Is This Bear Shit?

I need a book on scat identification. Seriously, I see way too much scat that I am unable to identify. This looks like bear scat due to the berries and the leafs and the overall size, but I couldn't find any tracks or other signs of bear in the immediate vicinity, which leaves me with much doubt and little confidence. Not a good thing when it comes to hunting.

A Camera in the Garden

I'm not much for technology, particularly while hunting. I shoot a longbow. My backpack is a cheap aluminum external from the 70's that I bought at the thrift store for five bucks. Most of my hunting clothing consists of basic wool garbs that were also acquired at the thrift store. I use a map and compass. I light my fires with pitch wood. On warm days, I don't even carry a tent with me.  Etc. Etc. Etc. You get the picture. I keep it simple. So when my new hunting partner suggested we set out cameras, I cringed. 

I’ve never understood hunters’ infatuation with cameras, and I couldn’t understand why my friend would want to pack a camera two miles into the woods just to get some photos. However, after a brief conversation with friend, whose negotiating skills far outstrip my own (he started with wanting to bait the bears to the camera with jelly donuts and then settled for just placing the cameras without bait), I reluctantly agreed to place the cameras. Still, my doubts lingered. What purpose would they serve? If you can interpret sign, is there really a need for a camera? Doesn’t the camera just confirm what you have already discerned from scouting? Will the cameras spook the wildlife and make them weary of entering the area again? Is it really worth the effort? Am I joining the hordes of hunters (whom are likely far more successful than me) who rely too heavily on technology?

That was two weeks ago. We placed only one camera, and I pulled it this past Sunday.  I’m still a little split on the whole camera thing. The aforementioned doubts still linger in my head. But   must say, boy was it fun! For two weeks, I eagerly awaited the results. My  doubts quickly turned from Is it really worth the effort? to I wonder if we’ll get a picture of a bear or a nice buck. It was exciting, more exciting than just regular scouting. It also accomplished a couple of things that I can’t discern from scouting. First, it told us how often and at what times the deer and bear were frequenting the area (the former about twice a week around 2 o’clock; the latter never). Secondly, it showed how many deer and their size. In this case, a nice sized doe with a fawn.

I know. I know. Much of this can be discerned from reading the sign. And yes, I could tell it was a doe and her fawn from the tracks. And if I was good enough, I could have reached some reasonable estimate on how frequently they were visiting the area. I’m not to that level yet, and even if I was, it would still be good fun to set the cameras. 

However, there is one thing that makes me very uncomfortable: a couple pictures show the doe looking alarmingly at the camera. I’ve always felt that maintaining an element of surprise is biggest advantage a hunter has over big game. These deer are nearly three miles in a wilderness area. It is rarely hiked and probably never hunted. Essentially, they are unpressured deer. That’s a huge advantage for us, and I fear we may have lost it. There’s likely enough time before the start of the season (Oct. 1^st) for things to calm down and return to normal. But I have an uneasy feeling that won’t go away. The kind you get when you see the tail end of a deer you just spooked. I'm also eager to set another camera.   

Blogging Again . . . In the Catskills

Well, I have decided to start blogging again. Who knows how long it will last. Since my last post, I have graduated from college, found a job, and moved to a new region. I believe it was 2008 when I took up hunting again. That was in Washington, a place I had never hunted before,  pursuing an animal I had never hunted before with a weapon I had never hunted with before. It was a steep learning curve, to say the least, but I justified the time and energy and expense with the belief that the rewards (meat in the freezer) would eventually come once I gained enough familiarity with the area and the quarry. Then after two years, just when I was starting to gain some confidence--I moved, all the way to New York. 

This time the learning curve was not as steep. I had hunted whitetail before and was familiar with the tactics for doing so. Plus, I could use my gun. Still, I invested considerable time scouting the new area to learn its ins and outs. Over the course of three years, I switched between hunting public land, to participating in the various components of the Cornell Deer Hunting Program, to hunting private land, and then a combination of all three. In short, I never really got my bearings with the land and the habits of the deer, though I did manage to take a couple deer. Had I stayed, this would have been the year that I felt comfortable with the area and I would have been able to script a pretty solid game plan. Then I got a job. 

