It's like the world is waking up from the dead of winter. Flowers begin blooming. Trees begin putting out new leaves. Baby critters are being born.
and
TURKEYS ARE GOBBLING
There are always signs that turkey season is coming. The wisteria begins blooming, the rain lilies are popping up on the sides of the roads, the air begins smelling sweeter as the jasmine blooms and the swallow-tailed kites begin making their appearance from their migration to South America.
There isn't much prettier than watching the sun come up in the turkey woods either. Getting to listen as the world comes alive around you while you sit motionless. For me it's almost as if I'm not even there to the rest of the world and I am getting to glimpse the secrets of the world. There aren't many prettier places to sit and ponder life and try to solve problems with your best friend. There were no disagreements that couldn't be settled when we sat in such gorgeous places.
And life could go on around us as if we weren't even a part of it.
But turkey hunting in Florida isn't easy. There are dangers all around you.
Even the trees will let you know they don't appreciate you leaning up against them.
Getting in and out of the woods can be a challenge.
It will always bring a smile to my face that Steve's big, bad big boy truck had to be saved by what he always called my girl truck. Just goes to show that girls rule and boys drool.
Turkey camp can also bring its own set of dangers. For those of y'all that have Walmarts near by, they have bagged garlic knots in the bakery section that are roll in them delicious. Roll your eyes in the back of your head delicious. Hot, soft, buttery and garlicy knots of bread. The kind that there is no way to eat only one. But they do have a dark side.
MAJOR TIP!!!! Do not leave them in their bag if you put them on the grill! Better yet, DO NOT put them on the grill to warm them up! It IS NOT an aluminum bag! And especially don't do this when you tell your hunting partner to watch the grill while you go inside to get some more things for dinner and he isn't paying attention! The bags burn and become flaming, buttery bags of garlic knots quite quickly so the grill will have flames shooting out the top unnoticed while your hunting partner is busy on his phone!!!!!
And I can also tell you those heavenly garlicy buttery knots of goodness become the pure devil when you try to burn them alive. They will attempt to get their revenge when they are flaming balls of butter and garlic. They won that round.
Despite the dangers that follow this addiction known as turkey hunting, there is so much out there that is neat and beautiful to get to see.
Our swamp can change incredibly from one weekend to the next depending on how much rain we get in a week. So your plans for next weekend can get shredded with just a couple inches of rain. Sometimes what you could once walk all the way through with barely a squish of mud requires zig zagging from one highish spot in the swamp to another to get to the other side of the swamp.
If you are lucky. Other times the only high spots are the dikes left from the old logging tram roads that used to go through the woods and you just gotta pull another game plan out of your hat and do something else.
It often ends up with us sitting in less than ideal and even more challenging woods to hunt than the swamp.
[strike][/strike]
The turkeys are disgustingly tight lipped in my neck of the woods. We know they are around but they just don't talk to us much.
Sometimes we have to remind ourselves what a turkey actually looks like and usually that means just taking a ride into town and watching the sides of the roads.
The evenings would often find us heading out to see if we could find roosting turkeys. We were rarely successful but we always had a good time out there. It is a lot of fun when the mayflies hatch because I took great pleasure in feeding the redbellies in the river. We kept telling each other we would take a fishing rod with us, but we never did. A shame since there were lots of fishy places.
And there was often something worth stopping to take a look at.
As aggravating as turkeys can be, if we don't see the baby lubbers coming out we won't expect to get the turkeys to talk to us. If we aren't seeing babies everywhere then we know it's not quite the right time yet for the turkeys to be talking back to us.
Once we begin seeing them we know that things are going to heat up for us and I will shift more to loving turkeys than hating them. They don't make it easy on us but it does become less aggravating.
And being the turkey woods there is always something really cool to see when they aren't cooperating fully.
Or something that makes you wonder hmmmmmmm
In the end though, we were usually rewarded.
And I get to shout I LOVE TURKEYS all over again.
So, all of this to say that tomorrow starts another turkey season here in Florida. With all of the fear mongering going on right now, it is nice to be reminded that there is lots to be thankful for and lots to appreciate and lots of beauty still to be found. There is a lot to look forward to.
Hopefully tomorrow will dawn with gobbling ringing through the trees and a strutting beauty coming to say hello to me.
