Frank's outdoors...

Below are some pictures of a couple bucks I have on camera... Nice buck 8 or 10 pt Spike, similar to other spikes we've seen on this property Another real nice buck And the coyotes...

The mineral lick I put out at the Culdesac blind is getting some attention!  Pretty cool, I always wondered if they would go near these things...  Proof is in the pudding:

My buddy Mark and I spent all Saturday morning working on my back blind setup today.  The goal was to get the "rough" food plot done by using the drag harrow, spreading seed, and laying fertilizer as well as preparing some shooting lanes. When we got out there, we got straight to work opening up the main viewing lane down to the feeder.  It was grueling work.  Lots of vines, baby yaupon trees, and oak saplings.  There were several areas where the trees have bent completely over and other trees and dead brush have continued to fall upon them forming a natural bivouac or lean-to shelter.  These things were upwards of 10 feet tall and took us a long time to break down. Food plot and widened view to the feeder  You can see in the food plot picture that there is a significant difference from the way it was originally.  It is very dry and dusty, so we'll need to some rain to get growth for sure.  Also, I put down some lime/fertilizer mixture to ...

One of the things I wanted to get done this year was to prepare a "poor man's" quality food plot.  I don't have a tractor, I don't have a disc, I don't have a [fill in the blank].  I can't remember if I posted this previously, but I found out about a device called the " Plotmaster ".  You can buy one of these bad boys for around $4K, but that is not the route I wanted to go for sure.  I figured I would be able to rent of these from the local rental agencies (US Rental, Allied, Sunbelt, etc.) but none of them had even heard of such a device. So, my plan has been focused on how to reasonably prepare my foodplot.  Last year, I had to do a major overhaul on my field as it was overgrown with tall grass and pine tree saplings.  This year, I intend to mow the grass short, possibly till it, then use a drag harrow to level and smooth the seed into the dirt.  The cost of renting a tiller/mower compared to purchasing is a no brainer at the moment, however...

I have been feeding all year round.  I was feeding twice a day during the rifle season last year, and switched to just a morning drop for the rest of the year.  In the next couple of weeks, sometime in early October, I'll change the timers on to add the second (evening) feed session, but for now I just have the feeders running at daybreak.  From the looks of the pictures on the camera, the deer are looking much better than before, and there are even a few fawns in the pics. 2 does and a fawn Doe and a fawn On my other camera is a big black hog.  This one is different from the hog that has the white patches on it.  Looks like an evening hunt is in order to take care of this bad boy... Big Texas Boar I am not sure this pig is as big as the black/white one, but he is a haus and needs to be cleaned out.

Spotted my first tree rub of the season.  Pretty cool, looks like a big chunk was taken out of the tree.  The great thing is that this particular rub is right between 2 of my stand locations.  The "rub" It was right on a major trail that leads to one of the only water sources left on my property.  There are quite a few creeks that run through our property, but none of them hold water throughout the year, particularly not when its a dry season. When I have time, I want to walk this trail and look for other rubs.

Alright, so we pulled the pictures from the camera that is keeping an eye on our hog pen.  This particular pig is all AROUND the trap, but has yet to enter as far as the camera has shown.  We know that the coons are in there picking on the corn, but the boar remains on the outside. Bacon - rear view Bacon - side view Dang 'coons. How do we get this booger in the pen?!?!  We are open to ideas here.  We (my buddy Mark and I) are thinking of making the pen significantly larger and changing the gate and its closing mechanism.  Given the drought, I am thinking a trough of water might be a catalyst...