it is THAT time of year again.

i'm talking about deer hunting.  yeah, THAT time of year.

matt has hunted since he was little.  i mean, living in northern minnesota it is almost un-man-like not to have some fiber in your body that compels you to hunt things.  he has hunted with his grandpa, dad, and brothers (oh, and all his buddies).  when we first started dating, i would go stay with him at his grandparents in wisconsin while him and his grandpa would hunt.  hunting is in my husband's blood.  oh, and he gets even more excited about it because his birthday (november 5) has landed on deer opener for a few years.  this only means he has another reason to go hang with his buddies and drink beer after a long day of sitting in the sticks.  geesh.  men.

i've hunted.  i'm not a die hard though.  i used to hunt with my dad, brother and relatives when i was younger.  the last time i hunted was before tucker was born.  matt set me up in a tree stand one year.  he was a couple hundred yards away, but we were still visable to each other because of our blaze orange.  however, that was the year i decided that i could care less if i ever hunted again.  it was actually a beautiful morning - one might even say it was hot for november.  the sun was shining and i actually took my hat and gloves off while hanging out in the crook of the birch tree.  i sat there.  and sat.  and sat.  and sat.  the only things i seen were a red squirrel, some chickadee's, and a small flicker of blaze orange in the distance - matt.  what i heard while sitting there was gun shots.  one or two of them came from the direction of matt's brother, corey.  yeah, he had got a deer that morning.  there were other gun shots.  when you hear it, it is excitement, but also you're pissed because it is someone else shooting and not you.  go figure.  anyway, i know i complained when we went back in for lunch that day.  matt thought i was crazy to not enjoy hunting on such a beautiful day.  i just thought i would rather be having hot chocolate, reading a magazine, inside where it was cozy.  he always gives me crap about that day.  i haven't hunted since.  i'm really not sure if i ever will.  i told matt that maybe i would go sit in a stand with him and my camera.  he seemed open to that idea.  i think it is only because he could then have action shots if he were to shoot the thirty-pointer.

this weekend, tucker and i will be hanging out at the in-law's.  that is the base station during opener.  both of matt's brothers/families will be there.  we all pack into the house and hang out 24/7.  now that we all have kiddos around, there is a little more bustle at the house while the guys are in the woods.  we sit there, eat, chat, drink, play games...and listen for gun shots or watch for the truck pulling in with the big buck in the back.  i really enjoy this time of year for those reasons - but not for sitting out in the sticks.  i've wimped out.

so, do any of you turn into a hunting widow during this time of year?  do you hunt at all?  share your tales.

Comments

[Denise H.]

My husband only does the deer hunt with his dad which ended last weekend here. Yes, I become a deer widow for the two weekends of the hunt and usually go stay up in my in-laws cabin the opening weekend with my mother in law while they are hunting. It's fun and so relaxing to be away from home, the phone, work and really just have a stress free weekend.

[amy]

oh goodness... i guess i shouldn't give john grief over hunting for a couple of days!!! he used to go for a week, every november but these last couple of years, he just couldn't get the time off from work. enjoy your week, if you get bored or lonely, just blog!

[Nicole Barczak]

Ryan doesn't hunt, thank goodness. Our anniversary is actually on opening day of deer season HAHA!

Leslie Collins is a hunting widow though, so she'd be a good one to comment. Les, where are you?!

[jenny]

oh - i didn't elaborate on matt's hunting schedule but i feel your pain. it starts in september.

mid - september: bird hunting opener and deer hunting (bow season) begins. matt hunts birds and bow hunts so every weekend and evening he is either hunting or 'putting up stands' or 'monitoring' the woods. geesh.

first weekend of november: deer opener (rifle season). he hunts with his family up here (and also usually takes a week of vacation just to hunt).

second weekend of november: he is either still in the woods or going somewhere else (like this year it is his brothers in bemidji) to hunt. geesh.

then i think bow season lasts until the end of the year and next year he wants to try black powder as well. frick! this is why i hope he kills a big sucker right away and is done. hunting is retarded! :) the other night i asked him what he would think if i had a hobby in the summer that took this much time and he had the nuts to tell me it just wasn't the same. riiiiiight. men.

sorry, had to comment back. i TOTALLY feel your pain jill!

