Chasing Deer and Chasing Dreams

I starting hunting as an adult.  My Dad never took me hunting as he did not hunt himself.  My Dad was an Army Chaplain and we were always on the move, every three years for the most part.  

As an adult, I became interested in hunting through a nascent desire to become self sufficient and to connect with ancient ancestors who survived solely by their skills in growing and killing their food.  Supply chain logistics of major grocery stores always seemed super fragile and susceptible to failure to me, and I always wondered if they did fail, what would humans do if they could no longer buy the food they needed at the grocery store?

I know, its a scary, horrible thought, but these are the types of things that rattle around in my brain from time to time.

Enter my good friend, Mike.  He also taught himself to hunt, and introduced me to some of the 'managed' hunts in our area as a means of practicing the art.  The local forestry services have 'managed' hunts from time-to-time to help thin out the deer populations in suburban forest areas to help encourage tree growth, to help prevent herd diseases, etc.

I signed up to one.  I had never fired a gun before.  I had to certify that I could hit a target with a 12 gauge shotgun at 20 yards.  My friend Mike talked me through the certification process and how to fire a shotgun as I walked with the certification person out to the range.

I was really nervous.  This was new territory for this city boy wanting to be a country boy, but really just a military brat to his core.

I badly missed the target on my first shot.  Mike calmly explained what I just done wrong and coached me on how to take my second, of three possible, attempts.  Fortunately, I nailed the bulls eye on my second try and I was summarily certified for the managed hunt.

This intense 20-30 minute coaching session by my friend Mike would pay dividends in my life for years to come.

At my very first managed hunt I managed to take two does with a 12 gauge shotgun from a tree stand.  I was profoundly moved by the experience, and grateful to the 'Everywhere Spirit' for the gift of these animals for food, for the sanctify of life, and for the ability to continue to practice the ancient art of the hunt.  It was a magical, profoundly moving, moment for me.

Then I had to figure out how to process the deer.  That is another story, but I got it done, also thanks to my friend Mike's coaching.

Fast forward to today.  I now own my own land and have hunted my property for the last three years not getting a single deer to-date.  There are, however, plenty of deer on my land - I have seen them, been taunted by them, and they continue to dance around the property in my absence.

My girls celebrate this fact; I lament my continued failures as a hunter.

But I continue to learn.  I continue to spend many cold Winter mornings in the field, waiting and watching and learning.  I know that in time, I will be successful again.

This time, however, I choose to hunt with a cross bow.  The cross bow is swift and quiet.  It is more akin to the tools used by my ancient ancestors.  It requires that I be much closer to my prey than a .308 rifle would.  It requires that I 10X my hunting skills in order to be successful.

And I really like the challenge.

Walking to the blind just before dawn, in the freezing cold, with innumerable stars overhead, expecting to run into Big Foot at any moment, is awe inspiring.  I hear an owl or two hooting in the distance.  I get my gear together and sit in my blind.  I put on my makeup (my black war paint to help me blend in with the shadows better).  The sun is close to popping-up over the horizon.  I hear the crows of several roosters in the neighborhood announcing the dawning day.  Soon, I start to hear a nearby buck mooing and braying.  Maybe he's warning his harem that a stranger is nearby, or maybe calling a willing harem member to come over to mate.  

I'm not sure why he moos and brays so, but I like the fact that he announces his presence.

Maybe he'll walk in front of me.  Yeah, and maybe I will win the Mega Millions jackpot.

Soon, the sun starts to appear revealing structures recently hidden in the shadows of darkness.  Warmth starts to flood the land again.  I start to shiver as my body temperature drops from inactivity and the anticipation of the hunt becomes imminent.

I feel alive and somewhat in touch with ancient man who sought to provide for their families by harvesting the fruit of the land.  In this regard, even though arguably far less technologically astute than we, the hunting and survival skills of ancient men were far superior to mine.  This fact is not lost on me as I wonder why I have not taken a deer since 2009.

Perhaps a YouTube video will fill in some knowledge gaps obviously lacking in my DNA.

Nevertheless, I feel alive and relish the dopamine hits and beauty of the surrounding nature in my seemingly quixotic pursuits.

While sitting and waiting for a deer to materialize in my view, I begin to realize just how much the  universe is beyond human comprehension.  The interconnections of life and life's histories are vast. 

And it is all good.

Dum spiro spero.

My Quixotic Quest For Water

 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the water."

