Hunter's Wife vs Hunter

Well, the countdown has begun.  You can’t get on Twitter or Facebook without someone pointing out there are only a few weeks till the start of deer season.  It is a little bitter sweet for me.  Normally, I would be looking forward to the early archery season in Oklahoma.  However, this year my season will not start until after the first weekend of rifle season in Texas.  I have a feeling by that point, I am going to be chomping at the bit! 

I have been reading everything I can get my hands on! Magazines, blogs, books, etc to learn all the “behind the scenes” actions of a deer hunter.  As a “Hunter’s Wife” I now realize there were so many things taken care of for me.  Hunting in the past consisted of looking through trail camera pics, picking out shooter deer, waking up early, sitting in the pre-positioned deer stand in front of the already filled feeder, and hopefully shooting a deer!  Wow, I was so naïve to call myself a “hunter”.  In the last few weeks I have learned about positioning trail cameras for the best pictures and best results, locating deer stands in the most opportune location, food plots and wind management.  Not only that, but then I’ve learned about the rut, looking for scrapes, and deer habits.  Then I move into hunting equipment – I’ll be honest,  I have nothing but my camouflage, my bow and hopefully a deer feeder and blind at the deer lease.  So, I start looking into trail cameras, ground blinds, scent control, guns, and knives.  After all that, then I start thinking about how to clean a deer.  As a “Hunter’s Wife” we had an agreement: I don’t clean deer!  Now, I will admit, I really don’t want to clean a deer, but I realize that is part of being a hunter, and I will do it!  I just don’t know how! 

I will swallow my pride a little here and tell you that I missed a great opportunity to learn many of these things from a great hunter.  I wish I had taken the time to have Chad teach me some of these things because he seriously is probably one of the best.  I just took advantage of the fact he would take care of all these things for me. 

It has been fun learning how to do many of these “behind the scenes” activities, but it has been overwhelming. I am so thankful that I have my family to help me.  They are the absolute best and they have been so supportive.  I look forward to my first hunting season as a real “hunter”.