Veg, I did not post to much your direction last night as I was busy following an idiot around the board that was attempting to cause trouble. My apologies for the crass and rude posts towards you, and my thanks to the member that PM'd me with the heads up.
Alot of the guys have posted so I felt that I needed to post my .02.
And I do not think I have ever told this story to
anyone on this board! The only reason I do so now is so that you can see perhaps that hunting and hunters are more of a good thing than you perhaps may think.
Many years ago I too was a vegatarian and I ate NO meat whatsoever, nada. I was that way for 10 years. I also am a biology and botony nut which in a nutshell means that I have spent years in the woods learning about wildlife and plants, in addition to the fact that I became an excellent marksman when I was quite young and loved to shoot. It finally dawned on me that learning how to be an herbalist and a hunter would be very valuable skills to have, as no one knows just what will happen in this world. Might sound silly but that was my mindset and what I set out to accomplish.
So many years later I am proud of the fact that now as a woman and the mother of a young son......if I had to hit the hillside tomorrow, I could do so and my son and I would survive.
I've found and have met so many good, down to earth people that hunt. The vast majority of us detest poachers, idiots that do not have a clue about what they are doing in the woods and wound animals, leave their trash and are for the most part nothing but slobs. We DETEST them!!! They are not hunters......and have no clue. Those of us that are true hunters here as stated prior, are stewards of the land, wildlife and all things nature offers. We respect it and take care of it contrary to popular belief.
As for bringing in the deer to watch...yes, they are a pleasure. My son and I can sit on our living room couch, or out on our deck and watch them year round. There is even 1 matriarch doe that comes down and paws at the edge of my deck when she wants a treat of apples or sweet feed in the Winter. She also in the Spring, brings her fawns down into the upper field when they are about 2-3 weeks old to show them off.
The best advice you have received is to plant food plots, set a salt block in an old stump, or on the ground, and or set up a corn feeder that does not put out that much corn....just enough to keep them coming in for a treat and browse whatever is growing in your plots. Trust me they each have their own personality....
As far as coyotes I too love to hear them sing, but I know what they will do to a grown deer foundered in the snow and to a young fawn just born![:@][:@] They will eat them alive, or just pick until they are full then leave them to bleed out and freeze to death. I personally kill everyone of them I see on my farm. Yes, I do so cleanly and quickly. They are opportunists that if allowed to take hold and start breeding can get rid of the deer you watch very quickly! If not by eating them, then by running them out of the area. Just a thought and some information that may help. What really gets me is so many do not realize that nature is often much crueler than any man or woman can be.....Sorry to be so graphic but it is the truth.
I truly appreciate your honesty and your open mind it is refreshing for a change. Perhaps you will learn something from this, as will those of us that love to hunt. Infact, its in our blood....difficult to explain though to one that does not. Thank you again for having an open and inquiring mind.
Sincerely,
Christine
