Opening Day -- November 07, 2009

I sat a total of eight hours in the stand. I am usually a sitter especially when the deer are in rut and from all indications, they certainly are. I was hunting with two other hunters--Rod Milender and his grandson, Logan about 10 miles south of the Canadian border on the Big Fork River. Between the three of us, no one saw a deer.

I heard a total of five shots in the surrounding area so I knew things were very slow. I guess we could blame it on the warm weather and high winds. After all, you always have to look for an excuse.

By the way, when I got home that night, I walked out of my garage and there was my neighborhood doe, calmly chewing her cud about 20 feet from my back door without a care in the world. She didn't even bother to get up as I walked by and went into the house.

I am looking forward to Monday morning. I am going down to hunt with my son, Todd near the city of Wadena, where my grandson, Erik shot an eight point buck from the stand that I just put up a couple of weeks ago. Maybe the deer farther south will be much more cooperative for me.