Genesis 1-2 

This Independence Day 2024, we prepared our land to receive a well.  Water is the source of life.  Perhaps water is a connection with God, and even the beginning of the Universe and time itself.  Here's a video of our recent preps involving sourcing water on our homestead.

Reflecting On Progress

 Dwelling on all there is to do to accomplish a dream can be demoralizing. Reflecting all you’ve accomplished can be uplifting and satisfying (assuming of course you’ve actually accomplished anything).

Here’s the driveway of our property when we first bought it in 2017. 

We got stuck in the mud there more than once and camping in the rain was like an experience from an Infantryman’s perspective during WW2, as I’d imagine it. 

Seven years later and the rain no longer hinders our use of the driveway. We also have trees providing some shade from the sun during the Spring and Summer months. 

Soon after purchasing the property we naively planted a bunch of trees without first testing the ph levels of the soil.  We lucked out with the London Plane Tree. This species has thrived on our property so far. 

And so, in the last seven years, we’ve made slow and steady progress toward helping nature get her foothold again after the loggers laid the land bare.

This past week we planted some cover crops to help enrich the soil and feed the deer a bit. Pictured above is Buckwheat. 

We continue to strive to find balance between the needs of man and nature in creating and maintaining an organized and open space aesthetic amongst the chaotic growth of plants and animals. 

Ironically, machines really help in this regard. 

A Working Weekend In September

On our Dream 10X podcast, we ponder ways in which success can be achieved by thinking big and taking small steps to achieve those dreams.  At Ca Ira Castle, we are all about small steps, as small steps are all we can seem to manage at times.  I recon small steps are better than no steps.  The important thing is to keep moving forward.

Ca Ira Castle is about our dream to one day build a castle.  Our dream is totally irrational and almost impossible to realize.  That's one reason its such a cool idea, and a big reason why it is so hard to make progress toward.

This weekend, however, we were able to actually get away and work on our dream a little, and it was a fantastic weekend for dreaming outside!  The weather was amazing - cool nights, clear, and we think we saw a comet!  We saw a green tail moving across the sky early evening the night of 9/16 around 8:30pm.  The tail moved in a North-Easterly direction pretty fast, but not as fast as a shooting star.  It was visible for approximately 2-3 minutes.  We believe it might have been Comet Nishimura.  

One of the great things about being out in the country is almost no light pollution.

In addition, we got alot of work done cutting grass, clearing trails, spreading stone out on the dirt driveway, etc.  Happily, we got to walk the trails a few times as well, which is one of my favorite things to do after clearing them.

We took an inventory of the trees we have planted over the last 3-4 years, and rejoiced that many of them are thriving.  Some are hanging on still.  Many did not make it.  The native trees (and weeds), however, are absolutely thriving.  And the grass we planted to help manage soil erosion is growing strong as well (necessitating the need to cut grass with extreme prejudice in places).

This weekend was a small step in maintaining cleared fields and trails.  We are doing our best - with the time and resources we have - to create a harmonious and aesthetically pleasing arrangement between man and nature in a chaotic and messy environment largely undisciplined by man.  

Other steps we have taken recently toward realizing our dream include obtaining county approval for well and septic.  We're not quite ready to start running yet, though.  Besides, it is a real joy to see the environment rebound like it is, this after being clear-cut, dry and eroding for many years.

One interest of note is a once large pile of throw-away wood left by loggers.  When we bought the property, we thought we would one day have to burn the pile of logs in order to clear them away.  Not true!  Many years later, the logs are almost all gone due to natural decay, leaving behind a rich, spongey soil in their place.  Time and bacteria for the win (again)!

Life springs eternal, and this Adam and Eve love experiencing the rebirth as caretakers of the garden.

Building A Pond

One project I undertook at Ca Ira Castle this Fall was to build a pond. This after being inspired talking to Jamie Byron on our podcast over at Dream 10X about sustainable land management practices (among other things). The goal in building this little pond is to prototype a possible solution for rain water catchment using a big hole in the ground. 

If water can be retained from rain fall over extended periods of time, perhaps it will attract additional wildlife to the spot, such as frogs, birds, snakes, deer, etc. Where the animals gather, the food chain thrives. The animals eat, drink and poop and they enrich the nutrient poor soil in the process, which hopefully leads to richer soil and healthier plants and trees (and ultimately more oxygen for you and me). 

It never hurts to have a source of water nearby.  I figured water catchment would be cheaper and easier than digging a well, at least in the short-term.  Water can always be filtered in times of emergency.

That's the theory anyway. 

