It's been a week here.
Last weekend was spray weeds, dethatch, aerate, 300 lbs see, 1000 lbs fertilizer, then rake it all in with the dethatcher. Some 18 hours on the Ferris all total - Friday-Saturday.
Sunday was spent with the snowplow on the ATV, and square point shovel, and a 24 inch push broom putting back right what the remnants of Florence set wrong when it dumped 4 inches of rain in 2 hours on the place. I saw water in places I'd never seen water.
The driveway is crushed and compacted asphalt millings.
The base is good, but there's a skim of loose stuff on top that gets "floated" if it rains really hard. It rained REALLY hard.
So Monday my everything was sore, but I felt pretty good.
Tuesday morning I woke up with a right ankle about three times normal size and hurting like Hell.
So the rest of the week I've been icing, elevating, and babying the damned thing.
It finally got back in pretty good shape today, so I decided to do zero some rifles for the upcoming season and do a little 22 shooting for the 6X5 over in rimfire.
Conditions were warm, humid, but zero wind.
Got the muzzleloader done - recently switched back the synthetic stock and rebedded.
Got the Tikka done.
Ran a few through the old 22-250 just to make sure it was still dialed in - it was.
Ran a few through the house corner critter rifle, CZ 455 17 HMR to tweak the zero, because I nearly missed a crow the other day, but on the upside his hopping and squalling suckered his mate in for me, so I got a two-fer.
So then I setup for the Anschutz sporter at 50 yards for the 6X5.
Got the first bull done as was feeling pretty cocky.
While I was reloading, this dumbass 5 pointer walks out straight downrange at 100 yards and starts sucking up acorns.
I try to ignore him and get back to shooting. I shoot, and he flinches a little and keeps eating.
I yell at him and he stops and then goes back to eating again.
By now I am laughing and pissed off at the same time.
Then a fly lands on the target and I'm meat hunting.
JUST missed the fucker - he hops - JUST missed again. DAMMIT!
With all the distractions and interruptions, the target went to shit and got abandoned.
The deer stayed there the whole time. Didn't leave until I got up and went to retrieve the target.
Last night there were 5 bucks in the yard. A really nice 8, a smaller 8, the 5, and a couple of other small ones.
The two big ones were within 120 feet of the dining room window while we watched them eat acorns.
They all sparred with each other on and off, with big boy beginning to assert his clear dominance.