Life Goes On

Though turkey season has ended, my life goes on. I haven't seen a carp in the river, and I keep forgetting to bring my other fishing stuff home from my parents house. If nothing else I would be able to catch some catfish, suckers, or carp by just using worm and sinkers.

Honestly I haven't been fishing in forever; I've never been much of a fisherman (fisherwoman?).

I feel like now that hunting season is over, I have nothing to blog about. I wonder how interesting it would be to blog about fishing??? Probably as exciting as watching it on TV...which is extremely boring.

Normally this time of year I would be setting out trail cameras and salt blocks and planting food plots. But since I won't be hunting NJ this year it would be pointless.

So, since I can't go fishing, hunting, or scouting, and don't see anything to bowfish, I've been trying to keep myself occupied with other things. I've been spending more time with my best friend now tha college is out and hunting season is over.

I've been able to go tanning for the first time since I started working at the farm five years ago. So now I've got a nice tan (my realtree bikini hasn't had this much use since I bought it a few years ago) and I managed to get rid of the tan lines I had achieved from wearing shorts to the farm everyday.

There was a bit of excitement here in the neighborhood today. I was laying out in the sun, soaking up some of the brutally hot sun since it was over 90 degrees, and I heard some gunshots fired nearby. This isn't exactly the kind of place that's suitable for target practice since there are quite a few houses here, so I thought it was strange. Sure enough the cops showed up a few minutes later and blocked off the road for about an hour. Not sure what happened, but I'm sure I'll find out in the news.

I spent a rather uneventful Memorial Day at my parents on monday for our annual picnic. I pretty much just hung out with my dog and helped make some of the food. Honestly if it weren't for the food I wouldn't even bother going, but the food is so good I can't bring myself not to go, no matter how miserable my family is. I generally feel a little weird though, since I pile my plate with food and then watch my skinny sisters eat half a hotdog and declare they're full. I guess that's how they stay skinny, but I'd rather maintain a healthy weight, enjoy my food, and have the energy to walk more than a few yards. But, that's just me.

So, plans for this week...hanging out with my BFF to celebrate her birthday, going to head to my parents to hang out with my sister Sarah and cheer her up since she's not allowed to go to Senior Prom OR hang out with me at my house. And, try to remember to get my fishing stuff.

And, hopefully I will be moved to Ohio by the middle/end of June!!! It's funny that me, the girl who always swore she would never be in a long distance relationship, is in a long distance relationship (until I move out there). I guess you just have to find someone who is worth it!!!

HUNT Is A Four Letter Word

Turkey season in New Jersey is over. I honestly can say that it has been my worst season ever in New Jersey. I hardly even heard turkeys, much less saw them. At least I can be thankful for the fact that I saw and heard turkeys on my trip to Florida/Kansas/Nebraska. But here in NJ it just plain sucked.

I guess I’ll be having tag soup for the next few weeks. The only turkeys I’ve seen in the past few days have been roadkill.

The other day a thought crossed my mind for a split second that maybe I shouldn’t have spent the money to buy my NJ turkey tags this year. But, if I hadn’t bought them I would have been wondering if I was passing up a chance at killing a turkey or two.

I weighed the options before the season started:

1. Buy the tag, get up every morning at 4:30 for two weeks and hunt til noon, spend money on gas for my truck, lose a lot of sleep, and maybe not even get a turkey

Or

2. Save my money and don’t spend the money on tags, or gas money, sleep in every morning, not get a turkey, but think about it every single day and wish I would have got a tag so that I would at least have put forth the effort.

I went with option number one.

The money, lack of sleep, frustration, and all the time spent in the woods??? It was more than worth it. It’s not the first season that’s ended with a barren freezer and empty tags, and most likely won’t be the last.

I’m counting down the days until I can spend money, hours in the woods, and lose sleep during deer season. It’s what I live for.

Natural Camo

The past few days of turkey hunting have absolutely sucked.  99% of the time I’m not hearing a darn bird, and the other 1% I get messed up by another turkey hunter. Just not having any luck this season I guess. Only 5 days left and the NJ season will be over, and on top of that I'm missing Mike. 

