Goat hunting gone wrong

It all started a last week when ScubaFella asked if I wanted to go out for a hunt
this weekend, initially the wife and I were supposed to be heading to Taupo to collect a plough, so with a quick rearrangement of days, Sunday became free. Then later that week, the whole family came down with a really nasty stomach bug, and I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to make it (that was if the weather was even suitable). Anyway Sunday came and my stomach was settled enough for a hunt, and the weather looked good. ScubaFella said that he basically wanted to knock something over, so we figured goats were probably the best option, and once the Muka Muka came to mind (also it meant gentlemans hours, not a crazy 4am start).

8am SF and I met up in Featherston, and we loaded up into the truck and headed down to the coast, on the way down there were rabbits galore, but we were after something bigger. After a few fordings going along the coast road that "cleaned" the underside of the truck, and then used the trailer as a grader we got to the small fishing village near Corner Creek, and proceeded to unload, and transfer equipment (well most of it) to the bike. With guns and day packs loaded on, we set off. with a reasonably uneventful trip to the mouth of the MukaMuka, we turned up the river and started bouncing our way towards the forks. Within a few minutes, I misjudged the depth of one of the puddles, and with the extra weight and it's placement (and my mistake of reading the track), we almost put the quad on it's side, but we managed to recover from that and slowly but surely picked our way up the river bed.

20 minutes later we arrived at the forks, and start to prepare the rifles. I open my bumbag, pull out some ammo, load 4 into the magazine, put the bolt in and then I hear SF curse. He starts emptying his bag, checking his pockets, but to no avail, he just can't find it..SF decided to bring good luck to the goat hunt be leaving his bolt somewhere (somewhere other than in his bag). We ditched the idea of heading back to find it, and just hid is rifle under a tree and decided to hunt on.



Normally I would take the one on the true left, but someone mentioned on a
previous post about an area just past the waterfall on the true right fork, so
we headed up there. 30 minutes later and some very wet trousers and boots we got to the waterfall, and found the "rope", a thin piece of yellow cord tied to a
rusty bracket.

We both had an attempt at finding a way across the rocks, but we both decided that it was too slippery, and the water too deep to warrent trying. Bugger, that's about an hour of the morning wasted. Whilst walking back out to the forks, we did explore a spur leading up, but there was no sign or anything. Getting back to the bike we decided to head to the same place I shot the goats the weekend before. It starts off with a reasonably steep climb along a goat track along a ridge before it opens outs. Since SF was rifle-less, I gave him the 308 to carry for the walk around here since there is normally heaps of sign, and hence a good chance of seeing something. We sneak up the ridge, noticing that the sign was thick on the ground, including one that we didn't recognize (looked like big Jaffas albeit the wrong color). Reaching the grassy bench we spyed over the edge to the clearings on the other side of the river, but as usual, nothing was there. For a change we decided to head in the opposite direction to which I normally go and headed around to head up the bench above the center fork. Stalking like a pair of elephants we didn't see anything, and around 12ish we sat down for lunch. After lunch the rifle was passed back, and we proceeded stalking along the bench, and lowly the sign got less and less. I suggested to SF that we pick the pace up a little, as there is no sign. So there we were walking through the bush, paying little attention to foot placement, chatting, with the wind up our as when all of a sudden I saw what looked like a bloody reindeer (first thought). I quickly put my hand up to silence SF. First he thought it was a goat, then he saw the antlers! About 5 metres in front of us, the big stag stood up, and still in a sleepy haze, turned it's head to look at us. "Bugger, it's all velvety" I thought, but soon after the thought was replaced with "Hmm, venison" and the decision made. The rifle was quickly loaded and raised (none of this statues stuff) and I lined up, aiming for the shoulders I squeezed of a round, instead of the normal "Kabooooom", there was a "click"...shit...Safety...fumbling the safety off, I line up again on this dumb founded stag who is just starting to think about moving. Again, I squeeze the trigger, and this time "Kaboom", and the stag ran away. We kept him in sight, and quickly moved to where he headed off, blood....lung but still he was very mobile. I lined up again and squeezed of another. He still kept going. Where we were, there was thick bush up to our right, and a bloody steep drop to our left, if he left the bench he would be lost. One more shot and he dropped (but still bloody alive). I slowly moved closer and but one in the back of his neck shattering the spinal column. He was dead.
I could hardly believe my eyes, in front of me was a bloody huge stag (unfortunatly in velvet), but all the same, a good haul of venison. After reliving the last few minutes a few times, we started the mandatory photos, and a quick count of the points, 9 developing, uneven though. We let him rest for a while and then started removing the back steaks and hanging the legs in trees so we could start boning him out. A couple of hours later saw us both ladened up with meat, SF with the shoulders and I had the backsteaks, and 1 and a bit legs (one of the bullets went through the leg and made a real mess of the bone. At that point we started the hike out to the bike, I had about 20kgs on my back, and SF had another 10, and we threw away several due to blood and bone damage. Didn't take us too long to get back to the bike as it was all down hill, and pretty easy going (until the game trail running along the ridge). About 45 minutes later, the bike was loaded up, and we started the trip out. Upon getting back to the truck and trailer, SF finally located his bolt, sitting in the trailer!