[Jill]

Don't mean to sound bitter, but one to two weekends of deer hunting is nothing. Here is my typical fall:

One full week (Saturday through the following Sunday) in October, hubby gone in North Dakota for a week of bird hunting.

Every Saturday and Sunday AM: gone from 4-10 am bird hunting in WI.

Deer hunting (used to) in MN: first weekend in November. Gone all weekend.

Deer hunting in WI: November 17-Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving Day through Sunday: Bird hunting back in North Dakota.

Every weekend from late November into December until bird hunting closes down: 4-10am.

Welcome to my life!

[Jen]

My husband and I have never hunted...but our house is surrounded by woods and we see deer stopping in our yard to eat the undergrowth every day. More than once, J has proposed the idea of shooting one and eating it. But seeing as how we would have no idea what to do with it once it was dead...it just seems silly. Besides, I like to sit on the deck with hot chocolate and watch nature. Although, your gathering of playing games and drinking seems like enough fun that I might let the husband go hunting...
(thanks for finding me on nablopomo and commenting on my blog!)

[zoe]

vegan. but mark has hunted in the past...and for some reason peyton is very intrested. i think he was switched at birth.

[MrsPop]

I'm not against hunting and I have childhood (and some adult memories) that center around deer, dove, and quail seasons. That being said, as a child, my favorite part about hunting was getting to go out to the deer lease and hang out in the cool cabin and eat venison chili. As I got older, my favorite part was sitting in the deer blind, drinking cold beer.

My husband isn't a hunter, though, so no more deer blinds for me.

[jenny's mom / tucker's gramma]

to make my story short, one year jim and i went out, the first day i climbed into a dear stand built in the 50's i swear, it wasn't fit for a bird to land in, let alone me to sit in with a gun. that day i seen a muskrat that almost climbed the tree, him and i would have taken a tumbull if he would have started to climb the tree, thankfully he turned around and left.later that day i seen a doe and by the time i slowly (not to fall out of the stand) turned my gun around she ran away. (i'm not sure i could have shot her anyway). the second day he left me on the ground, sitting there with my coffee and cookies, about an hour into the day i had a wolf come to visit me....about 50 feet away.........i had a gun but it didn't matter it ruined my having coffee and cookies, i thought he might come back and be hungary, so i sat there scared out of my witz till the end of the day. the third day i stayed in the truck. i read, had coffee and COOKIES and walked around outside once in awhile to see if i'd hear anything....i only heard shots....and they weren't mine or my hunting partners................so i'm not much of a deer hunter. i did go partaridge hunting at the age of about 16 and shot and killed a partaridge (one shot). now i hunt with a bb gun and sorry to say, kill rabbits, ground hogs, and chipmonks......that do bad things to my yard ...the very first time i went deer hunting i was pregnant with jenny, i did a so called drive in the woods with about 8 other people in a line, and i managed to cross over all eight paths and i ended up at the complete oppisite side i started on, more or less i almost got lost.........but jenny was with me the whole time........maybe thats why she doesn't enjoy it...that was her first hunt...i was 5 weeks along with her. the next season i enjoyed my hunting season with my family and my new daughter who was then 5 months old...

[Jaime]

Eli hunts. He likes it, not loves it. I think something changed in him after he's hunted people. Something about the "rush" has changed:)
But now that we are not at home and close to the "hunting cabin" he won't be hunting this year. But I know he'll be missing the commrodery.
A lot of men just love this hunting thing. And I'm okay with it as long as the girls want to get together and have some fun too:) Otherwise, I'm just bored and maybe a little ticked that I'm bored and he's out having a good time:)

[Mary]

Sounds like you are in for a fun weekend :)
My Dad use to hunt when we were little.
Enjoy!

[Kim]

Tom doesn't hunt... but I am a baseball widow. Which is probably worse since baseball season goes from January - May. :)
My dad never deer hunted (while I was growing up at least), so, it's not weird to me that my husband doesn't.
Sounds like you'll have a great weekend at the in-laws. Have fun! Miss and love ya!