When your hunting pants don't fit

This past fall, my routine became almost comical. I would leave my backpack on the ground, climb into my treestand, get settled and unbutton my wool pants.

Four years ago, I wore base layers with monkey-thumbs to hide the Queeze-Away bands that I wore around my wrists. I never got sick, but those early morning breakfasts and treks to the Sky Condo were a little more challenging when I was trying to hide a pregnancy. Dad makes sure that I am always secure and comfortable when I am sitting 10-16 feet up in my treestands but if he knew I was pregnant, I was not sure how far off the ground he would allow me to be. So, I kept my first pregnancy a secret during the entire season.

I hunted, hiked and pulled the same 10 hour days with Dad that we always did. I would fall asleep right after dinner, but the fresh air and adventure of being in the woods kept me going. Hubby shot his first buck ever that season; a small crotch horn and for me, the pressure was on to get one myself. The next day, I shot my own crotch horn, which weighed more and had more bone on his head (I am slightly competitive.) The best part was that I had had a successful season while pregnant with my son.

Fast forward to today and I have a kiddo who out eats me when it comes to meat, loves to fish and has informed everyone that he plans to shoot a Black bear, Grizzly and Wildebeest with his bow and arrow. He overheard me talking about turkey hunting this spring and eagerly said that he wants to go. He is anxious to get into the woods and we are excited for him to start sitting and watching for wildlife.

I did the same thing last fall that I had the first time; Dad didn’t need to know I was pregnant until it was necessary, which turned out to be half way through the season when I got sick. I had proven that I could hunt while pregnant the first time around so I continued to climb into my treestands to hunt. I was not dying, just pregnant.

Hubby shot a nice 6-pointer on opening day of rifle season and Dad and I continued to hunt. I had my routine and made sure to keep myself hydrated as I climbed in and out of stands and buttoned and unbuttoned my pants to keep my growing mid-section happy. I also kept my backpack filled with snacks with me, which is something did not have four years ago. But just like back then, I matched Hubby with his deer, shooting my own 6 pointer on the last day of rifle season. And again, (see slightly competitive comment above) my deer weighted more and had more bone on his head.

I’ve successfully gone 2 for 2 for deer while pregnant and I am happy with that. No more babies for me, but hopefully a lot more deer!

Healthy Coyote coming through

I still have a few trail cameras out to see what the deer are up to. I have gotten pictures of the big buck that is around and most recently, I got these pictures. Normally, I wouldn't be too freaked out but now that we have a dog, it is a little unnerving. Add that this camera is about 50 feet from our lawn and less than 100 feet from our front door... I hope that this one is just passing through. (Sidenote: I put new batteries in this camera so the date and time are wrong BUT I walked in front of it so it would take my picture and I could figure out what the actual time and date were: 7am Saturday morning.)

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it....

Utilizing technology to make you more aware

Staci and I were roaming around the woods on a piece of property that she knew. It was snowing and we were chasing deer tracks to see if we could find some early sheds. It was a perfect day to be out in the woods and we were relaxed and not really paying attention to where we were going. We knew the border of the property and we knew that if we walked long enough we would hit roads or the bog and find our way back. We got to a point where we thought we knew where we were but we were not sure. Staci got out her compass to take a waypoint to make sure we were going in the right direction to get back to the truck. I took out my phone and turned on OnX. Within seconds we knew where we were, where the property borders were in relation to us and we could watch the dot (that represented us) on the map move as we walked out of the woods and got closer to the truck. In another adventure, my son and I headed out on a shed hunting mission. When we got into the woods, I turned on the trac...

and a strong cup of coffee

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