I'm a Treehugger...

My apologies to those who have faithfully read and commented at my blog. I have not made any mention of the fact that two weeks ago tomorrow was the beginning of archery season here and I am hopelessly afflicted with a lifetime hunting addiction. At this time of year, I am installed quite religiously in what is referred to as a "climbing treestand" beginning each morning about an hour and a half prior to sunrise. To pursue this sport avidly requires dragging my lazy butt out of bed about an hour and fifteen minutes earlier than my normal rising time of 4:30 AM. So by 10:15 AM, when most "normal people" are trying to get focused on their day and ingesting their umpteenth cup of java, I have been awake for seven hours already!

This doesn't mean that I have shut off the world and my political interests, it just means I truly have less time to prepare something truly worthy of your reading. I am in touch with the daily happenings and tragedies and am none less concerned, but by the time I have hunted, been attentive to my business and come home and prepared an early dinner for my wife and I... I am just about out of fuel! By 7 PM, I am ready for bed, yet frequently have domestic duties that prevent that for more hours still. This is, afterall, a time when there are also many winter preparation duties to get accomplished prior to the first snowflakes flying here in the icy north land! So I inevitably end up living day after day with only 4 to 5 hours of sleep. Saturday is a "full hunt day", whenever I can make that happen, and Sunday becomes a near comatose day of catch up.

So you end up doing only the absolutely "must" duties. I consider my political connection one of these but tend to use what little time I can find to read other people's excellent blogs to keep up with what they have seen as critical and comment where appropriate. This leaves very little time for writing at my own blog, but I will do it when the opportunity presents itself. Something I will NOT do is parrot news items that you can read at numerous other locations or just whip up some "fluff and filler" material so I can say I did something. That would be nothing but pure crap and an insult to those of you who give my opinions here some degree of credibility and placement. I simply will not do that.

I may try to plan a posting that would give those of you some insight into the hunting experience, however. I don't mean by this a gore and guts, bloody rambling about how much fun it is to kill things. In fact, I view the killing part with great seriousness and a deep regard for the life my hand may be extinguishing ...and I quite honestly don't like that portion at all. I was taught to only take life when it serves a purpose, such as consumption, and only when it can be done swiftly and with a minimum of pain and suffering. If you are going to eat your quarry, it is a fact of life that you must first kill it. To do it with reverence and consideration of your action is basic and essential. Hunting provides a monitored control of animal populations and it's far more humane than the usual alternative ways a beautiful animal, such as a deer, might otherwise die. If you have ever seen a deer that died from starvation, exposure or at the unmerciful teeth of a pack of coyotes that literally eat it alive you have an understanding that many in our population do not.

When I hunt, I am in a tree ...silent, unmoving, scentless. Done correctly, you are "not there". You are thereby admitted to a world that few humans are privy to at all ...ever. Their world. When I can scrape up a few more minutes to write again, I'll tell you more about it.

Until that time esteemed readers and authors, I wish each of you the very best in life. Enjoy every day and stay active in our upcoming election process and world events. I am watching, too. God bless our noble nation.