Down time

This is the quiet time. The rest period between the end of Virginia's Fall Turkey season and beginning of Spring Gobbler season. My 2022 whitetail season was spectacular, with two bucks taken, a ten-point with my new CVA Optima muzzleloader, and an even larger eight-point with my trusty Browning X-Bolt Medallion (chambered in .270 Winchester). Other members of my hunt club were similarly successful, with our 75 year-old founding member harvesting a mature eight-point during muzzleloader, and my 25 year-old nephew taking a spike with black powder and a beautiful eight-point on opening day of high power, just ten minutes before I took mine. Altogether the standout year in the entire twenty-five year history of the club.    

There are opportunities for small game this time of year, but I haven't taken up the pursuit of squirrels, etc., and my attention usually turns to preparing for the ever-earlier Spring cycling season, seed starting and garden preparation during Q1. Still, hunters never completely stop day dreaming about the hunt.

Daydreaming during the early fall archery hunting season

This winter I have been expanding my hunting/conservation education. So far this year I have read the following books:

American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon, Steven Rinella

Inherit the Hunt, Jim Posewitz

Rifle in Hand, Jim Posewitz

That Wild Country, Mark Kenyon

Next on the nightstand is Coyote America by Dan Flores and The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella. I also picked up a spiral-bound copy of The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game: Vol. 2, Small Game & Fowl, also by Steven Rinella.

All titles are recommended for interested readers, though if I had to pick just one (to start with), I'd pick That Wild Country. It's more about conservation of public lands than hunting, a topic of incredible importance, now and always. In fact I immediately made a contribution to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and so should you. Or to the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society or any other organization that works to protect and preserve our public lands. Do it. Do it now.

So as winter turns to Spring, I tinker with bikes, plan(t) my garden, read some books and dream of the adventures to come. Venison is on the menu often. Here's the recipe I plan to use for the roast below. 

Dry aging venison shoulder roast

In this quiet time of reflection, I could not be more grateful for the extraordinary right to share the bounty of our cherished public land, to actively participate in the natural world, and in general to be an American.