I have been back to work now for going on 2 years.  I am starting to dig myself out of the hole. The bills are getting paid.  I decided to go back and look at an piece I wrote a little more than 2 years ago, about being a Ninety-Niner and what it meant to my deer hunting.  At the time I wrote it,  August 2010,  I had used up my full 99 weeks of unemployment and was coasting with no good hope of a job.   Just before season started, I got a call out of the blue to work what turned out to be only a 3-day gig.  I called up the temp service and told them I had gotten the sack. They told me not to worry,  go deer hunting, and call when I got back.  So I went deer hunting and when I called back the next week, I was told to go up to  East Scumsuck, Ohio and report for work.  It was a long commute, it was second shift.  The pay sucked, but it was the first rung on the ladder on the climb out.

So I went back and read  A Ninety-Niner Speaks Out about Deer Hunting .   I got to asking myself about it and what it meant.  I figured y’all might be interested in my thoughts, because that post is still one of the most popular reads on this weblog.

Going Deer Hunting While You are off Work

Was it a good idea to go deer hunting while you are off work?  In my case, absolutely.   It did a bunch of things.  It buoyed my spirits.  It kept me feeling worthwhile.  It helped keep the family together.  It put about 200 lbs of meat in the freezer each season.  I could put a frozen pack of round steak and part of a $.89  bottle of Kroger barbeque sauce in the crock pot and we would eat.

Somewhere along the way, I ran into a fellow Ninety-Niner at the “Manager’s Special” meat bin at Krogers. Somehow the subject of venison came up. I told her what I had in the freezer. “You don’t know how blessed you are.”  she said. “That freezer will be your hope this winter.”   She turned out to be right.

Living on the Cheap

A lot of the first article was all about was the process of turning away from Consumerism.  A lot of what I have written since then has been about either making due with what you have, or trying to detach the act of hunting from the stuff we feel we need to hunt.  Being off work for 3 deer seasons just intensified a long-standing  feeling.   When I got into deer hunting back in the early 80’s, I was fresh out of college and did not have a whole lot of disposable income.  I had a lot of other commitments at the time, and I knew if I wanted to hunt, I was going to have to live in a budget.  There has always been something in my life more important  than the acquisition of cargo– paying off a house, building a marriage, building a family.   Don’t get me wrong: I spend plenty on hunting every year.  The non-resident tags for hunting in Kentucky alone set me back over $200 a year.  However, I always tried to make sure I had clear priorities.  I kept buying the KY tags, but I chose not to go fishing throughout my time off.  I did not run the boat for 4 years.  We did not take vacations.  Most importantly, I stopped thinking about all that I could buy and started thinking about what I really needed.   I suspended all new load development, converted to one rifle powder and one pistol powder and kept the ammo cabinet filled as best as I could.  If something needed fixing, I either fixed it myself or put it aside for the day I could afford to go back to the gunsmith.

Remembering What IS Important

It is not all that important to have a new deer gun. What IS important is that your sons are able to get out and hunt with you.   I gave up bow hunting right before I got laid off.  It was my shoulder that did me in, but I suppose I could have gone to a therapist and had it re-habbed.  I really do not miss the bow, and it was definitely cheaper relying on firearms than a bow.  I still went out throughout bow season, but either I was scouting or doing something like squirrel hunting with the kids.

My eyes went about the same time as the shoulder.  Those?  I finally got those taken care of.  I now have  a new prescription.  They put me in bi-focals– expensive, but it certainly helps a lot of things.  It put me back to where I can see the irons on a rifle again.  I can also read a book while I’m out hunting without needing to change glasses when the game shows up.

I did not make any fancy trips while I was off work. I did not acquire any fancy guns, but I did get SuperCore to come hunting with me.  SuperCore has been my friend for decades, but he had never thought seriously about hunting.  Somehow he got bitten by the bug and sought me out.  Acquiring a new hunting buddy is priceless. Teaching someone to hunt is a joy.  Watching SuperCore pick up on what to do  buoyed my spirits and kept me focused.

