Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020

This morning was one of those mornings I love as a hunter. I was clear, cold and calm. I would be able to hear any deer coming for a while before it got to me. I love listening to deer walk through the leaves.

I got into my spot a little after daylight today. I didn’t feel well when I woke up. I battled some blood issues throughout the night, which led to broken sleep and not much of it. Luckily, things straightened out about halfway through my walk to where I wanted to sit.

I chose to sit on a steep hill today and watch a nice flat below me. Although it’s an area where a lot of deer don’t seem to travel, it’s an area where some good bucks work early in the season.

I had two places I could’ve sat this morning but chose this one when I reached the other place first. I decided to continue walking and settle into this place for the morning. I was happy about my choice.

Shortly after daylight, a reddish pine marten with a white face made its way toward me. Before long, it was running across a log 10 yards to my left before climbing a small pine tree and sitting in it above my head. There were a few anxious moments, as I know they can be vicious little creatures. I still enjoyed watching it.

I sat until about noon before wandering around. I wanted to check a few things out, and I had a camera in this place. It’s one of the only places I actually put a camera this year that isn’t within a few hundred yards of the road.

I wish I hadn’t checked it, but I did. I’m not sure what I expected to see on it but what I found didn’t make me too terribly happy. I will never understand why people can’t leave things alone that aren’t theirs. I don’t touch other people’s stuff, and I’d expect that others would do the same. I guess it’s just the way I raised. I’m proud to be Dad’s son because I believe I do things the right way — respect people and respect their things, even if it’s on public land.

Most people don’t realize that it’s basically impossible to erase a video on a camera, and furthermore, if it’s set on picture and video, they don’t even know the video is on there.

Well, someone decided to erase all of the pictures on the camera, then made sure they walked in front of the camera afterward to pretend they hadn’t seen the camera. He pulled a face mask up to cover everything but his eyes, so he can’t be identified. Unfortunately, for him, he didn’t realize that I have everything on video, even all of the pictures he erased. Of course, I didn’t get the still images, but I got all of the videos where there still images come from before the video starts.

So what’s the moral of the story? Don’t mess with other people’s stuff. If you want to look at it, which I wouldn’t do, just look at it. There’s no reason to go messing with stuff and sabotaging it. I have some good footage of the person, and I’ll make sure to say hello when I see him and ask why he felt the need to do what he did. As I tell everyone, “It’s a really big, small world out there.”

In a small area, everyone kind of knows everyone else’s business, even if you don’t want to. I always stay to myself and try my hardest to avoid others. It doesn’t always work, and that’s easy to understand. I kind of laughed to myself about what had transpired, but at the same time I won’t lie and say it didn’t get under my skin, because it did. Mission accomplished, said mad did what he set out to do.

At the end of the day, I hadn’t seen a thing when I headed out of the woods. Nobody saw anything today. I’m not sure how much the deer moved the last few days. I didn’t hear many shots at all, and I usually hear quite a few the first weekend of the season.

At least I finally got on the board this weekend and have two deer sightings under my belt for the year, and one of the deer was a nice buck I chose not to shoot. I wish I had my camera with me, but I chose not to carry it in the rain. I’m going to try to pack it with me the rest of the year. It’s been a few years since I got any good footage while hunting. I need to get back at it, but this year hasn’t been good for that so far. I haven’t seen anything to video, although the buck and the pine marten would have been very cool to see on my TV.

Dad goes to his nephrologist on Tuesday. Hopefully, she can figure some things out and get him headed back in the right direction. I don’t like to see him feeling like he has been feeling recently. Any improvement would be good. We do know that his last round of tests didn’t go well. Tuesday, he gets to see what is next in his recovery. I’m hoping he gets back on track and feeling better so he can enjoy a little time in the woods.

Leave a Reply