I manage our home 80 acres all year round, so I’m constantly doing hunting-related activities. Food plots, scrub maintenance, stand site prep, cameras, bush hogging and mowing, and LOTS of looking through ‘noccers at deer, turkeys, and coyotes. I absolutely love watching fawns, probably just as much as I enjoy watching velvet bucks. And we have a couple of Canada geese that nest on the banks of our pond for several weeks in the spring, as well as a great blue heron who stalks the banks of the same pond almost daily. I also try to get all my arrow builds done during off-season.
As far as stuff unrelated to hunting, I finally built some raised garden beds out of old pallets and scrap lumber last year. I found the practice of starting seeds and tending plants to be a really great substitute for ambush-style hunting, and as a life-long martial artist, it’s quite satisfying to live as a “Warrior in a Garden” for 6 months before deer season. I noticed my threshold for patience skyrocketed this season, I’m sure as a result of gardening, and it was much easier for me to sit in the saddle for hours doing and seeing nothing than it ever had been before. The results show, as this was my first multiple-kill season in 10 years of bowhunting.
This year, I plan to grab some tackle and hit the aqua in my kayak as a fledgling angler.