SHED HUNTING, January 2006

January 9th, 2006.....

Thank goodness I found this little antler because my shed spirits were sinking after walking nearly every day for the past couple weeks and finding nothing, though the sign was good.  Aaron has had a very lucky year, so I'm just trying to catch up.  We had walked for probably two and half hours when I saw those lovely brown tines.

I sure love the "as it lays" picture since I've never found one on its side before! We have quite the shed team out in the woods....out two goofy dogs and us two crazy shed heads.

The ironic thing about Aaron's luck is that I got to carry the antlers for another three hours of shed hunting!!!!! What is up with that!!!???  Actually Aaron recently injured his back, haven't figured out what is wrong yet, but he can't have any weight pushing on his spine, so alas I carried them.  I was trudging through the snow, getting caught in the brush, while he was out easily cruising around the shed grounds.....He says he was walking with his eyes closed, so he wouldn't find any more sheds since I may have stabbed him with one of the antlers.  We didn't find anything else unfortunately, but found lots of sign as usual.  At least I have some ownership in these sheds now!

December 31, 2005......

 I didn't know we were still shed hunting for last year's antlers, but Kodi definitely found this one.  The front is fairly bleached, but the back is nice and brown. There is some chewing on the top but otherwise it is in good shape. We may have actually found a match to one of our past finds!  I was almost on top of this antler before I realized it was there. The white tip sticking out was all that was visible. Good Job Kodi!!!!

December 25,  2005...

Aaron and I took the dogs out today for a Christmas shed hunt, and I spotted the brown tines at about 30 yards! I thought it was going to be a small shed at first.  The bull must of stepped on the palm after he dropped it because it was buried in the snow.  This is the best Christmas present ever!  We figured the bull had dropped the antler that morning since there was a lot of fresh sign in the area.   I was stressing about finding the other side... since I've never found a matched set! We were combing the woods when I spotted a brown butt!  We snuck around and found it was the bull wearing the other side of the shed I'd found. He was with another nice bull still wearing both antlers.   This is great!   We also saw two other bulls, two cows with calves, and another moose.  We've decided we've seen at least twelve different bulls in this area!  And on this Christmas day, we are so thankful for the creation of animals with antlers! Praise the Lord that antlers are shed.

Here is the bull still wearing the other side.

December 19, 2005....

Aaron and I went out walking today for about 3 hours. We covered lots of ground and found lots of moose sign. We spotted two bulls still carrying their antlers.  On our way back to the truck we had to go off the trail to go around a cow that was being stubborn!  We joked about this is when we would probably find an antler since last year we found a number of antlers on the way back to the truck after walking miles.  I was ahead of Aaron trying to get Kodi through the brush because he was rather taken with the idea of chasing the cow moose! Unfortunately in my moment of dealing with the dog, Aaron spotted this monster shed sticking out of the snow not twenty yards off the trail! I almost beat him up! It just wasn't fair! We saw fresh blood around the tracks that left the shed! Unfortunately the camera wouldn't turn on in the field because it was too cold! Once we got home we realized that it was a match to the shed he found yesterday- they were probably a half mile apart! This is the first matched set we've ever found!

December 18, 2005

As it lays.... This is what it is all about! How often do you see the rubs and then are blessed to find the shed!

Lucky...lucky Aaron! I was only 10 feet away form him, just looking the wrong way.

December 16, 2005

While on an afternoon run with Kodi.... I saw the brown points sticking out of the snow in an open field.  What a way to start this shed hunting season!