Strut10

P.S. Nice to see you're getting the breezes. Had 55 mph sustained winds with snow in April.

Hey, Tim.......... Familiar looking country !!! Was hunting Merriam's gobblers a whisker west of there back in April. Cool to see what it all looks like when it's out from under the 2 feet of snow !!! If you get out of the stand and need a good feed, run over to Chadron and get a steak and a pint at Feik's 120. Great eatin' !! Good luck on punching a tag for old Pitchfork !!!!!!!!

Welcome aboard !!!!!!!

I think we got 22 inches from the last week of July through the end of August. Luckily, for me, I got my plots worked in at the right times. Just finished up on Tuesday by mowing the big clover plot for the fall and spreading 900# of 10-10-10 on the turnips. Looking like we will have some nice plots this fall.

It'll be close here tonight. We are a couple counties south of the warning area. But this is locally a cold spot. Durn global warming !!!!!

Finally after almost 4 weeks.............. Indiana, PA - Dog tangles with black bear to protect injured owner SMICKSBURG — Meet Boomer. She’s your average Australian shepherd, and makes northern Indiana County her home. Her coat’s a mottled mix of black, white and brown, in no particular way. She’s one of the ones they call “ghost-eyed” dogs, with magnetic blue eyes. She’s a purebred, too. Registered under the name Sound of Thunder. She’s a bobtailed 30 pounds of energy and has whupped an animal, oh, 10 times her size. Yep. It happened earlier this month. The AKC says Australian shepherds — known as Aussies, although there’s nothing Australian about them — were the 22nd most popular breed in the U.S. in 2012, up from No. 35 just three years ago. But Boomer is No. 1 on the Dilts family dairy farm in North Mahoning Township, where she has grown up with Bob and Connie Dilts and their kids, Senneca and Zane. For all of her seven years, Boomer has done her instinctive duty. Herding the livestock, showing groundhogs their exit from the grounds. And she’s the alpha to a younger Aussie named Reina, a 3-year-old learning what it is to keep order out in the country. It was on Aug. 4 when Boomer passed her biggest test yet, staving off a bold black bear that charged Connie Dilts during her routine morning walk on the back roads near their home. “It’s a walk I’ve walked for 17 years. It’s about a five-mile loop I make,” Connie said. Deer, birds, rabbits and raccoons are the usual sights. With Connie and her Aussies about a mile from reaching home again, they approached a curve on Whitaker Road, a remote stone and dirt lane that the township doesn’t bother with in the winter. To Connie’s right, a cornfield. To the left, the woods. And just ahead, where Boomer and Reina had scouted out the turf, the dogs had doubled back with a bear lumbering along between them, charging toward Connie. “I heard the bear before I saw it,” Connie said. “They make a sound when they run, like ‘whoo, whoo, whoo,’ like that. I looked up and the bear was in between my dogs, running out of the woods, about 20 feet in front of me. The dogs were running with the bear, it was very odd. And the bear made a beeline right toward me.” Boomer and Reina kept up with the bear but didn’t have its attention. And why the bear went at Connie is a mystery to her. An avid hunter, Connie said she sees bears most often during hunting season. But on her daily walk in the farm area, Connie said she crossed paths with a bear only once, more than 10 years ago. “Bears usually don’t want anything to do with you. As soon as they see you, you’re gone. They run from you. So it’s never been a fear for me.” And there was the bear she found one day on the farmstead, taking a dip in the big pond near their house on a hot summer afternoon a few years back. It ended up just going away and didn’t bother anyone. Not so this time. In seconds, the bear was upon Connie. “It was big. Bears are hard to gauge but my guess is 300 pounds, and it was taller than me,” Connie said. Then it raised a paw. “It stood up to slice me, to swat at me. I got slashed on my wrist and I fell back, or I would have been sliced to the bone,” Connie said. “Then it lunged to bite me in my face, and I fell back again and it got me in the shoulder.” Somehow it drew blood, from a quick bite or another scratch, puncturing her shoulder, nearly ripping the sleeve from her shirt, and leaving a long-lasting bruise. “It just took both its paws and it pushed me, on my shoulder,” she said. “Then it went ‘whoof,’ and I felt the breath on my face. It flung me, like I was nothing, like I was a sack of potatoes. And I landed so hard I ripped the seat of my pants. “And it all happened so fast, in seconds. It seemed like it went in slow motion.” Struggling to regain her feet, Connie screamed once, then blurted out an attack command. Boomer jumped on the bear while Reina stayed to her side, refusing to retreat. “She never left me while Boomer fought the bear. That’s honorable itself.” Boomer, she said, went all out to stop the bear from attacking her. “She knew I was in trouble, she leapt on the bear, onto its side, its back, neck and shoulder, and she started biting it. Like a cat. She was hanging on it like a cat,” Connie said. “The bear was down on all fours and had its lip curled up and growling at me. It’s trying to shake her off, shaking her head and swatting to get Boomer off, but it was still approaching me. And this was my moment of panic. I thought, ‘this is it.’ Because if she can’t stop it …” Connie said Boomer shifted her position while clinging to the bear, hanging on while the bear tried to shake her off, and finding a way to go face to face with the animal. “She was like a viper, striking, and biting and biting. … It was vicious,” Connie said, choking back sobs. “She was giving her life for me. She didn’t care anything for herself. It was a sight to behold. She probably did it like 15 times, again and again and again. And she must have landed (a bite on) on an ear or the nose, something that really hurt, because it let out a yelp, a bad sound. It tossed her to the ground, and then it turned and ran down through the corn field.” It disappeared into the tall stalks of corn, and so did Boomer, still in pursuit. It was all Connie could do to gather her wits, from the shock of an animal confronting her so out of character, and her brush with her possible ultimate fate. “If it wasn’t for her ... well, God was definitely there with us,” Connie said. “I’m a very strong Christian, so I definitely believe He gave me her that day to save me, because if it wasn’t for her … I don’t know, I hate to be dramatic and say I’d be dead, but I probably would have been messed up pretty bad.” She immediately started running toward home and reached for her cellphone to call her husband, but the phone wasn’t clipped to her belt. She weighed the chances: Should she just run home and risk meeting the bear coming back? Should she go search for the phone and possibly lose time? Connie dashed back to the spot where the bear had knocked her to the ground, found her phone and frantically, hysterically dialed Bob, telling him of the attack. Bob Dilts jumped in the truck and sped out to meet her. And still there was no sign of Boomer. “I thought maybe it got her,” Connie said. “Because if it could reach her, it would have snapped her. She’s little, and this was a big bear.” Bob and Boomer arrived about the same time, “with a little tuft of hair in her mouth.” Boomer claimed victory. “She has a little scrape on her nose, that’s it,” Connie said. “She’s unharmed other than that. We took her to the vet and made sure, she was up to date on her shots, but they gave her a rabies booster, just to make sure, as a precaution.” The Diltses called the Game Commission, and a wildlife conservation officer visited their home to take Connie’s report. “He was very concerned, extremely concerned. He spent a lot of time at our house and did the follow-up.” She cleaned up, checked her own scratches, and decided to play it safe and headed to Indiana Regional Medical Center. On the chance the wild bear had been rabid, Connie was put through a battery of more than a dozen painful injections to keep from getting the disease. Forget the rumors circulating in the neighborhood that she had been maimed or disfigured. “I’m perfectly fine. That’s a miracle. And Boomer’s OK.” For days, Boomer remained on edge, and hadn’t yet settled back to her usual couch-potato lifestyle. “She’s on high alert,” Connie said. “For a couple of days, she just laid on top of me. And I couldn’t take a step; she kept tripping on the back of my flip flops. When I take a step, she takes a step right on top of me. “Now she’s getting a little better the past few days, but it has been intense for her.” Connie said she continues to puzzle over why this bear was so aggressive. “I didn’t see any cubs. I don’t think I’ll ever know why, whether it was sick. … But I wouldn’t be here talking to you if it wasn’t for my dog. I know that,” she said. And even though it was the first time in more than a decade that she saw a bear on her morning walk route, she said she hasn’t been back out that way. “I usually archery hunt, but I’m not going to do that this year. “I didn’t expect this. I was completely shocked,” Connie said. “I am an animal lover and a nature lover, and it was never a fear for me. People need to know, to be aware bears are beautiful and great, but they are wild animals, they are unpredictable, and they do need to be respected.” If she hadn’t convinced anyone before now, Boomer also has earned the utmost respect. “She was an amazing dog before this,” Connie said. “She’s just really a good dog.”

