Cabin Fever

I think about hunting all year, but the closer it gets, the more focused I become and it just consumes my thoughts! Just chompin' at the bit!! Now I know how those bucks feel when the first "sweet-scent" of the season arrives and they know that lovin' is just around the corner!!

And the doc tells me yesterday that surgery is in my near future! Two weeks before hunting season... Yeah, good luck with that! I'll suffer through hunting season, then we'll talk.

I get a one track (OK... 2 track ) mind! I get so consumed with hunting that I have a hard time focusing on anything else! I sit in meetings and try my best to appear that I am paying attention (or care), while thinking about what else I need to do to prepare for the upcoming season! I gaze out the window and watch leaves falling and pay attention to wind direction, figuring out which stand I would be at today if I could hunt. I plan which stand I hope to hunt first and where I expect the deer to come from. I sit at my desk and look at the calendar, to plan out vacation days, and jot down notes to myself of things that I need to do or buy, etc... I have 3rd quarter reports, monthly regulatory inspections, monthly reports, required management reviews, etc... that are ALL due in Oct! I try my best to get everything done before season, so I don't have to think about much else. Who has time for this when we need to prepare for hunting season?? I had to sit out last bow season, due to a broken foot, so I have a LOT of pent up anxiety in me!

I've had some luck with scents, but not enough for me to use them regularly. I was spending a small fortune on scents. Last year, I stopped using them, other than in a scent dripper at mock scrapes.

I leave them up year round also. I have about 10 stands up. Can't imagine putting them back up each year!

Beautiful pics!!

I have no idea where this person came from. I've never seen anyone with horses around before! I think I will print up the pics and drive around the area to see if I can see this horse in a pasture somewhere.

Post the pic Here it is. Got pics going in and coming out!

I never wore a seatbelt until it became a law. Hated the thought of it and hated that I was being told I HAD to do it. I started wearing it 100% of the time and it became second nature. That seatbelt saved my life on July 11th, 2005, during a head on collision. Neither myself or the other driver would have survived if we had not been wearing the seatbelt. My son just had to write a paper for school describing something that has influenced his life. I didn't know about it until he was done, but he wrote about my accident and health ordeal afterwards. He wrote that this opened his eyes as to how important it is to wear seatbelts and that his Dad would not be here if I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt. Pretty powerful considering the kid is 15 and will be driving himself next year. He also buckles up when riding in the backseat. I guess that's one positive thing that came about from the accident...

Nice job on the video! How do you tie them all together? Can you then burn to a DVD? I'd like to do that with my videos.

Either buy a tractor with a blower, especially if you also have other uses for the tractor (foodplots, clearing, etc...). Or, since you don't want to put a plow on your truck, maybe buy an old truck with a snow plow on, park it off to the side somewhere and just use it to plow with. That way you won't be beating the snot out of a new blower or tractor.

Man I HATE tresspassers!!! I just checked my cams yesterday and got this pic of someone riding a horse ~5 yards from one of my stands!! They walked past no less than 2 lines of POSTED signs, on each side of the path, on their way in!! Why do these people feel they are entitled to go onto someone elses property that is very clearly plastered with POSTED signs??

I took my phone to Mexico over the summer. Just had to have them activate the international dialing feature. I had good service in the jungle and out on the beaches! N-I-C-E!!

Too funny! Ask him if he'll throw in the salt block to sweeten' the deal!

Checked all stands and hung 2 new ones over the weekend. Just need to get out and do some trimming of shooting lanes this week after work and I'll be all done in the woods anyway. Still need to gather up things, wash camo, and hang out to dry/air out. Finally got things done around the house too. Pool is finally closed up, stacked ~11 facecords of wood on the patio, cleaned out the woodstove pipe, got the air conditioners out, and cleaned the garage, etc... I make a list every year to have done around the house, so when hunting season rolls around, I don't have to fool around doing much else.

Nice bucks! Those coyotes look young, like this years pups.

Great buck!!

I use Bushnell Trophy cams also. I've read MANY complaints and negative reviews about the '10 models though on Cabelas and chasingame.com. They said until they get the bugs worked out of the '10 models, you might be better off buying an '09 model. I've never had any issues with my '09's.

The pain feels like I'm being stabbed in the foot with a butcher knife! Walking through the woods on uneven ground causes so much pain that I blurt out obsenities, like someone with Turrets Syndrome, that would even make a trucker blush! It gets unbearable, but I'm too stubborn to take pain medication. I like the "happy place" that I go to, but worry about the side effects, so I don't take anything for pain control. I had a busy weekend. Finished up checking and hanging treestands, walking around at the Naples grape festival, and stacked 11 facecords of wood. I had so much pain in the foot this morning that I could hardly walk on it.

Yeah, BTW, don't fall for their "coverage area" map! That was one of the complaints that I had with their customer service! The amount of dropped calls that I was getting was crazy! I told them that I was confident I could get service with Verizon if I was in a cave somewhere deep in the mountains, but yet I couldn't get service from Sprint when I was a couple miles off a major highway! Crazy!!

I quit several times, but could never stick to it. I finally quit for good January 7, 1999. Found out my wife was pregnant with a girl. I was determined that I wanted to be around to walk my daughter down the isle at her wedding. I wanted to be healthy and not be a burden to my wife and kids when we got older. I tried quitting several times for myself and couldn't stick with it, but this time I did it for the love of my wife and kids. After seeing all the commercials that they have now for how bad smoking is for you, I don't know how anyone could continue smoking? Plus the cost! OUCH!!

I have a 50 mile commute to work each way and I don't recall seeing any deer hit recently. I also went to Naples over the weekend (another 35+ mile trip) and didn't see any either.

OUCH!! Sorry to hear that! How do they develop??

I made a BIG mistake last spring by switching from Verizon to Sprint, just to save a few dollars!! Cancelled my Verizon account, got setup with Sprint, and was in hell for the next week! I was on the phone with their Customer Service in that 1 week than I had been the previous 5 or so years with Verizon!!! (And I told them that several times too!) Coverage wasn't good, had to dial the whole 7 digit # you were calling, additional data charges for sending pic text messages, even though they say it's included in your unlimited text plan, etc.... I was so glad when Verizon called me the following week after cancelling, saying they wanted us back as customers! They didn't have to twist my arm, but I didn't want them to know that, so they really sweetened the pot for us to go back! We cancelled the Sprint account, as they give you like 30 days to try it out with no charge if you cancel. I learned my lesson! I get a chill every time I see a Sprint commercial! I don't think anyone would be satisfied with Sprint after having Verizon! BTW, NO I don't work for Verizon, but I should be on one of their commercials after my experience! Do you work for a company that you can get Verizon discounts through? Might want to check into it. I think my company discount is 20% and my wifes company gets ~25%. We have the same discount with Sprint also.

I shot 295gr Powerbelt Hollowpoints and liked them, accurate and good bloodtrails. Last year, I switched to a lighter gr 'Aerotip' Powerbelt, hoping it would be flatter shooting. It was flatter shooting, BUT it left practically NO bloodtrail on perfectly hit deer! Shot 2 deer with them and thankfully, there was a fresh coating of snow and I tracked the deer down that way. They didn't go far (less than ~80 yards), but only found a very few pin-head sized specs of blood! I'll never shoot the aerotips again! I plan on finding another bullet to use too, as I've been told there are better options out there.