Holy $#!#, I'm Tired.

There was a super snooty "super Boulder county" liquor store/market that was on the way to/from our OB appointments. We'd often stop in on the way home and peruse the excellent selections of Bourbon and Whisk(e)y.

one of those visits resulted in the shelves having something i was told previously by other liquor stores there was no more of anywhere. had to buy it. my fave.

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One of my dads favorites as well. YUCK 🤮
 
One of my dads favorites as well. YUCK 🤮

we were playing cards with my MIL and FIL over thanksgiving. I brought that bottle for some late night sipping and had poured a glass for cards. My MIL about 5 minutes into cards after i had taken a few sips just stops and says "guys something is burning, something weird is burning somewhere. you smell that?"

I just raised a glass and smiled. That sherry cask gives it a real special additional depth of flavor.
 
where were we?

Baby was born and i was tired. Classic.

It really was amazing, we started getting that baby boy sleeping 4-6 hours at night by week 5 and by week 10 we we had him going 10 hours. Your whole world changes as you get even just a few more hours of sleep. Everything. You really start to feel the joy of having a little son and seeing him smiling and on the cusp of giggling, man, only parents can understand the feeling experienced witnessing that stuff.

So, winding back a little now, 3rd Rifle Season was fast approaching it seemed. I still had no fresh ammo for my rifle. I ended last season with 3 rounds. Not enough to go hunting, hardly enough to even check zero.

All summer long i just figured on my occasional drop ins to Scheels, Cabelas, Jax, etc. I would come across the ammo i had been using for the last few years. That never happened, they never really even had ANYTHING in 30-06. But i figured eventually it would show up.

On one of my visits though, now maybe 1.5 months out from 3rd Rifle they had 5 boxes of Federal Fusions in 150 grain. Done.

But, I would have to re sight in. I had been shooting 165s before. I had no idea how i was going to grab the time to do this with the baby now. Communication is everything with a baby now between the wife and me and we never talked about me taking a half day to drive out to the grasslands and re sight in. My fault. Life was so crazy with a newborn things just get forgotten, especially things that fall under "extra curricular" activites.

But, being the wonderful woman she is, she made she I could have a Saturday or Sunday to do that. She absolutely love that I love to hunt. She wants me to be able to do these things. She wanted to make sure I could get out this fall and re sighting in the rifle was a part of making that happen.

Let's not forget how hard C-Sections are on a woman, let alone post partum. None of this is easy for her, even just a half day of me being gone.

But I loaded up my trusty rusty 20+ year old subaru with a perpetual check in engine light to leave her with the truck, which had the car seat in case of an emergency, and headed NE to the grasslands. It was a beautiful day. I was sighted back in in under an hour.


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It really was amazing, we started getting that baby boy sleeping 4-6 hours at night by week 5 and by week 10 we we had him going 10 hours. Your whole world changes as you get even just a few more hours of sleep. Everything.
I’m beyond jealous of this! Maybe had the worst sleep night I have had with my 15 month old last night
 
where were we?

Baby was born and i was tired. Classic.

It really was amazing, we started getting that baby boy sleeping 4-6 hours at night by week 5 and by week 10 we we had him going 10 hours. Your whole world changes as you get even just a few more hours of sleep. Everything. You really start to feel the joy of having a little son and seeing him smiling and on the cusp of giggling, man, only parents can understand the feeling experienced witnessing that stuff.

So, winding back a little now, 3rd Rifle Season was fast approaching it seemed. I still had no fresh ammo for my rifle. I ended last season with 3 rounds. Not enough to go hunting, hardly enough to even check zero.

All summer long i just figured on my occasional drop ins to Scheels, Cabelas, Jax, etc. I would come across the ammo i had been using for the last few years. That never happened, they never really even had ANYTHING in 30-06. But i figured eventually it would show up.

On one of my visits though, now maybe 1.5 months out from 3rd Rifle they had 5 boxes of Federal Fusions in 150 grain. Done.

