Deer in the Headlights

Deer season opens this weekend. Information that never meant anything to me until I met a deer hunter recently. NOW I realize it is a big, big deal. It IS a big deal in Texas as I'm sure it is in many states.

I figured guys just went to the woods, sat in a tree and shot at things moving - each other, possibly, and hopefully deer.

I'm sure the deer know something is up as prior to the season starting, I've been told, all kinds of activities must be completed in preparation for this holy grail of manhood. Some of these activities like going in advance to make sure the "cabin" is ready for about eight men to sleep in bunks in ONE room. Evidently it is not a "sitting in a tree" experience but more like an air-conditioned cabin that is "tastefully" furnished - I say, tongue in cheek.........

Not only do they make sure the cabin is ready, I'm told, but also the deer feeders. Now again, I imagined that they threw old dried ears of corn on the ground and the deer came. Nooooooo - nowadays it is a battery operated, computer generated deer feeder! What's next? I mean, geez. High tech, even in the woods. Who knew?

Indeed, instead of camp stools, they take upholstered leatherette black office chairs. Get the picture? I'm chuckling as I write this.

When I asked if many women went, I got a look of utter amazement at the silliness of my question. Oh and then I thought of eight men in one room after having eaten at the local diner and thought, "WHY would any woman go there?" Ha.

Evidently the rural towns are ready for these guys. The restaurants stock up on chicken fried steak, the hardware stores stock up on anything that could possibly be used in this venture and last but not least, the deer processing plants who make a tidy sum.

Now before someone sends me a comment about killing God's cretures, let me say that there is an overabundance of deer in Texas and not enough ground cover or water to feed them. Especially now with the terrible drought.

So, that is my post on Deer 101. I thought it very interesting to learn about something that has gone on all my life but that I never really knew any of the details about.

See, I've been busy this last six weeks in Texas.