and a strong cup of coffee

As I climbed into the Sky Condo to start the 2017 hunting season, the top step broke off from the tree sending a chuck of wood to the ground and leaving the bulk of the rung hanging down to the next step. I lifted my gun off my shoulder and slid it onto the floor of the Sky Condo and them threw my backpack up.  I got myself into the stand and looked down at the damage.  We were going to have to replace a few rungs before the following week.  And my silent entry into the woods was anything but.   I sat there for a couple of hours and then headed for my stand in the woods to see if anything was walking through.  I was cautious walking in and looked for any sign of brown.  I made it around the corner when I heard that tell-tale sound of a deer blowing.  I watched as two flags ran from under my stand, away from me and into the ticker woods.  My cover was blown but I had hoped that the deer would head towards the stand that Hubs was in since...

We've waited all year for this!  Deer season was back.  Hubs, Dad and I had a rough idea of where we were going to sit to start the morning, when and where we would move to next and the basic game plan for the morning hunt. But then, I looked at the trail camera pictures. The 10 pointer that we had had on the camera last year had shown himself for the first time two days before at T3. Up until that point, we had only smaller bucks on the cameras.  But this one... we've been watching him for at least 4 years and he was beautiful.  I declared that I would start the season sitting in T3. Hubs was bumped to the Sky Condo and Dad would still hunt. It was a perfect morning - quiet and calm.  I got into T3 and settled in.  I had a set of rattling antlers, a grunt call and a bleat.  The season officially started at 6:40am.  I was ready.  From my seat, I could watch 7 different shooting lanes. I picked up the antlers and as I prepared to rattle, a...

Dad was able to mow the field around the Sky Condo the other day and when we pulled the memory card from the camera, I instantly put it into my digital camera and started turning the wheel to see if we had any bucks.  The first picture that I came to that had hunt-able animals were these: The bird that we swore had disappeared into the ether when we were hunting suddenly came back in full force.  There were all kinds of pictures of turkeys.  Like this one.  I especially like that the jake made sure to show me his beard.  I was more excited about this photo.  Not because it's a button but because that means that the bucks will hopefully start moving around.  We got the first photo of the 10 pointer last year, in August.  Although I can not remember if it was because that is when he started coming around or if that is when we started putting the cameras out. He looks scrawny and not nearly as healthy as some of the does that we have a...

There is nothing better on a nice fall day then walking through the woods with Dad and checking the trail cam pictures.  We headed out to check the camera by the Sky Condo and the camera by my tree seat.  That big buck has been hanging around the Sky Condo but if it's the same deer as last year, he made a few trips past my seat and into the bog. After doing some logging on the property, Dad has decided that we will move my tree seat and build another permanent stand.  The plan right now is to move closer to the bog and off to the left of where I sit currently.  This will allow me to sit close to the bog and thickets and if it rains, I can still be around any deer that decide to move.  I am naming my new stand T3 (tree-stand three - how original right?)  I may do a Google search and see what cool, function designs might be out there that we will want to add to this new stand.  The Sky Condo is pretty nice but we have had to patch up some leaks in ...

My Sky Condo A recent piece in " Trout " by Tom Reed talked about place and what it means to have that one place where you can retreat to and forget all of your worries. It got me thinking about my place. Tom writes, "it is your place. We all have them. Places of heart home, places where we feel centered and right in the world... At that moment when you were there, you were all there." When I was little, I would sit by the stream heading out from the pond behind our house. I could sit and just listen to the birds, the stream gurgle over the rocks and watch the clouds bounce across the blue sky. It was peaceful and calming. When I hunt now, I can zen out pretty well. It may take me a week to get comfortable but after that, my 5-6 hour long sits are usually calming and relaxing although I am observant as I watch and wait for a deer. You have time to process everything in your mind (sometimes more than once) and sometimes you are surprised by what your subcons...

For the past 10 1/2 seasons, we have been a two hunter show.  I sit, Dad walks and we either find deer or move to a new spot. This time Hubby came along and it added new challenges for us. Dad and I have three seats up and decided that we would each get a spot to sit during the first few hours of Saturday morning.  We put Hubby in the Sky Condo because he has not hunted/shot from a tree seat and we have some tiny/slanted seats that Dad and I are used to.  It seemed a little awkward to try and get everyone in place early enough so that the last person was sitting at an early enough time to beat the deer moving. At 5 am, we were out the door and heading into the woods.  The wind was flipping COLD!!! I was my normal, bundled up self and I was comfortable as we walked in.   Dad dropped me off in my tree seat, dropped Hubby off at the Condo and headed up to our third spot.  Dad said I could head out of the woods around 10, get Hubby and meet him at the truck...

