Snowy roads on the way home!Snowed on the way home! Had to drive slow at times!Outside Madison! 1 hour left to go. Not snow as much here!Jess with her Kansas buck!Jason and Jess with thier Kansas Buck!
2020 Kansas Gun Hunt Day 10! Drive Home Day!
We made it home.
We were up at by 530 am and rolling out of the driveway by 615
Hugs, kisses and good byes first.
Made it to the 1st big town by 7 for gas and McDonalds and McDonalds sucked.
Stopped at Casey’s in Adair IA ordered a med pizza for the road and filled up with gas.
It just started to rain here and rained all the way to Wisconsin.
Omg so much rain
Once we hit Wisconsin we hit snow, at times it was pretty bad, as we were going 50 mph on the highway.
Saw a lot of dumb drivers out there, most got lucky this time.
We only saw on accident and 1 in the ditch.
We made it through Madison before rush hour, that is my favorite time to go through Madison, NOT!
Once we left Madison it was more of a rain/snow mix.
We made good timing even with our stops and the snow delay
GPS said ETA home at 430 pm.
We pulled into the driveway at 450 pm
So, not bad timing and glad its over!
Deer meat barley fit in cooler to bring home and it barley fit in our freezer when we got home.
Actually barley anything fit in the car on the way home.
Too much deer meat and a huge deer head and the jeep was packed head to toe
Terrible! 🙂
Get a big buck in Kansas they say…….
How you get that shit home???
Glad Marcus drove the all the way home!
Jess ended up shooting a nice buck tonight, of course we were already home by then.
Super happy for her!
Miss you already Kansas! Miss you Mom and Ron! Thank you for having us! It was nice to spend time with you all. Take Care!
This morning was packed with all kinds of goodies!
We saw over 61 deer this morning!
We were back on my favorite road; I now call it Shelly Road.
I have seen a majority of the deer this week on this road.
As we pulled onto this road
Many deer jumped across the road.
As we pull up to a certain area, there are deer everywhere.
I see more white tails; I mean literally the white tails, than you can imagine.
We see a real nice buck who was behind us in a corn field.
I was only able to make out a huge curved rack in my binocs.
There had to be over 40 deer in this area.
So many to count, there were probably more than I could count and missed many.
This entire trip the deer did not stick around.
They were very skittish.
I suppose it’s a combination of things, it seemed if you didn’t stop they paid no attention,
There is very little traffic on these dirt roads in Kansas, so they are not used to that, we pondered the fact that possibly the deer see cars on the road and correlate that with being shot from the road, doubt it though.
There is this story that deer are shot from road in these here parts.
A little while later I am able to see some white up on a big hill about 400 yards off the road.
2 coyotes sunning themselves in the morning hours.
We are able to catch a quick picture.
We drive down into an area very secluded and am able to see some doe way up on the ridge and of course what it is following but a big buck.
It was cool to watch thier shenanigans!
We watch as a deer jump the road ahead of us,
We look in the woods as we drive by and I see a buck, a bunch of deer know run into the open field below. 5 or 6 for sure! They run into the woods and we are not able to identify what they are.
We drove to the other side of the woods and sat at the top of the hill, in hopes they would cross through the woods and come out the other side, they did not.
As we were ending our trip, Marcus says, Big Buck!
Here 200 yards off the road, stands a beast.
He was further away, peaking his body out into an empty field.
He did not have a big rack, but it was thick and his body huge.
We figured he was an older fella!
We have really seen some nice bucks this trip, so much better than at home.
The guys took a blind down and trail camera’s down this afternoon.
We did a few duties to prepare for leaving.
This evening we did not see as much activity as we had in past days, we only saw about 16 deer.
Got to see 2 bobcats at dark.
I have really come to enjoy driving around looking at the beauty Kansas holds.
I love the uniqueness of this area, the laid back feeling, no pressure from the world, the quiet convinces me that I am in some far away land!
I will miss my morning and evening drives in the middle of nowhere, I will miss the alone time with Marcus in the jeep with nothing but the open road and being surrounded by nature! I think we will both miss the laid back feeling that nothing else matters in this world at this exact time in life. I will miss how simple no stress from the chaotic world feels. I find there in no drama out in these here part and that is hard to duplicate when I am back home. I find myself jealous of those that live here, but I am also aware it is hard work in one way or another to live in these here parts.
The time here in Kansas goes just as fast at home. The clock stops for now one! I like this phrase and I say it often. Out here you more so you live on mother nature’s clock of sunup and sundown and the time on the clock does not matter much.
It is now time to fit everything into my small jeep for the drive home. It will be a chore as we are going home with a huge deer head and a cooler full of meat. Ahhh, who needs to see for the 11 hours’ drive home. We hope to out drive the storm , but know that we will hit some weather.
