This is my buck on opening day this season. Late in the day this big buck walked out of the woods and just stood there. I had to get help from my brother, Paul, to load this deer to take back to camp. And I also needed some help with hanging up and processing the deer meat.
Deer have been moving and we had a great opening weekend. Lots more time as we should very soon in the rut. So, the CPHC will be active again soon.
Hunting photos from the CPHC in 2024-2025.
Here is the CPHC team on opening weekend of the fall deer season. We had a great opening day harvest with nine deer. You can see photos in the album.
Conditions were just about perfect. Sunny, cool and dry. We saw more than one buck following does and harvested a mix. So, there is venison in the coolers and we enjoyed spending time in the woods and camp. It was relaxing but there is also quite a bit of work that goes with it. We skin/de-bone the deer and put the meat in coolers with salt and ice. As that melts we drain them and add more salt and ice. It’s a good brine and we usually keep it in there for a week or more before cutting up for packing and processing. That’s my next job this week!
So, there are lots more opportunities for the CPHC this season. Hope to see you from there again soon.
Paul and I just had to get out on The Pig property to see what’s what. So with Joe, tagging along, we spent a couple nights last week.
The pines are growing but there are areas where they haven’t done well. Some of the roads are getting washouts in them so a bulldozer needs to get in there. Mainly we need the firelane around the property dozed soon! One thing that struck us us was a lack of doves. This was kind of eerie since we always see hundreds. With the exception of about 4 doves off in the distance we saw NONE. And we don’t have a clue why.
While we were on site we built a permanent table under our pole barn. It’s made tall so we don’t have to bend our aching backs to work on it. Shelves for it will be next. I’ve got several more stories to post as soon as I have time.
We may not be pretty (well I might be) but we have a good time. That’s from l-r, me, Gary and Paul. Paul is sporting his new Akubra Snowy River hat I got him in Australia last fall. Just in case you were wondering.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about our approach to the property we’re leasing. We have completed our pole barn under which we camp with a nice RV and almost all the conveniences we’d like. But besides our own comfort we’ve invested a lot of blood, sweat, tears and cash into turning this land into a hunting lease. If you’ve been following us you know we started the year the property owner burned all the tree leftovers from lumber crews who cut down all the hard wood. Then the owner had pine trees planted. It has been a challenge in several ways.
We worked with a bull dozer operator to put a fire trail around the property, some road improvements and food plot areas. We also had signs made and posted them ourselves. We’ve worked at seeding the plots, our camp area and some of the road area. We want to have habitat that is good for the wildlife and also helps keep erosion down. I’ve got some new ideas for this after learning more about the Bayer CropScience Feed a Bee program! If you want to learn more about that check out an interview I did at the recent Potato Expo in Las Vegas.
As these pines are growing it is getting easier to see how important our roads and food plots have become. Deer haven’t really had much reason to stay on the property but will as more cover grows up and as our plots improve each year. It’s an on-going project to say the least.
But the benefits to the land, the wildlife, our fellowship and state of mind are well worth it. I hope we have many more hunts coming up.
It’s food plot planting time on The Pig. Next weekend the Pig Team will be on location to till, fertilize and plant our plots! Yep, I’m going to have trouble concentrating on work this week.
Just thought I’d share my most recent purchase to use out on the property – a used Bad Boy Buggie. It may look kind of like a golf cart but it is not a golf cart. I’ve got two floor mounted gun racks in it along with the back facing seat that folds down into a solid table and more. It’s electric (code for quiet).
So, I’ll be putting it to good use on The Pig as Paul, Gary and I get together plant our fall crop. ‘Bout Time.
I’m going to be featuring some posts about the CPHC Team for you here starting with the Crystal Pig Boys. Let’s start with Luke Zimmerman. He’s a baseball player and seems to have a knack for seeing big bucks as you’ll read in the story I asked him to write so we could get to know him better. Here it is:
One afternoon in Pilot Grove Missouri, after lunch me, my brother and Dad went back out in the woods. They dropped me off at my ground blind and were walking to my brother’s stand. I was looking around and all of sudden I see this big 11-point buck looking right at my Dad and brother. I aimed and shot my .35 rifle, hit him in the spine but he was still moving around. So as fast as I could get my 8 year old self to do it, I unloaded my gun at that buck but missed every time besides my first shot. He finally fell and I had my first deer. Hunting’s a huge part of my family. Getting to spend time with them, doing something we all love helps bring us together.
That’s the story from Luke’s first deer hunt when at 8 yrs. old he killed the biggest rack on our property up to that time. I seem to remember Gary asking him, “Son, do you know what you’ve done?” The reply with these big eyes looking up was, “I don’t know.” LOL. Well, I think he’s got it figured out!