Opening Day

Saturday was, once again, opening day of rifle season for the deer hunters in the area.  For anybody who may wonder why I dislike hunting season so much, I think this post sums it up quite well. 

This year has brought the added worry of two new neighbors with an excessive fondness for firearms and large parties combined with a deficient sense of judgement. 

I feel rather strongly that people who shoot at empty cardboard boxes, thinking they will adequately stop a high power rifle slug, should not be allowed to have guns.  This isn't a political statement or anything to do with the 2nd amendment or any of that blah, blah, blah.  It just seems like a really basic, easy place to start the talk about gun control:  

• Thou shall not shoot at thy neighbor's property
• Thou shall not use cardboard boxes as bullet-stops, ESPECIALLY when shooting at thy neighbor's property
• Thou shall not shoot randomly at the woods (where one's neighbor hikes!) 
• Thou shall not own a gun if these concepts are too difficult

Seems like a logical place to start from where I am sitting, thankfully having not yet been shot.  It gives a whole new meaning to Thanksgiving and a lot of empathy for anyone fleeing bullets.

Aside from my dislike of feeling like a target, I am not fundamentally opposed to deer hunting.  The deer are terribly overpopulated and they (as well as the environment) suffer greatly because of it.  The way we go about it though, just seems so wrong to me.  All these guys wait all year, getting themselves wound up for the thrill of the chase.  Then, on opening day, the normally quiet woods are suddenly teeming with armed men, most of whom don't know the area, many have been drinking and all of them are out to get the best deer.  None of them are out there trying to cull out the sick, weak deer who won't make it through a hard winter.  Instead, every one of them is looking for the biggest, healthiest, best deer they can find.

There has got to be a better way to do this. 

Anyway, I guess that is it for what is becoming my annual hunting season rant.  We are all staying close to home and keeping our heads down.

Opening day

I live on twenty acres in a very rural area of upstate New York.  It's usually fairly quiet here, the dirt road that I live on gets very little traffic and the neighbors are all just out of sight.

Eleven months out of the year, Tanner and I hike all over and my friends and I enjoy riding through the woods all around us.  Then comes November and all hell breaks loose.

Everyone starts getting ready for deer season and the weeks running up to opening day the weekend before Thanksgiving, are filled past enduring with the noise of shooting.  Rifle season always brings with it waves of armed men in orange coats and large pickup trucks making the four hour drive from New York City and New Jersey in search of the elusive buck (or maybe just a cold beer and a chance to wander around in the woods armed with high powered rifles).  Way too many of them come up here with thousands of rounds of ammunition and many cases of beer.  A terrifying combination. 

While most of hunters I encounter every year are polite, respectful and seem to know what they are doing, there are many others who are arrogant, obnoxious and can't tell the difference between a white tailed deer and a jersey cow.

Despite the fact that Tanner and I stay out of the woods at this time of year and limit our walks to public roads, I get hassled or threatened at least once every year.  Because of this I always worry about my animals and take precautions.

Tanner:  This again??

 Me:  Hey, you're visible

This year, I have Emma to worry about as well and even I have to admit she is vaguely (very vaguely) deer like.  So, she is suffering the indignities of the season as well.  

A good friend stopped over for a visit and to let me know how terribly ridiculous my poor, abused donkey looked in her outfit.  Meanwhile, I couldn't help but notice that I could not have have color-coordinated them better if I had tried.  (I did have very strict instructions not to use this photo but I have never been good at taking orders.)

We may not be dignified but we will be seen (and hopefully, not shot).