 

On the bright side I have made a discovery this turkey season: Natural Camo facepaint. Let me just say that I hate facemasks. I always have and always will. As a little girl my dad always made me wear one while turkey hunting. It made my nose run, and when it was hot it made it hard to breathe. One fateful day when I was ten, I had a turkey in the sights of my shotgun and when I put my head down to shoot, the facemask moved so I could no longer see the turkey. That hunt ended with no turkey, and my dad stopped making me wear a face mask.

I’ve always kind of hated facepaint too though. Its generally sticky, or ends up staining my clothes, or is greasy and waxy and makes me want to immediately go wash it off, or I cant wash it off and have to go throughout the day with stripes on my face.

So, of course I didn’t think Natural Camo was any different.

I got my two vials of facepaint in the mail, black and green, and the next morning I tried it out turkey hunting. And guess what??? I no longer hate face paint.

Number one, it was easy to put on. You just shake the container and draw it on your face. Pretty much like drawing on your face with a magic marker, except cooler.

Number two, it wasn’t greasy or feel like melted crayons once it was on my face. It actually felt like nothing. (Which I suppose could be bad for me since I’ll probably forget I’m wearing it and go to town with it still on or something.)

Number three (my favorite part) was that I could wash it off with plain old water and ALL of it came off. No leftover stripes or shadows on my face. Mission accomplished. Looks like I no longer have a reason to hate facepaint.

http://www.naturalcamo.com/

Tuesday

So the first morning of turkey season this week I woke up to strong winds, heavy rain, and lots of thunder and lightening. Hooray. Second morning wasn't much better, minus the thunder and lightening. I got up, put on my camo and face paint, got my gun in the truck and drove to the spot I was going to hunt. Rain poured down. The wind continued to blow. I still didn't hear any gobbles. It's supposed to be like this ALL week unfortunately. So, I'm feeling a little discouraged. I wish I was even HEARING turkeys, that would at least let me know that they're there.

I talked to a couple other turkey hunters and they're all seeming to have the same problem. No gobbles. Now, the hunters from other states are shooting turkeys. Mike was hearing lots of turkeys in Ohio, and shot one last week. I can't wait until I live in Ohio.

But, I'll be stuck in Jersey for a few more weeks anyways, with my neighbors that stole my mail, and weird landscaper guys who lose their cell phones in the front yard.

But, Mike is driving up here to Jersey to see me on Thursday, which gives me something to look forward to!!! :) And hopefully Wednesday will be a little better for turkey hunting.

Unlucky

Well, after one week of turkey hunting and not even really HEARING any gobbles, I've gotten kind of discouraged. I'm beginning to wonder if all of the turkeys in New Jersey have died or gone extinct. Maybe my youngest brother shot the last one during the first week of turkey season. Who knows. Either way I'm not having much luck.

I have a permit for the next two weeks and I'm not even that excited about it. I've tried hunting the private piece of land that I deer hunt, with no luck. I've tried hunting public land, tried going up the mountain, along the river. The turkeys just don't wanna gobble.

For now I'm blaming the weather. Its been extremely cold this spring, with quite a bit of rain. Everything is late. Somehow in some way this has to affect the turkeys.

I went down along the river to look for carp to go bowfishing, and the water was still way too cold. Usually the weekend of mothers day is the best time around here to go bowfishing. Well, not this year. I haven't even seen a carp in the rivers yet. I'm hoping we'll get some sunny 80 degree days this week to bring them up in the shallows.

Its too bad I don't trout fish, since everyone who does trout fish seems to be catching a lot this year.

But, who knows, maybe this week will be better!!! When it comes to hunting, I've never been one to give up easily. I still have two more weeks to kill a turkey and I might as well make the best of it!!!

Turkey Hunting Tomorrow :)

The days have been going by agonizingly slow. I still haven't been called back to work, which kind of sucks since the extra money would be great to have.

