and a strong cup of coffee

With the deer down, I filled in Dad with what happened, how I didnt shoot when he was in the first shooting lane and all of the excitement that goes along with the hunt. Dad walked over to the deer before I did and counted the tines. He has never shot a 10 pointer (he has shot a lot of 8 and 9 pointers that were big deer, a few over 200lbs) so to get such a big deer was really great. When we started to gut him, we smelled a horrible stench. This deer was very much in the rut and since they carry their sent in their lower legs, it was the strongest right near us, where we were holding his legs and gutting him. Whew! It was bad. Dad said he has never smelled a deer so stinky. And since he was heavy and we were a distance from the truck, Dad decided that he was going to get the tractor to get the deer out of the woods and back to the truck. I led the parade out of the woods while the deer got a nice rid in the bucket. We loaded him into the truck, took him to get tagged and brough...

What a weekend! I went home in a snowstorm on Wednesday. Dad and I hunted Thursday morning and with the fresh snow, we could see that the deer were right where we were. It was a little discouraging to have that confirmed for us, because we still had not seen a buck. We walked, tracked and walked some more. A cool thing that I had never seen before were deer beds. We saw 3 in a row and you can tell how big the deer is because they leave a print in the bed when they get up. This one was the largest and Dad is pointing to the print. We called it a day mid-morning and spent the rest of the day with family. The next day was warm, 37 degrees. Which is warm for the end of November. Dad made the call that, because the majority of the tracts were headed to my tree seat, we headed down there first instead of sitting in the sky condo. We headed down and I was sitting and ready by 6am. I sat and waited. It was around 8am that I saw him. He stepped out in front of me. Right in my sh...

This Thanksgiving, there are many things I am thankful for; my family, my friends, good job, good health... but I am thankful that I get to spend so much time with my dad in the fall as we hunt. As you can see, it paid off! I shot a 10 pointer this morning. I will give you the complete story in my next blog (and I will show you more pictures) but until then thank you to each and every one of you that reads my little blog and leaves me encouraging comments. Hope you are enjoying Thanksgiving weekend!!!

This is what is coming our way - 8-12 inches of snow. Tonight into tomorrow. I am trying to focus at work, but really, its not working. Dad and I have been doing snow dances all season to get some snow to fall so we can track this damn deer that keeps mocking us and refusing to show himself. Gimmie some snowshoes and my gun and lets go! We will be out Thurs, Fri and Sat this weekend. Hopefully the snow sticks around into the weekend and we can get some good tracking in!

I have learned 2 things this hunting season: 1. I can now wear enough gear (awesome wool jacket) to mimic an owl. I bundle up so much that all that is exposed are my eyes and nose. I move my head and that's really it when I am in my tree seat. 2. I need to sleep the night before. Thursday night, Dad told me about the huge tracks he saw around my seat. I went to bed at 10 and tossed and turned about the big buck. At 5:30am, I was in my seat waiting for the sun to come up. I sat and I sat. 5 hours later, dad came to get me. Nothing. He did see 3 does and hoped there was a buck near by but that was not the case. We sat in the Sky Condo in the afternoon. It has been windy every day that we have been hunting. Not a crazy wind, but windy enough to keep your ears sharp for the difference between leaves blowing, squirrels running around and a deer. Or so I thought. I was in the SC, checking all of our shooting lanes. I looked straight ahead, where we have been seeing deer bef...

Dad was out scouting this week. He found a bunch of scrapes and huge tracks near my tree seat. Big. He said its probably the monster we saw on the camera this summer - 8 pointer that he hopes has 20+ inch spread. No pressure or anything. So, we worked through all of the possible angles that I could shoot this monster, depending on which shooting lane he steps into (the largest scrape is in the lane right in front of me - see previous posts for the photo - there is a blow down and its right under it). Dad needed something to use as a model. I had the perfect thing! We worked all sorts of scenarios - if the deer does X, shoot him here. If he comes right at me, hit him in the white of his neck. If he falls down, shoot again (I lost a doe when I let her get up and walk away). The normal pressure of making sure to kill a deer is fun, but having the added pressure of this monster buck right near me... eeeekkkkkkk!!!!!!

This is my dog. She is adorable. She is a rescue puppy that we got almost 2 years ago. And this is the only picture I have of her face on, usually she moves as the flash is going off. So, blog friends, meet Leah.

Over the weekend in Maine, 3 hunters were shot. One man died. Also over the weekend, 2 dogs were shot and killed as they were mistaken for coyotes. In this article , John Holyoke talks about what its like for him to talk to his non-hunting friends and how bad the sport or hunting looks when so many incidents happen over such a short period of time. I must say that it makes me happy that I hunt on family property and that Dad and I know WHO is hunting in the area with us (they sit in tree stands) but it is so, so scary to think about how quick something like this could happen and how absent minded some hunters can be while carrying a loaded weapon. Yes, I throw that gun up over my shoulder and shimmy up into my tree stand without worrying, but I also have a constant voice in my head yelling at me the minute the front of my gun comes up to where it would hit Dad's calf. It is unfortunate that these serious incidents happen at all, but to have 5 of them happen in less than a w...

Nope. Not mine. Or Dad's. We struck out again this past weekend. We saw coyote and bear droppings (the bear was really cool because it was on the path to our sky condo). Dad was able to jump a few does but no bucks. No scrapes or rubs - are any of you seeing this as well? I am hoping that with a full moon on Thursday, rain all day Thursday and it getting colder here, that come Friday, I have a picture to post that is actually mine. The above deer was shot by my brother in law - 8 points and 225lbs. He got is at 8am on Saturday.

I found this cool article today about deer moving around in the rut. Do you agree? Hunt the Rut

What am I missing or need to do before I head into the woods? There was an article in the local paper about traditions and how the author gets up with his buddies, has a huge breakfast and coffee before heading out into the woods. I have cream of wheat or maypo, sip enough juice to get the vitamins down. Girls and guys? What about you? What's your typical breakfast before heading out? I also dress in SO many layers. This morning I found my running pants (Lycra maybe? spandex?) and my first thought was "perfect, they will fit under my fleece long johns that I wear under my wool pants". Two layers of sock, snowmobile boots, foot warmers (like the ones you use when you go skiing). Under armor, non-cotton t-shirt, more fleece, more under armor, a down vest and my wool jacket. Layers baby! Gloves, hat and blaze orange light weight vest and I am ready to go and sit. Tomorrow, I will be in my tree seat at 5:30. The temperature will be somewhere near 20. I will wai...

Here are my before and after shots with the snow. I climbed back up in my tree seat to take Sunday's photos from the same view point. You can see how long my shooting lanes are with the snow on the ground. 48 hours from now, I will have been in that seat for 4.5 hours. Im cold just thinking about it.