The Front Porch Swing

[Blooie]

What a fabulous gift. And will be so treasured. Good daughter.

I have a little Mother's Day something I'd like to share, but I need to talk to Tammy first and see if she minds.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Silly girl! You know where all the Wisconsin folks end up! Right here in Wyoming during deer season and trout season! One day while we were up in the mountains deer hunting we counted 18 cars, trucks, and SUV's with Wisconsin plates - and yes, you read that right - in ONE day! Ken looked at me and said, "Who the he** is watching the cows?"

Guess they don't have deer and fish in Wisconsin!

All I can say with certainty is: Wyoming has mountains - Wisconsin has none. the lure of the big trophy Elk mount on the wall is strong.

We have so many hunting opportunities, but we are also very into our hunting! For big game, Wyoming has Elk, Mule deer, Moose, sheep, goats, buffalo, bear ... WI has whitetail and black bear.

Wisconsin has one Gun Deer season for the entire state. Starts on Saturday before Thanksgiving and ends the Sunday after Thanksgiving. 9 days of hunting for EVERYONE! During that time, Wisconsin has about 620,000 hunters out in the woods. That is just the gun season for Whitetail. Bow season starts sooner and runs a lot longer. Not as popular also.

 

[Blooie]

All I can say with certainty is: Wyoming has mountains - Wisconsin has none. the lure of the big trophy Elk mount on the wall is strong.

We have so many hunting opportunities, but we are also very into our hunting! For big game, Wyoming has Elk, Mule deer, Moose, sheep, goats, buffalo, bear ... WI has whitetail and black bear.

Wisconsin has one Gun Deer season for the entire state. Starts on Saturday before Thanksgiving and ends the Sunday after Thanksgiving. 9 days of hunting for EVERYONE! During that time, Wisconsin has about 620,000 hunters out in the woods. That is just the gun season for Whitetail. Bow season starts sooner and runs a lot longer. Not as popular also.

Ah, that explains a lot! Don't think we've run into a discourteous or corner-cutting hunter yet who was from Wisconsin, so it would seem they really appreciate the opportunities Wyoming provides. I'd go crazy if I only had 9 days to fill my freezer and was competing with 619,999 other hunters!

Those few days it must look like the invasion of the pumpkin army in the woods and fields. I really only hunt for white tail or mule deer and pheasants. Haven't been elk hunting yet but sure would like to if I could handle the physical strain. There are lots of kinds of game here but if I won't eat it I won't shoot it. I've never had any desire to go antelope hunting. I hated antelope when I was growing up.

I have a permit that allows me to shoot from my vehicle. Anyone who thinks that makes it "easy" has never tried it while following the rules for it. <sigh> If you just drive down the road and shoot at something you see as you go I suppose it's easier, but that isn't legal. The law says I have to be off (and may not shoot from or across) any road, highway, or trail. Oh, but then the law also says my vehicle must remain on roads, highways or trails which are marked with numbers as open to vehicular traffic. The law says I may not have a loaded gun in my vehicle. But if I'm hunting from my vehicle I need to have my gun loaded. So what I end up doing is following a road or trail until it either ends or has a turnout for parking, then tucking my vehicle as far back as I can without being EITHER on the road or OFF the road. There are a few places I hunt regularly which do have that unique combination. Then I wait.

The odds of a deer walking up to my car and saying, "Yoo-hoo - I'm over here!" are slim, but I have filled my tag every year so one or two of them must have read the Wyoming Hunting Regulations. In limited circumstances I may "bait" the area where I can shoot, but that's another can of worms. If I could get out and maneuver to the area with a safe shooting lane and toss out some cut up apple or something, then do I really need to hunt from my car? And if Ken tosses out some bait for me and then he leaves for another area to hunt on his own, then before I leave that spot I have to pick up the bait. That's not in the law, but it's just courtesy. After all, if another able bodied hunter takes a deer in that spot later, and a warden is close by, that innocent hunter can be charged with hunting over bait, even if he didn't know it was there. I don't want anyone to get into trouble. So I just don't bait.

I cherish my hunting privileges, and I'm good at it. I was before I became disabled, and I still am. I could tuck up under a tree and sit so still that I had a bird land on the muzzle of my gun trying to pick off the little thread that I tie around the end. I've had deer come in so close that I've had to toss a little stick at it to get it to move. That happened when I had a doe tag and the deer in question was a little buck. So hunting from the car is a whole new challenge, but somehow I manage to get it done. I have yet to end a season with an unfilled tag or without bringing home a pheasant or two (even if it wasn't quite dead! LOL)

And how did I manage to get off on another tangent? Sheesh!

