and a strong cup of coffee

Bear season officially ends this week for me (Nov 28 for those who wish to still hunt them) I went out a couple of times and while this happened , I did not fill my tag this year. Luckily, I have a decent amount of bear meat left from last season so I will be in good shape for a bear roast when its -10 and snowing. Again, I helped Steve with a couple of bait sites and I wanted to post what our sites looked like.  He knows I took these pictures, so while I won't tell you where they are or what sort of secret ingredients we used, I can show you the basic set up. Anatomy of a bait site (from left to right): 1. Deer hind quarter tied to a tree 2. Milk crate with sweets 3. 55 gallon drum filled with assorted donuts 4. Milk crate with disgusting beaver parts Over the course of the season, we had bears who preferred the sweets and those who preferred checking out the meats.  When you think about it, bears eat some pretty gross stuff but boy is bear meat delicious! Next...

I was ready! Everything was packed and the sun was out.  I drove down to meet up with Steve and we were going turkey hunting.  Well, I was.  He had already tagged out and was sharing his blind with me. We made our way through the trees and towards the blind on the edge of the field.  The turkeys were already there picking at the food in the field.  It was the first time I had ever hunting agricultural land and the first time hunting turkey in the fall. We wanted to make sure that we were not seen, so we crawled our way into the blind and set up the chairs, my steady stick and gear.  We watched the birds eating, unaware that we were there.  For the next hour, we watched and hoped that they would get close enough to shoot.  They didn't but instead went into the woods just out of range from us.  We could hear the leaves crunch under them. Having worked the night shift, Steve left me in the blind and headed back to the truck to take a n...

How does the saying go? Good fences make good neighbors?  If that's the case, what do posted signs make? Two posted signs and a property marker tied onto the tree After a few incidents last year, Dad and I spent Saturday putting up posted signs around the piece of property.  It is kinda of sad to think about the changes over the past few years and how it used to not be an issue: people knew who owned what pieces of land and who hunted on them.  There was a respect for owners and when they said no to hunting, it was respected.  Last year, I was yelled at while sitting in my tree seat, we had people walking along the edge of our property and our neighbor had hunters that he did not know, sit in his blind and hunt.  There is a total disrespect for land owner rights and what they say is and is not ok on their property. Sadly, as a result, we posted the land.  As did our property neighbors.  We have worked hard to build up the habitat, keep ou...

You be the judge. For reference, the whole pile is about 5 inches across and Dad said that its about 4 days old. It's filled with apples and seeds.

If you have been a dedicated reader, you know that we have built a new treehouse for the 2015 season.  If you are a new reader, do a quick search for T3 and you can see what we have done so far (and why.) When the weather is cool with lots of sun, it's hard to be anywhere but outside.  Since rifle season opens in a couple of weeks, Dad, Hubby and I took to the woods to get things set up and ready for the Oct 31 start. We hauled carpet, plywood, tar paper, canvas and a chair down to T3 to add the finishing touches.  We also brought a limber to get those little branches out of the way of the shooting lanes.  On the floor, we put two layers of the tar paper then the plywood.  The canvas was turned into a gun rent out the front and the carpet was put on the wall behind me to keep out the cold and help to keep me hidden. The shooting lane that you can see behind me is where I shot my deer last year.  With the sun shining in on the stand and the lanes b...

I bought into the Hollywood version of trapping.   I sat on my couch in my warm house and watched the guys on Mountain Men check their traps and through ‘that could be fun.’ I watched as they put their traps out, checked them the next day, skinned an animals and did it all over again the next day.   Through the wonders of editing, it looked so simple to be a trapper.   I had a couple of friends who offered to take me out when I told them I had an interest in learning, but they wanted me to take the Trappers Ed class beforehand so I could legally handle the traps. There were six of us in the initial class in Sidney.   Most were there to make trapping their hobby and pick up some extra income in the off months of winter.   I was there so that I could learn and write about it.   Just like bear hunting, I believe that if you want to write about it, you should try it and have some firsthand knowledge.   That first night was filled with...