I finally broke down and spend most of my life savings on two turkey permits. (Not really, but I have no idea WHY the permits cost so much??!!) As I was standing in line in Wal-Mart waiting to have the permits printed, I realized: this is most likely going to be the last time I ever buy a NJ Permit. Well, no sadness there. Not surprisingly, Ohio hunting license/permits are much cheaper.

So, tomorrow morning is my first day of NJ turkey hunting this year. I can't wait to get out there!!! Hopefully I get something this year, I haven't shot a turkey in two years I think??? I lost track...But the owner of the property I hunt told me that there are two gobblers in his front field every morning, so it may not be so hard this year.

Tuesday I'm heading out hunting with my sister Sarah, and my dad. I generally feel like my dad is a good luck charm when it comes to turkey hunting since he's a much better caller than I am, and has been hunting a lot more than I have!!!

Hopefully I don't forget anything, I already packed my gun, camo, calls, camera, tripod, and everything else I thought I might possible need in my truck. I'm not sure how I'm going to carry it all really. I need Sarah or Mike here to help me carry it all :D

Mike actually went back to Nebraska and Kansas last week, and finally killed his Merriam and Rio...without me!!! But I am happy he finally did get some turkeys.

So, I guess I'll be up at 5 tomorrow, got to get in the woods early since I haven't been out at all yet this year. Can hunt til noon, then its time for some bowfishing :) I'm hoping this will be the start of an awesome fun week!!!

And maybe I'll be able to put some new pictures up with ME with a turkey this week!!!!

~May~

The past few days in Jersey have been excessively boring. I haven’t really done much of anything that could be considered interesting. I haven’t even been called back to work at the farm yet, so mostly I’ve just been hanging out, doing random stuff, and missing Mike

The other day I actually got around to taking the last of my deer stands down. It’s only been, what…about four months since the last day of deer season??? I guess I could say I’ve had other things on my mind. If I was planning on hunting there this deer season I would have just left them up since deer season is only a few months away.

I kind of hate taking stands down by myself. It IS easier than putting them up by myself, but I always seem to run into some sort of problem or another. Last year the stand fell when I was still in the tree so I had to figure out how to get out of the tree without a stand there to help.

This year I had to take down a ladder stand and a lock on stand that was hung above it for filming. The lock on was easy enough, and the ladder stand was easy enough to unstrap and climb down. But then I had a tough time pulling it away from the tree since it was pretty embedded into the bark after having been there for nearly a year. Then I couldn’t get the sections apart to break the stand down and put it in the back of my truck. I ended up hooking it around a tree and yanking it, which worked just fine.

Camera arms down, treesteps out, looks like I have everything out of the woods for once in my life. It’s weird. I haven’t even put my trail camera up, and not even sure if I’m going to put it up in Jersey this year.

I returned my dads one stand, climbing sticks, feeder, and my brothers deer target that I used as a decoy. Unfortunately that was only on afternoon.

I talked to the owner of the land where I deer hunt and he told me that there are several gobblers strutting in the field below his house every morning, the same field I deer hunt. Looks like I’ll have to get a turkey permit soon. I was going to buy one for next week, but I just looked at the forecast and it’s supposed to rain all week. So, I’m going to wait and see what the week after will be like. No one else is hunting there anyway, its not like the turkeys are going to go anywhere.

I’ve been racking my brain for other things to do now that I’m home and no working yet. I’ve cleaned my whole house, folded my clothes, paid my bills, visited my family. I even decided to grow my nails out instead of biting them everytime they get long. That only lasted for about two days. I’m running out of things to do. I wish I WAS back to work!!!

Next week I’m going to take a trip down the Paulinskill River and see if the grass carp are in the shallows yet. Might was well get some bowfishing in!!! Last year I didn’t have a ton of luck, but I didn’t have a ton of time either. So, that will give me something fun to do!!! Time to get out my Silverhawk bow and set it up for bowfishing again.

So, my goal for the month of May: kill a turkey and some carp!!!