Getting Ready
Man it is hot outside. The last thing on my mind is deer season. These days I just hold up inside the house or in my office and try to stay cool in the AC. One hundred degree days don't have the same effect on me and my passion for the outdoors as those sixty and seventy degree days. But like it or not those dog days of summer are the perfect time to get ready for the up coming season.
I know getting up early on a Saturday morning to go sweat in the woods and fight a loosing battle against ticks, skeeters, and chiggers to cut and mow trails and food plots is not many peoples idea of fun. Being the hunter that I am I force myself to get out and get it done. Because I know when deer season gets here I can concentrate on hunting and patterning the deer instead of working. So my son and I get up at daylight on those hot muggy summer mornings in August to get the mowing done from six months of neglect. The grass and weeds are as high as the tractor. It looks like a small dust storm moving across fields as we bush hog and harrow the last year's food plots. That have been reclaimed by the grass and briars. After a good mowing we spray the plots with round up to kill the rest of the vegetation that the harrow and bush hog didn't get. We do this so when we get ready to plant our plots in a couple of weeks they will be nice and clean free of grass and weeds.
Summer time is also the best time to trim and cut those roads and trails to and from our deer stands. I don't like to do a lot of trimming and cutting during the season because I don't want the deer to even know that I have been in an area. I call that ghosting them. I like to slip in and out hopefully undetected. That way the deer won't suspect that any thing is up and won't become aware of my stand or set up and start avoiding that particular area. And I know that if I cut too early in the year there is a good chance that I will have to do it again before the season gets here.
It is also a good time to check out those stands that have been sitting out in the weather since last season. Some of those stands have been out in the woods for the past three seasons. And just because they worked fine last year does not mean that that strap, rope, nail, or screw hasn't rotted rusted or been chewed into by a sorry good for nothing squirrel. Yes that sorry good for nothing squirrel has gotten me on more than one occasion. If we don't go ahead and get new straps and things like that we will all be standing and the local hunting supply store waiting for the truck to bring them in the day before the season comes in. Some how we men tend to procrastinate on things till it is too late.
Trimming those all important shooting lanes will also need some work before the season gets here. This time of summer is the best time. The growing season is about over and there will be plenty of time for every thing to settle back down. The deer are very observant of changes in their environment and become very wary. It takes a little time for them to settle back down and become comfortable that there is no danger in that area. You too would be a little unsettled if you came home one afternoon and your spouse or girl friend had changed her hair color, painted the walls, and rearranged all the furniture in the house. It might take you a few days or weeks to settle back into a normal routine as well.
This also might be a good idea to go ahead and sight in that deer rifle or get that bow ready. Last year ammo for a lot of calibers got scarce. It wasn't just around here either. A lot of the guys I talked to had some trouble finding ammo that they had always used. It just wasn't out there. So this might be the time to check out your local gun shop and buy some ammo or put your name on the call list when they come in. Time to get that bow out of the closet is now. Take it down to the local bow shop and have them check it out to make sure all the cables and strings look good and nothing needs any repair. You don't want to wait till the last minute to take it down there. There will be twenty bows ahead of yours and they won't be able to promise your will be ready before the season get here. It happened to me last year one week before bow season started. I was out in the back yard shooting my bow. As I was drawing the bow back to make a spectacular fifty yard shot my cable next to my bottom cam broke. A loud smack and stuff went every where. The arrow luckily went into the ground about 20 yards out. And I only slightly smacked myself in the nose with the back of my hand. I looked at what happened and thought my bow season was not going to happen. But once again the Lord was looking out for me. I called Dublin Hunting and fishing and they just happened to have one set of cables to fit my bow. Rushed down and got them to put them on for me. And it did not take very long and I was shooting those fifty yard shots again.
Just because it's hot outside and the humidity makes it feel like a sauna doesn't mean that there isn't work to be done. And just because we call ourselves Christians doesn't mean God's work is done. God sent his son to save us for a reason. You wouldn't buy a new four wheeler or a new truck to park it in the garage. You were bought for a price and a purpose. So even though you might get a little uncomfortable and have to do some things you like to do and don't like to do. Get up, get out and get busy getting ready for God to do something in your life and the lives of those around you.
