wtnhunt

While statewide new case numbers are not as bad the past few days, rural areas continue to be well above the threshold the cdc recommends. Several schools in this area that opened have had to shut right back down and move to distant/virtual learning. Our schools open here tomorrow. I would be willing to bet they don't make it 3 weeks before they have to shut at least one of the three down.

Not sure how close behind us as to what is planted this year, may be as close as a quarter mile, other direction it is about a mile away.

Kind of figure a lot of deer are hanging out in the corn crops. Corn won't be out any time soon. Usually by this time of the year we have had at least one buck on camera catch my attention and wanting a better look. To this point the highlight of trail cams has been a set of small triplets. Don't usually see that too much here these days. Still no bucks beyond 1.5 year olds. I do not have a camera in the bottom yet though, and I have seen some fair sized tracks down there. May just have to plan to sit there on the first morning if I have the right wind. Only 2 weeks away now.

Wife unfortunately had a resident test positive, however the same resident had been tested the day prior and that test result came back negative. Resident was sent to the small hospital in that town the day after the positive test and that test came back negative. From there the same resident was sent to the big area hospital and tested again and that test also came back negative. So for whatever reason 3 out of 4 tests over a 4 to 5 day period came back negative. So at this point the question is, is or isn't the resident positive. Wife says if/when resident returns to their home that protocol will have them treat that resident as a positive case despite having two negative results after the positive. Think the dogs with 92 percent accuracy are much more trustworthy way of testing than whatever these labs are doing. Makes you wonder how many of the million plus positives really are positives. And how many false positives there have been for folks who have expired, that may have had other issues that were called covid but really not.

Good luck with your plan Dakota. Don't usually get mock scrapes going here until mid to late October, ahead of our juvenile hunt. We see bucks start really using territorial scrapes late October. I have had pretty good luck with using drippers and active scrape. I do usually open a few with my own urine that get took over as well. Licking branch is key. I tie drippers above a licking branch so that it will drip on that branch before hitting the ground. Scent precautions are obviously important there, rubber boots and vinyl or some type of scent free gloves are also important. My youngest daughter got a real show last year with the buck she ended up killing. The day before she shot him, we watched him stand on his back legs working over a licking branch under an oak tree, out in the middle of our field. Pretty cool. Minerals here are legal year round with the exception of cwd zones. We are in "high risk", but have had no actual cases in our county, so no longer legal here to use minerals. Agree with Al on minerals being a great place to catch an idea of what bucks are around. Baiting also became illegal year round, but I am certain there are plenty of people in this zone using "deer corn". With 2 months of running cams this season I have yet to get better than a one and a half year old buck, no decent bucks. Anyway, hope we see a picture with you behind that nice buck or another nice one this season Dakota.

Had a kind of tense situation yesterday that got me to thinking. Was at the dmv, sitting and waiting and had our 9 year old son with me. It was pouring rain and we were sitting there wearing our masks, although my son mostly had his under his nose or on his chin, which is an entirely different topic of discussion. Some guy comes in, probably in his late 30's, woman at the door told him he had to have a mask on. He was extremely angry and arguing with her. I got a really bad feeling about the situation and mass shootings and my son's safety immediately came to mind. Not ten years ago that type of thought probably would never have crossed my mind, but I found myself watching as the man left the parking lot and watching the window behind me to see if he came back. Contemplating what do I do if he comes back in, my fastest route to charge him if he comes back with a weapon. I was sure he would look to the counter away from me and that would be my opportunity to hit him. He did not come back while we were there, but still made me think about the current stress levels and some of these situations. Has this mindset become a norm? Anyone else find themselves in similar situations planning out there best plan in their mind to protect their child in a what if event?

Honestly think Ferraro would have been better than Biden or Harris. Was an interesting bit about Harris "African" or her black side on Laura Ingram show last night. Evidently that side of Harris's family from Jamaica was one of the biggest slave traders there was. I cannot validate that it is factual but certainly interesting if true. No doubt though she has never had the struggles of low or middle class families.