Until next year Kansas…..Don’t change! Take care of my deer and grow some big racks!
Little buck crossing the road!A huge buck……so so far away! Maybe 800 yards!Big buck with 9 doe on a green patch….food plot?
Kansas 2020 Gun Season Day 6!
We worked on capping out the buck this morning!
Jason/Jess headed out a little early for their hunt. Good Luck Guys!
We replenished the bait piles this afternoon and we headed out at our normal time.
We stopped for our normal soda pop in a small town and headed out.
I am a horrible navigator.
Good thing Marcus is a great navigator and know were he is going. At least he has his bearings.
The sun just glared bight to the blinding eye.
Cruising down the road I turn my head to my right as I am looking at a vehicle stop at the stop sign waiting to get on the highway.
As I am looking over I see a buck a ways off the roadway.
Not sure how big he was, you know how that goes when you are driving by at 70 mph.
I told Marcus that he needed to slow down and turn around, that I saw a buck.
I very well know he will be gone when we get back there and he was.
He stopped and we looked around for a bit.
There the buck was, stepped out from the woods on to the road.
He was a nice 2 year old. He would have been a shooter back home. He crossed the road and into the woods on the other side he goes.
I was able to catch a real blurry picture.
We continued on with our journey, as the clocks stops for no one.
We end up going down some road, I can’t keep track of what roads or where we are on these dirt roads
I am in the middle of nowhere.
We ended up pulling onto a road and at the back end of a dried up bean field, I notice a green patch.
I suppose someone’s food plot, as it was weird seeing that green at the back of the brown field.
There stood a nice 2 year old buck with 9 does. They didn’t move as we pulled to the side of the road.
The group was pretty far back, but I was able to make the antlers out through the binoculars.
The buck had such a pretty white patch and I was surprised the group stayed as long as they did before running off.
As we continue on our adventure we pull up to a large field, a very large field with a woods to the back of the field.
It hard to explain all the land around here. Lots of fields, woods, tree lines, and pastures. And dirt roads!
We made out about 8 deer in the back of this field
I am almost unable to make out what is in the field with my binoculars as they are quite a ways away.
But I did notice a huge buck in the far back field all alone.
His rack was big enough that I could see it that far way thru the binoculars.
We drove up the road to turn around and try to get a better look.
As we were driving up the road, we kick up 4 does, we turn around on the road to come back and the big buck and doe’s were gone, go figure!
We continued on back towards the direction of home and we are met eye to eye by an owl
This owl must have been up in a tree watching a rodent of some type on the side of the road.
This owl flies down hard and swoops to catch whatever he was stalking at the same exact moment we are driving by.
All at the same time Marcus slams on the breaks and I may or may not have screamed a little bit.
I was eye to eye with the beautiful owl.
I couldn’t tell you what type of owl, but a big beautiful owl, none the less.
Oh, my so pretty.
I am pretty sure his wings swiped the side of the jeep.
After pulling my heart out of my stomach we continue on.
There is same property closer to the homestead,
that we have checked every night, it had been hit or miss with seeing deer in these fields, but we know they frequent it.
Well they were here tonight.
We had at least 6 doe’s on one side of the road in the bean field 60 yards off the road and then a short ways up the road they we 9 doe’s on the other side of the road 100 yards away.
So, that concluded the night adventures.
Jason/Jess didn’t see anything, even with hopes that replenishing the bait piles would help.
Ma made scalloped potatoes and ham for supper.
We dropped our buck head off at a friend of Marcus’s, as they are an outfitter and have several freezers.
We plan to bring back the deer head for a deer mount.
We checked out the new roads last night that we had discovered and seen all the deer.
So, we went back this morning! We saw 21 deer this morning. They appear to be in a certain sector of the grid.
We spent most of the afternoon and evening cutting up the buck we harvested.
It was a long day, as cutting up a deer is time consuming.
We got lots of meat off the old big buck!
We didn’t go out for our evening deer scouting as usual, as it took all day and night to cut up and package the deer for its voyage home!
Marcus went over by his friend GB, a cousin of his had shot a buck during bow season.
And it was huge, so Marcus went to green score the big buck.
Marcus is a certified Boone and Crockett scorer. In case you don’t know what this is, he is certified to measure antlers on big bucks or any male animal that has antlers. Such as elk, moose, and antelope.
Buck was chasing this doe who was in heat!Sunset from the homestead in Kansas!
2020 Kansas Gun Hunt Day 5!
Well our hunt is over!
Unless we decided to take a doe towards the end of our stay.
Jason and Jess were up early and headed out for their 1st morning hunt.
We were up and at it, shortly after them and decided that we would check out the area during the
morning light as we have hunted most mornings since we got here.
The drive started out rather dull.
