Preparing and dreaming of a new hunting season

I am looking forward to this hunting season with great anticipation unlike the past few season's.

For some reason I have not had as much desire has I once had, at one time I lived in the woods on weekends,Uncle Ken, my cousin Lester ,my Dad and I hunted every Saturday. Squirrel and rabbit hunting mainly and we would spend the week if deer season together at Uncle Ken's house in Bainbridge. After Kenny Ray was born there just seems to be something had to done always beside hunting. But I have thought about it a lot, it seems people interest change as life changes. Anyway I have begun to get ready for hunting season and I plan on trapping once again this winter. I have Kenny Ray doing the home study trapping course so he may get his trapping permit and helping me this coming winter, hopefully he will like it as much as I did a few years ago. I got my few remaining traps dyed and waxed this past week and started scouting for some place's to build a few cubbies and will get them, built in the coming weeks so the animals will be in the habit of visiting them before season comes in. Kenny Ray has been practicing with his bow,we have been planning where he might place his tree stand, we will make the final decision when we start squirrel hunting as we will be patterning the deer thru September and I will be placing up a scouting camera around the tree house and we will plant a food plot over labor day weekend. We will also start getting the cabin ready we need to get some firewood in and catch a few fish for the freezer as well. Our schedule thru September on Saturday will be hunt of the morning, fish in the afternoon, hunt again in the evening, sit by the fire and tell tales in evening.

Sometimes the Little Boy is so windy he could blow up an onion sack, as he can tell some tall tales, he gets that from his mother's side of the family. I think the best part of the season is the preparation and the planning and the dreaming. Kenny Ray has missed three big bucks the last two years I am hopeful this year that he gets his first deer, I believe that bow hunting will help him calm down as he should get use to seeing deer but most of them will be out of range and he will just have to sit and watch them it should teach him allot about deer behavior. A new season

brings forth more stories and memories and brings back memories of the past.

Iron weed and the end of summer

To me the above photo of Iron weed in bloom signifies that summer is near the end , and that fall is nearing. I do not mind as fall is the best season for this Appalachian American. Fall means that I will have a few mornings that are cool and I will be able to sit by the fire with a cup coffee,and hunting season will be in as I eagerly await opening day of squirrel season. There is an old saying that Dad taught me" son when the Iron weed is in full bloom the squirrels are in the Hickory nuts." I have been watching the Scaly bark Hickory tree that I have in my back yard as I have for the last 21 years. the squirrels usually cut it out before season comes in about the time the Iron weed begins to bloom. This year however they have not started on it yet, they are more interested in my Galla Apple trees as they come in and climb the tree, pick and apple and move on somewhere else to eat it. Some years I have counted as many as eight squirrels in that Hickory at one time cutting Hickory nuts.

I was looking over the hunting rules this past week as I worked on my traps. They had to be derusted, dyed and waxed. The rust was pretty heavy on a couple of them as I have not trapped

in about fifteen or sixteen years, and I am looking forward to this fall and winter season as I will be teaching the Little Boy. Anyway squirrel season comes in September first in Ohio, I am going to try and go that evening after work. I am still trying to secure permission from some farmers to hunt and trap this season. Squirrel season in Kentucky comes in this Thursday the twelfth of August, if my Uncle Ken is feeling better he wants me and my cousin Lester to take him back down to the home place and hunt, as he would like to do it one more time,just like we use to do.