You want grumpy? I'll give you grumpy.

So far, between work and no Sunday hunting in Maine, I have gotten in exactly 5 days and 2 hours of hunting this fall. Four of those days were a trip upcountry to a pheasant preserve (1/2 day plus driving for a full day) and three days at a lodge walking up grouse. One of the days was Thanksgiving, through about 1 pm. Two hours last Saturday in the snow working one cover with a friend and his English Setter that needed to do something besides sit, after chatting up the landowner for the better part of 45 minutes. The dog found something and pointed, but whatever it was stayed under an impenetrable brushpile. And I got zapped by the electric fence that the landowner swore was turned off.

Didn't even bother to buy a turkey permit.

My duck stamps are somewhere on the desk - they won't be needed for sure.

Complain all you want. At least you aren't sitting in an office staring at a screen or, like I'm doing now, riding home on a train. You're getting out in the field.


fiery, dependable, occasionally transcendent