Winter Solstice

The shortest day of the year is coming up. Well, we all know it's still 24 hours long, but we'll only have 8 hours and 15 minutes between sunrise and sunset on the 21st of December, then the crescendo of photoperiodism begins again. This week has been brutally cold for this early in the winter (late in the fall) we are. We've been sitting around zero degrees for about 4 days now. We can expect another 3 more days until the wind switches to the SW and eventually to the SE, which will bring us some slightly warmer highs (upper teens). Survival is number one right now. Food, food, food - is all that is on the deer's agenda. We've got four days left of muzzleloader and then another 17 days of archery before I have to absolutely surrender. I sat Monday morning and it was absolutely frigid. When I got back to my truck and 10am, the temperature was 6 degrees without the windchill. You can bet it hit zero as the sun began to come up. There had been a few deer moving on the cameras. I think they'll begin to browse more and move less. I saw 7 deer by moonlight out in a winter wheat field. So that at least tells me there's not enough snow to keep them from kicking down to it.

It's predominantly been a NW wind, which is great for the stand I've been sitting in, but it's supposed to shift around as we get into the weekend. Dad wants to try sitting for a few hours. We both would like to take out a few does, so if we get the chance, it's going to be a cold gut job. Bill Winke said it best a few days back when he said, "... the bucks are still licking their wounds from the rut." I think that's exactly what's been going on the last week of November/first week of December. That's all going to change as food becomes priority. They may not offer much for daylight movement, but it'll at least help me figure out which bucks survived the hunting season by picking them up on the cameras, which don't enjoy running when it's this cold. I'm helping dad mount Crazy 8 european style. I just got him all boiled up and scraped clean. I used Basic White and I think it's going to look great. It'll be good to have another mount to keep my Pope & Young company.

I'm excited to see what's on the cameras this weekend.