So here it is, the second week in July. I should be down at camp, but it is too darn hot. It is too hot to mow, because it is too hot for the grass to be growing. Walking out the door to go the mailbox has become a planned event. We have a fan running in the center of the house, moving air around to help the air conditioning. It is loud enough to disturb thinking. You have to go to one end of the house to have a conversation.

My apologies for not writing. I usually take a hiatus from the weblog about this time of year. This one was a bit longer. I’ve started a new job, and I got busy. I have a bunch of drafts that I need to finish off. Do not worry. Everything is all right on this end.

What’s funny is that I’m seeing deer everywhere. There was a nice piebald doe staring at me the other day as I rode past the Hamilton County Fairgrounds– right out among the used cars, trying to figure a way across Vine Street. She’s from the same stock, probably 3 generations removed, from a piebald doe and her brood that used to call my folks front yard home. The next generation saw one of the daughters come oer to my street to raise her fawns. That piebald pattern has worked itself clear to the other side of Mill Creek now. My guess is the trait will be all over the northern rim of Cincinnati in a few years, from Mount Healthy to Lincoln Heights– all from one doe that grew up back of the Wyoming Swim Club in the late Nineties. I was there, putting out the salt lick.

For some reason a herd of the boogers has decided to make the way between my house and the neighbors their favorite path for cutting through from one street to the next. They’ve worn a path from the 20 yard strip of woods that runs between the houses all the way to the street.

Last week there was a dead doe out on I-75 in the detoured lane they have set up right by the Mitchell exit. That is only about a mile and a half from Fountain Square.

It is now just under 18 weeks to the start of rifle season in Kentucky. It is under 2 months to the start of bow season. I brought a few rifles back from the secret underground storage facility just to have something to remind me that there will be a Fall some day. If July had been mild, I had had planned a couple of reloading projects. One was to see if I could get a 150 grain load to group out of the Savage 99. The other was to work up a .223 Rem load for coyote and . . . well, maybe I’d try it on deer. That has been a long standing argument I have been having with myself. I will let you know how it comes out.

An order came from Grafs.com yesterday.  I am thinking about switching back to round ball for deer, and I ordered up a Lee bullet mold for the occasion. Along with that, I also finally broke down and bought some Hornady FTX for the Marlin. Yes, I know, I wonder myself why I doing this. These are the most expensive bullets I have ever purchased. However the idea of a 200 yard 30-30 just got to be too much for me. I had to try it out.

Actually, I know what this is. It is not the heat getting to me. You see I have that new daughter, Moose’s squeeze, and she in turn has brought me my granddaughter, the Mooselette. The tribe got together on the Fourth, and I realized I still do not really have it settled what the two of them are going to be shooting at the deer yet. Mooselette just turned over 5 months. Her deer rifle can wait, but her Mom wants to pop a cap on Bambi at the earliest opportunity. I’m thinking the Marlin 30-30 might be just the ticket for her. As a fall back, I have an older Savage in .223 REM. I want a fall back if we get out there to the range and she says that the recoil is too much for her shoulder. The problem is it is too dang hot to get down to the farm and start flinging lead to find out.

This last week, I had just opened my eyes and was there in bed waiting for the alarm to go off when I heard a turkey gobble. It is a sound I have been waiting over 20 years to hear. Winton Woods is about a mile from the house, and there is ample green space for turkeys to filter through the county. I always figured they would get here, and every year I would do a little bit of calling off the back deck in the early spring . My guess is that come next spring, I will get an answer. I do not expect I will ever get to get lay a barrel on them, but when Mooselette comes to see Grandpa in a few years, we can go out with our calls in the morning and give them a good talking-to.

I have to go twiddle the thermostat and figure out what we are going to have for breakfast. Y’all take care.

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