On the way up we saw this, and didn't recognize it for what it was, know I figured it was stag sign!

Hunting the Muka Muka

Well, this morning the rain rader showed a fair bit just to the west of Wellington, and it looked like it would hit the Wairarapa south coast at around 9am, so the hunting gear was loaded into the truck, the bike and trailer attached, and off we went. First I had to drop the wife off at the train station so I didn't get to Corner Creek until around 8am, but now worries..20 minutes later I was cruising up the big Muka Muka.
After parking the bike, and quickly going over the plan for the morning, I set off, first up the gully then onto the bench that runs along side the stream (albeit 30 or so metres above it). I got to the base of the gully and noticed a small game trail that headed straight along the ridge line, and it seemed easier going than my previous attempt of bush bashing.
Following the the track for about 2 minutes, I saw some bushes moving. "Bugger me" I thought, there were three goats right in front of me. Three shots later, 2 down!
Since it was still quite early I carried on, but alas, not much else to report, I bumped into the third goat again (only to lose sight pretty quickly as it bounded down the bank), and as I got further up the valley the drizzle strengthened, and it is quite pleasant to walk in the drizzle, but by that stage fatigue was setting in (not sure why, no where as taxing as the cone hut walk, but then didn't get to bed late, and didn't have a good breakfast). I had a few slips that ended up with me in the stream, and quite worried that if I carried on, one of those slips might claim an ankle or something, so I turned around and headed out to collect the two goats.
Would I hunt in the rain again, yep, beats getting way too hot and sun burnt.

Cone Hut walk

Today, Steph, Connor and I decided to head up (up being the operative
word, 300m in less than 1km) the track to Cone Hut, as I'm heading
into the bush for a three day hunt shortly and I wanted to see what
the bush was like, and to try and break in the boots.

All in all, a good time was had by all, Connor is knackered (not sure
why, he spent most of it on my back).

Amy knows what this track is like (she's walked the first 10 minutes,
and that was easy!)
Anyway, here's some snaps from the day.

Oh, the swing bridge is the largest of it's type in NZ, being 92m
long, and 35m above a pretty strong river!

Me and Connor inspecting the map

The milking stand, and a random Connor shot.

Plan B with Monkey

Since we don't want all the milk to our selves (and by having a kid it means we can go away for a few days and not worry about her drying up), we have a plan to foster a kid on to Monkey, so it's fingers crossed for Queen to kid in the next few days and to have twins. I've just skinned the kid so that when we try to foster the kid on, it smells correct (ish) to Monkey. Not pleasant, but then not all things are.

Sad news

Unfortunatly, last night around 9:30 the kid died. That means we now have to milk Monkey twice a day (and at about a 1 litre a milking, that's a heap of milk, maybe we will be making feta).

Monkey baby update

Well, having just tubed her again, we put down another 40mls of milk (milked from Monkey), and 10ml of brandy to keep it warm from the inside! He seems to be regaining consciousness slowly.

Goat photos

Our first angora baby this season.

My first wild public land deer (well the bits anyway, 25Kg's of meat, each leg is about 8kg, and the bench is 2ft wide!)

Monkey's only surviving kid (not looking well), we've put him in the oven to warm up and seems to be improving.

Our first angora baby

Lambing and kidding update

Well, the lambing is all done, and only one died. As for kidding we currently have three healthy kids (2 from the kiko-crosses, and one doe from an angora). Monkey gave brith the other day to quads, 3 dead by morning and the last one is touch and go, we've got to the stage of inserting a tube down to the stomach and feeding it directly, not fun! Fingers crossed it will pull through, if not we might have to try and foster another kid onto Monkey later on.

