Work Day Reverts To Plan B

The temperature was to get up into the high 30's on Thursday, and to anyone who lives in the midwest you know that would be balmy for this winter, which has seemed to spend more time in the negatives than in the positives. This had me excited to actually get a little outdoor work done in the form of hinge cutting some cedars to create better bedding cover for wildlife, as well as getting my post hole digger running.

Upon arriving to the property I quickly discovered that was not to be, as my chainsaw quickly let me know it was boss by refusing to run. My post hole digger also let me know it would not be working by displaying worn out cracked fuel lines. However, being new to this land management gig there is always other work to do so I set out to have a productive day anyway. I hopped on the quad and took a ride down to the box blind, which is in desperate need of repairs before the upcoming season. I headed back to the shop and did a little carpentry work to produce a new floor for the two man blind. I then realized that I will soon need to transport a tractor from my brother-in-law's place to the property for spring food plot planting, and decided it might be time to ensure the trailer is in working order. After some airing of tires that was complete. It was now time to reward myself with a cigar break.

The final task of the day was to tour the land and check trail cameras. This was truly the pleasant surprise of the day. I checked trail camera #1, which hadn't had much action since deer season ended and it had 26 pictures, mostly of a doe and two yearlings that I get numerous pictures of all over the property. Then I checked camera #2, which said it had taken 110 pictures. Upon seeing this, I was a bit annoyed, figuring the cold weather had caused my camera to malfunction and take a photo every 12 seconds of nothing for a while (anyone with trail cams is aware of this extreme cold weather effect on the cameras at times).

Upon arriving home, I popped the sd card in my laptop and was pleasantly surprised that all of these pictures were legit, and that many displayed a dozen or more deer at a time in the pics. It looks like the herds are recovering quite well from two years of drought and a rough winter.