Well today was pretty good.

I arose early this AM and decided it was too cold and windy to bowhunt. So I picked up the shotgun and drove to the club for some early AM pheasant hunting.

It was cold and I had wished I wore something that was more windproof but I did not. So much for that.

Long story short, I shot two birds and missed one. So I took them home, skinned them out and put them in the roasting pan all day to debone. I do believe I will make a pheasant chili with it

As a rule I hunt out of a treestand but sadly I am affected by vertigo. So if the tree moves a little on a windy day it feels worse than what it is. So I figure hunting off the ground would be the way to go

This afternoon was spent in a new pop up ground blind. I know that for years I touted the benefits of a treestand but sadly a couplI was hunting on my cousin's place with the bow. I decided that a ground blind would be the way to go instead of a treestand. For ages I have hunted out of a treestand but today would have been too windy and sadly my vertigo has been acting up. Needless to say I do not want to be up a tree if something bad happens.

I set up the pop up blind about thirty yards in from a large field. After settling in I waited patiently for whatever may come.

It was around 345 PM when I saw two deer out in the middle of the field. I watched them intently and discovered they were a pair of does. In fact I believe one is the mother and the other the full grown fawn. I saw the fawn at one point try to nurse from the large doe but to no avail.

I should have trimmed a couple of shooting lanes but this spot was set up in a bit of haste.

For the next hour I watched them amble down the hill and into the shrubbery on the edge about 25 yards away from me. I really did not feel comfortable taking a shot. I just had this nagging feeling that the shot would not be a good. So I waited. In fact I waited to the end of legal shooting time at 455 PM. I knew that the two and possibly a third deer that appeared near the end of legal shooting light walked off about 30 yards to the other side of the blind.

Maybe I should have waited until pitch dark but it was very cold and I did not layer up as much as I should have. I unzipped the blind and crept out as silently as possible. They were about thirty or more yards away on the edge when I heard them trot off. They did not blow like a scared deer nor did I see flags. Just a quick step out of the area and into the field.

I plan to hunt the same spot in the afternoon next Saturday. I am hoping that my actions did not spook them and now they will avoid the blind area.