Hunting

 Regular firearm deer season has come to an end at this little place here (but there's still archery, muzzleloading, and late antlerless seasons between now and January, so lots of chances yet for harvesting venison).  It started rather cold and snowy.

When I left the house,  it was cold, and cloudy, but not snowing, and the ground was bare.  Practically the moment I climbed up into the tree stand and sat down, the sky opening and snow fell.  Blowing basically right into my face.

After the first hour, I looked like this:

Near the end of the third hour, I looked like this:

I didn't stay to see what the accumulation would be after more than three hours.  I went in the house, pulled the ice chunks out of my ponytail, and had a big mug of hot chocolate.

The afternoon wasn't quite as snowy, at least not falling from the sky.  There was a nice couple of inches on the ground which made it a whole lot easier to see the deer from a distance.  But, a distance was as close as they got for me.  Other than a silly little button buck that I saw nearly every time I sat during the next two weeks.  And he's off limits until he gets another year or two on him.

Which means that it was a bust for me.  I may or may not go out during the December seasons; really depends on my schedule and the weather.  I missed quite a few hunting opportunities due to working mornings, unexpectedly having DS1's kids 3 afternoons/evenings, a warm spell that brought pouring rain, a wind storm with 45mph gusts (not great for sitting in a tree. . .), and pulling a muscle in my back which made sitting still impossible.  *sigh* Maybe next year.

DH, however, got lucky on the very last evening of November.  He was able to harvest a nice 8-point buck.  

He also had the opportunity to go out to Colorado with a friend of his in late October/early November, where they stayed on the ranch of a friend of the friend's dad and did some elk and mule deer hunting.  The elk didn't show themselves, but the mule deer did, and DH was able to get this beautiful 10 point.

Can't wait to do a side-by-side taste test comparison of Michigan white tail and Colorado mule deer.