and a strong cup of coffee

Kim sent me more photos from my ice fishing adventure a couple weekends ago. Me and Kim Duckman and Ryan with a nice pike Playing cribbage Vose family

Before I arrived on the pond, Duckman had caught a 6.5 pound pike. I thought it was a huge fish and my dog had no idea what it was and kept coming over to smell it. All I could envision was her grabbing the thing and running. And then dropping it down a hole. Then I would owe Duckman more than I do (Leah thought she could help herself to some chowder). As Leah ran around, she found a dead bait fish and became intrigued. She would put the thing in her mouth, tail hanging out, run a little and then drop it. She had no idea what to do with the fish, what it was or what she should be doing with it. The last thing I wanted was for her to swallow the thing. So instead, I ruined her fun - picked the fish up and put it back into a semi-frozen hole that Duckman had abandoned earlier. All she could do was try to figure out how to get it back. There was a thin layer of ice, so in some parts of the hole, she hit ice instead of fish. In the spot that I dropped the fish into, she couldn'...

On Sunday, I went ice fishing. I had never, ever been fishing before (unless you count the time I caught 13 sunfish when I was maybe 10) and had a vague idea of what to expect. I relied on this to shed some light on what to expect. I was at the pond at 6:45am, trying not to be the late kid and I brought my dog. The hubby was supposed to come but got the flu so the dog and I fled. I had dressed a little warmer than if I was going to go sit in a tree for 6 hours waiting for Bambi, but not by much. I used it as an opportunity to test some new layers I bought a month ago. Rabid had given me directions (not quite accurate, but not to worry, he gave his dad the same ones) but I had a good idea of where I was going since my best friend grew up on the road we parked on. It was beautiful out. A little chilly, but a wonderful February day. I was really excited to witness first hand what all of the excitement was about when it came to ice fishing. Duckman was gracious enough to com...

Im heading out on the ice this weekend with Rabid Outdoorsman and Downeast Duck Hunter . I have never been ice fishing before and after watching the videos on DH's website... I can only imagine what it will be like. Wish me luck!

I want to get this bad boy mounted. Just the antlers though. My home is not ready for deer heads just yet and I just decided I wanted to save the antlers beyond just keeping them downstairs or in the barn, which is where my little spike-horn's spikes are and all of Dad's antlers. Anyways, I made up my mind late and the head has been hanging out in the barn with misc critters since Nov 25th. So - friends and followers... where do I go? what can I do? I saw Rick's post . Should I make it my weekend project?

I was the 26th person to buy a chance in the permit lottery this year/today (they went on sale less than an hour ago I would guess). The cost has gone up, $12 to $15 and there is now an option to NOT be entered, but to get a bonus point for this year instead. Last year, 50,000 people entered the 2011 lottery for a shot at the 3,862 permits that were available. I will know on Saturday June 24 if Dad and I will be headed out into the wild country to (attempt) to bag us a moose. It didnt work out the last time . This is last year's moose that my best friend's Dad got in the Allagash.

For some crazy reason, I actually thought I would have a problem finding ways to keep the conversation about hunting going throughout the winter. So far, I have been lucky with all of the things happening... such as this story about a Texas breeder who smuggled in many deer, including 2 monster bucks, and risked the lives of the entire deer population in Texas. I had to laugh at the names of these monster bucks "Barry" aka "Fat Boy" and "Hit Man" aka "Silver Storm" For one thing, who names their deer? And why not tag them and refer to them as #123 and #456. It seems to silly to me. But, its a huge 2+ billion dollar industry that could have been wiped out by greed. Any of those smuggled in deer could have carried bovine tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease, that could have hit the wild deer population and spread. Instead, hundreds of deer had to be killed and tested to make sure they were not sick. Is it really worth that sort of r...