and a strong cup of coffee

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 tracker

I missed seeing what was happening in the woods so I decided to put a couple of cameras back out to see what was roaming around.  I am not a fan of this.  I have had pictures of this coyote for a while now and he (I assume it's a he) is always solo.  He's healthy and makes his rounds in the same area that we do during the season.  And I assume that he is the coyote that I saw while I was sitting in my stand last fall.  Coyotes are a part of the woods and I get that but what I don't want to find are dead deer. This is the first time that I have had pictures of the two animals so close together (timewise and location-wise)   Usually, I will get deer on the cameras, then he shows up and it takes 2-3 days before the deer return. We have not had a lot of snow so the deer have not yarded up yet. Maybe that will help keep them safe for the time being.  Let's see how the winter unfolds...

I just hit a deer, do you want it? My neighbor sent me this text during her morning commute to work.  Had there been room in my freezer, I might have taken her up on it. I had done it before when I watched another driver hit another doe within 50 feet of where my neighbor was. It was the third deer hit that week in the same stretch of road. Why? A landowner is feeding them. A few years ago, I spoke with Maine IF&W’s then deer biologist about the impacts of feeding deer.  We talked about the risk of diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease getting into the herd and spreading so rapidly, because of the unnaturally large population being pulled into a small area.  We talked about the biological make up of a deer’s stomach and how the food they are being fed (grain) is not a natural food for them, especially during the winter months. We talked about the increase in predators in those areas because of the increase populations and of course, we talked about more deer being hit. Maine

As we plan for 2021, we know that we will not be attending sportsman’s shows.  We won’t be able to catch up with fellow hunters, trappers and anglers and we won’t be spending money on all of those raffle tickets.  And that is hurting hunting organizations – a lot. Many outfitters and organizations rely on the foot traffic that these shows provide to help get reach more people which helps to draw more donations.  Businesses rely on shoppers to buy the cast iron, jackets, wooden carvings, jerky and more but we will not there to make those purchases next year.  And while everyone is still feeling the pinch of the pandemic and a changing world, we need to make sure that these organizations have what they need to continue with their mission because it is so important to the hunting and outdoor world.   Some of the organizations that could use your support: I would be remiss if I didn't start off with my organization. A couple of friends and I started  Women of the Maine Outdoors

The emotions that go along with this are hard for any non hunter to understand. There is a literal weight of an organ that earlier in the day, beat inside an animal and the figurative weight of choosing to kill an animal to fill your freezer. There is a dedication of always wanting to be better, to be ready for the right shot at the right moment. It’s spending money on gear, clothing and licenses every year. It’s packing up and heading into the woods, when it’s dark and coming out when it’s dark, day after day, hoping to get your chance. It’s appreciating the animal’s sacrifice and having a moment to give thanks before the work begins. Knowing that this animal will feed your family and friends for the year ahead. It’s not something a hunter takes lightly.

In the past twelve months, I've been a homeschooling teacher (temporarily), figured out how to work from home full-time and maintained a stable supply of toilet paper. We went from being out and about in the community to everyone at home. It was a lot! But one of the things we did from the start was get outside more.  I asked people on my Facebook page for a list of items that we could search for in the woods. We had everything from birch bark and 3 types of moss to bones, different shapes of pinecones, mushrooms and beechnuts on our list. We eagerly searched the woods around our house and crossed off items. It was good for everyone’s mental health to be outside and exploring. It made me think back to my own childhood and walking through the woods with my Grammie.  Along with my sister, we would walk the woods behind her house for hours. We searched the trails that my Grandpa had made to exercise his pulling ponies. We walked the snowmobile trails. We found trees growing para