What did you do today?

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

Na our humidity is pretty low here. average of maybe 25%. So getting into the shade actually helps.

Me, I worked yet another day in the heat and will do so again tomorrow. But I have been spending extra time researching camcorders. Going to buy one Saturday so I have it in time for Dawn and Bre's opening day elk hunt! And then of course opening muzzy and modern here as well.

[Nanno]

While it sounds like ya'll are getting record heat, we're getting some very "west coast" weather out here. We've been in a fog for the last 48 hours with a constant drizzle turning to rain, then back to drizzle. Humidity is in the 90's (very unusual out here!), and it's cold and clammy outside. It feels like fall in western New York state! It was down in the 50's today. The goats have been lurking pretty hard and so have I.

It being good weather for staying indoors, I made butter yesterday! Two cups of cream yielded about 1 1/4 cups of butter and about 3/4 cup of buttermilk, which I used to make biscuits last night. We smeared the biscuits with fresh goat butter and ate them with potato soup made with lots of goat milk. It was an incredibly yummy "goat dinner". Today I used the butter to make snickerdoodles (or "goaterdoodles as I called them), and we made "goataroni and cheese" for dinner. That's just mac 'n' cheese made with goat butter and goat milk. It was also very good.

Being able to make yummy things from goat milk is very gratifying for me. Goats are a lot of fun, but they are also a lot of work and it's fun to get something in return. It's also fun to have stuff I actually enjoy making in the kitchen. I'm told I'm a good cook, but it's not my activity of choice. I avoid kitchens as a general rule (the microwave is my best friend), so actually having fun in the kitchen is kind of a novel experience for me.

[Taffy]

Check out the Go Pro cameras instead of a camcorder. We have them and they are awesome!

Na our humidity is pretty low here. average of maybe 25%. So getting into the shade actually helps.

Me, I worked yet another day in the heat and will do so again tomorrow. But I have been spending extra time researching camcorders. Going to buy one Saturday so I have it in time for Dawn and Bre's opening day elk hunt! And then of course opening muzzy and modern here as well.

[Charlie Horse]

Please stay away from the "Go Pro" product. I've done a lot of research on that and even their newest machines are junk. Read the reviews-- Thousands of complaints of "Incredibly short battery life" and "Suddenly turned to a brick" and other problems. People in my race car club have had very bad luck with them, also.

On my car I use this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-HD1080P-Wat...2c7835c8e3

It does everything Go Pro does for half or less, and I've been using mine for over 3 years every day on my car. It has performed flawlessly except that the clip on top that holds the waterproof door shut broke off eventually. 2 hours of 1080P video per battery. It'll store about 16 hours of video on a 32 gig card, I think. I've put it on goat saddles as a goat-cam and it has survived all of the bashing against rocks and trees and continues to serve. If it is bolted on upside down it knows to flip the image automatically. Built in screen, TV out and HDMI and USB. Can do still pics and time-lapse. It comes in black, too. Not just blue and black.

On the down side the waterproof buttons are annoying in that they wont beep if the sound effect from a previous button is playing, meaning that sometimes I cant tell if its on or off or what. Also I'm not fond of the MOV format that it stores video in. Its high quality but its a mac format and I use a PC, so its a pain to edit. Also, compared to my ancient Sony bullet camera which worked in the dark, its night vision is non-existant.

Be aware that ANY go-pro style action camera tends to have a bit of a fish-eye lens. This one will be less fish eye if you save in 720P since it uses less of the CCD surface.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

Thanks for the input guys. I was originally going to go with a go pro. Have seen some awesome videos of people using those. Then my brother brought up an important fact. They dont zoom. No POV point of view corder does, which of course makes perfect sense. Then after reading all the bad reviews (most being software related) I decided the price tag didnt warrant the risk. Ill be going with a contour pov corder next year OR if the finances allow, this year before water fowl and upland bird. But for now Im going to go with something like a panasonic HC V110. OR there are great deals on used corders on Amazon. Upwards of 80% off retail. Its just trying to find the exact one I want to use. I want a great corder but I dont wanna sink a ton of money into one that is going to be out hunting. Which ties into the why for a hand held corder. Where I hunt there are hundreds of thousands of dry land wheat acres. A pov corder will do little to nothing when you are spotting at ranges of 500+ yards and taking shots of 300+ yards. A pov corder would be great for bow hunting (which Bre and Charlene do) but unless its on them while they are doing the stalk and or taking the shot, then its not much good.

[deschutes dawn]

A few year's back my late husband and I got one of the mini camcorders to take on our caribou bowhunt. Small camcorders were all that was available at that time. It worked great in some pretty lousy weather. Easily rechargeable even in northern Quebec and lasted for long hunts. I don't even know what's available now except our smart phones (smarter than me phones!). I wonder if there is something light enough to mount on a hunting bow stabilizer?

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

Actually most pov corders can be bow mounted. Not the go pro. But it has a neat chest mount strap. Most of the pov corders are about the size of a roll of 50 cent pieces and can attach to just about anything. They come with many different mounts. Helmet and handle bar mounts are the most common.

I actually did some research into how good pov corders are when bow mounted and found a video and article by one guy that pretty much summed it up. They do great mounted on a bow but if you dont have one mounted somewhere else and or have someone recording also, you are most likely going to miss quite a bit of the kill shot time frame. With out practice steadying the bow when you fire, you are going to miss the impact shot cause of the jarring of the release. Then most people who do down their game are not going to think about keeping their bow trained on the target. While you are celebrating, your bow is most likely going to be pointed anywhere else but the animal.

So I would suggest a head mounted light weight couture pov corder. Or maybe a go pro chest mounted one.

[deschutes dawn]

Interesting. Reminds me of my late husband's attempt to film my first caribou kill in Quebec. He forgot to turn off the camcorder when sneaking up to film. The video could make you seasick! Hilarious! I miss him. Even after 10 years. Sorry everyone, it's approaching archery season and I will never get over not having my soul mate hunting partner along.

I'll check at work to see if Sportsman's carries a cam of some sort. Two more weeks and my discount kicks in!

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

woot woot then its shop fest 2014!

[Taffy]

OK. This isn't exactly packgoat related but any of you who have had to sell goats know it's really important to find the right home. I had one doeling kidded this February left to sell. She is an absolute doll and very correct in conformation. If the right home didn't present itself I was going to keep her. I'd been emailing with a woman about Molly for 4 days and yesterday she, her husband and 3 kids came to see Molly. They are a farm family with 3 Nigerians (2 does and a buck). They drink the milk from their does and enjoy the goats antics. They wanted a goat for their daughter who she could work into showing and milking. Molly and the little girl were best friends within an hour. She led Molly all over the place, they were "kissing" and it was obvious Molly had found a new home. The mother is as excited as the daughter. I thought you might enjoy this photo. Kids are the future of all things goat. Maybe someday she'll become a goat a goat packer!


  Molly and Elise 1.jpeg (Size: 106.12 KB / Downloads: 23)