Hunting Season Blues

Just to let everyone know (if in case for some strange reason someone doesn't know), I love to hunt. I didn't realize I'd like hunting so much until my husband, who is one of many proud country boys, started letting me tag along with him. Little did he know that those tag alongs would turn a light switch on inside of me and cause me to be so passionate about hunting. I do everything that my husband does involving hunting, minus shooting muzzleloaders. But that's only because I haven't tried it yet.

    Before I met my husband, I didn't know what "running dogs" meant, much less how it all worked. But now, I run dogs every single day of hunting season, and this past year I was able to bag my first deer (spike). I'm not one of those wives who sit in the truck all day and whine about how hot/cold it is. Instead, I'm usually the one running down the dirt road, shotgun in hand, praying the deer decides to come out near me. Needless to say, I love running dogs. There's nothing like hearing my 15 head of beagle babies in hot pursuit and the excitement that it brings. What, you say, does this have to do with my pregnancy? It just so turns out that my due date is about 2 weeks into hunting season! What in the world am I going to do? I'm going to try to tough it out until I have Gracee, and I know after she's born I won't be that interested in hunting. But you never know, I'll probably still have the fever. Maybe we'll be able to work it out.

On another note, I probably will be able to bow hunt, which opens up in a few weekends.  My husband bought me my bow for my birthday in April, and I've been practicing off and on every since. But in a little over two weeks, there's a tournament at a local church. I hope I shoot well. (I stopped writing with intentions to come back and finish, but unfortunately I never did. So I'll fill y'all in on my hunting season)

Added about 7 weeks after delivery:
  I did do really well in the bow tournament. I actually placed 2nd and ended up shooting with my husband, which must to have made him nervous because he only shot 3 points higher than me. He would have been devastated to have his pregnant wife whoop his tail, so I took it easy on him---or so I say anyways.

  Being pregnant never hindered my hunting season. I ran up and down dirt roads with my 12-gauge in hand, and hunted blood trails for endless hours. The spike I killed took about 8 hours to find (even with the help of the beagle babies--I shot his leg off, which I completely blame on the scope being off). I walked across bedded clearcuts and through knee-deep Cypress ponds. Everyone told me to take it easy because I was pregnant, but I decided against it. I knew I'd never be the type to pile up on the couch and eat an entire bucket of icecream. Instead I decided to be proactive and keep going, which is what I think made it easier during labor.

  Hunting season hasn't actually been so bad. I was able to kill another spike this year with my bow (at about 36 weeks) and a spike with my trusty .243 (At nearly 40 weeks). Even though my belly poked out about 12 inches, I was still able to climb in my two seater ladder stand all the way up to delivery. I had Gracee on Thursday and was climbing that Tuesday-not that I saw anything.

  Never ever listen to anyone say a woman can't do what a man can, because I'm here to say that a man can't do what a woman does! Also, never listen to anyone who tells you that being pregnant causes your life to change. It does when the baby comes, but being pregnant doesn't. Pregnant women can do all that a non-pregnant woman can. All I had to be careful with was falling. For some reason my equilibrium was off-balanced and caused me to fall often. I fell out the door of my house a couple of times and off the steps quite a few times. Mostly I just stumbled, but a couple of times I fell all the way down. I never hurt myself though.

Since the baby has been born, I've went and ran dogs a couple of times for a short while. Punkin hasn't had much time to hunt either. And since the season is nearly over, we're pretty much done with hunting for this year. Not that we don't miss it, because we both do; it's just that we have more important things to worry about--Gracee! I'll give all the details of the birthing process and all that's went on since then in a different blog. I'll get that to work on that soon!