On September 7, 2020, I dug the hole in a spot near our fire pit where water was naturally pooling.  I facilitated the water runoff by digging a shallow trench from the highest spot on the land to the newly dug hole.

 

 After leaving, I hoped that the frequent rains we were having this year would continue.  True to form, the rains have continued frequently throughout the months of October and November.  

On November 2nd weekend Cindy and I celebrated our first anniversary by running a 30 mile run in Farmville, Virginia.  We stopped by the land to check on the pond real quick before coming home...

Sweet mud hole bliss!  I could not have been more pleased to see something I made with my own hands so successful!  No plastic liner used here, just dug a hole and tamped the clay down with the digger bucket as best I could.

We returned to the land again on November 28th weekend following Thanksgiving.  It was cold at night, but my heart was happy to know that water was being retained in my mud hole.

So far, the water retention prototype is working.  Deer sign all over and frogs have begun moving in.  I am interested to see how this project holds water throughout the course of next Spring and Summer.

Our First Castle Skill Building Day

Cindy and I woke up this morning (July 26th, 2020), and over coffee, started discussing plans for the day. Instantly, ideas started flowing, culminating in - hey, lets start a Castle Skill Building Day where we focus on skills we'll need once we have live in a castle. Some of those skills include:

• Permaculture
• Masonry
• Blacksmithing
• Bee Keeping
• Meadery/Beer Making
• Viticulture
• Orchards
• Archery
• Bagpiping
• Animal Husbandry (sheep/goats/cows/chickens/doves/pigeons)

So today, we picked a few of those skills and started learning them through doing them. First, we tackled candle making using natural bees wax. Here's a video of what we learned:



Secondly, we took on Blacksmithing, or Couplesmithing - where husband and wife teams attempt to make tools by forging complimentary pieces of steel. This is a real skill as we were about to learn in this video:



Finally, we took on Mead Making using honey sourced from my friend Mike. He has about five bee hives at present and sends us bees wax and honey from time-to-time. We decided to use his bees wax to make candles today and his honey to make a batch of Mead. In this final video, we walkthrough our learning process for making Mead - the nectar of the gods:



The ultimate goal, of course, is to build a Castle in Ca Ira which sustains itself through sustainable agriculture and architecture and includes the cultivation of Wine, Beer, Honey, Mead, custom Steel artifacts, etc. Until we can devote our full time and attention to these objectives, we need to cultivate and improve our skills in all of these disciplines with the time we have allotted.

Until then, we also seek to analyze the process of achieving outlandishly lofty dreams by talking to others who are at various stages of success along similar journeys at our new Web Project: Dream10X.com. Follow our Blog and Podcast as we seek to describe and explain the process of achieving greatness in one's life through dreaming 10x-sized dreams.

The Piper's Retreat

Cindy and I have dreamed of one day building a castle at our land in Ca Ira and hosting Highland Games Competitions there, not unlike the Glenfiddich Piping and Fiddle Competition at Blair Castle each Fall.

Fergus Muirhead introduces the Glenfiddich Piping Championship 2019 from The National Piping Centre on Vimeo.

Wouldn't it be great to have a beautiful place to celebrate the best bagpipe and fiddle talent in the World on US soil? We think it would be amazing to have a special place in the United States to host such a competition, and have Pipers and Fiddlers from around the world come and compete in a beautifully grand setting, not unlike Blair Castle in Scotland.

Of particular interest to me is the Piobaireachd Music of the Highland Bagpipe. This music is the equivalent of classical music to the Great Highland Bagpipe, but in my opinion, there is more to it than that. It is a highly meditative body of music in nature, from the way the player walks whilst playing a Piobaireachd to the repetitive patterns in the music. It's sound is very ethereal and other-worldly. In fact, the Piobaireachd 'Crunluath' and 'Crunluath A Mach' movements remind me a great deal of the French Scientist trying to communicate with the Alien Mother Ship in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. It's an amazing music idiom for the Highland Bagpipe. If interested, give this Glenfiddich Piobaireachd a listen:

Finlay Johnston performs Piobaireachd at the Glenfiddich Piping Championship 2019 from The National Piping Centre on Vimeo.

So thinking of the Glenfiddich Championship in Scotland and the Highland Bagpipe Competition in general, I've set about to starting my piping hobby back up trying to use Piping Competitions (which are hard to come by these days with COVID-19 concerns and all) to try improve my piping skills. Here's my recent submission to the Ohio Scottish Games Piping Competition 2020 Online (I dream of having a Pipe that sounds as well a Finlay Johnston's one day...):



Keep Dreaming!