But I find that I quite enjoy Marcus taking me on drives scouting. Well its great bonding time, yes I said “bonding” for one thing, but he knows how much I enjoy the outdoors and all its glory. We have a lot in common and share an appreciation for the simple things in life.
Great sunset this morning! The 1st part of the drive was deerless. I joked with Marcus that deer in Kansas are overrated.
We were driving in a certain area and I spotted roughly 4 deer up on a hill, a field further over there was at least 10 deer in a corn field. They were a ways off the road, through the thicket. Kansas is hilling, most of the roads are depressed into the earth, lots of fences, the old wooden post kind, and lots of Cedar trees.
A little up the dirt road a buck jumped across the road. All I could see was the sun glaring off his rack. A second or two later a doe crosses the road.
A half mile up the road we see another buck, maybe a 2 year old.
A sporadic deer here and there.
We eventually ended up down a road and we spot a huge buck. About 40 yards of the road. The buck was chasing/quarrying a doe. Oh, she must have really hot. It was so cool to watch this buck chase this doe. I have seen a little of this back at home, but nothing to this caliber. The doe must have gotten sick and tired being chased, that she finally bedded down. He just stood there. Occasionally he would stomp is foot. All I know, he was not leaving this chick. And no other buck will have her. Poor Women! Down here in Kansas there is little traffic on the old dirt roads. So, we just parked in the middle of the road and watch this beautiful studdly buck stand and wait. If he can’t have her nobody can. We watched this buck for over 15 minutes, before he bedded down. Once we started the jeep and moved we figured the doe would get up and we were right. The chase was on. He chased her here and there and everywhere. At one time he was chasing her right towards us. That’s the stuff you see on hunting shows!
I was concerned that this buck was too close to the road, and I aver heard stories about people shooting deer from the road around here. So, I hope we chased them off the road enough when we left.
A little way up the road 5 doe ran across the road.
Anyways, this was the coolest thing to watch, you know those things engrained in your memory that you will never forget. This was one of those moments!
This evening we just wondered the countryside enjoying the scenery! We took a quick little ride to town, well not quick 25 minutes as it’s the closest town with fast food restaurant. We stopped at Dairy Queen for a Root beer!
In order to get a deer tag for hunting in Kansas, you have to play the lotto! Kansas has a lotto system. Basically, you apply for the tag, cross your fingers and hope you get awarded a tag. There are only so many out of state tags that are awarded. This is a draw only permit. That must be applied for in April of the year you want to hunt!
You can get a tag for special hunt own land relative permit. This is for people who qualify as lineal ascendants or decendants or siblings of resident’s landowners or all tenants. Marcus’s mother lives in Kansas and they own land in Kansas. This is not a lottery draw!
You can also get a nonresident permit; this is down by lottery draw. This is for all nonresidents. A nonresident permit allows you to hunt on public land as well as private land, granted you have permission.
We didn’t hunt this morning as we decided to shower and bask in a morning light, with a nice cup of coffee.
While we are pretty die -hard hunters, we do recognize that life needs balance. What is right for one, is not right for another. You gotta have a little bit of this, to appreciate a little bit of that. We sat around, relaxed, and visited with Mom and Ron most of the morning.
About afternoon we drove all over the county looking for the public walking ground.
Gotta keep our options open.
The scenery out here is beautiful. The rolling hills catch my eye and I am a sucker for old homesteads. They bring me a wonderment of lives past lived and the stories they hold.
The lands we were checking out didn’t pan out to our liking. Cattle were either in the field, the landscape unappealing or the razor wire fence deterring me from injury.
We headed back over to some public we had hunted on the last 2 nights. We may have found some other area but the clock stop for no one, and daylight was fading.
We parked on the side of the road and walked the edge of a green hay field. We decided to walk into the woods, we found ourselves on a shelf or isthmus type island with steep deep water ways on both sides. We were pretty high and had a look out point throughout the woods. The woods were so peaceful, except for that damn squirrel perched up in the tree was becoming quite annoying. Was it really necessary to make such noise.
The ground in the woods was dry. So, it would be easy to hear anything walking through the woods, as the leaves we dry, I would be able to hear movement.
The weather was decent as I did not even have my whole proper attire on for hunting. There was plenty of deer sign. The island we were sitting on actually had a deer tail right down the middle of it. The field we walked through had hoof prints all over it.
Well, we saw nothing tonight! The location we sat was amazing scenery, nothing like it is a home. Just the scenery itself makes the whole trip worth it.
The opportunity to hunt or harvest a deer is just a bonus.
However, I am pretty much done with this piece of public, as I feel it is over pressured all too much and I am starting to believe that possibly ghost deer live here. You could also tell the weekend was insight as more traffics had picked up and a tad bit orange could be seen.