But, I would have to re sight in. I had been shooting 165s before. I had no idea how i was going to grab the time to do this with the baby now. Communication is everything with a baby now between the wife and me and we never talked about me taking a half day to drive out to the grasslands and re sight in. My fault. Life was so crazy with a newborn things just get forgotten, especially things that fall under "extra curricular" activites.

But, being the wonderful woman she is, she made she I could have a Saturday or Sunday to do that. She absolutely love that I love to hunt. She wants me to be able to do these things. She wanted to make sure I could get out this fall and re sighting in the rifle was a part of making that happen.

Let's not forget how hard C-Sections are on a woman, let alone post partum. None of this is easy for her, even just a half day of me being gone.

But I loaded up my trusty rusty 20+ year old subaru with a perpetual check in engine light to leave her with the truck, which had the car seat in case of an emergency, and headed NE to the grasslands. It was a beautiful day. I was sighted back in in under an hour.


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Great story but you must be really sleep deprived to be shooting at your Subie ;)
 
I have a feeling there is still a lot of trouble down the road for us.

I’ve heard people say “well if you have an angel of an infant you’ll still pay for it in your toddler years”

No free lunches.
I can’t wait for mine to just understand the words “go to bed”. We get between 2-4 hours of sleep to start the night but then it’s a crapshoot. Basically refuses to go back to sleep on his own and it can be endless tossing, turning and crying. I wish you all the luck with your continued success
 
Sighted in. Pretty much ready to go hunting. Just waiting for the day to come.

Post partum is just rough. Doesn't matter if it was a C-Section or a natural birth. Post partum is rough.

I was talking with @trb recently and he mentioned how those post partum struggles just project on to you. It's so true. When the wife is dealing with the countless things that become so seriously difficult to deal with in post partum, it projects throughout the household. It becomes super hard on everyone. It's something where you wish there was more you could do, yet there is so little you can do to actually fix them; that alone starts to weigh you down apart from what your wife is struggling with.

Post partum struggles are serious. It's another thing that's hard to understand, comprehend, and anticipate with a first child.

Many times in the weeks leading up to my first hunt I told my wife I need to just cancel this whole thing. She adamantly refused. Said with how bad i'm feeling about things these days, you bailing on one of your closest friends bachelor parties and your primary hunt would make it even worse.

The day came and it took me a while to feel good about going. We loaded up my wife and took her down to her parents house to stay for the duration of my absence; without this, it would not have been possible for me to go. The baby was only a 1.5 months old at this point, give or take, and while things were easier than they were, they were far from easy.

My wife is settled and i'm ready to hit the road. I'm trying to get to the unit early before everyone else arrives and we check in to the cabin. I want to do a little scouting in a spot i'm interested in, but unsure about. It also happens to be about 10-20 minutes driving time from the cabin.

I'll be dropping off the dog with my parents, just to give my wife even less to worry about.

I'm gassing up. Pupper at this point thinks she's getting to go on an adventure with me. A little pensive though. She loves my in laws house and is uncertain why she's being taken away from there.

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I arrive to my scouting location and start driving the forest road to where i want to start hiking. There had been some recent snows and it remained very cold outside. The road was very slick overall with a good 3-5 inches of snow on it.

Very quickly I was breaking fresh tracks. That always makes me anxious when i'm driving into little remote areas.

I'm stopped from continuing on to my A spot to check out in here.

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Really, this whole area is my D spot for hunting, when thinking about bucks at least. My True A and B spots are like a 60 minute drive from the cabin, i'll get over there once the season starts.

I do a 12 point turn around and head to the B spot in my D spot. With limited time i really just had to find the best vantage point i could and start glassing. It wasn't ideal, but I could see some stuff i was interested in from Onx nonetheless. Time to see if anything turns up.

Nothing does. Unfortunately i couldn't glass into prime time. Had to go meet up with everyone to check in to the cabin. But I do like this area.

