Last Nights Deer Census

  Up to Clarksville via the Alan Express.  He's very prepared for nearly anything.  I took my view camera, a 5X7 Deardorff and some Ilford B&W film to shoot a few images of some things I noticed Sunday evening.  Got nearly the same conditions and shot all my film.  Five holders, front and back.  I'll process all of one side, take a look and then process all the sheets from the other sides.  The Sycamore tree with the Poison Ivy plant held absolutely still for 20 second exposures at F32 with a polarizer and a light yellow filter.

  40 deer minus or plus a few.  Started with three does crossing the field behind the house.  The first one saw me unlocking the gate and ran, the next two followed suit but didn't know why and were "hopping"-getting air-to look around and spot the threat.  (It was Sarah Palin.)

  We saw deer on nearly every line we drove.  Alan uses a LED light that he can really pick them up on low down while I'm blasting from the bench seat up top.  Gorgeous night- about 78 with the moonlit pastures and trees, star-spangled North Texas skies and Alan doing most of the work. We live incredible lives here in North Texas.  I'm very grateful.

  The only hazard was a species of very ambitious civil engineering-type spiders who can span a hell of a reach with their webs.  Big reddish-orange jobs.  They hang in some impossible places and end up on your collar with a web-face wrap if you don't see them early.  I get them on my trails here about the time the little black and white crab-like spiders disappear.  I didn't take them personally.  They have lives too.

  20 hogs or so in one of the fields.  Six big ones and many small ones.  No eye reflection from hogs but you could spotlight them and watch with binocs.  Ran over a cottonmouth at the creek crossing who was gone when we came back 30 minutes later.  Alan says they survive being run over.  Two barn owls in the leaning tower stand, white in the spotlight.

  Armadillo.  A few small bucks.  Insect eyes all around and the big beam will attract a cloud of winged critters if you burn it for more than 10 seconds.  I walked up one of the green insect eyes I could see 20 yards away with my pocket LED as we were loading.  It was a striped grass spider and not a big one.

  Glad to get home at 1:00am.  Burnt all day though I worked a very successful photo shoot for a client and delivered it.  Babies in ICU.  

  Deer survey hangover.  Might be the Dr. Pepper, which I never touch except on the road with Alan.

 We'll sleep tonight.  Washing clothes and charging phones while waiting for Ike.  I'd like to see that film tomorrow if the power holds.