Dani
and
TURKEYS ARE GOBBLING
There are always signs that turkey season is coming. The wisteria begins blooming, the rain lilies are popping up on the sides of the roads, the air begins smelling sweeter as the jasmine blooms and the swallow-tailed kites begin making their appearance from their migration to South America.
There isn't much prettier than watching the sun come up in the turkey woods either. Getting to listen as the world comes alive around you while you sit motionless. For me it's almost as if I'm not even there to the rest of the world and I am getting to glimpse the secrets of the world. There aren't many prettier places to sit and ponder life and try to solve problems with your best friend. There were no disagreements that couldn't be settled when we sat in such gorgeous places.
And life could go on around us as if we weren't even a part of it.
But turkey hunting in Florida isn't easy. There are dangers all around you.
Even the trees will let you know they don't appreciate you leaning up against them.
Getting in and out of the woods can be a challenge.
It will always bring a smile to my face that Steve's big, bad big boy truck had to be saved by what he always called my girl truck. Just goes to show that girls rule and boys drool.
Turkey camp can also bring its own set of dangers. For those of y'all that have Walmarts near by, they have bagged garlic knots in the bakery section that are roll in them delicious. Roll your eyes in the back of your head delicious. Hot, soft, buttery and garlicy knots of bread. The kind that there is no way to eat only one. But they do have a dark side.
MAJOR TIP!!!! Do not leave them in their bag if you put them on the grill! Better yet, DO NOT put them on the grill to warm them up! It IS NOT an aluminum bag! And especially don't do this when you tell your hunting partner to watch the grill while you go inside to get some more things for dinner and he isn't paying attention! The bags burn and become flaming, buttery bags of garlic knots quite quickly so the grill will have flames shooting out the top unnoticed while your hunting partner is busy on his phone!!!!!
And I can also tell you those heavenly garlicy buttery knots of goodness become the pure devil when you try to burn them alive. They will attempt to get their revenge when they are flaming balls of butter and garlic. They won that round.
Despite the dangers that follow this addiction known as turkey hunting, there is so much out there that is neat and beautiful to get to see.
Our swamp can change incredibly from one weekend to the next depending on how much rain we get in a week. So your plans for next weekend can get shredded with just a couple inches of rain. Sometimes what you could once walk all the way through with barely a squish of mud requires zig zagging from one highish spot in the swamp to another to get to the other side of the swamp.
If you are lucky. Other times the only high spots are the dikes left from the old logging tram roads that used to go through the woods and you just gotta pull another game plan out of your hat and do something else.
It often ends up with us sitting in less than ideal and even more challenging woods to hunt than the swamp.
[strike][/strike]
The turkeys are disgustingly tight lipped in my neck of the woods. We know they are around but they just don't talk to us much.
Sometimes we have to remind ourselves what a turkey actually looks like and usually that means just taking a ride into town and watching the sides of the roads.
The evenings would often find us heading out to see if we could find roosting turkeys. We were rarely successful but we always had a good time out there. It is a lot of fun when the mayflies hatch because I took great pleasure in feeding the redbellies in the river. We kept telling each other we would take a fishing rod with us, but we never did. A shame since there were lots of fishy places.
And there was often something worth stopping to take a look at.
As aggravating as turkeys can be, if we don't see the baby lubbers coming out we won't expect to get the turkeys to talk to us. If we aren't seeing babies everywhere then we know it's not quite the right time yet for the turkeys to be talking back to us.
Once we begin seeing them we know that things are going to heat up for us and I will shift more to loving turkeys than hating them. They don't make it easy on us but it does become less aggravating.
And being the turkey woods there is always something really cool to see when they aren't cooperating fully.
Or something that makes you wonder hmmmmmmm
In the end though, we were usually rewarded.
And I get to shout I LOVE TURKEYS all over again.
So, all of this to say that tomorrow starts another turkey season here in Florida. With all of the fear mongering going on right now, it is nice to be reminded that there is lots to be thankful for and lots to appreciate and lots of beauty still to be found. There is a lot to look forward to.
Hopefully tomorrow will dawn with gobbling ringing through the trees and a strutting beauty coming to say hello to me.
Dani