Now I'm in a new region: the Catskills of New York. And so, I start the cycle all over again. It's a process I truly enjoy, but it is also very time consuming. And if history is any indication, it doesn't bode well for filling the freezer. I have always regretted not blogging about my experience of learning how to elk hunt. There were so many fresh thoughts and experiences and insights that have now slip my mind. It is a bit of a pity. And so, not wanting to make the same mistake twice, I figure I'll document my experience of learning to hunt the Catskills.

I have no justification for including the picture below. Just that  I almost stepped on the fellow while scouting, and I'm not quite sure what to make of sharing the woods with this new predator. At the very least, can't have a blog post without a picture, right?

Mushrooms

It's been raining for the past couple weeks and that can only mean one thing: mushrooms.

I generally do most of my foraging at the Finger Lake National Forest. There's no particular justification for this preference; it just happened that when I first moved here the FLNF is where I went and now it has become somewhat of habit. I've done alright there with fruits and berries, but the mushroom harvest--save some Chicken-of-the-Woods and Oysters--as been lackluster at best. 

So I decided to explore some more options. Yesterday I headed up to Yellow Barn State Forest. It has one snowmobile trail through it but lacks hiking and mountain bike trails, which I always view as a positive. 

I took Maizie, who was asleep for most it, so I couldn't cover a lot of ground (she refuses to ride in any type of backpack so I have to carry her). Its got a good mix of Oaks and Hemlock, a stream or two, and some open field areas. And for what its worth, its got a nice feel to it as well. 

Sometimes I have a tendency to walk to fast in hopes of covering more ground. The thought is to walk fast until I see some mushrooms and then slow down and search the area more thoroughly. It almost never works; I usually just walk right past them. Good thing, then, that I have Maizie to slow me down. I always find good stuff with her for this reason.  She forces me to stop and then I begin to notice some type of foot laying just underfoot. 

Yesterday was no different. I found some boletes while stopping to give her some water and what I thought was my first cauliflower mushroom (Yay!), but it turns out is something else I can't id. In fact, my "All That the Rain Offers" book is missing some I can't even id the boletes. 

What I thought was a Cauliflower. Oh the joy! And the subsequent disappointment!

It was almost too cute to harvest. I believe these are the "choice" boletes. They sure smell choice!

Easy to see why I likely walk right by so many mushrooms. It took me five minutes of sitting in the same area before I was able to see this mushroom about five yards away. 

Don't know what this is but it looks scary so I left it alone. Curiosity kills the mushroom forager. 

Maze after waking up from her nap and finding herself in a forest. Must be a cool experience.

That's A Deer Season

Too much wind and swelled rivers made for an uneventful last day of hunting. Deer season is officially over. I have to say I'm happy it is over, it was consuming way too much time and beginning to feel jobish. 

In all, it yielded 75lbs of meat from two deer, a four point and a small doe. I'm not sure how far that will take us, but I suspect at least into summer. We generally eat about 3lbs of venison a week, so some quick math says it will last till July. We'll see. Hopefully I can add some fish, small game, and/or a turkey or two to the freezer to supplement the deer meat.

All in all, not a bad season. Next season should be even better. I should have at least two private properties to hunt and I'll have priority to reserve my spot at Cornell Plantations (due to shooting the doe). On top of that, I have the deer patterned in 2 of the 3 properties I'll hunt. That means less scouting and more hunting.

My kid, who now comes a little past my knees and loves venison, next to the freezer. The freezer is 3.5 cu. ft, about perfect for what we need. 

With the deer pelt from my first deer, which I hope to tan once the weather gets warmer, nearly fills the freezer. I guess there's a good side to everything. In this case, not taking a third deer has allowed me to store the pelt of the first. 

Last Day

The special Deer Management Focus Area season in Tompkins County will conclude tomorrow. That will be it for deer season until October 1st. I'll be hunting Lick Brook until about 11 and then I'll have to turn it in for the season.

On Sunday, I hunted Frost Ravine for the first time. Had a big doe within 60 yards, but passed on the shot due to a little confusion over the property line. Kind of regretting that decision now. After checking the map, deer was clearly within the property line. Always best to play it safe though.

So tomorrow or bust.

Update: Just checked the weather, which shows 30 mph winds for tomorrow. Terrible for deer. I'll try not to be lazy and stay at home.

