Season's End
Whitetail Deer
The older I get the more I hate the end of deer season. Ours ends here (SC) on January 1. Youth day the following Saturday...and then 9.5 more months before it starts again.
Fishing runs into dove season, doves run into deer, deer runs into ducks. By the end of deer season my vehicles carry enough new and old mud to where I have to park off the driveway. Rushed evenings and early mornings take my organized garage (within which cars do not enter) and turn it into a disaster of stuff piled here and yon. Clothes that need to be washed, stands that need to be tweaked, bent broadheads, food plot implements, bags of duck decoys.... Running home from a hunt to watch my daughter in a soccer game or sneak in a quick hunt before driving a few hours to watch my son play baseball and my garage looks like a twister hit it.
I swear the last day of deer season is like a depression. But after a day of solid re-organizing and starting on the delayed projects around the house, my neuroticism is coming back into check. When I was 25 I lived in town and had a house with no garage. I built an 8x10 storage shed out of which I managed to run all my hobbies. 24 years later and i have enough space to let organization slide as I pack in activities.
Every year thinking that next year I won't burn the candle at both ends; I thank God for the many ways I have been blessed, a wife that structures life to enable my hobbies, healthy kids, friends that I can count on in any circumstance...and I reflect on seasons past ... and pray that this won't be my season last.
I hope yours is/was a good one.
Good reflections and perspective. I too have a wife that gives me an open door. FWIW....I deer hunted way too much when living in Southern MD and it messed me up for a bit. I was using it as an escape from the work grind and the deer hunting eventually became a grind. Looking back.....it's not a bad thing for the deer season to end and spend a little more time at home. Ya, this was a fun hunting season.
Good post Candor!
I am with John in thinking the end of season is not all bad. But at 61, the reason is I just don’t have the gas I used to. The opener was something I seemed to wait an eternity for every year when younger, now it arrives too quickly, LOL.
Our season ended yesterday. Hunted more this late season than I have in years. Seeing a few good bucks that survived firearms season added fuel to the fire. Sorry to see it end! Anyone got a good recipe for this buck tag in my pocket? LOL!
Pav I did a tag stew this year. Much better than the soup I’ve done in years past haha!
I retired this year so I put a lot of time in on stand, almost everyday. Had some success but I don't live in a state with huge deer numbers so it was not anything like what some of you guys experience. Killed a good buck but didn't see many deer at all. I'm glad we're done. Maybe I'm getting old too. I always get recharged when I'm organizing my gear and planning next year's season. Funny how that works.
The truck and garage sound like mine! I hate to see the season come to an end, but I'm also a bit relieved when I get everything cleaned up and put away. You'd think that with retirement I could keep everything organized but it seems to be even worse!
The end of deer season for me (Dec 31) marks the start of a month of pheasant hunting, then the fishing season starts. My garage never gets totally organized. The clutter just transforms.
Matt
I told my wife that I don't know if I get more excited about getting my stuff reorganized after deer season or a new deer season. But I do like the prepping and planning part for sure. This was a good year. I had several really good encounters. Killed a good buck and missed a good buck and had several other mature bucks within bow range. Been a few years since I have even shot at a buck.
I enjoy so much the last couple weeks of deer season when my kids are out of school and they can hunt without the pressure of sports activities or school projects. My daughter killed her first this year and that was so much more enjoyable ...hunting with a young lady then a smelly teenage boy that is interested in fart jokes and asking when he can start drinking beer. Great memories.
John - I totally can relate to the "escape" part of it. Escaping from work is not something that is my tendency, but escaping from doing chores around my house...now that is something I might do....
Half the fun is in the prep, planning and anticipation of the hunt for me too! Great post.
I can relate to some of your thoughts. As I’ve gotten older I’ve been sad at the end of September and November, seasons gone not to return. Went fullbore up to now and realize maybe I won’t last forever. Maybe I will. Still don’t want to waste much time.
Deer season turns into pike spearing season, then turns into turkey season and spring/summer open water & stream trout.
Only month that I don't have much going on is early to late March when the bigger "game fish" season is closed til about mid-April before trout opens. Couple of hard weeks right there.
2020 has kicked my butt. Work has never been so busy. I've hunted less than I ever have since I moved back home. It has really stunk. If it weren't for elk hunting and a couple long weekend pheasant hunts, 2020 would have been a disaster hunting-wise. At this point, we have 10 days of MO deer season left and I think I'll get to go one day out of that 10. I'm to the point I'll be glad when the season is over so I don't have that added stress of not hunting when I should be.