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Subarus and dash lights 😂

We have a forester, and two of my friends have foresters. All 3 have had the tire light on for approx 10 years. I’ve tried everything save unwiring it.
 
Subarus and dash lights 😂

We have a forester, and two of my friends have foresters. All 3 have had the tire light on for approx 10 years. I’ve tried everything save unwiring it.

I never bother to check the code anymore. The damn thing just runs great all the time. Further if it blew up in flames on the side of the road I really couldn’t care less lol
 
I'm in a very similar boat, I haven't stopped since last year. Had a crazy busy winter with work, tons of work trips, some good and some lame. Spring and Summer were nutz between work, bear hunting and camping trips. Went on a week long canoe camping trip in August, started archery hunting in September, went to Wyoming in October, bought a house/moved in November, went hard during rifle season and we're just about settled in the new house now.

I feel your pain, I'm f&cking tired too. I'll eventually find the will to write up my season's recap, but figured it wouldn't be a bad thing to wait and bring some hunting content in the new year given the latest Grilled Cheese and Mayo off-season threads...
 
I'm in a very similar boat, I haven't stopped since last year. Had a crazy busy winter with work, tons of work trips, some good and some lame. Spring and Summer were nutz between work, bear hunting and camping trips. Went on a week long canoe camping trip in August, started archery hunting in September, went to Wyoming in October, bought a house/moved in November, went hard during rifle season and we're just about settled in the new house now.

I feel your pain, I'm f&cking tired too. I'll eventually find the will to write up my season's recap, but figured it wouldn't be a bad thing to wait and bring some hunting content in the new year given the latest Grilled Cheese and Mayo off-season threads...

I had to get mine in before the end of 2022 to be considered for @Hunting Wife s talkie awards.

More to come later tonight hopefully. Even with the week off work and baby that sleeps like an angel it seems the busyness never stops.
 
I met up with everyone and we commenced bachelor party shenanigans. Straight to it. Whiskey, beer, poker, hot tubs, video games. Great stuff.

Opening morning was going to be rough for those of us going out. We had a decent drive to our starting point.

Morning came about. My plan was to join the bachelor and one other on a morning hunt primarily looking for elk. This will be taking place in a burn area that we have hunted in before. We've found elk every time but haven't shot one yet.

This was an unusually cold stretch for November 3rd Rifle in Colorado. There was also snow on the ground. I can't recall exactly but temps were sub 10 that morning I believe. In retrospect, i'm realizing that ended up being my hunting theme this fall: cold as shit. I even whipped out a pair of hand warmers that had been in my truck for like 3 years at one point.

Anyway, we get to our starting point to hike in in the cold and start glassing the moonscape for elk. This type of hunting didn't involve a ton of sitting still, partially because it's cold and partially because in the burn with the snow, you don't have to spend a ton of time looking at hillsides to find elk or not. No elk? Just keep moving till you top the next hill and glass.

Especially for this hunt - I have 4 tags good for two species and it's my only chance to hunt in Colorado - it really is a situation for me where if it's brown, it's down. I want meat in the freezer, I want to fill a tag or two, i'm out here to get something and make the most of my time. I don't care what it is, if I have a tag for it, I will be trying to kill it the second i see it. So, that said, we didn't get very far on our hike when i stop for minute to turn around and glass a hillside about 3/4 of a mile away. I see what clearly looks like a doe to me standing skylined on top of this hill.

Well, that's brown.
 
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I tell my buddies I see a doe way off there and i'm gonna try and close the distance. I break off, they continue up the direction we had been going.

Pretty immediately I drop down to where I can no longer see the doe and it can no longer see me and start working up to where I can hopefully move over each little ridge ascending this larger hill and sneak up on it. Assuming it didn't go anywhere.

Well it did. There were actually two deer. I found their tracks and followed them for a long time. Up steep hills and through little valleys, crunching along in the snow I kept after them, losing track of how far I was wandering. Eventually I lost track of which tracks were theirs and where they were headed when it ran into a whole smorgasbord of different deer track stomping all over the place and different ones coming in and out of the area. Apparently there are at least a handful of deer that frequent this area. Good to know.

