'Tis the season, when men (and plenty of ladies too!) take off into the woods, sit in trees, get cold, fall asleep, walk countless miles, eat meat, and drink beer.

I'll be taking part in my second ever year hunting, and boy am I excited. Last year I was introduced to hunting whitetail deer during MN's two-week long firearm season. This year I'm giving bow hunting a try.

I've been practicing with a relatively low-poundage compound bow (41-42lbs right now) and am able to comfortably make my shots at 30 yards. I'm super stoked to get a few days in a row off of work to hit up the woods where I'm going to be trying to 'luck' a deer close enough to take a safe shot.

Last year I sat in a lone permanent stand, about 10 feet off the ground, wearing blaze orange and sitting on a bucket.

This year I'll be hunting in comfort and style, with increased mobility, using a "climbing" tree stand. I'll be taking this weekend to practice getting in and out of trees, but ideally I'll be able to put myself 15-20 feet up and out of sight of what most deer pay attention to.

I'll also be spending some time this upcoming winter trying to harvest a few small mammals for their pelts.. I have this kooky idea that I can tie flies for fishing out of all natural materials I harvested myself, and use bone hooks that I carved out of cow leg bones as well to up the "all natural" factor a bit. Getting at least one cottontail or snowshoe hare is on the list of goals!

Anyone else hunting this year?