Phew. Sorry for the blog silence, dear readers. I've had a rather intense ten days of hard work and multiple deadlines. Things should be calmer going forward. (Yeah right.)
We're engaged in many pre-winter projects I'll be posting about within a couple weeks, including putting up firewood, installing our wood cookstove, getting materials together for next spring's garden, and putting in some fall plantings.
Meanwhile, take a peek at these photos. Early one morning, well before sunrise (meaning, the light wasn't the best), I looked out our window and saw these two young bucks. Operative word: young.
They were engaged in some low-key sparring. As you can see, their antlers are hardly big enough for that task, but since when does that make a difference when testosterone is concerned?
They'd push each other around for a moment or two, then disengage and try to figure out how this sparring thing is supposed to work.
Engage!
Meanwhile some monumentally unimpressed females grazed nearby, utterly indifferent to their teenage antics.
After a while, one of the boys moved to another field, where he stood in profile, looking majestic (in a goofy adolescent tiny-antlers sort of way).
But the behavior of these young boys is a portent of things to come. Let the rut begin!
I love that. My husband's uncle came to visit us from Arizona for the last week (he left today) to do some deer hunting here (we visit him to hunt javalina, lol). He got a nice big doe (with my crossbow, which I've never managed even get a shot with!) so he and his wife will have enough venison to see them into spring at least. I hope we are so lucky!
ReplyDeleteXaLynn
That wonderful time of year when deer with on thing on their minds decide to become a venison meal.
ReplyDeleteWhat excellent photos! The rut…also know as…lost their ever lovin minds!
ReplyDeleteAh, Teenagers. Awkward the world over.
ReplyDeleteThis really threw me down memory lane, We love the rutting season!
ReplyDeleteI miss the days when the kids were home and we all would pack up for a 2 week hunting trip. All the school books would get put in on of the toy trunks. We would camp up at Union Creek Oregon along the Natural Bridge camp ground. I felt like I had boiled a lot of the Rouge River for dishes, bathes, coffee heheheh My husband, Daddy would go out at first light leaving me and the kids snug in our wall tent. Momma (me)would get up, get the fire going, knock the ice off the dogs water, feed everyone. Then we would get our school work done while the forest warmed up. At lunch time, Daddy would come in and tell the kids all that he saw that morning. After lunch we would all go and explore the river banks and just be in Awe! at the red vine maple. Daddy would take turns with each of the kids taking them out for the afternoon hunt. The kids that stayed back would finish up their school work in the sun by the river or in the tent if it was raining. At 4pm I would turn on the small radio to the only station I got, NPR. I would listen to the news, get the fire going and start dinner. The kids jumped and ran and had a blast playing. Then as it started to get dark, I knew Daddy would be back soon if the day wasn't a hunting success. Somedays he wouldn't get back until and hour or so after dark. I knew he had hiked further on those days or we had meat for the winter. We would treat the kids to a special lunch or dinner at "Beckie's Café"
Oh! the bugle of the Elk in the quiet forest is truly an exciting thing to hear, the clacking together of 2 racks of horns, the rushing deadly water of the Rouge river, the smell of the small woodstove, Coffee & hot coco.