Now that Christmas is more of a liability to my financial statement than it was an asset like when I was a kid, I look forward to just a couple of things each year. One of those is football season, and the other is turkey season. I do still get a little excited about deer season because I do enjoy the fellowship at the deer camp that time of the year, but that excitement usually subsides after the first couple of weekends when I am reminded how boring deer hunting is. To me, deer hunting is just a game of Hide-N-Seek where you really don’t care to find the people who are hiding. Maybe it is the thought of killing a trophy 110″ class south Alabama buck that I’m disinterested in, who knows? Anyway, that is a different topic for a different blog on a different day.
Since football season was such a letdown for all of us this year except the 9 FSU fans and the 4 Seahawk fans, I’ve turned my thoughts in my spare time 100% to turkey season. This pre turkey season I have made a commitment to get in better shape since I’ve got a trip planned to the mountains in Georgia and North Carolina. I’ve added some cardio to my normal workout routine that I have been doing for years because I figured that the turkeys that live in those mountains will likely be in pretty decent cardiovascular condition. I also read somewhere that cardio is good for you, but the jury is still out on that for me.
I’ve also started getting my mind right for turkey season. “So,” you may ask, “How does one get his mind right for turkey season?” (Slowly raises right eyebrow…) Well, personally, I start recalling all of the hunts that I went on last turkey season, what worked and why, and what didn’t work and why not. I learned to turkey hunt the hard way through trial and error, and I still remember all of the hunts that I screwed up just as clearly as all of the ones that I didn’t. I replay those hunts over, and over, and over while I’m driving in the car, or have any other mental downtime. I replay those hunts until they are so fresh in my mind that it is like they happened yesterday. I do this now because I won’t have mental downtime during a turkey hunt to try to remember what works and what doesn’t, and those things that work should just come naturally to you. That lack of mental downtime is why turkey season is fun and deer season is boring. That chess match of wits and woodsmanship is why I function on 4 – 6 hours of sleep each night for over 45 days each year, and that is why I look forward to turkey season each year.