2019 Hog Hunt Day 4 - Logging Does Not Lead to Serenity

The mornings are falling into a comfortable routine already.  That is bound to happen after coming down here for so many years.  I guess I'm struggling with that Steinbeck thing, where we spend our lives looking for security and then hating it when we find it.
I bet the hogs don't struggle with such things.  Their lives probably just vacillate between various levels of survival.

Once it got light out Rick and I bagged up corn before dropping off Will at school, then feeding stands.  Most of them were hit well and Rick started a few other spots to keep things going.  The corn pile on the stand I shot my hog the previous night had only barely been hit overnight.  "See what not shooting them in the head does," Rick kvetched.
Yes, not my finest hour.  But it happens and the end result was good (enough).

Back at the lodge I walked down to the river again.  Temperatures were slightly warmer than the previous day.  It looked like a good day to sit on a pig stand.

Rick and I headed out in the early afternoon and I sat on the Fish Snatch stand again.  The temperatures were great and I liked the overcast conditions.
There had been some logging activity in the area but it had all been pretty far away.  After sitting for a while, it moved close.  Very close.  At one point I peeked out the back door of the blind only to see a tree fall across the road.  They really weren't that close, but those machines must be crazy loud and one of them didn't run very well which just made it annoying.  It was not very much fun.

Right around 5:00 they moved on again.  I could still hear them in the distance, but barely, leaving me alone with my tinnitus.  With almost no wind it was almost too quiet in comparison.  I thought I heard something just outside the blind and peaked out the window a bit only to see a doe standing just a few yards away.  She ran another 10 yards down the 2-track and turned around - somewhat startled but not really on edge.  Deer are pretty animals.

Shortly she trotted down to the corn pile and another smaller deer followed.  They stayed around for the rest of the evening.  At some point I lost sight of the larger deer.  I've never seen both deer and pigs on the corn at the same time so they can be helpful to watch for any hogs in the area.  Deer are nervous animals and they kept looking all over as they usually do.  But no hogs ever showed.
I crossed that evil five minutes when it is too dark to shoot but I might do it anyway, without seeing anything.  Packing up my few things, I very quietly exited the blind and headed back to the gate.

Another day of hog hunting over.  Life goes on - for all of us on this day.