and a strong cup of coffee

I am beginning to learn how to age a buck on the hoof.  It can be hard in the woods with branches and bushes blocking pieces of the animals but I want to work on it and see if it will help my patience as I wait for the bigger bucks.   I have gotten pretty good at aging does based on their face structure and the size of their features.  I have not had the opportunity to harvest a doe, so I can't say for sure if my calculations match the actual age of the deer but I am working on it.  I have a nice, healthy heard of deer living around my house and it’s not uncommon to see an older doe with some yearlings or even fawns throughout the summer.  Their longer features means an older animal and if you are patent enough and have a few moments to study the animal, you can tell if the doe you are looking at is older or younger. It also matters where you live. I posted a trail camera photo of a buck on the And a Strong Cup of Coffee Facebook page. We knew that the ...

We moved to a new house about a month ago.  The second night that we were there, a doe came out from the woods.  Since then, we have had three does hanging around, one of which was VERY pregnant the last time we saw her (I am hoping for twins!) They are out on the back lawn at least twice a week and one morning, I had a doe only a few yards from the house.  When I threw open the curtains, she just looked at me and kept eating. If I draw a doe tag this fall, they are not necessarily safe but until hunting season arrives,, we will keep watching them.

If you do not follow me on Facebook , then you don't know that Dad totally schooled us in how to shoot a big buck.  Did some scouting, brought his gun, right place, right time, incredible buck! (Mom's flip phone doesn't take great pictures) So, that leaves Hubs (who has a doe permit) and I (who does not) to attempt to get a shot at one of these big bucks!  The competition is on!

I am not sure if the target in the backyard has made the deer around here more relaxed or not, but for this fawn, it wasn't sure what to make of this thing that looks like a deer but doesn't move.  If this target can fool these deer, I am wondering if we could use it as a decoy during hunting season... that is something that I will need to research! Either way, the doe and the fawn both look incredibly healthy!  Always a good sign for the deer herd.

At this point, Staci and I just say that we are doing shed hunting but in reality, we just walk through the woods and see what we can find.  Our latest trip was quite the adventure.  I took Staci to T3 and showed her where Dad had shot his doe.   The trick was getting there without getting hurt. There was enough crust on the snow to be able to walk on it in the morning.  We debated bringing our snowshoes, but ruled that we could handle the crust with the occasional inch break through.  The amount of deer tracks right from the start were nice to see.  They had been checking the old apple trees and following a lot of the same trails that they had been taking during hunting season.  We started off at the Sky Condo, then traveled through the woods to T3.  There were a handful of deer beds close, which is not typical for them at this point in the winter.  It looked like the herd was staying closer to the Sky Condo then they typically did....

It's that time of year when deer are yarded up and surviving the harsh winter weather.  I've been fortunate enough to see lots of healthy looking deer while walking through the woods.  In talking with friends about the deer herd in their area, they have mentioned that they want to start feeding the deer to help them make it through the winter.  I quickly respond with NO! Don't feed the deer! It is fun to see deer come out of the woods and munch on grain or corn, but what a lot of people don't realize is that feeding deer these foods during the winter months could have dire consequences and could actually kill the deer that they are trying to help.  Here are the primary reason why you should not feed deer during the winter: Biological Impact : Every animal has bacteria in their gut that helps to break down food. In the case of white-tails, the bacteria changes depending on the season and what their primary food source will be.  In the spring, summer and early...

One of the does that we have around the house had twins.  Our landlord asked if we had seen them and at the time, we had not.  I set up my Moultrie, threw out a few apples and waited. I have gotten some great photos but I have yet to see both fawns, which makes me wonder if the other fawn has died or if this is a different doe/fawn combo. I am running out of apples but am planing on keeping my camera up to see if I can get any photos of the two fawns together.  And if not, I will move the camera and try to figure out where the bucks are around here. I may also move this camera up to the Sky Condo and check out some old rub lines to see which bucks are roaming around. It is looking like it will be a good deer season!

I posted these pictures on the Facebook page and asked people what they thought was going on with my doe's shoulder.  We got a few different responses but I am not sure. Warts? Burdock? a horribly placed bow shot? I am hoping to keep watching her and see.  This is the first time that we have seen a deer with something like this.  On the flip side, she looks very healthy.

There is something so wonderful about not living in a city; wildlife!  The deer are looking fantastic this spring since we had such a mild winter.  They are in the process of shedding but if all goes well, they will be big, fat and healthy once fall comes. Yearling deer steps into the driveway Doe eating grass on the edge of the driveway

This is what the owner of the property found the day before we arrived to shed hunt.  He wasn't out looking for sheds, just walking around the property.  As bummed as we were to see this, the fact that they now had two years worth of matching sheds for the same deer is pretty awesome. The set on the bottom is from 2015 and the set on top is from 2016.

Staci and I found a great place to shed hunt.  We knew that there were deer all around and that we would be in the right spot to find something.  It had started to snow when we got there but the forecast called for heavier snow in the late afternoon.  As outdoors women, we figured that we would be fine. We just started following tracks to figure out where the deer were traveling from.  We headed through a field and towards the woods, looking for beds, feeding areas or yards where the antlers may have fallen off.  Our plan was to walk the perimeter of the property to see what we could find. It is always a good sign when you see a rub almost immediately.  We have seen the sheds that have been found nearby so we knew that there were decent sized bucks around and that the odds were in our favor. Highways of deer tracks ran through the woods and crossed a stream in two distinct spots.  Staci and I followed different trails looking for...

My neighbor feeds the deer in the winter so when I was cleaning out my fridge and found that I had a dozen apples that needed to get tossed, I decided to throw them on the back lawn to see if the deer would find them. Within a few hours, I noticed these two munching happily. The third doe that appeared was not nearly as oblivious to me standing in the kitchen watching them.  She stomped her foot a few times and kept watch while they all ate. I watched them and took pictures until they walked into the softwoods and it was too dark to see them.  I had turned off the kitchen light and taken off my white sweater so that I could blend in and not look like a white flag in front of the glass doors. Hunter or not, how can you not love watching deer!?