Butchering Deer in My Apartment

Like most butchers, my butcher charges a flat-rate fee per deer. In this case, $65 per deer for the basic cuts. If the deer weighs 40lbs, it costs $65. If it weighs 240lbs, it still costs $65.

The first deer I took to the butcher this year yielded 50lbs of processed meat, so a little more than a dollar per pound. I can live with that. But the last deer I killed barely weighed 50lbs dressed (i.e. with the guts removed), and I just couldn't justify taking it to the butcher for that price and the meat it would yield. 

If I had a garage, I would simply process it myself. But I don't. And I don't think my neighbors or landlord would appreciate me hanging a deer in the yard. Still, I wasn't about to pay $65 to have it processed.

After a consulting a friend, we decided to take it to his friend's farm, quarter it, and then process the quarters in my apartment. He tried to convince me to do the whole process in his basement, but dragging a dead deer into an apartment complex in downtown Ithaca and butchering it in a communal basement just seemed like a really, really bad idea. So we drove out to his friend's place.  

It was well past dark when we arrived. The barn, long ago abandoned, lacked lighting of any sort. With flashlights in hand we hung the deer from the rafters and  began to strip the skin from the carcass. I'm sure from a distance it was a sight to behold: two guys skinning a dead animal hung from the rafters of an abandoned and darkened barn.

It has been nearly 15 years since I've last skinned a deer and to say I was a little rusty is an understatement. Worse yet, I have never quartered a deer before. Although my friend was slightly more experienced, he also admitted to not knowing exactly how to quarter a deer. I have heard nightmare stories about novices ruining the majority of the meat simply by making the wrong cuts. As we stumbled through the process, without much clue as to what we were doing, I worried we would be left with nothing more than a pile bones and a rotting carcass. 

But persevere we did! in about an hour's time we had the deer quartered and loaded back into the truck, with each quarter resting in a game bag and then placed in a large cooler. At the apartment, I carried the cooler to the porch, made a run to the local grocery store for freezer paper and cling wrap, and returned back home just short of 10:00 PM. By 1030, I was ready to start cutting, only I had no real clue on how to go about doing it. So I started doing Google searches, piecing together information from websites, blog posts, and Youtube videos on how to process a deer.

It went better than expected, although it took much longer than I originally anticipated. I would bring in a section from the porch, unwrap it, and then Google something like "process front quarters deer," referring back to the webpage as much as needed. At 6AM, I put the last package in the freezer, cleaned up the kitchen, and laid down on the couch. I had a hunting spot reserved for that morning and I told myself I was only going to take a half-hour nap, but 
it had been 25 hours since I last slept and I didn't wake till noon. 

I did the back straps and rib cage first. It seemed to take forever and maybe yielded four, one pound packages--leaving me feeling ill once again for shooting the deer. 

The shot must have hit the stomach because the entry and exit points in the rib cage were filled with half-digested stomach contents, leaving me unsure of what meat to keep. Ultimately, I played it safe. If it smelled bad, I threw it in the scrap bin.

I did the front quarters next. The bullet exited from one of the front shoulder (it was a quartering away shot). After reading some articles, I decided to keep everything whole as shank and roast. I figured this is the best use of the meat since the deer was so young and the meat would be tender. Plus, I don't have processing equipment. 

The shank and roast from the front leg that was shot. I was able to piece everything out simply using the fillet knife shown and, in a few cases, some elbow grease. As you can see, the front legs didn't yield much either. At this point, I had determined to never again shoot another small deer.

I know it's not the biggest, but something changed in me when I lifted the back leg out of the bag and set it on the cutting board. It had a heft to it that the other parts were previously lacking. 

After some Google searches, I determined the back leg should yield five roasts. Luckily for me I have some magic up my sleeve, because both back legs yielded about seven roasts a piece. That's fourteen roasts! I was only able to determine the sirloin, which I believe is at the bottom left. All the others are labeled "roast, top, round, chunk, etc."

All and all, not bad.  I've finally learned how to overcome the spatial constraints that an apartment presents (answer: quarter it somewhere else!). And gained some processing confidence, too! It is pretty self-explanatory. Next time, I'll likely just debone the deer in the field and process it at home again. No sense paying the butcher if you can do it yourself.