Bow Hunting in the Bush

As most of you already know, my husband Byron is a hunter.  He has hunted basically his whole life.  He hasn’t hunted much the last few years, but previously his average was 10 deer per season, and his record is 21 deer in ONE SEASON.  He is very well known around here in the hunting community.  But, enough bragging!
Last year he hunted some here on our property, but he wasn’t able to do all the prep work, so he didn’t get any deer.  (this doesn’t mean he didn’t see any, just that he chose not to kill any that he saw.)

This year, the rains have prevented him from doing all of the prep that he wanted to do, but he was able to do some, including feeding corn to the deer most of the year to get them coming onto our property on a regular basis.

So today, bow season started.  We put his deer stand up in a tree towards the back of our property, and he chopped limbs to give him a clear field of vision. He had to get a new trail camera, and put that up.  He wrapped camouflage burlap around his stand.  The burlap had been put in the dryer with special dryer sheets that make the fabric smell like nature (to me, they smell exactly like dirt.)  He also uses these on his clothes.  Byron loves for his clothes to smell really good – except during hunting season.

I helped him get his stand up, and took a small limb to the head and got a tick on my belly.
I better get some good meat out of this!

On Saturday evening, I was scheduled to go to work from 7pm-7am.
(I don’t normally work Saturdays, but I traded with a co-worker as a favor to her.)
It was the first day of bow season, so as I was leaving for work, Byron was heading back to his stand.
I left quietly and about five minutes after I left, my work called and said they were cancelling my shift. (woohoo!)
So, I had to turn around and go home (which was fine with me).  But I was worried about making noise; the last thing I wanted to do was scare any deer off while he was actually on the stand.  I called him to warn him but he didn’t answer; I assumed he’d forgotten his phone in the house.
I parked a little ways off from the house and shut the truck door VERY gently.
Then I quietly walked inside and shut the doors very quietly, again.
A few minutes later Byron called; he had just noticed his missed call.  He had NO idea that I was home, he hadn’t heard me at all!  Bonus points for the Hunter’s Wife!  (Hey, I’m new at this, it’s the little things.)

  

My husband could literally write a book about hunting and I love for him to talk to me about it; he has so much knowledge and it’s really fascinating.  He also will not, ever, kill a doe with baby, or a doe that MIGHT have a baby, even if the baby is old enough to survive on its own.  Its just something he can’t and won’t do.  So he very rarely kills doe at all.  The doe and fawn you saw on the videos are perfectly safe, no worries.

  

Once he gets back into his groove of bringing in several deer per season, I hope to have a flourishing garden.  My goal, ultimately, is for us to eat mostly from our land – deer, hog, and turkey; and to fish and eat that, and veggies from my garden.  Hopefully that will happen within the next few years.

People think of Florida as the land of palm trees, but there are far more of these palmetto bushes than palm trees. These are taller than me, but they are usually about waist-high.

 Also, he plans to build a much nicer stand, more of a tree house than a tree stand.  Then I can hang out with him and quietly read my books while he hunts!

We found an old, rusty ladder propped up against a tree in the back of our property.

I am so ready for some bacon-wrapped venison! Hoping for a successful season.