 

[chickenboy190]

Hi everyone again

So I made a coon trap. I hope it works. Also I bought 6 more chicks! 4 Polish, 1 Silkie and 1 Golden Sebrit.

Also I found out that Bob and here babies are good. I trapped her this morning. lol

 

[MistyMountain]

All I can say with certainty is: Wyoming has mountains - Wisconsin has none. the lure of the big trophy Elk mount on the wall is strong.

We have so many hunting opportunities, but we are also very into our hunting! For big game, Wyoming has Elk, Mule deer, Moose, sheep, goats, buffalo, bear ... WI has whitetail and black bear.

Wisconsin has one Gun Deer season for the entire state. Starts on Saturday before Thanksgiving and ends the Sunday after Thanksgiving. 9 days of hunting for EVERYONE! During that time, Wisconsin has about 620,000 hunters out in the woods. That is just the gun season for Whitetail. Bow season starts sooner and runs a lot longer. Not as popular also.

It is so crazy how different states handle their deer population and hunting. Down here, if you are a land owner, you can hunt on your land without purchasing tags OR taking hunter's safety. Rifle season is 4 weeks long and being a land owner, we can harvest something like 4-5 deer EACH. We have a lot of deer, but definitely not something I am used to.

All these old memories of deer camp up in WI are coming back to me now. Sure, hunting season was about hunting, but it meant so much more for us. It was a time where 3 generations of family and friends spent the week together. We would go to bed early and wake up early. We would all sit at one giant table for every meal. Things moved a bit slower. There was nothing "else" we HAD to do. And although hunting is legal on Sunday, Sunday afternoon was spent kicking back with Grandpa and Grandma watching the Packers. I learned things about my family and nature that could not be taught anywhere else. That, and every word to Da Thirty-Point Buck song.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Not to change the subject, but Bee, I was just on another thread that you started!!! You have bees??!! I just asked a question on there. This is my first year with bees, Bee, (just couldn't resist!!

). Waiting on a swarm, but I'm just finishing up my hive. I know, a little late in the season, but they say they should start swarming any day now.

Hope I'm ready!!!

 

[heartsizedfarm]

A beekeeper keeps about twenty hives in one of our fields and I think he's back there right now taking their winter covering off. I'll go back and offer to be useful after my tea is done, and with any luck, he'll be finished. Ha!

 

[Blooie]

It is so crazy how different states handle their deer population and hunting. Down here, if you are a land owner, you can hunt on your land without purchasing tags OR taking hunter's safety. Rifle season is 4 weeks long and being a land owner, we can harvest something like 4-5 deer EACH. We have a lot of deer, but definitely not something I am used to.

All these old memories of deer camp up in WI are coming back to me now. Sure, hunting season was about hunting, but it meant so much more for us. It was a time where 3 generations of family and friends spent the week together. We would go to bed early and wake up early. We would all sit at one giant table for every meal. Things moved a bit slower. There was nothing "else" we HAD to do. And although hunting is legal on Sunday, Sunday afternoon was spent kicking back with Grandpa and Grandma watching the Packers. I learned things about my family and nature that could not be taught anywhere else. That, and every word to Da Thirty-Point Buck song.

Funny, that's how deer hunting is with me too. I was helping dad skin deer when other little girls my age were playing with Barbies. He taught me so much, and I can't even tell you the number of times then - and now - I come home empty handed but full hearted! Just being out with people I love - doing something we enjoy sharing and seeing things that make forever memories. And Oh, MY! I also know every word to Da Tirdy Point Buck! Got a hunting story to share as soon as I look through my computer to find it.

 

[Blooie]

Rats, I found the hunting story but I didn't realize it was so long! I tried to edit it to make it shorter, but I dunno....it really loses something if you don't tell it all.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I have a friend who was born and raised out on a ranch here in Wyoming. He went off to college and now lives in Cheyenne, but always managed to make time with his dad and brother back on the ranch to elk hunt the opening week for his area. Dad got old and crippled up some with arthritis, so for the last 10 years or so he would sit in the truck while the "youngsters" would go out and hike the mountain. He knew where the elk would sneak down the draw to avoid the hunters and every year the old man filled his tag. He had installed a winch inside the bed of his truck so he could load the elk by himself. One year, the 2 boys came down off the mountain and Dad didn't have his elk. Dad claimed there must not have been any elk up there cause nothing came through. The boys didn't let on, but knew Dad had been asleep most of the day out there. The elk tracks completely circled the truck. You could see the tracks of an elk that had walked up to the truck and it had to have looked in the window at dear ole sleeping Dad! Dad was gone a couple of years later, but he hunted every year with his boys.