Hunt

Last month I went for a walk to new spot in the Wairarapa, but didn't see anything, but I did learn the lay of the land, and that I did the track backwards!. This Friday I decided to head back down, and have a better look, focusing on certain clearings instead of trying to do the 10km loop.

Leaving home at around 4am, I got to the road end around 5, and within an hour I was at the start of the ridge line, 30 minutes later, I was sitting on a nice high knob glassing over about 10 different clearings all starting to be bathed in sunlight. Not really knowing much about this deer hunting lark, I figured a good plan, spring growth, warmth from the early sun, should see some deer. Sat there for a good 2 hours, and then moved to another spot further along the ridge, so I could investigate the clearings further along. Still nothing.

Around 9:30 I decided to head back home. Whilst walking back toward the end of the ridge, I came across the track that lead out to the spur on which most of the clearings I was watching were. Since the day was young, I figured a bit of an explore was in order. Slowly making my way through along the track, I heard some rustling of leaves on the other side of a gully, sitting down and bring up the binos, nothing...heard the noise again...still nothing, then all of a sudden two deer (yearling and hind) appear out of nowhere on a really sharp face, they were there all the time, but being a novice, I didn't see them. The yearling was oblivious to me, but the hind I think saw me, but couldn't smell me as the wind was going up the gully, and I was on the otherside.

Sitting dead still, she went back to eating, whilst I carefully placed the pikau down, and crawled in behind it. Ear plugs in and I lined up on the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Previosuly I've always held the rifle too tight and my shooting was affected (badly), this time, hardly a grip on the rifle. Consequently the rifle kicked up and I was left looking into the sky...No deer there. Quickly I stood up and grabbed the binos..Where did they go....I heard crashing saw some trees shake. "Looks promising" I thought, then below some more trees shook, looking distinctly like the deer had fallen down through some more trees. Phew...Next trick, recovery. Marked the location with the GPS (which gave me the 5 minutes for her to seize up if she was wounded), and then headed down the steep gully.

The one tip the guy who gave me directions gave me about this spot was "Stay out of the bush, it's pretty tight" He wasn't joking! A few minutes later and lots of scrambling through the bush, I was on the face the deer were...Spotted a few drops of blood, a bit more, and then none. Did it carry along the face, or down the side. Hanging on to a tree and peering over the edge, I spotted one more drop of blood, letting myself fall into the ferns, I found some more, and a distinct track of flattened ferns heading down hill. At the end of the ferns was a bloody big dead hind! Cool I thought, my first "public" land deer, quickly said sorry to the girl (don't really enjoy the killing), and then dragged her down the hill to a small clearing where I gutted her. Unfortunately she was pregnant with 1 fawn, but that's life (and death).

After gutting her I tried carrying her down to the bottom, but as I got her on my shoulders I just ended up straight back on my ass! OK I thought, I'll drag her out.

Dragged her to the bottom, and then realized I had about 40 to 50 metres of uphill tight bush to drag her through..Yeah right! So in the dappled light of the small creek I removed the shoulders, hind quarters and backsteaks. The plan was to cart the up the hill. So with the hind quarters on the shoulders I picked up the rest and the rifle and started moving. My balance was so off and the bush tight, I quickly realised that this method wasn't going to work either. New planed was formed quickly, make multiple trips and carry it to the top in bits, First the back steaks and the rifle, back for the shoulders, and finally back for the hindquarters. So I never lost sight of the rifle, I did the whole hill in about 5 metre stints!

About 1/2 way up, I figured that this was too bloody hard, and starting investigating how much meat was on the shoulders, and very quickly deemed it not worthwhile carrying them out, so they were left!
About 20 metres later I found a game track that took me up and out on the track, so leaving the rifle I quickly got the GPS out to locate the daypack (with the water), and headed pronto to that (I was getting pretty dehydrated by this stage). Then after a few minutes of recuperation, I headed back down for the find quarters, they were getting heavier and heavier with each step, so I quickly removed each haunch from the pelvis and carried them up in even smaller bits.
Upon getting back the track (2 hours to travel 200m), I found a good tree to hang things in, and formulated a plan for getting home. There wasn't much hope of me carrying it out whole, so I skinned the legs, and trimmed up the backsteaks, and put it all in the daypack, and started the long hike back to the truck.

Along the ridgeline was all up hill, and it was done in 5 step increments, with a rest in between each. After 2 and a half hours of this, I go the the end of the ridge and the gentle descent towards the truck, after a good long rest and some food, I headed down the track. At this stage is wasn't the weight of the pack that was getting me, it was cramps and the nausea from the pack straps on my shoulders. Out came the spare clothing and it was quickly taped to the pack straps to make it a bit more comfy. After another hour and a half walk I got back to the truck...Man was I glad to see the truck.

