Afield & Afloat

Get the to-do-list done before bow season

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Just as surely as the sun rises in the east and the world spins on its axis, bow season will start on Aug. 15; That means it is less than a month away. There are three more Saturdays before the event happens, which really doesn’t leave much time to get the last things accomplished.

My lovely bride, Sherri, was on a work-related trip to Charleston last weekend, which left me all alone at the house. It was quiet. Her trip also left me with time to do things that needed doing, without other things to get in the way of doing them.

My thoughts were to get out of bed Saturday morning before it got really hot and be on the hunting property to attend to some things that needed attention.

Well, you know how it goes; by the time I got around to getting my lazy self out of the bed, it was after 10 a.m.

I walked outside and was pleasantly surprised to find that even at this late hour, the day was not all that hot. It seemed like a good time to go ahead and go.

The schedule of events was going to be, shoot Roundup on the trails leading from the truck to the tree stands, fix the ground blind that was partially destroyed by the February ice storm, trim tree limbs that would obscure any shot opportunities and, if temperature permitted, do a little weed whacking in the clover patch.

I grabbed the backpack sprayer from its hook on the garage wall and filled it full of Roundup and water on the tailgate of the pickup truck. I gathered the tools I thought I would need to fix the blind, threw the pole trimmer in the truck, and put the gasoline/oil mixture in the string trimmer. I did not forget to pack a cooler of water covered in ice.

I start every year making sure that I can see the ground under my feet as I enter and leave our hunting property. Over the years I have had way too many encounters with cane brake rattlesnakes and copperheads, not to mention one humongous cottonmouth. I make sure that the weeds which are normally close to knee high are brown and down by opening day. I also spray around the bases of the tree stands for the same reason.

The ice storm had broken several of the carbon fiber rods that acted as the supports for the ground blind. When I first saw it this spring it was only about a foot tall. I managed to get it set up, but it looked a little out of kilter, and I wasn’t sure it would stand up to a big wind.

I found that a small pine was growing right beside the back left corner, one of the places that was damaged. I cut a couple of small slits in the fabric, wrapped a piece of ¼-cordage through the slits and around the remains of the carbon rods and then back to the small pine growing only about a foot away. A little tension and the sides on the blind firmed right up and the corner stood square to the others.

I next ran a piece of slightly larger cordage through the cent support of the roof of the blind and attached it to two larger trees on either side of the blind. I think it’s good for a couple more years, and by the time the ropes fail, I’m pretty sure the fabric will have disintegrated.

The storm had a tremendous effect on the pines on the property. Almost all of them were forced over by the weight of the ice and a large percentage of them were still in a state of slump. There were several blocking my view up a firebreak that leads into my clover patch. Time to pull out the pruners.

By the time I finished trimming the pine boughs, the trees, minus some weight, were standing taller and the fire lane now afforded an unobstructed view.

Never one to waist good quality camouflage material, I gathered the pine limbs and piled them around the base of and onto the roof of the ground blind. I’ve got to say, the ground blind is now almost invisible if you don’t know exactly where it is.

It was pushing 12:30 p.m., and while I had not been on site long, I had accomplished almost everything I wanted to do and the temperature was beginning to rise past the uncomfortable range. I grabbed a bottle of ice water and climbed into the truck, complete with the air conditioner on high. I’ll weed eat next time, although it really doesn’t need it right now.

I’ve still got to trim the shooting lanes from the stands, but now that I’m over 60 and will soon qualify for the Senior Discount, I feel like it is prudent to have a backup person with me. I try to be safe, but accidents happen and I’d like to have a person handy in case I fall out of a tree. They don’t have to do the work, just be there.

Maybe I can find a sucke — I mean friend — to go later this week.