and a strong cup of coffee

I have no idea what Staci said after the words "water snake" came out of her mouth. I went into panic mode wondering if I was going to snag one with my fishing pole or if every bubble that came up from under the canoe was a snake below us. But, the plan was to catch bass and we climbed into the canoe and paddled off to do just that. We started off with frog lures and within the first two casts, I had a bump on my line but nothing hooked. After a few more casts, Staci was landing bass on a regular basis. One of about 15 bass that Staci caught She was out fishing me almost 10 to one and I knew that I needed to hook something.  I cast into the shallows under one of the fallen down trees and boom! had a bite.  The fish hit and dove.  I could see the bass' light colored belly as it turned and went under the canoe.  Then, all of the tension was gone and so was my lure.  The fish grabbed everything and completely straightened my swivel. I quickly got a ...

One of the does that we have around the house had twins.  Our landlord asked if we had seen them and at the time, we had not.  I set up my Moultrie, threw out a few apples and waited. I have gotten some great photos but I have yet to see both fawns, which makes me wonder if the other fawn has died or if this is a different doe/fawn combo. I am running out of apples but am planing on keeping my camera up to see if I can get any photos of the two fawns together.  And if not, I will move the camera and try to figure out where the bucks are around here. I may also move this camera up to the Sky Condo and check out some old rub lines to see which bucks are roaming around. It is looking like it will be a good deer season!

...Other outdoor women who support and push them. Plain and simple. Robin Follette, Taylor Follette and Me. These women make me want to be a better outdoors woman! In the month that I took off, there were blog posts flying around about who outdoor women are, what we like and don't and how, even into adult hood, those damn cliques from high school pop back up. Here are a couple of links to check out in case you missed them: Field & Stream's survey on "real women weighing in on hunting." I took the survey but anyone could have told you the results and at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with my hunting. Following Eva Shockey on social media does not make me a better hunter.  Feeding into stereotypes doesn't help my shot placement. The only great thing F&S did in that issue was put the rock-star hunter Mia Anstine on the cover and highlight her along with other women who are breaking stereotypes and changing the face of the outdoor indus...

They may be small, but I love seeing both of them!

I posted these pictures on the Facebook page and asked people what they thought was going on with my doe's shoulder.  We got a few different responses but I am not sure. Warts? Burdock? a horribly placed bow shot? I am hoping to keep watching her and see.  This is the first time that we have seen a deer with something like this.  On the flip side, she looks very healthy.

How can you not be excited when you are checking trail cameras? The suspense, the unknowing... one of the first pulls of the season gave us quite a shock. A dog.  A big brown, pit bull looking dog at the Sky Condo. It looks healthy enough but the last thing we want is a dog up there.  Is it friendly? Who knows but now we may need to carry more protection than we usually do when we are checking the cameras and making tweaks to the food plots.  I would rather see a coyote; they are skiddish of people and don't tend to come out in daylight hours.  Plus, you can shoot them on sight and resolve the problem. Dad thinks he knows who own's the dog but regardless, it doesn't belong running in the woods. 

When I woke up, I had gotten two and a half hours of sleep in the past 24 hours.  With the time change, I knew that I had to trick my mind into thinking that it was like any other morning and that with copious amounts of coffee, I would be able to function.  I had to; I was going fishing! It was just me and the guys, heading to the Russian river to try our hand at salmon fishing.  Some had fished before and knew the Alaskan river well.  Some of us planned to just do what we were told.  We loaded up the waders, some lunch and fishing poles and drove two hours south. It was a beautiful day! Warm but not too hot and no bugs.  We were using regular fishing poles with a hook but instead of a fancy lure or a fly, we tied pieces of bright yarn to the line. I was told that the goal was not to appear to be lunch but to annoy the fish enough that it bites. The water was only a couple of feet deep and more often than not, never rose above my knees. That wo...

The only other Mainer on the trip, the bride's brother and I were walking down the wooden pathway to see how far we could go to not have a bunch of fishermen in the water. The answer was; not possible.  We hit the stopping point and started backtracking to find our group.  We hadn't gone too far when we heard a women yell something.  I turned to Ben, "Did she just yell bear?" The friends that we were fishing with us had warned us about bears coming down and taking fish (which is why you must always keep you fish inches away from you at all times.)  I wanted to see a bear. I was so excited and pictured this fantastic brown bear emerging from the trees as I dropped my fishing pole and got my camera out.  The fishermen in the water were slowing backing away from the opposite bank.  This was it! I was going to see my first brown bear! Then, a black bear waddled down to the water.  I was disappointed.  Happy that I was watching a bear, but I can se...