Woman Midwest-style

       A boat ride in pitch dark across the coves, a rocky hillside climb was the start of our deer season open...      Cold water chopped at the hull as we raced through the main channel. Ed's DIY boat headlights shone along past the cold waves, revealing jagged stubs of trees. In the summertime they are connected by jugs strung on trot-lines, bobbing with an occasional Channel-cat on, suspended in the deep water.      We skirted past those wooden stalagmites left standing when the channel was flooded, forming the lake. My quilted vest collar wrapped snug against my neck, I braced against the chilly November wind that hugged the shoreline. Fun memories of summer fishing quickly subsided in hopes of a shot at a good deer beyond the boulders, and tree limbs strewn en masse that made my climb difficult with a backpack and rife strapped to my back. I felt more like a pack-mule. And just as stubborn.      My husband guided me, shone the mega flashlight along the rubble t

        Early afternoon turkey hunting. Words can't show the beauty of Missouri woods. I saw two deer feeding in soybean fields. No birds, it's late in season but I WALKED nice n slow, happy after a broken ankle. A bit of drizzle didn't ruin my day- it smelled fresh. Wet alfalfa smells sweet. Usual crop fields are fallow this year.   I found a licking branch above a scrape and fresh tracks walking along the tractor path mowed months before.  U sually prime turkey hunting i f the weeds hadn't been so tall..        No other hunters bumped into my path, no dogs ran through to startle a flock of birds  my way . I watched an eagle fly, squirrels running up and down trees and a hawk caught one.  The squirrel didn't let out a sound as the hawk swooped in and snatched it off the tree.       My foot got sore, I rested, drank cold coffee. Texted my husband I was headed home after one last hunt. Be safe he replied (from his tree stand).              We

It doesn't matter whether it's spring or fall, Merriam or Eastern or Rio Grande or Osceola, turkeys are tough to hunt.  Their eyes are so keen.   If you can see them without binoculars, they can easily pick you out of the edge of the timber unless you act like a tree.  Stand so still until you feel like you've grown leaves.  Unless your clothes have been treated with non-­UVA detergent, a turkey's vision can still pick you out of the timber...  Yes, from that distance, their wary eyes are as good as your 'binocs' and closely match a raptor's vision in relation to picking up movement several hundred yards away, as across a 100 acre corn field or from their roost above that same field.  Turkeys also are not color blind, hence the reference for the necessity to wash your huntin’ duds in special hunting laundry soap that is formulated to minimize the intense colors of fabrics and human odor.     "The retinas of turkeys have seven dif

Spring turkey hunting starting, replace chicken with  wild TURKEY breast!! My Gramma's IRISH CHICKEN POTATO SKILLET DINNER Need small iron skillet,12" iron skillet 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 5 large PorteBella raw 'shrooms, sliced 5 small - 4 med. Russet potatoes 1 can cut green beans 1/4c.*olive oil 1t*butter 1 jar chicken gravy  Option: Add Wine or Beer, not water  Rub: 1t seasoned salt, 1/4t black pepper, 1t gr. Rosemary, 1/4t garlic pwdr.  Peel, quarter and slice potatoes 1/2" thick pieces Trim fat off breasts, rinse, pat dry, apply rub both sides.  Saute' 'shrooms in big skillet till butter coated, add beans w/juice and potatoes, simmer.  Heat the oil in small skillet, sear, braise each Breast, gets a brown crust.  Stir veggies, set meat on top, cover, keep high simmer a few minutes. Scrape spatula under veggies off bottom, layer on top of meat, add water if it sticks. Meat cooks by steam Stir often, ladle over

Camo for Deer...        An inexperienced hunter might get impatient waiting in a ground blind . My butt do get a bit numb from sitting on the stool.  Our bodies succomb to getting sore and restlessness, hence our human reaction is movement.  But deer are always wary, on the lookout for danger,  while they are more colorblind than turkey, a deer's alert eyes pick up on  any  movement.   It is difficult to remain still and silent inside the blind just as it is in a tree stand.  I was taught to turn my head minimally, to shift only my eyes and if you hear steps, hold your head statue still.     When you're out there sitting in a blind or in the stand you become part of the woods, drinking in the smell of the leaves, the pines and if you're in a prime spot, you can smell pungent deer pee and know you may get your chance, if the wind doesn't give you up. As I wait, if I'm quiet and still enough the birds will land next to me, not really as rare as such a beautiful

2013  One warm afternoon during bow season we opted for the hour drive to hunt  Urich Conservation Area   prior to gun season's crowd chased off all the  deer..... By then it would be futile to hope to have even a modicum productive deer hunt in that small area .   We loaded the Jeep with his climber stand and the ground blind I use, also an assundry of other supplies necessary including the small homemade deer cart. The usual mass mayhem of traffic kept us from making significant speed toward our hunting area that beckoned.       Pulling in the long gravel road my heart sank seeing another truck parked at the lot. Takes a lot to rile him, no surprise Ed displayed nothing.  As we gathered our gear the other hunter walked across the field toward us, Ed greeted the young man while I was immersed in my gear in the back seat. I was wishing I hadn't so much to carry on my back and the weather would cool down. The men were exchanging typical "how's the huntin'

Deepwater     2013, opening day deer rifle season I had tracked a doe that finally caught scent of me.  She threw that fluffy white flag up and bounded into the timber just as I jerked my rifle to my face to shoot.      Shielded from view I sat for two hours on a huge flat oak stump watching the tree line for the doe to come back out to feed. I was very comfortable in my short sleeves, happy to feel the light breeze in my hair and listen to the bluejays "caw caw" in the locust tree behind me. I raised my binoculars trying to focus on a Red-tail hawk in flight's screech just before it swooped to the ground to snatch a mouse out of the tall grass.  The calm of the afternoon enveloped me; that solitude every hunter's dream as I watched the clouds float across the sky with childlike wonder.   My husband joined me at the stump. Foxtail with an amber glow under the late afternoon sun - the soybean field bordered the trees. Darkness at Sunset     By last