WoW !!!!!!!! What a lineup !!! Best bucks I have here wouldn't even have made the BOTTOM of your pass um list !!!

Congrats on all fronts !! Just passed 26 years with the clowns I work for. Mine's stupidity. I believe yours might just be dedication.

I actually had ZERO success with having deer work Trophy Rocks that I put out. They plumb ignored them.

This. Unless.......................... My personal rule for over 10 years has been that I won't shoot a buck unless I am going to have him put on the wall. Then last year I had a busted up 3 year old hose me one morning for NO reason logical or otherwise. So when he walked under me the next morning I hosed him back. I had no intention of having him mounted as broken as the one side was. It was just that he made it personal and had it coming.

Doe. Like Al said............ and even by the opener here in PA............. fawns are plenty capable of surviving on their own. So for me, it's Economics 101. The butcher charges the same to skin, cut and wrap a 130 pound mule as he does for a 60 pound butterball. Price per pound, baby. Price per pound.

If you were in PA I could hook you right up. Western Pennsylvania School of Taxidemy— Welcome Georgia.............. not so much. But I know Marc has had students from ALL OVER the country graduate from his school. Those students learned from one of the finest.

Good advice above. Rise early, complete your morning ritual, good to go. I sit all day EVERY day I hunt during the rut outside of a few circumstances.

Best argument I've seen for NOT owning a little yippy lap dog this week. Yep. A Pekingese, Pomeranian or Yorkie just would not have cut it.

Just got word that a gal I went to school with was attacked by a black bear. Don't have all the details. But she was knocked to the ground and the bear was on top of her. Her dog took the bear to task and got it/drew it off of her. She escaped with scratches. All I really know at this point.

Just did a swing past the 1/2 acre field I planted Wednesday nite. Got turnips !!! This rain has really jump-started them.

If you can find any Cuddeback Capture re-furbs I would go there. They take great photos and you have to spend over $500 to get a trigger speed comparable or faster. That being said, I will not be buying any of Cuddebacks newer models. Too many friends that have them and HATE them. Go here and check out reviews and buying guides: Trail Cameras, Game Cameras tests and unbiased reviews of Camera Traps

We got baby turnips !!!!! Drove by the big plot just this morning and there are little wee turnip plants coming up !!! Won't know for a while what kind of coverage I got (always a crapshoot walking with the hand-crank seeder). But there's lots of them around the one edge and they are up !!!

I have a well-used nail board should this become a recurring problem.

I would definitely smile for that picture !! But there are two other deer that I have pics of after season last year that will make this deer look like a runt. I just hope that they are still in the area. No pics of them yet this year.

The property is my brother's. There are gates. he chooses not to keep them locked.

Guess my goal this year is to take a 4.5 year old deer. I will, however, shoot a 3.5 year deer if he will net P&Y. Can't realistically set any higher goal for these parts.

Went up tonight and disked & seeded the 1/2 acre plot that tends to be wet ahead of tomorrow and Thursday's rain. Finished up and drove the tractor around the corner past the other 4 acre plot we just finished Saturday morning. Some #$$*!%@ drove through it sometime over the weekend with a pickup cutting foot-deep ruts right through the middle of it !!!!!!!!!!! Somebody out there had better PRAY I don't find out who did it.

Crossbows, bait piles and high-fences. Won't watch a show that has any of the three. I'm not against high-fence hunts.......as long as you represent them for what they are. But when the show makes it seem like they have scouted this 275" buck and are REALLY hunting................ gimme a freakin' break !!!!!!!

OK........................ let's all us southerners gang up on Strut !!!!!! lol !!!