November 23, 2013
Our friend Vladimir got us motivated again to head outdoors and see what more we could learn about tracking deer. Jeff and Carol warmly opened their farm for a visit. We were looking at seeing if the scouts could build a tree stand for a pioneering project using the local poplars and a km of twine. We brought along our bows to see what it would be like if you had to track an animal through the bush. Those deer have some pretty refined senses. Between sniffing us out, catching our movements and hearing us crunch through the snow, it seemed we were totally out sensed. We did have a couple encounters though. Vladimir had a moose pop out in front of him while Jeff and the dogs were pushing up wind of us. And again near sunset, Jeff was using his tractor to push a couple deer into us. We had them get about 60 yards of me. Tried to use our cell phones to coordinate our tracking, but I'm sure the deer could hear our ring tones go off. Ear buds next time!
It was great to visit with Jeff and Carol. They are the best hosts. Carol provided a scrumptious bowl of soup with a grilled cheese sandwich, finished off with Chocolate cake. Doesn't get better than that!. She showed us some of the flowers her and Jeff are working on for the coming season. They have a nice website setup now showing off all their flowers: http://www.gablehousefarmandgardens.ca/
Both Vladimir and I got one of Carol's day lilies to take home as a gift. Mine is doing really well in our dining room.
Thanks a bunch, Carol and Jeff. It was a great day.
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Karl Burndorfer, Jeff & Carol Bondy, Vladimir Saveliev - Leaders |
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Molly & Nella - Tour guides |
Positioning ourselves in the North 40. |
Molly, trying to reposition on a nice warm lap with a good view. |
Ok , got the good view! |
Vladimir was prepared, came with x-country skis. Jeff had snow shoes, I
had my hiking boots. Not prepared. |
Molly doing body slides on the slippery parts of the road. |
Nella uses her sniffer and shows us some tracks... |
That's a deer track |
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Almost lost Jeff in a badger hole. |
Second badger hole. What are the odds? |
Knew he should have put those snowshoes on again after lunch. |
So where was this deer going? |
Over there, near the end of the stand of trees, 2 of them! I don't see them. Are you sure that dot is actually 2 deer? After 15 minutes of staring at the dot, Jeff came by and stopped the tractor near them. The dot magically turned into 2 deer. |
Thanks for the flowers Carol. They made the trip home and now kept warm on
our dining room table. |