It's 3am. I only have 3 days left to get 5 days of work done, since this Friday is a holiday and I took an honest sick day last week due to respiratory issues that I haven't caught up from. The grass isn't cut. The yard isn't clean. The basement remodel isn't finished. I have a truck and an outboard in the shop, and I have suspicions that it will cost more than I bargained for to get them repaired...
And I'm sitting on this laptop looking at google earth and the 7.5 topos. Looking at old pictures. Combing through local facebook outdoorsman groups and hunting forums. Trying to pull-start my memory and get it to run all the known locations of deer in previous seasons. I told the wife I'm sitting up until it's daylight so that I can go run the boat out and maybe bump around a piece of high ground I've somehow overlooked for 10 years. Better than catching 4 hours of sleep and then having to go straight to work, right?
I told myself I wasn't going to do it this year. Every year, I get antsy right around July. Brain short-circuits. Temper flares over trivial things, like people asking me if I have birthday plans. Why would I care? Don't they know it's almost DEER SEASON!?! Wasn't going to do it this year. I was going to raise chickens, run trotlines, and work on the house. Relax, and enjoy summer on the river. Hang a hammock and sip beer and watch the alligators swim.
Complete and utter buffalo dung.
I knew it was coming on early after I hung up the phone with the local outdoor paper's editor last week. We recorded a podcast on early season hunting and mobile (saddle) hunting. Then John Reed (JX3) called to touch bases. We talk a couple of hours every few months ever since we stayed up late and watched @denots and @Deltahuntr wash black iron pots at saddlepalooza. Then I went for a harmless, post-work canoe trip, and casually parked on a sand bar to take a leak and "just happened" to walk a few yards further ashore than was maybe necessary. Looked down...saw a deer track. Looked up...mature oak trees. Scan in front of me...palmettos and blowdowns. Did I mention I'm heading out in a couple of hours to look at a piece of high ground?
I honestly don't know what the heck it is about deer that gets me so fired up. I love everything to do with the outdoors, but those eastern woods goats cause me to absolutely lose my mind. It's gonna be a long 3 months.
And I'm sitting on this laptop looking at google earth and the 7.5 topos. Looking at old pictures. Combing through local facebook outdoorsman groups and hunting forums. Trying to pull-start my memory and get it to run all the known locations of deer in previous seasons. I told the wife I'm sitting up until it's daylight so that I can go run the boat out and maybe bump around a piece of high ground I've somehow overlooked for 10 years. Better than catching 4 hours of sleep and then having to go straight to work, right?
I told myself I wasn't going to do it this year. Every year, I get antsy right around July. Brain short-circuits. Temper flares over trivial things, like people asking me if I have birthday plans. Why would I care? Don't they know it's almost DEER SEASON!?! Wasn't going to do it this year. I was going to raise chickens, run trotlines, and work on the house. Relax, and enjoy summer on the river. Hang a hammock and sip beer and watch the alligators swim.
Complete and utter buffalo dung.
I knew it was coming on early after I hung up the phone with the local outdoor paper's editor last week. We recorded a podcast on early season hunting and mobile (saddle) hunting. Then John Reed (JX3) called to touch bases. We talk a couple of hours every few months ever since we stayed up late and watched @denots and @Deltahuntr wash black iron pots at saddlepalooza. Then I went for a harmless, post-work canoe trip, and casually parked on a sand bar to take a leak and "just happened" to walk a few yards further ashore than was maybe necessary. Looked down...saw a deer track. Looked up...mature oak trees. Scan in front of me...palmettos and blowdowns. Did I mention I'm heading out in a couple of hours to look at a piece of high ground?
I honestly don't know what the heck it is about deer that gets me so fired up. I love everything to do with the outdoors, but those eastern woods goats cause me to absolutely lose my mind. It's gonna be a long 3 months.
