and a strong cup of coffee

There is something about fishing that creates a community on the water.  I don't really fish - I am learning, but I would not consider myself a fisherman, yet.  I am planning on going fishing again this spring at GLS but it's been a while since I took to the ice to try and pull a fish out of the hard water. Recently though, I tried smelt fishing with my friend Jen. The rows of shacks. Open water not very far away The wind was blowing hard but the heat in the shack was so hot that we had to rig the door to stay slightly open.  We even went for a walk down on the ice. As the tide was coming in, we could watch the ice shifting and rising just 20 feet away from where we stood. As the sun set and the tide changed, we got our lines baited with blood worms and dropped into the water. Then we waited. The tide came in and a we continued to wait.  There was one man in a nearby shack who kept making the rounds to see if anyone had caught anything and how big....

After my incident last season, Dad decided that it would make more sense to be hidden in the woods and have more coverage than my treeseat gives me.  This will help me get a better view of the more traveled deer trails and not rely on the deer to come my way.  He wanted to build a permanent structure that would allow us to hunt in all weather conditions. So, Dad has been busy building T3.  He constructed it in the barn to make sure all of the dimensions were right.  Our first treestand was built 16 feet off the ground using a 12 foot ladder.  Not ideal and clearly not built by hunters who knew what they were doing.  The Sky Condo was considerably better with insulation and a tar papered roof.  T3 is looking to be the best yet! T3 being built in the shed Once Dad and I figured out how tall everything needed to be in order for me to take good shots from every angle, he started moving pieces of it down into the woods.  The plan was for u...

The forecast calls for 20-25 inches coming my way this weekend.  That storm will mean that we have seen almost 6 feet of snow in the past 3 weeks.  It has snowed about every other day.  I think everyone who pays attention to the deer herd is watching and hoping that the lack of snow early on in the winter allowed for the deer to store up more fat and get more food to be able to survive 6 feet of snow in such a short time. Dad and I checked on 'our deer' while our snowmobiling Last spring the turkey season was eliminated from Northern Maine because of the snow fall amounts and concern over the breeding success rates. Living in a state that can get slammed by Mother Nature, keeps you on your toes.  We obsess over survival rates, impact of snow and ice and habits stability.  Who knows how much snow we will really get and how these animals are getting by.  Fingers crossed. Until then, I am grateful that I live with a couple of boys who love to shovel...

The first of four snowstorms was on it's way when we headed into the woods.  I was pretty sure that we could get a couple hours of rabbit hunting in before I had to head home.  This would be my first attempt at small game hunting so I was excited and eager to find out how it was done. I met up with my cousin Hillary and her finance, Lance to go rabbit hunting with their three beagles.  We loaded up our guns, snowshoes and gear onto snowmobiles and headed out to see if we could get some meat. Our first stop was a quick trip through a grown up boggy area.  It was thick and there were not a lot of animal signs.  The dogs could not find a scent so we moved on. The next stop was at the end of a random snowmobile trail.  The woods were totally different than the spot we had just come from.  There were animal paths and lots of rabbit tracks and poop.  Fresh poop is always a good sign when you are hunting.  The dogs started running when we ...

...is this! Sent to me by one of the coolest people I know. Do you know what it is? It's chaga ! I was going to make a concentrate during the snow storm but I made venison stew in my crockpot instead.  I am eager to break it down to drink in my coffee and tea.  I have had it before and loved it.  I am so excited to try making it on my own - and then, I need to work on identifying it in the woods so that I can continue to get it. Do you drink chaga?

I don't know if I should have eaten more or less but my stomach was freaking out when Steve and I sat in the blind.  I kept adding layers to keep warm and to see if I could muffle the growls.  I hoped that nothing would hear me and run off. Steve and Lorri (who had taken me bear hunting) had put out deer carcases from a local butcher about a week before.  The pile of bones were strewn all over the field by the coyotes that had been there.  We got settled into the blind and watched the crows picking away at the pile furthest away.  My stomach growled and they flew away.  I hoped that something else scared them away but I wasn't sure until I saw this guy sweep in.  The Red-tailed hawk flew down onto this pile and started picking away.  I was able to get a few photos until the sun started reflecting off of the lens and spooked him. Red-tailed hawk picking at the deer bones Steve started the call when the sun sank behind the trees.  The f...

It was cold, but the sun was out and Dad, Hubby and I were eager to go into the woods to look at where T3 will be set up, bring in a couple of tree stands and I wanted to look for sheds. The recent dusting of snow helped to see any new deer tracks.  It also helped to see the main trails and activity of the deer herd.  There were a lot of spots that looked like this.  The deer have been on an acorn frenzy and since there is not a lot of snow, they can still paw at the ground and leaves to find them.  Deer paw for acorns buried along the leaves and snow. I tracked a couple of deer from the Sky Condo as we made our way to my treeseat where I shot my deer this year .  It is always amazing and kind of frustrating to see how close the deer are around you and yet, you don't see them during the season.  But, it is also good to see that there are SO many deer around where we hunt.  Some of the trails amazed me.  They were like super highways throu...