2012 Deer Harvest Results

I was as curious as ever to see the final numbers for this deer season to come out. With the lack of deer spotting and the drought bringing EHD into the picture, I was expecting to see the number of harvests significantly smaller this year from last. I was wrong...

Statewide, a hunter could harvest 2 deer within archery season; either a doe and a buck (antlerless and one antlered) or 2 does. You could only harvest one antlered deer in all 3 archery, firearm, or muzzleloader seasons. In Noble County, you could harvest 8 bonus antlerless deer but throughout the state the numbers ranged A through 8.  "A" meant that it could only be used after November 29th and you could not harvest bonus does before then.

A grand total of 136,248 deer were harvested in the state of Indiana during the 2012 deer season, archery to late firearm season. This number is 6% HIGHER than the 129,018 deer harvested in the 2011 season. I was very surprised at these numbers as many of us around the Noble County area didn't see the number of deer we have in the past. Antlered deer harvest was down 9% from last year however, but the antlerless deer taken were 15% higher. Over 50% of all deer harvested this season were taken in the firearms season from November 17th to December 2nd.

For the first time, Indiana held a late antlerless season in counties with a bonus county designation of 4 or more. The reported number was 10,091 taken during this season.

Counties with the highest harvest numbers were as follows; Switzerland, Dearborn, Harrison, Franklin, Steuben, Parke, Washington, Kosciusko, Marshall and Noble.

Indiana DNR then came out with a section called "Disease Monitoring" with the number one being EHD, Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease. There were confirmed cases in 29 counties and 38 other counties reporting occurrence totaling 67 out of Indiana's 92 counties.

EHD is a disease that mainly affects white-tailed deer in the U.S. It is caused by a virus that spreads by biting flies typically in late summer and early fall. Outbreaks are usually worse during drought years, which makes sense as to why it was so prevalent this year. In the beginning stages, deer appear feverish and tend to seek water. Other signs and symptoms are blueish tongue, eroded dental pad, and sloughed hooves. It is usually fatal to deer, however some may survive. If this is the case they can pass antibodies onto their offspring making them less susceptible to the disease but unfortunately, much like the human flu, there are many different strands of the disease. Many folks were concerned about contracting EHD from the deer meat, but humans are not at risk at all. I will post later on what I find out about specific numbers for the death toll from EHD in Indiana and how it will impact us in the future. For more information on this disease click here... http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-EHDFaqSheet.pdf

As you can see the numbers from the 2012 Season Summary were elevated compared to last year. I was honestly very surprised because I myself saw less deer out hunting than I had previously. Many folks that we have talked to and everyone up at our deer shop agreed... this year was MUCH different. I am anxious to see what next year brings! What do ya'll think???

If you would like to read the full summary of the 2012 deer season you can click the link below.
http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-2012_Deer_Season_Summary.pdf

Recipe of the week

Hey ya'll! Its been a busy week so I wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about you! :) Here is this week's venison recipe:


Venison Meatballs
1 lb. ground venison               1/8 tsp. pepper
½ c. chopped onion               1 tsp. Worcestershire
¾ c. dried bread crumbs  
1 T. parsley                           1 egg
2 tsp. salt                               ½ c milk

SAUCE:
¼ c. flour                           1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. paprika                     2 c. water
½ tsp. salt                           ¾ c. sour cream

   Mix together venison and other ingredients.  Let stand in refrigerator 2 hours.  Roll into
balls and brown in skillet with ¼ cup oil.  Drain.  Mix together sauce by combining dry
ingredients.  Add water.  Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.  Stir in sour cream.  Add
sauce to the meatballs.  Heat through.  Can be cooked on low heat in crock-pot.


I wanted to let ya'll know that I am working on a story right now to explain what "NoCo Livin'" means to me and to the folks who are our family here. If you have any input or something you wish to include, please comment below or feel free to email me at ashstew90@gmail.com.

Shed hunting... AND Birthdays!!!

Good morning! TGIF!!!! Hope your Valentine's day was as good as mine was! Zane and I went shed hunting for about two and a half hours yesterday after we exchanged gifts. I decided to bring along Harley as well, just to make it a family affair! We had so much fun and hiked all over but unfortunately we didn't find any sheds. It is still a little bit early so hopefully next time we go out we will have better luck. In the first hour we kicked up about 4 deer in the woods and didn't see any until on our way back out when we saw about 20! The crazy thing is that 24 deer is an incredibly small number for the area that we were in. It could have been the time of day we were out and about, or the fact that it was a little warmer than it has been here in Indiana. I just hope that it's not a prediction for next hunting season! I took several pictures of our shed hunting adventure...

That right there is what we like to call the "deer highway". You can see that they move a lot through that area! There are several different places that you can visibly see these areas throughout the 100 some acres that we were at.

Zane and Harley. 

Harley just sniffin' away!

Just because we didn't find any this time, doesn't mean we won't be back out again very soon! It keeps us and our friends together and having a good time. If you have any stories or pictures of shed hunting, or hunting in general, please send them to me at ashstew90@gmail.com or simply comment below!

Here are a few pics of our friends at Boneheads Outdoors goose hunting this week!

Finally, I want to start doing NoCo birthdays every month so we make sure to wish all of our friends and No Co families Happy Birthday!

So here it goes... FEBRUARY B-DAYS; Carl Saaf the 11th, Hannah Carter TODAY the 15th, and Veronica Miller the 21st!

Happy Birthday guys and gals!!!

Shed dogs... my new obsession!

Hey everyone!!!

