If you have ever wondered what life in the Maine outdoors is like, you need to read my friend George Smith's book "A Life Lived Outdoors". It is a compilation of stories and articles that he has written over the years, so you don't need to rush through the book to get to the end of the story. This a wonderful book that allows you to read a story and set the book down and think about what you have read. I am currently dreaming about what my future camp should be like and what it will smell and feel like to step outside early on a summer morning with a cup of coffee. I am only a few stories in, but I have found myself smiling and laughing and yearning to get outside. I am keeping this book close so that I can sneak in a...
There is something awesome about attending Sportsman's shows. You get to be surrounded by people who care about the outdoors as much as you do. I had the opportunity to talk with some great people doing amazing things here in Maine when it comes to the outdoors. A few of those companies, I plan to write future blogs about. It is a guaranteed to put you in a great mood when you surround yourself with awesome people. I can't wait to share with you some of these folks and their stories.
After I posted my blog on cyber bullying and outdoors-women, I sent versions out to be published elsewhere. One place did and it got some great coverage. The other place did not. The reasoning, "MY wife has hunted with men for years and has never run into this sort of thing. I have learned not to put much stock in the spewings that come from the cyber world." Upset with that response, I headed to Facebook to see what the topics were on some of the hunting groups that I follow. One had a picture of a woman with the caption, "Honey, I decided to sell those old guns and knifes you have laying around the house" and the man who posted this asked the question, 'What would you do?" The responses,...
I hope you get shot out in the forest and wolves gnaw on your dying corpse…..WHILE YOU’RE STILL ALIVE I’d like to rip off your f*$%ing head and pour gunpowder down your f*$%ing throat and light it on fire Only c*%t’s shoot animals and take pleasure in it. I hope you die a horrible painful death As I began to look at how female hunters were being bullied, I had to ask myself if it was because we were easy targets as women or if we needed to just toughen up a little. Once I started asking my fellow female hunters about their experiences, the things that they sent to me as examples of what they deal with daily made me sick to my stomach. I’d like to meet you outside someday with a gun in my hand, I would shoot you several times and...
No, not really! I love my rifle but I am on a mission this year to try new things and expand my hunting repertoire. Up first, muzzle loading. My Uncle brought his Wolf Magnum 50 caliber gun to the house at Christmas (we celebrate all holidays by shooting guns) for us to try out. Dad and I had never tried muzzle loading before so we need a tutorial on how to load and unload the gun. 50 and 75 grain black powder pellets Learning how to load the gun. I always make Dad shoot first Uncle Jim and I before my first shot It was a great gun to shoot and I really felt comfortable with it after the first shot. One of my hang ups is knowing the trigger. One of the 30-06s that we have has a hairline...
A friend of mine sent me this link and asked what I thought about it. I had seen it before and was honest when I told him how degrading I felt it was. Not only was the title of the "Miss Maine Sportsman" application in pink* but the questions were incredibly insulting to those of us that are fighting to be taken seriously among our male counterparts. Questions like, "Do you clean your own kills/catches?" would never be asked if it were Mr. Maine Sportsman. It would be assumed that yes, of course men clean what they kill. Why is that assumption not made of us outdoor women? Another question, "Do cook [sic] what you catch/kill? If so, what’s your favorite recipe?" would never be asked of men. My...
Deer tracks in the snow. Coyote. Sadly, these are two of about two million that we saw on our walk. Rabbit tracks Partridge Wing! There were partridge tracks nearby but I couldnt get a good...
While we were on our walk and looking for sheds, we can onto a deer trail that had some blood! The hunter in all three of us kicked into high gear and we started walking slowly, hunched over like a detective with a magnifying glass looking for clues. The first blood spot we noticed. A close up of the first spot we noticed. Maybe a cut above the hoof? If we had had enough time, we would have back tracked to see if there was more blood in the opposite direction than the one we traveled. We could not find many more drops between steps and once we got to the stream, we decided to just keep going and head back. Just another example of something unexpected and interesting you find in the...
Dad, Hubby and I set off to see if we could find some sheds. Dad has found them before but I really wanted to see what sort of bucks lived through the season. On Saturday, with a light snow falling, we took to the woods. A very active deer trail Dad had been out doing some cutting and had found a rib cage (sorry that I forgot to take a photo of that!) but he was not sure if it was a coyote or a fawn. He also found a strip of hide. Frozen deer hide We headed towards my tree seat to hop on some deer trails in search of sheds but also, to check out the improved shooting lanes that Dad cut for me. I have already been told that I will be spending a lot of time in my tree seat next fall, so Dad wanted to make...