I was so worried about my son waking up in the middle of the night and subsequently waking up my parents, that I barely slept. This was our first overnight and every little whimper had me ready to jump out of bed and make him a bottle. When I got up at 4:30 it seemed as though I had just gone to bed. But it was opening day and there were deer to find! Dad and I had looked over the memory cards from our cameras the night before. Dad asked me to keep track of how many bucks I saw in the photos. One spike, one crotch horn, another spike, a small six (maybe) pointer, two more crotch horns, a NICE, wide six-pointer and a bunch of does. More does. The same does. Turkeys. Grass. Grass. A coyote (boo!) and then... a perfect, beautiful, thick 8-point buck eating grass in front of the Sky Condo. I think he is my ghost deer! I will grab camera photos next week, but he was incredible. His antlers are symmetrical, he has thick shoulders and I want to shoot him very badly! I have my targ...

Deer season starts tomorrow!!!  Dad and I have had the cameras up seriously for about a month or so.  The excitement of bringing the memory cards home, waiting to see if there are new pictures and then of what... it's almost like Christmas morning for us.  We have three cameras out, two by the Sky Condo and one by my tree seat. One of this year's photos (the last one, below) got Dad and I talking.  Is it better to know what you have out there, even if you never see it? or is the element of surprise better? For example, here are some photos that we have taken from the trail camera of deer that came, got their photo taken and disappeared. This buck is right below the Sky Condo A different buck (look at the tines and width of the rack), 10 minutes later, also at the Sky Condo This photo was taken near the tree house that Dad and I first built in 2007. This is the same deer as above This year's photo.  This is the only photo we have of our ghos...

This little story has been locked away since last season.  I was sworn not to share it.  It was a story I was willing to lock away forever.  But, when Dad told a few people, it was like getting the ok to share it.  Dad and I were in the Sky Condo the weekend before the last week of deer season.  It was about 3:30 pm and we were waiting to see if any deer would come in.  To look out from the SC, the left front corner has canvas around it to help cut the wind down.  It can also cut down on a clear view of the woods from that direction but move about 6 inches to the right, and that small piece of woods is visible again.  That is where I was sitting; about 6 inches to Dad's right. We heard a noise and Dad lifted his hat off of his ears.  I assumed it was a squirrel.  We have never seen or shot a deer in the afternoon, always the morning.  I looked in the direction of the noise and there was a crotch horn. "Dad, it's a buck " ...

The temp was 102 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  Yes, 102.  Dad and I were melting but we had put this off for way too long. Here is was July and our trail cameras were not up and because they weren't, we were not seeing what sort of animals are around our hunting areas. We put up three cameras.  Two by the Sky Condo (the above shot is a panoramic from the bottom of the SC) and one by my tree seat.  For the first time in a long time, I was able to bathe in deet in order to prevent the ticks from finding me - as well as the mosquitoes and black flies.   It was hot, we were sweaty and I stunk from all of the bug dope but it was fun.  It is weird how different the woods look in the middle of the summer compared to the middle of the fall and after the first frost.  Our path from the Sky Condo to the tree seat was totally changed with huge undergrowth that we had to bush wack through.  It helped that there were lots of deer (and deer tracks) tha...

I am getting spoiled. Actually Dad and I both are. I am afraid to write this for what it might mean for next year, but I will; Dad and I have not had to follow a blood trail in a long time. Three years ago, Dad dropped this guy (below) on opening day. Last year, I dropped this one: and this year, I dropped him right at the base of the Sky Condo: We are getting spoiled but really, I have a great teacher who has taught me where to shoot a deer for the quickest, least painful death. And it has worked out well. This year, we spotted the buck coming to eat grass early in the day. He walked out from the upper right corner of this photo and headed down almost to where the camera is and then started to walk back and eat on the clump of brown grass when I shot him (you can see him laying there post gutting and see the brown grass just to the left). It was a good shot because it dropped him but in my mind it was a bad shot because it was SO LOW! I shot him right in the heart. If you...