It's that time of year when deer are yarded up and surviving the harsh winter weather. I've been fortunate enough to see lots of healthy looking deer while walking through the woods. In talking with friends about the deer herd in their area, they have mentioned that they want to start feeding the deer to help them make it through the winter. I quickly respond with NO! Don't feed the deer! It is fun to see deer come out of the woods and munch on grain or corn, but what a lot of people don't realize is that feeding deer these foods during the winter months could have dire consequences and could actually kill the deer that they are trying to help. Here are the primary reason why you should not feed deer during the winter: Biological...
I wrote the following for the Northwoods Sporting Journal. What are your thoughts on eating wild game and teaching kids about where their food really comes from? On the Monday after rifle season began, my three year old’s preschool asked him what he had done over the weekend. Straight faced, he looked at her and said, “Daddy shot a deer and I ate the heart” and walked off to play with his friends. She looked at me in disbelief and all I could do was smile and nod. The excitement of getting a deer was at its peak for him when we drove into the driveway with my husband’s deer. That same three year old rubbed his hands down the back of the deer, held onto its antlers and when we hung it in the barn, he stuck his head almost inside the...
United, we win. The more involved you get with something, the more frustrated you can become when priorities shift, you see behind that iron curtain and you lose sight of what’s important and made you get involved in the first place. It’s hard to get reenergized and motivated sometimes, especially when there are so many divides. I have been partly amused and partly disheartened to read articles that my fellow outdoor writers have written about how they miss the ‘good ole days’ of hunting when women were home with the kids and not out in the woods. I hate to break it to you, but women are the only way that the next generation of hunters are going to take to the woods. WE are teaching our children why it is so important to...
Hunting in Maine is unique. Our landscape is different than most states, our predators are a lot more abundant (hello 36,000 black bear roaming the woods) and we have a shorter season that most. Recently, I highlighted these challenges for the National Deer Alliance and wrote about why they makes Maine such a great place to hunt. Click here to read my article for the National Deer Alliance.
I did a radio interview recently and was asked about women's hunting apparel and if it is getting better. I ecstatically answered Yes! Thanks to my involvement with EvoOutdoors, I have been fortunate enough to learn what you really need to be wearing when you are in the woods during bear season, deer season, coyote etc. With the holidays coming up, here are my MUST HAVEs for any outdoorwoman or man.First Lite: I sit while I hunt and I was always getting sweaty on my way in or out of the woods. I layer so that I can stay warmer longer but it would also take me a while to regulate my body temperature after I got warm walking into my stand. I can only imagine how much more comfortable my hunts would have been had I learned about...
I have no idea what Staci said after the words "water snake" came out of her mouth. I went into panic mode wondering if I was going to snag one with my fishing pole or if every bubble that came up from under the canoe was a snake below us. But, the plan was to catch bass and we climbed into the canoe and paddled off to do just that. We started off with frog lures and within the first two casts, I had a bump on my line but nothing hooked. After a few more casts, Staci was landing bass on a regular basis. One of about 15 bass that Staci caught She was out fishing me almost 10 to one and I knew that I needed to hook something. I cast into the shallows under one of the fallen down trees and boom! had a bite. The fish hit and...
One of the does that we have around the house had twins. Our landlord asked if we had seen them and at the time, we had not. I set up my Moultrie, threw out a few apples and waited. I have gotten some great photos but I have yet to see both fawns, which makes me wonder if the other fawn has died or if this is a different doe/fawn combo. I am running out of apples but am planing on keeping my camera up to see if I can get any photos of the two fawns together. And if not, I will move the camera and try to figure out where the bucks are around here. I may also move this camera up to the Sky Condo and check out some old rub lines to see which bucks are roaming around. It is looking like it will be a good deer...
...Other outdoor women who support and push them. Plain and simple. Robin Follette, Taylor Follette and Me. These women make me want to be a better outdoors woman! In the month that I took off, there were blog posts flying around about who outdoor women are, what we like and don't and how, even into adult hood, those damn cliques from high school pop back up. Here are a couple of links to check out in case you missed them: Field & Stream's survey on "real women weighing in on hunting." I took the survey but anyone could have told you the results and at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with my hunting. Following Eva Shockey on social media does not make me a better hunter. Feeding into stereotypes doesn't help my shot...