Making Do and Staying Busy

My Dad grew up during the Depression.  When I went to work for him as a teen, he used to rail over my endless trips to the hardware store to buy parts.  I thought I was doing the right thing:  size up the job, make a list of what was needed, go to the store. . . STOP!!! Son, did you go through the store room and see what we had first?

Ooops.  Along the way, I found out that a scrap of redwood  pounded into the hole worked almost as good as a lead anchor.  Utility blades can be sharpened.  Electrical contacts can be cleaned.    I also learned that scraps of plywood and 2X4 do not have to go into the bonfire.  They can be saved for the next job.

In 2009, I was getting a little squirrely  after Turkey Season.  I had not gotten a call for an interview in months.  I finally decided I’d go down to the farm and work on a deer blind.  I had amassed gobs of lumber, plywood scraps, hardware and paint.  By the end of the summer I had Midway.  It was not exactly what I had in mind originally.  It was supposed to be on stilts, but. . . well, you remember the story. Still, I think the only thing I bought for it was a can of primer out of the oops bin at Home Depot, some lag screws and the latches for the windows and door.  All the rest of it, roofing, plywood, carpeting, and such came from the larder.

I stayed busy as best as I could during the time off.  Probably the most enduring thing I did was get into using WordPress, and this weblog, such as it is, is the lasting monument to those months.

KYHillChick’s POV

So I asked the Girlfriend, KYHillChick, for her input on this.  She said the time off from work had changed me quite a bit.  She said it had taken an already cheap bastard and made him worse (I appreciated that as a complement).  She said that I was not the go-getter I used to be, and overall my confidence is not as overwhelming as before.  I agreed on all counts.

Going into this, I was a IT manager for a fairly large company.  I had 30 years under my belt.  I had people working for me.  For 2.5 years I progressively lowered my sights until I could find my way back in.  When I picked up this current gig, I told them I was just happy to be working.  I did not need to be at the top anymore; I was just there to do the job.

How this all relates to deer hunting is that a decade ago, when the farm was still being re-habbed, and the kids were still young, deer hunting and my career complemented each other pretty well.   I’d throw myself into the Thoughtful Spot on a Friday night, and start to decompress from the week at work.  On Mondays, I would throw myself back into the chair in the office,  Ibuprofen and coffee in hand, and knew I’d given my full measure to both endeavors.

About midway through the lay-off, I turned to SuperCore and said Friday nights had turned sour;  there was just nothing left during the week from which to decompress. Now, back in the saddle again, I am back to feeling the weight lift on Friday nights and it feels good coming off.  However, it is not nearly as much of a weight, and I have to admit that I am not nearly as tired on Monday mornings.

Coda

It was two Sundays ago.  This piece was already started. I was out  for Early Muzzleloader Season.  The post from yesterday can give you all the details.  I had a bead on a fairly nice buck and even had the hammer back, and just did not feel like touching it off.

I have yet to feel regret for that move.  I see a bunch of motivations for it.  I could throw in the anniversary of losing Dad. I could throw in the truly monster buck that I saw two years ago for just an instant during the 2010 ML Opener. That one still is burning in my head. Probably a good part of why that hammer did not fall, however, is due to all of what I’ve been rattling on about here. I have changed.  It is just not the same, and my motivations for working and hunting and living have all adjusted to the changes, but I have yet to grasp it all.  Hunting seems to bring all this out, and I am sure that if I really went back and checked, I’d find this piece would come off as just so much navel-gazing.   However, that is probably due to being a Ninety-Niner alum too.

One last Word, Honest!

I just wanted to mention that  yesterday was the best day ever on this weblog.  More of y’all came and read stuff than ever before.  October 2012 is also the 2 year anniversary of my move to a WordPress format, and the numbers for this month surpass all previous records by a third.

Thanks.

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