is not always a one-sided contest in favor of the human.


Ron Shock of Greenbrier found himself in a second-best situation with a confrontation with a buck on the third day of the modern gun hunting season. The buck whipped Shock then ran off.


Shock, 63, was hunting near Cadron Creek northwest of Guy in northern Faulkner County. A stand used in past years needed repair, so Shock passed it up and used a lightweight lawn chair on the ground.


He spotted a good-sized buck with its head down, apparently feeding and about 50 yards away. “I cocked my gun, and the buck jerked its head up. I shot, and it went down. It jumped back up, and I shot again. The buck went down again then jumped up and came straight it me. I started backing up and stumbled over the lawn chair.


“The deer went after the lawn chair, and it tangled in its antlers. Then it came at me, pawing with its (front) hoofs. It got me on both sides of my face and my left arm that I was trying to protect myself with. Then the buck ran off.”


Shock said, “That lawn chair saved me. It fell off the deer’s antlers not far away, and I just laid on the ground. I was hurting. My son Danny and grandson Michael were hunting with me, and we have a signal we use to contact each other. So I reloaded the rifle and fired four shots. They came to me.”


Bruised, scratched and shaken, Shock immediately concluded that he was lucky in not being hurt worse by the deer. He said, “I’m not sure how big it was. I think it had 8 or 10 points (on its antlers), and it might have weighed 150 pounds. It was a pretty big buck.”

Ron, Danny and Michael Shock found the bent metal lawn chair but could not find any blood. “That second time I shot the buck, it wasn’t more than four feet away from me.”


Back at the same site two days later, Shock saw vultures. He found the buck dead, with it having gone several hundred yards and across Cadron Creek from where the attack took place.


The deer’s hooves caught Shock on both cheeks and on the neck. The deepest marks were on its left arm, the one raised in protection. The parallel marks were wide apart, indicating a good-sized hoof had made them.


The behavior of male deer can change drastically during the rut, the breeding season, according to wildlife biologists. Normally reclusive, bucks often turn bold and aggressive toward other deer, other animals and even humans. They have been known to charge vehicles on roads as well as four-wheelers and even persons riding horses.


Deer in Arkansas are much more numerous than they were a few decades in the past. In 1939, Arkansas had only 5,000 deer, according to Game and Fish Commission estimates. With a statewide restoration program, deer increased to a quarter of a million in the early 1970s and today the state has more than 750,000, perhaps as many as a million.


via: Arkansas Game & Fish Newsletter



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