What a year

As I sit here this morning with a cup of coffee watching the seven deer feed outside from my living room window. I can only reflect on what a great hunting season it has been. We didn’t kill are normal 300 geese this year with the warm temps we could only finish off the season with around 160 however I had some of my best hunts. Not only did I get to spend it with great friends but now my son is old enough to get out and enjoy it with me. As a stubborn 6 year old he didn’t miss many mornings in the goose blind. His favorite hunts are on the golf course. And watching him run are dog on multiple retrieves as I sit back and smell the gun powder out my nova after another volley of honkers die bomb the spread. As I collect the birds and watch the dog go back to the boy to heal up for another retrieve. I use to get upset when I wouldn’t get a limit. Now being 31yrs old and 3 kids I have come to realize hunting and fishing is not about a limit but enjoying a morning in the blind with great people and being with my son on these hunts is unreal. Or looking down and seeing a pile of birds and watching the kids shoot them with there red rider BB guns is a reminder that I may be on the right track to raising a great kid. With that being said for the geese. I can’t forget that I was lucky enough to also harvest the largest buck of my life this year. And what may be the largest deer I will ever get. Gamechanger was a true metro giant that I had dialed in his pattern since June. With that being said I killed him on my second night in the tree in late sept. A true monarch at 173 4/8 and 5.5 years old. I was also able to get 2 nice does in southeastern MN for the freezer. I was truly blessed this year after moving into a new home in Inver grove heights late August than sept 1 going bear hunting coming home for a week than welcoming are 3rd kid to the world September 19. Than I was gone from home almost every weekend with duck opener and working almost every weekend on a cabin on lake vermillion doing the hvac I have to say thanks to my wife for being the true gamechanger around the house. With all that being said here are some photos from the year. I apologize if some are upside down this is from my phone.

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Heck of a season there! Very nice buck! Curiously though, I’m VERY HAPPY to know someone is doing something about all those geese flying around but what do you do with 300 dead ones?

I have come to realize hunting and fishing is not about a limit but enjoying a morning in the blind with great people and being with my son on these hunts is unreal. Or looking down and seeing a pile of birds and watching the kids shoot them with there red rider BB guns is a reminder that I may be on the right track to raising a great kid.

You had a much more successful season than you think!

I personally am a little more sentimental when I read these types of posts because of where I am at in life. Seems like yesterday I was in your shoes. Kids just got out of diapers, couldn’t wait to have them doing things with me, caught crap because they walked a trapline with me at 5yrs old….and so on. Now I have a daughter on the high honors in college in her Junior yr, a daughter that is graduating highschool and pre-admittined to chemical engineering and other colleges still throwing big scholarships at her to lure her in. You spend so much energy waiting and wishing for these moments only to realize how numbered those days really are. Enjoy the ride and most of all, enjoy watching and taking in their success.

Thank you all for the kind words. I cherish every moment in the blind with my kids.

And this year the geese were turned into sticks.
Maple,cheddar and original. And I vacuum sealed them in small batches when I got them back from the meat market and handed them out to a lot of people.
Also some is made into jerky during the season just to try a few new mixes of spices. And the early season birds I have traded before with the hmongs in the fields by my house for fresh vegetables and fresh flowers.
Seemed like a fair trade. Lol