Arlene's New "Buggie"

Arlene has a new 4-wheeler, actually she bought it in July but I forgot to write about it. She has a really bad hip and knee and it has kept her from being very mobile at Camp Chicken. She used to love to go for long walks around our trails and roads but for the past couple of years has been stuck at camp. Now with her new wheels she can go all over and she is having so much fun.

Saturday, we loaded up the buggies with sugar beets, carrots and corn for our deer feeding stations and went out to check out our spots. This is my favorite activity for the fall; getting everything ready for rifle hunting season. Even though I bowhunt, I still enjoy getting the other hunting spots baited so that the deer know where to find food.

I love checking out the sites to look at tracks and seeing what new trails they have made to come in to eat. I try to combine that with the camera photos to get an idea of when they come in and what trails they are using. Arlene has missed out on much of this until this year and she is really enjoying it.

We worked on cleaning up some of our old roads in the afternoon and took the new camera to take some photos.



She thought this view of one of our beech trees was pretty neat.

The fall leaves were at their near peak last weekend and of course, we had 50 mph winds on Monday and they are almost all knocked off the trees. But, there were still some really pretty ones left on Saturday.



All in all, it was a great day. I went bowhunting about 5 pm and two nice does came in to check out the new food we put out. We don't usually use carrots but Arlene thought it would bring more deer in to the spot where I have the outhouse blind set up. After watching that doe stay at the feeding spot for almost an hour eating carrots, I have to agree it was a good move. Except we are going to need lots more carrots to feed her LOL. She must have eaten a half-bag full. She didn't eat much corn or sugar beets but really went for those carrots. In the deer cam photos we looked at the next day, she came back at midnight to fight off the raccoons and get the rest of her carrots.



I can't wait to get to camp next weekend and check out the photos. We have to figure out something to deal with those pesky raccoons before they actually damage the corn feeder.

Dinner Guests at Camp Chicken

"Ok Ratso, the coast is clear"

"Come on, hurry it up"

"Wait for me, Bugsy, I can't quite reach it"

"Mom, I thought you said dinner was at 6:30?"

Bow Season Begins at Camp Chicken

Sorry I haven't had much time to blog lately. Arlene's sister Judy is getting rid of her old trailer and getting a modular put in. We have been very busy helping her pack and move all her stuff out of the trailer so it has been a very very busy time.

But, Dan and I have been bowhunting. The weather has been very warm and the deer aren't really moving during the day very much so I haven't seen anything to speak of. One big doe by herself and one big doe with twin fawns.

Arlene and I bought ourselves a new megazoom digital camera and it takes pretty good pictures. It is nice for wildlife.

I put a one of those outhouse blinds down by the Cadillac shack spot and have been using it for the afternoon hunts. This partridge came right up in front of my pop-up blind yesterday. I managed to get the camera on him and take this shot. He blends in so well with his surroundings that he is hard to even see in the fall leaves.

This is my new friend "Chip". He gets under my feet as I try and fill up the corn feeder at the Cadillac shack spot. He is so darn cute as he waits for me to drop corn so that he can stuff his little cheeks full.



The leaves were really spectacular yesterday and today. Arlene was still helping her sister so I went to camp late Saturday. Dan and I hunted all morning and then spent the rest of the day riding around on our 4-wheelers taking pictures.






The camera just can't seem to capture how really beautiful the leaves are. I'm sure that by next weekend, they will be all on the ground. We were very lucky to have this day and it's beautiful colors.


And that is my Mother's little piece of heaven in the good old U.P.