Well we made it to Kansas to visit Mom/Ron and participate in Kansas’s Gun Deer season. Marcus says they have really BIG BUCKS here!
To get a grasp of where we are in Kansas, they are dirt roads, all over dirt roads, rolling hills and prairies, the closets gas station or town is 25 minutes away, black cattle all over in the cut corn fields, and long skinny, tall blue water towers. The roads that run east and west are names with alphabetic letters. The roads that run north and south are numbered with number. Between each road is one mile of property, basically like square grid. We are way out here in the middle of nowhere.
Jeep packed full from top to bottom. We pulled into Mom’s/Ron’s place around 8:30 pm Monday night, yes that included a stop at the Bass Pro Shop in Iowa.
It was nice to see Mom/Ron as it has been a awhile and they make me feel right at home.
Not sure if the 2 cats, Tiger and Winnie are happy we are here, maybe Winnie more than Tiger.
Tuesday morning, we were met with homemade biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast. This is a favorite of Marcus’s.
Late morning, we went out to replenish 2 bait piles. This is something we are not accustomed to as we are not allowed to bait in Wisconsin!
We set up a blind in a new location that we have never had a blind. The birds were very active and we saw 2 robins. My dad told me once that some robins don’t migrate and stay all year long. Tuesday afternoon was nice and sunny and we found ourselves not even wearing a jacket in December!
In case you are wondering Ma/Ron own private land down here in Kansas. Mostly farm fields, but plenty of options to hunt. They also own some wooded area as well. Mostly thorough ways for deer making there way from one location to another.
Late afternoon we ran to a nearby town, Bellville. They have a little grocery store, we needed snacks for hunting and of course, why wouldn’t we stop at the liquor store!
We drove around the area looking for some public land and of course the later it got in the day the more we looked for deer.
We did see several groups of deer here and there throughout the area.
We saw a group of 50 plus turkeys in a field nearby.
On one of the old dirt roads down here, we caught a coyote laying on a side grassy hill, sunning himself. He did not scare easily, so we were able to get some pictures.
We ended the night with some pork chops and a bit of relaxation and of course a great sleep. Oh, and the pumpkin dump cake with cool whip wasn’t to bad either.
View from the blind!Our view out hunting!Our View while hunting!Our view out hunting!Me and my man!Cool tree!
No I am not sleeping!More Views!
Opening Morning 2020 Kansas Gun Season!
Start time is 7ish. So, getting up at 6ish aint so bad.
I had gotten up earlier during Wisconsin Gun Deer Season.
Forgot to pull my hair back, I am not a happy girl if my hair is not pulled back during hunting.
I have long hair, yes yes I do.
Plus, I found this new pullover hood thing in blaze orange that keeps me toasty, and when my hair is not pulled back , well let’s just say hair in the face and hair on my neck just don’t work for me, I don’t like the feeling!
Anyways, also forgot my Chapstick, oh my gosh yes Chapstick!
The morning was a little brisk, glad I started the jeep early as there is frost covering the windows.
The place we hunt is only a little way down the road.
The walk in not too bad, except for it was a lot colder and windier than expected.
The moon was bright and lite up the earth rather nicely for our walk in.
The chair placement in the blind was not ideal and needs a little tweaking.
It was a rather drab morning with little to no sun, the frost glistened on the ground.
I did not hear one gunshot all morning, which I thought odd for opening day.
Back home that is all you hear for the 1st few hours opening day!
Plus, the wind was really nipping at my nose with an icy cold touch.
We had spotted a rather large buck on the far fence line, unable to get a clear ID on the big fella.
We headed in mid-morning for a rest and breakfast.
So, glad for electric start.
We decided to try some public walk in only land for this evening.
We drove up a big dirt road to get to the top of a hill.
There is no public parking so we parked off the road.
We walked in through this vast area of cedars and tall grass/weeds.
There was sign throughout the area with rubs and scrapes.
I had no idea how to navigate this area, but Marcus had a good grasp of where he was going.
Back home we don’t hunt much wooded area, so that is what he wanted to sit in and me to experience.
Well we ended up in a woods on a ravine with a very sharp drop off to a woods below.
This area was sloped so it was hard to find a flat spot to sit. I sat behind Marcus as bit.
The view was magnificent.
I am afraid of height so I don’t sit in tree stands back home.
SO, sitting up on this ravine overlooking the woods below, must be what it’s like for those who sit in tree stands.
The wind up here was blustery and cold.
The owls hooted and hollered throughout the woods.
A few birds flew here and there.
And that was all she wrote.
We saw nothing!
Heard 2 other shots in the distance all evening!
It was a nice sit, one that I won’t forget!
Oh, the shrimp, Ceasar salad, and twice baked potatoes were so yummy!