I glassed through the sea of burned trees in front of me on top of the long, flat, ridge ridge I was on. It looked like it was snowing. All of the snow and ice crystals attached to the trees in the mornings bitter cold were being drifted lazily through the air in the gentle morning breeze. With the low morning light glistening it felt pretty magical; calming and serene.

I just stood there for a while taking it all in. The calm, the dead quiet, the light, the drifting snow and ice crystals falling through the air. After such a hectic year so far, this is what i was after. It felt good. I stopped thinking about the deer or elk and just stood there in the quiet, listening to myself breathe.

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So, the baby was born on Sept 19th. Baby boy.

Went 0 to 60 real fast. OB called a C-Section after about 6 hours due to fetal distress.

Watched the whole damn thing, that was wild.

Healthy, happy baby.

Again, you can read about my whining here but holy crap, there is just no preparing for actually having that baby once it's here. No one anywhere can actually help anyone understand what it's actually like, i'm convinced. The C-Section changed the game dramatically. I was the only person available to do much of anything, whether it was take care of the baby, feed the baby, take care of my wife, feed my wife, take care of the dog, feed the dog, whatever had to be done, i was the only one available to do it for 14-16 days. This was something that we never thought about, or learned, about C-Sections prior to having the baby, probably because we weren't planning to have one.

It really was just brutal. I never could have comprehended such levels of sleep deprivation. I'm calling it the rule of three: For 3 weeks straight i never got more than 3 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, and those three hours were typically broken up into thirds. I lost nearly 9 lbs during the first month of my childs life. And i'm not exactly the type of guy who has 9 lbs to lose.

Anyway, hit up the other thread for more on that. We're trying to funnel this towards hunting eventually.
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where were we?

Baby was born and i was tired. Classic.

It really was amazing, we started getting that baby boy sleeping 4-6 hours at night by week 5 and by week 10 we we had him going 10 hours. Your whole world changes as you get even just a few more hours of sleep. Everything. You really start to feel the joy of having a little son and seeing him smiling and on the cusp of giggling, man, only parents can understand the feeling experienced witnessing that stuff.

So, winding back a little now, 3rd Rifle Season was fast approaching it seemed. I still had no fresh ammo for my rifle. I ended last season with 3 rounds. Not enough to go hunting, hardly enough to even check zero.

All summer long i just figured on my occasional drop ins to Scheels, Cabelas, Jax, etc. I would come across the ammo i had been using for the last few years. That never happened, they never really even had ANYTHING in 30-06. But i figured eventually it would show up.

On one of my visits though, now maybe 1.5 months out from 3rd Rifle they had 5 boxes of Federal Fusions in 150 grain. Done.

But, I would have to re sight in. I had been shooting 165s before. I had no idea how i was going to grab the time to do this with the baby now. Communication is everything with a baby now between the wife and me and we never talked about me taking a half day to drive out to the grasslands and re sight in. My fault. Life was so crazy with a newborn things just get forgotten, especially things that fall under "extra curricular" activites.

But, being the wonderful woman she is, she made she I could have a Saturday or Sunday to do that. She absolutely love that I love to hunt. She wants me to be able to do these things. She wanted to make sure I could get out this fall and re sighting in the rifle was a part of making that happen.

Let's not forget how hard C-Sections are on a woman, let alone post partum. None of this is easy for her, even just a half day of me being gone.

But I loaded up my trusty rusty 20+ year old subaru with a perpetual check in engine light to leave her with the truck, which had the car seat in case of an emergency, and headed NE to the grasslands. It was a beautiful day. I was sighted back in in under an hour.


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Wait... you only have one child and he sleeps through the night and you're tired?

No sympathy. Well maybe a little because I remember thinking I was tired with one too, that is, until we had a second.
 
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