No this isn’t about college football, but it sure could be. This pre-season is about the months leading to November, when the real season, white tail deer season, finally arrives.
I think hunting, in general, gets a bad reputation for a few reasons. One of them being that people think it’s easy. You just show up and shoot a trophy animal that’s trained to ignore signs of danger. Or at least that’s what the photos seen online imply. In those photos you see only the results but none of the hard work, respect, and dedication that goes in.
This weekend I’m headed down to the ranch to check on the deer feeders and cut brush back so the driving trails will be unimpaired this fall. We’re low-fenced all around so running a few feeders loaded with corn is a must. If we don’t get those started soon, well before the season, the deer will establish feeding and roaming patterns that largely leave us out of the loop.
My wife and I don’t buy ground beef. We use ground venison from my hunts each year. We don’t waste the meat, we share with friends and family who don’t have the opportunities or time to hunt. We don’t hunt for fun, although there is an aspect of fun to seeing it come together after putting months of hard work in.
My goal is to start dealing with the brush that is way over grown and the sun will be scorching, as it has been all week. Trips up and down the ladder with 5 gallon buckets full of corn will get old fast, as my clothes get drenched with sweat then covered with each new cloud of corn dust from every bucket poured. But just like football games aren’t won during the season, successful hunts aren’t made in November. They’re setup by months of hard work and dedication.
