Fruitless Travels

I went home last week.  It was nice and relaxing.  The main focus of going home was to get out into the woods for some hunting.  I was able to hunt the previous two years and living so close to home now is starting to become a fall tradition. Which is nice on a couple of levels.  It's nice to get home more than once a year. It's nice to get into the woods.  It's nice to have an opportunity to provide food for the majority of a year.  But that is also the problem, it's an opportunity to provide the food, it's not a guarantee.  

I did not harvest a deer this year after having success the previous two years.  The weather was not the best.  It was cold and windy and rainy the majority of the time I was home.  The winter last year was a harsh one.  The DNR noted that at the end of the hunting season last year.  Pretty much everyone knows that last winter was harsh on the deer population. In fact, there are plenty of people that think it will take a couple of years for the population to recoup.  And many are hoping for a more mild winter to help out the deer population.  I don't know if it will happen or not, I'm just reporting on what I've heard.  

My time in the woods was not without interest or entertainment.  Below is a list of what I saw In the woods:

•rabbit

•squirrel

•partridge

•porcupine

•coyote

•various birds

And I did see one deer.  Just one.  It walked through and did not present a target.  All in all it was disappointing, but every hunter knows that it is not a guarantee that you will get a deer each year.  As the saying goes: if it were easy, it would be called 'killing' and not 'hunting'.  

And there is always next year...

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