Home Is Where The Treestand Is

Last night was the 44^th night that I sat in a treestand this season. It was about 80 degrees out, and raining, which is disappointing for the end of October. I saw only a few does come out in the field about 200 yards away, not even any small bucks showed up. This weather is killing the pre-rut activity, and I'm not liking it one bit.

Early season bow is nearly over. This Saturday permit bow starts, and the rut will soon be in full swing. I shot my antlerless deer and put some meat in the freezer, but in the 44 days I still have not had a chance to shoot Mr. Big. Close, but not quite. Desperation is starting to creep in. I just make it a point to stick with it and hope and pray that I will get my chance soon. I’ve been putting a lot of hours in the treestand.           

“I have no life,” I told my boyfriend on the way to my treestand one afternoon.          

“You have a life,” he answered reassuringly, “it’s in the tree”. How true.     

Have you ever paused on the way to the woods, or during one of the hours in the tree, to wonder:  “how many hours do I spend in the stand a year”? I have. I even calculated the number of hours I spent in the stand just this year. 200. That’s the approximate number of hours so far this season. Not counting the hours I spent hunting elk in Colorado in September.  By the time this deer season is over I will have spent about 660 hours in the stand. Who would have guessed?    

Think of all the things you could be doing if you weren’t in the treestand. I thought about that too. I rarely see my family and friends. Really, the only one I see on a regular basis is my boyfriend, and that’s only because we hunt together pretty often, and he lives only a few minutes from me.

But the point is, if I wasn’t hunting I’m sure I could be…I could be…um well I’m sure I could be doing SOMETHING else, I just can’t think of it.     

I do know that there is nothing else I would RATHER be doing. This time of year I spend more time in the treestand, and in the woods scouting, than I do at my house and I love every second of it.     

Tonight will be night number 45. I'll be spending another 3 hours in the stand in the wind and rain. My boyfriend was right...my life is in the tree. But I'm not complaining!