Home › Forums › Campfire Forum › Scouting and picking blackberries

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    • critch
      Member
        July 7, 2014 at 1:29 pm
        Post count: 111
        #2633

        Well, the wife and I went picking blackberries on our farm yesterday and it gave me a really good chance to take a look around before the season starts. I saw two fawns and momma was only a few steps away, they moved on pretty quickly. We were on one side of a berry patch and there was a young coon on the other eating to his heart.s content. He would only move if we approached and he still keep eating.

        I noticed that the deer are really using an old mill road on the side of a hill to move from one end of my farm (100 acres) to the other, it’s pretty much the path of least resistance while staying in cover..this gives me some ideas on where to set up for archery season.

        I also saw a beautiful red fox, I don’t see them often around here….it was moving across a small field and looked like it was after field mice or something..I don’t know if red fox are scarce around here or just real good at hiding.

        We picked a little over 1 1/2 gallons of berries. We’ll do one or two more pickings this week before the berries start to shrivel. They’re very sweet this year and large. last year we had a drought that started in April and the berries were terrible.

      • Doc Nock
          July 7, 2014 at 2:10 pm
          Post count: 1150
          #11430

          AWESOME!!! Great to read that… what a lovely outing!

          We have an old tree nursery behind us and farm fields to one side…rest of area is in the boro.

          There was a young red fox sneaking along the edge of my neighbor’s deck and wheelchair ramp… then out under his pick up…then into the tree nursery (which is to soon be “developed”.)

          Broad daylight….but I’ve seen reds in daylight often this time of year…usually the young who’ve gotten kicked outa the den last month and are trying to figure out how to survive… this one has no fear of people…. 😯

        • Ralph
          Moderator
            July 7, 2014 at 10:01 pm
            Post count: 2580
            #11798

            Funny Doc, when I have bow in hand no critters seem to worry about me either.

            When I was a lad I had a little wooden bow my neighbor had given me along with a handful of arrows. I was in his berry patch “borrowing” some berries when I shot a cottontail rabbit with that little bow. That’s when I became hooked on bowhunting.

            Must been something in the berries.:D

          • Doc Nock
              July 7, 2014 at 11:05 pm
              Post count: 1150
              #11870

              Gets a little droll after 15 sits and all deer are 100 yards away, or worse, no deer seen at all!!!

              Course, that is tree stand hunting. I think I’ll carry my roll-a chair stool with me and hunt the ground this year1

            • critch
              Member
              Member
                July 8, 2014 at 1:56 pm
                Post count: 111
                #12624

                Based on many years of observation and prognostication I really believe we’re going to have an early fall. Normally it’s just a few degrees hotter than Hell around here at this time of year, but our temps for the next week are way below normal, and so is the humidity. In August of 1981 we were wearing flannel shirts and light jackets due to the sudden coolness, but it had been a very cool summer as well…this one is the same.

                I think it will be cooler earlier this fall for archery season. I hope so.

                I’ve also noticed that sumac and some other bushes are already turning red…

              • Doc Nock
                  July 8, 2014 at 2:13 pm
                  Post count: 1150
                  #12635

                  MO, huh?

                  Should’ve moved there when I came in NOV to look around! 🙁

                  Hotter’n the hinges of hades here… but it’s been a very weird year… heavy snows, cold wet spring, then hot, then cool, back to hot and humid as I sit here sweating.

                  great holiday weekend, though. Beautiful weather!

                  IF there is a chance I remember my biology at all, if there is a period of dry weather, a meristem grows partly over the base of leaves and that can start to precipitate color change… and early leaf drop.

                  I think I just have “weather envy” Critch… cool is my fav!

                • critch
                  Member
                  Member
                    July 9, 2014 at 2:12 am
                    Post count: 111
                    #13191

                    I saw a beautiful young buck, 4 pointer in the velvet on another piece of property down in the delta. He was fat, there’s lots of food and water this year…

                    I saw him first, when he saw me he took off like a striped-a$$ ape…

                  • Doc Nock
                      July 9, 2014 at 2:34 am
                      Post count: 1150
                      #13212

                      BTW, just how FAST [b]are [/b]those striped-a$$ apes in MO?:lol:

                    • critch
                      Member
                      Member
                        July 9, 2014 at 10:47 am
                        Post count: 111
                        #13599

                        They’re so fast I’ve never seen one….but my dad often talked about them…and turpentined cats….:D

                      • Ralph
                        Moderator
                          July 10, 2014 at 12:40 am
                          Post count: 2580
                          #14185

                          Here’s one when he’s resting up!:D They only look striped when you cain’t see’um.:wink:

                        • hunt1321
                            July 10, 2014 at 1:41 am
                            Post count: 16
                            #14245

                            I’ve noticed all of the blackberries this year. Seems as if though I haven’t seen them for a few years. Mullberries were heavy as well. I hope your right about the early fall; I hate living here in the summer. Went to Doniphan today to current river to swim with the kids, it was almost too cool! Saw a couple of striped apes out there! 😉

                          • critch
                            Member
                            Member
                              July 10, 2014 at 2:04 am
                              Post count: 111
                              #14261

                              I grew up in Doniphan and Grandin…not many monkeys…

                            • Doc Nock
                                July 10, 2014 at 12:34 pm
                                Post count: 1150
                                #14787

                                We have a few of these around… didn’t stay long enough to check for stripes…

                                attached file
                              • Ralph
                                Moderator
                                  July 10, 2014 at 4:03 pm
                                  Post count: 2580
                                  #14950

                                  I think Doc cropped the picture, it did have a “bow” in it’s hand. 😀 Or something:wink:

                                  What happened to the berries and deer?:D

                                • Ralph
                                  Moderator
                                    July 10, 2014 at 4:21 pm
                                    Post count: 2580
                                    #14968

                                    OK, back in the bow world.

                                    :D:D

                                  • Doc Nock
                                      July 10, 2014 at 5:03 pm
                                      Post count: 1150
                                      #14998

                                      R2 wrote: I think Doc cropped the picture, it did have a “bow” in it’s hand. 😀 Or something:wink:

                                      What happened to the berries and deer?:D

                                      You would know, Ralph, since you sent it to me!

                                      That weren’t no bow I cropped out…just the universal sign language sign for ‘You’re # 1!”

                                      Kinda accentuates how pug ugly that ole critter’s mug really is

                                    • Ralph
                                      Moderator
                                        July 10, 2014 at 6:30 pm
                                        Post count: 2580
                                        #15068

                                        Doc Nock wrote: [quote=R2]I think Doc cropped the picture, it did have a “bow” in it’s hand. 😀 Or something:wink:

                                        What happened to the berries and deer?:D

                                        You would know, Ralph, since you sent it to me!

                                        That weren’t no bow I cropped out…just the universal sign language sign for ‘You’re # 1!”

                                        Kinda accentuates how pug ugly that ole critter’s mug really is

                                        Innocent I am, just shootin’

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