I am going to be upfront right now and tell you that this post is going to be short, sweet and to the point. I am a Nursing Student and this is a test week! :) As you can imagine studying is my priority this week so I don't have too much time to spare... BUT I want to share with you my new obsession... Shed dogs!

I have been researching for quite some time about dogs that find antler sheds and I want to find out what you know... and what you think!

I have found a few websites that have captured my interest, one being Antler Dogs, http://antlerdogs.com/Default.aspx. Roger Sigler is the owner and dog trainer. I have emailed him with questions and he is very excited to help answer them. I wanted to share this particular website because he is going to be in Indianapolis THIS WEEKEND! What a coincidence!

He will be at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Friday from 3pm to 9pm to answer any questions you have about shed dogs and training them! He will also be there Saturday 10 am to 9 pm and Sunday 10 am to 5 pm! If you have the time and the means to head down there I sure encourage it. Check out his website too to find out what he's all about!

Again I am sorry for the shortness of this post, but I promise that here in the next few days I will share with you what I have learned about Shed Dogs and how excited I am about it! ;)

See you soon!

Happy Friday ya'll!

Good mornin' everyone!

Harley and I got to play outside and get our picture taken yesterday by Simply Samantha Photography, creator: Samantha Allred. We had such a good time and Harley of course hammed it up! If you can't tell... he LOVES getting his picture taken...

Didn't she do a fabulous job!?!? I was really happy to see how amazing the photo turned out. If you would like to see more from Samantha, check out her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/simplysamanthaphotography?fref=ts

I want to give a reminder that rabbit season is open until February 15th which is a week from today and coyote season ends March 15th! Amazing how fast this winter is going, and to think I would be saying that in Indiana! 

It's starting to warm up from below freezing and the snow is quickly melting...I see some shed hunting in my near future!!! Anyone else???

Venison... it's whats for dinner.

How many times have you tried to think of new ways to use your deer meat???

I am a newbie at cooking as it is, and it's hard for me to be creative in the ways that I cook deer meat. ESPECIALLY with people who don't eat deer as their primary source of protein. Look no further, because every few days I will be posting new recipes and ways to use deer meat in your dinner plans!

Let me be clear, I have not made any of these recipes on my own... if I do make one up, trust me I will be bragging for days. You will find the links for the recipes at the bottom of the page of each post so that you can see where the creative mind lies.

Here is one my mom usually uses for our steaks:
Venison Steaks with Gravy

2 lbs venison steaks                           1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. salt                                           1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder                         2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 can mushroom pieces                      1 large onion, sliced
2 cans condensed cream of 'shroom soup

Combine flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a bag and shake until well blended. Then put one steak at a time in the bag, shake until completely covered. Put oil in a skillet and heat until hot. Brown steaks. Remove from skillet and add the mushroom pieces and onion into the oil and cook until tender. Remove from skillet. Lay steaks in a 9x13 baking dish and spread onion and mushroom pieces over the steaks. Take the mushroom soup and spread over the steaks. Cover the dish with foil. Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour until the steaks are done!


Or how bout the Indiana version!

Hoosier Fried Venison

2 lbs venison                                1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt                                      Pepper to taste
3 Tbsp bacon fat                          1 stalk celery, cut up
3 medium onions, sliced                1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups tomatoes, chopped            1/2 package dry noodles

Cut up meat into serving size pieces. In bowl, mix flour, salt and pepper. Coat the venison with the flour mixture. Heat the bacon fat in a skillet and brown the venison on both sides. Add celery and onions, brown. Add Worcestershire sauce and tomatoes and cook, covered, 1 to 2 hours or until tender. Cook noodles separately and drain. Add venison on top, and serve.

Try them out and let me know what ya think!

Recipes found at:
http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-wild_game_recipes.pdf

Boneheads Outdoors

Hey ya'll! Happy Super Bowl Sunday!!! 

This week we are featuring a branch of our NoCo family... Boneheads Outdoors. We got a few questions answered from Josh Combs, the creator. Don't worry though, If you would like to show your support and be a part of Boneheads, feel free to email, message and Facebook them! They would love to hear your stories and see your pictures from your outdoor experiences! 

It seems like Josh and I created our pages to bring together our friends and family and show the world what we're up to! We love it here in Indiana and we love what we do!

Me: "What made you start Boneheads Outdoors?"

Josh: "I started boneheads as a way to show people what my friends and I have been doing when we go hunting, how often we go, and the highs and lows of our seasons. Also started it in hopes of a sponsor to help extend the brand."  

Me: "That's great! What does it mean to you?"

Josh: "What boneheads means to me, would be a way to bring me and my friends closer, you know it's kinda labeled us but we don't mind it! lol"

Me: "Who can be involved with Boneheads?"

Josh:  "As far as who can be involved; anyone can be. Anyone who wants to post hunting or fishing pix to our Facebook wall is more then welcome. They can also email me photos and a short story and I can put it on our page or my up coming website. I also have people message me on Facebook to talk hunting and set hunts up."

"The main people are Jeff Anderson Jason Brock and me. (Josh Combs) Anyone is  more then welcome to get a hold of me for any more information!"

They have also created a label and shirts for Boneheads Outdoors (below). They aren't sure when they will be placing their next order but if you are interested in a shirt and pricing, message them on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/boneheads.outdoors  Also ask them about their women's shirts! 

They will be more than happy to answer your questions or add your story on the page. Be sure to check them out!

https://www.facebook.com/boneheads.outdoors

Stay tuned to hear more from Boneheads and as soon as they get a web site address, I'll be sure to post it! 

Boneheads Outdoors

Jason Brock, Jeff Anderson

Jeff Anderson

Josh Combs