Gas Pains
Tom grew up in Milwaukee, bartended in Wauwatosa in the '70s and moved here in 1984.
Commentary, observations and musings about the outdoors, life in general and maybe Tosa politics and personalities will be the order of the day. He savors a lively debate as much as terrific cooking.
Snow Hunting
Anybody that tells you winter bow hunting isn't any fun doesn't know what they're talking about.
It probably helps that I'm one of the rare types that actually relishes the thought of being outdoors in the cold and snow.
Snow makes for better scouting and tracking. Snow also tells a story about what other critters are out there. Like these pheasant tracks.
Why the girls haven't kicked-up any birds lately is a mystery because there is ringneck sign all over the place. I'll have to take this up with the Labs.
With today's Packer game well in hand I walked afield thinking about how I was going to go about getting my deer. Not very far from the house I encountered a fresh deer track in the snow. Actually a pair of deer that had passed through since this morning's walk with the dogs. I followed it for a ways and figured my best chance was to set-up within twenty paces or so of where a frequently-traveled game trail with fresh sign intersected one of the main mowed trails. Hiding up-wind behind a spruce I would have the perfect ambush. I could draw my bow from a place of concealment and shoot between the branches. If you look at the Christmas tree in your family room and visualize a middle-aged guy in a cammo parka hiding behind it you would get the idea.
A balmy twenty-two degrees has it's compensations. With each breath one's mind clears a bit more. Bow hunting by itself is quite Zen-like. A quiet and contemplative sport. In the cold everything is brought into even sharper focus. And there are no biting insects. My reverie was broken only by the growl and whine of an occasional snow machine riding a trail to the west. Hope they didn't get a snoot-full during the game.
As the shadows lengthened and the sun set and my world began to darken I un-nocked my arrow at 4:30 and began a slow walk home.
Taking-in the three-fifths of a moon that had risen in the east I jumped two deer not far from the main trail near the pond.
I still don't have my deer.
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