This past fall, my routine became almost comical. I would leave my backpack on the ground, climb into my treestand, get settled and unbutton my wool pants. Four years ago, I wore base layers with monkey-thumbs to hide the Queeze-Away bands that I wore around my wrists. I never got sick, but those early morning breakfasts and treks to the Sky Condo were a little more challenging when I was trying to hide a pregnancy. Dad makes sure that I am always secure and comfortable when I am sitting 10-16 feet up in my treestands but if he knew I was pregnant, I was not sure how far off the ground he would allow me to be. So, I kept my first pregnancy a secret during the entire season. I hunted, hiked and pulled the same 10 hour...
As I write this, I am almost 38 weeks pregnant. I finished up my first season (more like sample) of turkey hunting with Dad and have found some things are vastly different than then were 22 weeks ago when I was deer hunting. For starters, Dad and I are novices when it comes to figuring out how turkeys operate. Give me a rainy weekend and I can tell you the times of day that the deer will be moving and when they will bed down. With these turkeys, that rule doesn't seem to apply; they are out in a complete downpour. When I make noise by rattling antlers or using a bleet, I know if I am trying to imitate another buck or a doe. I have no idea what sort of bird I sound like when I use my box call. In the...
Well, we know we are in a good area and that our calls work. We got into the woods by the Sky Condo a little earlier than we did on the first day. The weather predicted rain so we wanted to get in as much time as possible. We got to our ground blind, set up the decoys and settled in to start calling. This morning though, we didn’t have to start anything. We heard a gobble within five minutes of sitting down. I got my box call out and called back. He answered almost immediately. We had a great conversation for a steady 30 minutes with him often double or triple gobbling. Then the gobbles became more spaced apart but did not stop. Dad decided that be would circle down to the power...
On Christmas Eve, we told my parents. To say Dad was shocked is an understatement. This is the last entry for what it was like to be pregnant during hunting season. It is pretty surreal to think about the next hunting season and the fact that come November (or opening day), I will have a 5 month old. WOW!!!
It is official; we are having a boy! I have always been the one in the family to say that I was going to have a boy, years before now. My cousin and sister both have girls so he will be the first boy in our family. Hubby and I could not be happier! But, there is a part of me that wonders how this is going to go. The idea of potty training and puberty scare me, but the weird thing is that my son will probably have no idea what it is like to not be taken seriously as a hunter. The struggles that myself and other women have gone through to "prove" that we deserve to be in the woods along side men will be something my son will not have to deal with...it will just be assumed; born into a hunting family, seen as a hunter. In August, I wrote...
