and a strong cup of coffee

There is something about fishing that creates a community on the water.  I don't really fish - I am learning, but I would not consider myself a fisherman, yet.  I am planning on going fishing again this spring at GLS but it's been a while since I took to the ice to try and pull a fish out of the hard water. Recently though, I tried smelt fishing with my friend Jen. The rows of shacks. Open water not very far away The wind was blowing hard but the heat in the shack was so hot that we had to rig the door to stay slightly open.  We even went for a walk down on the ice. As the tide was coming in, we could watch the ice shifting and rising just 20 feet away from where we stood. As the sun set and the tide changed, we got our lines baited with blood worms and dropped into the water. Then we waited. The tide came in and a we continued to wait.  There was one man in a nearby shack who kept making the rounds to see if anyone had caught anything and how big....

After my incident last season, Dad decided that it would make more sense to be hidden in the woods and have more coverage than my treeseat gives me.  This will help me get a better view of the more traveled deer trails and not rely on the deer to come my way.  He wanted to build a permanent structure that would allow us to hunt in all weather conditions. So, Dad has been busy building T3.  He constructed it in the barn to make sure all of the dimensions were right.  Our first treestand was built 16 feet off the ground using a 12 foot ladder.  Not ideal and clearly not built by hunters who knew what they were doing.  The Sky Condo was considerably better with insulation and a tar papered roof.  T3 is looking to be the best yet! T3 being built in the shed Once Dad and I figured out how tall everything needed to be in order for me to take good shots from every angle, he started moving pieces of it down into the woods.  The plan was for u...

The forecast calls for 20-25 inches coming my way this weekend.  That storm will mean that we have seen almost 6 feet of snow in the past 3 weeks.  It has snowed about every other day.  I think everyone who pays attention to the deer herd is watching and hoping that the lack of snow early on in the winter allowed for the deer to store up more fat and get more food to be able to survive 6 feet of snow in such a short time. Dad and I checked on 'our deer' while our snowmobiling Last spring the turkey season was eliminated from Northern Maine because of the snow fall amounts and concern over the breeding success rates. Living in a state that can get slammed by Mother Nature, keeps you on your toes.  We obsess over survival rates, impact of snow and ice and habits stability.  Who knows how much snow we will really get and how these animals are getting by.  Fingers crossed. Until then, I am grateful that I live with a couple of boys who love to shovel...