and a strong cup of coffee

I hate to burst your bubble folks, but its more likely than not that you will never see me on the cover of any hunting magazine for three reasons, 1. I just don't look that good in camo 2. I would refuse to wear anything pink or have anything within the shot be pink and 3. if I were ever asked a question about my looks vs my hunting abilities, my comment would not be fit to print. I was excited when I got the May issue of Field and Stream .  Finally!  There was a woman on the cover.  I flipped through the pages to find the article.  I flipped.  I flipped.  And when I got to the end of the magazine, I went back through and looked again.  Maybe I didn't have enough coffee?  Nope.  There was NO ARTICLE!!!  There were only 5 questions asked to Eva Sh ockey about her hunting and one of them was about her looks. WTF Field and Stream!  Clearly, you have to be pretty to make the cover of magazines and regardless of your hunting skills, th...

My 10-pointer shot on Nov 25th 2011. The closer we get to November, the more I am concerned about what life will be like for my beloved White-tailed deer.  In 2007-2008, we had a harsh winter with a lot of snow followed by massive flooding in the northern part of the State.  Since that time, the overall deer herd has been struggling to get back to the numbers we once knew.  Guides and older hunters talk about the days when you would see deer all the time and Maine was known for its 'Big Buck hunting.' While, I will always love to tell the story of shooting my 10-point buck, if we really want to rebuild our deer population and be a coveted place for deer hunters to come, we need to start looking at what impacts the deer and what we can do to help them. We have heard over and over again that there needs to be work done to create healthy and sustainable habitats for deer and I totally agree.  But -- there are other issues that could dictate how likely our deer p...

After snowstorms in March and rain, Saturday was one of the nicest days we have had in a long time.  We eagerly got outside and went for a walk.  Baby fell asleep in the jogger, wrapped in a blanket with the sun on him and the wind in his face... it made me jealous.  The dog got to take a splash in the run off - which she was ecstatic about and promptly dove in face first to the cold, cold water. And on our way back, I saw this feather wound around the branch of a bush on the side of the road.  I didnt know what it was until I posted it on Twitter and Jeff said it was a turkey feather.  A great sign because turkey season starts in two weeks! 

A few weeks ago, my great-uncle Donald sent me this book because he had been reading my articles in the Northwoods Sporting Journal and thought I would enjoy this find. While this is not super old, it is older than me and it was great to read through the book and "learn" how to hunt, fish, hike, camp etc. The great thing about being an outdoors-woman right now, is the openness and excitement that I have found with other writers and outdoor-men in my life.  In order for us to evolve and become more interested in getting outdoors, it takes someone who is willing to teach us.  I hope that when Uncle Donald sent this to me, he saw that too.  It is a way to pass on a deep hunting heritage to other family members and create more hunting stories for future generations. There is an entire section about what type of ammunition you should use for each gun you may be hunting with.  You can learn about different knives you will want to bring with you or you may want to know ...

As I was driving to work today I had a thought; one of my biggest issues with transitioning to turkey hunting is the idea of aiming at the head and hoping enough pellets are close enough together to kill the bird.  What if I learned to bow hunt for turkey?  That would give me one arrow to aim (like one bullet) and I would have one target to hit instead of aiming in a general spot. For those of you avid turkey hunters, what is your thought on this?  I would not be able to do this until next year, but it is a tempting thought.  Will it work?