and a strong cup of coffee

‘Til opening day of deer season! I know a bunch of people who are out in the woods this week looking for bears and moose season starts in a couple of weeks… but I am counting down the days til the whitetail and I come face to face (or scope to face). The more I think about it, the more I want to get done before Oct 27th! Dad and I have a new spot with a new seat in it and I want to hang out there for a couple of hours to get use to it. I never realized how familiar a spot feels until you spend countless hours there. By the time I shot my deer last year, I had spent 76 hours in the woods. I knew where the gray squirrels would come from (direction and tree) and I knew what the normal sounds were and what were not. I have written about my hunting spots before and so far, we have shot a deer from each tree stand and my tree seat. The pressure is on for this 4th spot. Also, as Dad and I walk into the woods this fall, we will be celebrating 10 years of being hunting partners. ...

Last weekend, the hubby, pup and I headed to Sandy Mountain Cabins in Jackman. We were excited and eager to test out the fishing pole. It was beautiful when we arrived on Friday! The camp we were in was unlocked and ready for us. Corey, the owner had left a note in the window of the door saying welcome, where we were going to be and that we would catch up later. It was clean, welcoming and wonderful. We quickly got settled and headed out to start fishing. For some reason, I always take self portraits. I have them from my tree stand, and here when we are on the boat... Anyways, Corey usually rents out motor boats but because it had rained the night before, he said that if we wanted to pump it out, we could just take it. Yes, please! We had asked Corey where we should go to see if we could catch something and he gave us a suggested spot but also said that because the water/air had been so warm that it might be (probably would be) hard to catch something decent. But he gave...

I really like Steven Rinella. I have never seen one of his shows (I dont have cable) but he was kind enough to send me two copies of his book American Buffalo signed and ready for auction at this fall's BOW weekend . I follow him on Twitter and he posts some great stuff. Last week, he tweeted this link to a blog post on his Meateater website. I clicked and before I finished the first paragraph I found myself rolling my eyes. The blog is about Steven finding out that he is going to have a daughter in Dec. and his wife asks him to teach their daughter to hunt with the same excitement and enthusiasm as he is their young son. After Steven says he will, he starts thinking about if he really can. He describes his family as having few female hunters (and those that have or girlfriends who went ended up crying or begging for the animal not to be killed), but almost all of the men hunt. He uses a couple of examples of friends and family that have daughters who they taught to hunt. ...

This weekend, hubby and I are heading to Jackman to go fishing. This will be the first time that I have actually gone somewhere to go fishing. I have all of the equipment that I need (I think) but what suggestions can all of you offer to me about the trip??? Is there anything I MUST have? What should I know? This is the first time for me, so any and all info is more than welcomed. I leave Friday = ) This is where I am staying and this is the link to their fishing page.

There I was, morning mug of coffee and the newspaper. Enjoy some quiet before the day started. I turned the page and there it was – another article about ticks. I shuttered and as I read the article, I was informed that I am basically doomed. My hatred of those little disease-filled creepy crawlies has been chronicled twice before ( 1 and 2 ) but this brought it to a whole new level: babesiosis. And apparently its on track to rival Lyme disease in the tick-borne illness category. * Shutters * This is what did me in. Jane Brody writes: It has been said that Lyme disease moves on the wings of birds, which some experts believe carry the bacteria causing the condition. Babesiosis, however, moves on the backs of mice and deer. Birds do not spread it. But like the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, Babesia protozoans are transmitted to humans by ticks, which acquire the infection from the white-footed mouse and white-tailed deer. And, yes, the same tick — Ixodes scapularis, popul...