This is the time of year that my thoughts typically turn to Deer and if time permits, Bear - but I've barely been out to shoot this year. To be perfectly frank about it, this year I’ve got more work around rancho RFNJ than I can manage.
First it was my bridge. I have a 16 foot bridge which spans the brook in my back yard and had been damaged last winter by a combination of a knot in the main support beam and a poorly placed falling tree. My buddy Rob came by a few weeks back and we fixed it together, adding 2x4 braces for the damaged beam and moving it a few feet downstream to save its supports from bank erosion.
Then there was 30 year old brickwork on my front stoop which was all but falling apart. Brickwork is expensive, even when done by illegal immigrants. So instead, I did a little research, learned something about it on youtube and patched the brickwork myself. The results weren't perfect by any means, but they were far better than the patch job that preceded it. And after a few months of dirt gathering on the new stuff to make it look like the old, I'm sure no one will be able to tell the difference.
Then there was Irene. She left us without power for 5 days, flooded my basement, and with a little help from my sweet but somewhat nervous dog, left my office carpet smelling like the world’s largest dirty diaper. We pumped out the water, threw out the mess from the basement (thanks again to Rob and his wife Jane) and pulled up enough of my office carpet to eliminate the horrid smell. (Our neighbor Mrs Kravitz is still complaining about the smell the carpet is emitting while out at the curb.) But the process cost us about 10 days which we had planned to devote to other projects and has left us all exhausted. Meanwhile, every time the lights flicker my wife exhibits the effect of post traumatic stress syndrome.
Next is my pool. We were going to replaster it in the summer but we thankfully decided to wait. Instead we had an ugly but serviceable pool through the hottest part of July and August. In hindsight, that was the way to go, but it means we need to get to it now. We had planned to be working on it last week, but with the power out, we were a little hobbled. So now it's at the top of the list, but the weather is giving us trouble. Plaster needs 48 hours of clear weather to dry, and another 24 to apply it. At the moment, that's proving problematic.
By the time we get done with all the prep work and meet the weather requirements for the plaster, it will probably be three weeks from start to finish. And that puts us very near October 1st – deep into the most important part of Bow season for NJ Whitetail. Normally I would rush straight out into the woods, but at that point my adventures in home ownership still aren't over.
When the pool is finished I have to come back inside and install my new hardwood office floor. As it stands it’s half ratty 30 year old carpet, half exposed plywood subflooring (with a vague smell of pee), so I think I'd rather get to it. This job will be complicated by the fact that the heaviest furniture in the house is in my office, and just moving all of it out may be a full day’s job. (With all the disorder added from emptying our basement during the flood, it may take another full day to figure out where to put it.) That will mean about another full week of work, but at least I won’t have to wait for the weather.
By then though, I’ll be well into October, and it will be too late to build a mock scrape like I had planned this year. (It’s a deer hunting tactic… look it up if you’re curious.) So I’ll have to go with a corn feeder, estrous doe and a decoy like I did last year, even though I won’t have nearly the same amount of time to devote to it. Getting out for Bear this year seems all but impossible... again. But with that new hardwood floor in my office I’ll have a perfect place to put the Bear if I ever get a chance to shoot one.
Then there is the pheasant hunting event I plan every year which requires some planning and arranging. We’re going big on this year’s hunt with as many as 16 people and 4 separate guides so there are all sorts of extra issues to worry about. Most of the hunters are guys who have been involved at least once before, but we have a few father-son teams this time, and a few first time hunters. So having it go well for everyone involved will probably be a bigger priority for me than just showing up and shooting. you'd be surprised how much work it takes.
So as it stands, my hunting season is already seriously hampered and it’s barely September. Hopefully a few things will fall the right way and I’ll have more free time than I thought, but at present, my 2011 hunting season is looking pretty limited. then of course, January will show up and I'll spend three months sitting around the house making a nuisance of my self for the Mrs.
Isn't it always the way?
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