All in all, a good hunt, only one shot (as that's all it needed), and having never having to carry a deer before, I now have a great deal more admiration to those who carry them out whole!!!!
Unfortunately no photos..

First Kid born

As we thought, she was in labour, and around 6pm (we think), she
kidded. Not sure if we'll leave her out for the night, or bring her
in, it's not wet or winding, but a crisp clear night, why could she
not have gone into labour this morning so it would have a splendid day
to soak in the rays!

Oh well, at least it was born alive, now lets see if it lasts the night.

Spring is here

Spring has hit with full gusto thankfully, we now have 7 chicks born in the last week or so, the lambs are just starting (with the first born last Tuesday), and the kidding is about to start (we think one of the does is in labour now, it's one of the Kiko's).
Watch this space for cute baby animal photos.

In other news, Connor is starting to run around, the vege bed is doing really well, Steph and I are quite chuffed about it, we've got radish, silverbeet, spinach, carrots, capsicum, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, chives, mint, sage and strawberries.  We've pulled out the last of the brocolli which went through winter quite nicely.  So over the next few months I intend to make the vege garden quite a bit bigger (first adding 2 more 900x2700 beds and a 1/2 size one, then by pushing the fence out into the back lawn to make it about twice as big (and I'm thinking about using the pig paddock as a temporary pumpkin growing area shortly.

Dirty Connor

Connor had spent the last hour or so playing in one of the paddocks
(with is really really muddy whilst Steph and I did some fencing, this
was just as we got back in the garden, he seemed to enjoy getting dirty!

Today

Well, I've got Steph down in the workshop making a milking stand, she asked if we could build one, so I thought I would teach her how to use all the powertools in the workshop, she's  used the dropsaw to cut them to length, the tablesaw to rip them down the middle and the thicknesser toclean them up..I'll put photos up when we've finished.

Fun in the kitchen

Whoo hoo, just had to use the fire extinguisher in the kitchen...I was cooking bacon on the stove, and something inside the stovetop under the element caught fire.

Unfortunatly the dishes were beside the stove, so now we've got to do them again as they are covered in dry powder...luckly I dealt to the fire, as Steph's version of a dry powder fire extinguisher is flour!!!!

So the stove moves up the list of priorities.

Tanks

Yesterday afternoon, (in the biting southerly), I decided to redo the fish tank, so I was outside in a T-Shirt washing one of the spare fishtanks to set up in the spare room..It was very cold!
Anyway, all the fish and plants are now down in the spare room, and we're currently trying to decide what to do with the tank in the lounge, it will set back up (or at least a tank in the lounge will be set up), wejust have to decide which one, and how to do it.

Watch this space.

Mum, I need a pony, this one is just to lazy!

Photos

It's snowing

FIrst time ever it's snowing

Ah, winter, such fun

Yeah, it's been awhile, that's starting to become almost the start of every blog, might have to try adn do something about that...but it's winter, and not much really happens here during winter, its just wet, muddy and wet!

We've spent this morning cleaning out the barn (we've had the goats in the barn for a few weeks every night, and man do they make a mess!)  I've made pallets so they are off the floor but we still have to clean up the wee's and poos, not a pleasant job!

Still no movement on the house, we've decided that if it hasn't sold by Amy's birthday we're going to stay and take it off the market, it's a bit frustrating 'cause now's the busiest time of the year for us, I have more spare time ('cause hunting has finished for 3 months due to lambing), we have lambing and kidding, the fencing season is just around the corner (that's fencing as in farm fencing) and we've got some to do, the vege bed is ramping up...the list just goes on!

Not sure if I blogged ages ago that we planted a paddock of turnips, well they are now ready for harvest, and we've even eaten a few, and have already put aside 60 or so for later.  Only a few weeks ago, we had a meal where everything on the plate was either grown or rasied by us, very satisfying.  And hopefully soon, we'll even have our own milk and cheese!

With regards to Connor, his signing is going really well, his volcabulary is quite extensive, esp with animals, to list a few, goats, sheep,horse, cow, bird, rooster, pig, dog, cat, elephant (a new one yesterday), and he also knows food,drink,sleep,toilet (only when we are going though!), biscuit to name a few.

Anyway, morning tea time, after which I think I'm trying to get the tractor going (might have to head into town and get more fuel though)