Dunno, we seem to have some regulars here some years that we get hundreds of pics from May/June into the season and even post season. Then other years we may go a full season with never getting a single pic of a decent buck. Then like last year the buck Allison killed got his pic made several times and we saw him the day before she shot him. The buck that Catrina killed, I had seen the deer the week before but we had no pics of him. And the buck I killed, which was in December, the only sighting or pics were the morning I shot him. Guess in my long winded ramblings what I am getting at is that every buck is different. Maybe he will stick around long enough for you Dakota.... Or you get another "surprise" show up.

That is a real nice buck Dakota. Good luck.

Good to see you back on here Dakota. Glad to hear things are going better for you. Looking forward to hearing some hunting stories from you this fall.

Have 3 plastic totes. I wash as needed in scent away or sports wash. I have put cedar limbs in the totes, there are cedars all over our property. When it's cold I usually put on my base layers by the door, then walk outside to put on my outer layer. When it is warmer and I am wearing just one layer I usually get dressed outside. I almost always take a shower before heading out, use saw soap and shampoo on my hair and dove unscented soap. I do use saw spray most of the time but not always. I have gotten away with deer getting pretty close in swirling or shifting.winds, but have also gotten busted my fair share of times.

Unanswered questions as to why China and WHO were not forthcoming with what they knew about this in the beginning. Then their adamant denial that this thing could become a pandemic. Did they want it to spread to other countries? They sure didn't do anything to attempt to stop the spread away from China. Then the convenience of the origin of this being next to a bio tech lab?

We don't get much in the local news on our county with regards to schools, but while scrolling stories on google found and read a news report this morning that the middle school our 14 year old was in last year has teachers that are positive for covid. Schools have not opened to students yet due to being delayed 2 weeks. At this point, the transmission rate here in our county is more than 4 times higher than what is specified as acceptable by the cdc for opening. There is only one county in the state of 95 that is within acceptable range. Also saw a report last night on our local news that over 7000 students had signed up to be online or distant learning in the county schools where we get the news from, some 5000 students would be going for on campus classes. Guess in a way that is good for the schools in that it might alleviate some of the overcrowding. Would be nice if our schools would give us more feedback in these regards, but they have been very quiet.

Dunno why but for some reason Joe Rogan comes to mind here and then the idea of madagascar hissing roaches. lol. Guess I saw a few too many episodes of fear factor. Seriously though those sound pretty good Dakota. I like a good coffee rub for pork, have made my own many times.

Saw an interesting piece on the news on this where dogs were being used in airport in Dubai airport to test human sweat for covid. Said they were with 92 percent accuracy. Would guess some of that error might be in the human handler.

Very true. Personally I would not trust any state labs.

I don't agree with the commission's ideas on this or their idea on liberal limits. All it takes is a couple in an area to ruin the hunting. Just have to hope there are enough neighboring property owners here to understand that this mindset does not make for sound management of the whitetail population.

Well it's happening. Two Tennessee schools have already had to shut down after being open less than two weeks. Cases here have not slowed down. The first local child death just being reported today, a 6 year old little girl. Knew it was coming, still sad to hear.

Changes here this year with our county going into the cwd zone. We are a high risk county with no positives, but the regs have it so that there are loads of opportunities to kill countless deer. The Tennessee commission for a change has been be honest in their goals, they want to pretty well decimate the deer herd in the entire cwd zone. "No deer, no cwd transmission."

Have heard similar stories of testing sites and the health dept. Catrina is doing all the testing for her employees in house with a private lab. They have had a few more come back positive and have one that is really bad sick test positive. That person was exposed at a church revival where the pastor was positive and exposed several.

Good luck Dakota. A months worth of trail cam images from two cams here has not shown a single decent buck around. Hoping we have a nice one show up soon.

Great story Dakota. Thanks for sharing it with us. Congratulations again.

Never really done the hunting camp thing. Walk out the back door to my stands. Guess our home is our camp.

It is a real challenge when he gets a fever. I hope this will get better when he gets older. Our governor has rejected Dr Deborah Birx and other white house covid task force recommendations. Tennessee has made it to the top in the country in one regard, not one that is good https://www.wkrn.com/community/health/coronavirus/pediatric-covid-19-cases-surge-in-tennessee/. At this point with 37 new cases in the county today and most days this week in the 20's, the school does not meet criteria to open at full capacity. Numbers here are still going upwards.

Turned off by the commercialization of most channels and shows.