Thoughts From a Tree Stand

Written Saturday, December 1, 2012:

Hello friends! I'm writing to you from 20ft above the ground in a tree stand. This is the last weekend of shotgun season for deer here in Indiana and the first opportunity I've had to give it a shot this year.

There is something so peaceful about being camouflaged up in a tree. I think it is one of the closest and most intimate encounters you can have with the great outdoors and the critters all around you. When everything is silent and the critters don't know you're there it's like the National Geographic channel, but it is live in front of your face.

It's a little after 10:00 am now and I've been in a tree since 7:00 am. No deer sightings yet. Lots of squirrels, birds and a raccoon have graced the area this morning though. It's a warm day. Especially for the first of December. At 7:00 am it was nearly 40 degrees and it is warming up toward 50 degrees now.

Are you thinking I'm just plain nuts yet? Well, I wouldn't argue the point with you. But a lot of people ask me how I got in to hunting or what caused me to take an interest in it. Most figure I grew up in the country and/or my family was big into the sport. Wrong on both accounts.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. To leave my neighborhood you had to get on a very busy highway. It was far from rural. The neighbors weren't rednecks walking around in camouflage with a spit cup and a mullet (not that I am judging any of those things).  As far as my family goes, the only relative I have that ever took an interest in hunting is an uncle I only saw once a year while growing up.  I'm guessing that wasn't the influence.

There was never even a firearm in the house I grew up in.  The closest we ever came was when I begged and pleaded and finally won the battle to get a pellet gun in my early teens.

As far as I can figure, I must simply have been born with an outdoorsy gene.  If the TV was on in my room when I was growing up, it was more than likely tuned to TNN (The Nashville Network). There was always either country music videos, fishing or hunting on that channel.  I loved all of them.

I remember the first time I heard Jeff Foxworthy talk about fishing shows being hypnotizing and thinking how right on it was.  Here's a little excerpt I love from that bit:

There is somethin about a fishin show, if yer channel surfing and ya come to one 
it will hypnotize you. Cuz ya always end up watchin it for a few minutes and it's the same 
thing every week. "Hey there friends, We're fishin on ol' lake Witchahatchee and Today 
We're fishin with our old buddy Jerry Reed. Course lotuvya might remember 
Ol' Jerry caught the biggest bass ever caught on our show, and like all our guests, 
Ol' Jerry let 'im go. We had ta whack 'is ass with a boat paddle, but ol' Jerry let 'im go. 
Well, today they're not bitin too good, That's why Jerry and I were gonna try some 
of these deep-runnin lures and We're gonna spray 'em with some of this P-U-Stink bait... 

Well friends, long story short, I have no friggin' idea why I like hunting.  I just do!  That's me.  And that's all for now.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for reading!