What do you do to buy the household rights to hunt every possible day of big game season?

[diamond hitch]

I have hunted every day of big game season and every weekend of upland and waterfowl seasons for the last 50 years. It's tough enough to manipulate your work schedule to fit but meeting your honey do schedule is also another trick.

This year I replaced the laundry room floor from the joists up and tiled it. I have extended the north roof of the house 8 ft. (Deck next year.) I have stockpiled 6 cord of lodgepole and 4.5 cord of larch in blocks for splitting and stacking in sept. I'm just starting to cut, bale and stack 75 acres of hay. I have replaced all the dead posts on the ranch and repaired all broken wires. The corral repair will come in sept. Last pf sept. Will include cutting out as many blown in trails as I can muster to provide access to my areas of interrest. In between all of that is enough consulting to pay for fuel and the wifes kitchen remodel.

That settles into working 7 days a week for 9 months then taking nearly 3 months off to hunt. No vacation days and no recreation time until October 1st. Then every waking moment on a horse or in a rubber boat - frozen.

What do you folks do to buy those hours?

 

[Gerald Martin]

I admire your passion and willingness to do what it takes to make it work for you.
I don’t have that level of drive anymore.

 

[JEL]

Holy cow! That is impressive but I agree with Gerald. Too many other fun things to do throughout the year.

 

[Wildabeest]

I hired a lawyer...

 

[thomas89]

I became a better hunter so it doesn’t take me all season to punch my tags. Only kidding.

Father and husband are the top of my identity lists, Hunter somewhere lower. I’ve done the whole hunt for days on end thing during hunt season, enjoy spending time with the wife and little one anymore.

Leading up to a big(ger) trip I will definitely pay a bit more attention to any wants/needs around the house. It works for me/us.

 

[Carnage2011]

I take her with me.

 

[ccc23454]

Jan, feb and early march (when not ice fishing i do all the vehicle maitenance, oil, brakes, belts tires etc. anything i think will need to be done for a full year. I do the inside honey do's and some minor outside things. Usually 1 large project: last winter was finish the inside of my shop build. Then in mid june- first week august i get all the outside stuff done; driveway, seal concrete, grass/yard and basic oil changes on vehicles if needed. Usually do a woodworking project or 2 as home improvement, this summer was adding a wet bar, some shelfing upgrades and custom closet shelfing. My yard needs more attention and i havnt got it all done yet and may not before next weekend when everything shifts to hunting but trying. I had my house built 3 years ago and my hunting travel was part of design, wanted low maintenance knowing i will be gone so much so that was easy on wife.

 

[Mallardsx2]

I work 250 days a year and always try to take her with me.

 

[Islander]

Phenomenal sex buys me enough hunting days of the year to be happy.

Seriously, I just do my homework and respect my wife. She's known from the day we met that I am a sportsman. In 36 years of marriage, hunting, camping, and surf trips have never once been questioned. Being in the submarine navy when we met means she's never experienced me being home all year. She says "Men need to do manly things." She'd go with me if she liked it, but she doesn't. I'm thankful she doesn't begrudge me the time away. There's no quid pro quo expected or given, beyond just being good to one another and encouraging each other to pursue their passions.

 

[MarvB]

I hired a lawyer...

 

[2rocky]

Mutual respect goes a long way. Lord knows I still need to do Date Night, and Non-hunting vacations and in turn our camping trips tend to happen in places that have big game.

The time off from my career I'd taken off to go to her family's wedding is now going to be painting the house thanks to Covid.

 

[mtmuley]

Nothing. It was understood what my Fall's consist of before we were even married. mtmuley

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Apparently, I moved to Boston...

 

[Shangobango]

I take her with me.

I tried that and she was miserable and so was I.

I have been a bachelor for the last 10 years and I am determined stay that way until the right woman comes along.

At the rate I put myself in social situations these days that may be quite awhile.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Give and take. I do a lot of home projects to save money so I have more gas funds. We don't have split bank accounts, and it's very rare she ever tells me to back off. I take overtime when I can get it and work a side job that covers my out of state tags and travel.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Usually take her with to camp if it's a south Dakota trip only. Other than that it's understood that I'll be taking time to go hunting and if she wants time to go on a girls trip I don't say anything. We each have our vices, mine just don't result in sparkly nails like hers do

 

[Nick87]

Nothing. It was understood what my Fall's consist of before we were even married. mtmuley

Same. Choose wisely.

 

[Kiwi]

Yeah, choose wisely even though I did it would be impossible for me to hunt all season unfortunately.

 

[mtmuley]

Same. Choose wisely.

Yep. I remember the first Thanksgiving we were to spend with her family together. I had an elk tag. mtmuley

 

[Big Fin]

I made a one-time deal. It went like this.

Mrs. Fin, "I really don't want to bring this old furnishings to our new house. The house will be so new and so nice, it just seems foolish to fill it with a bunch of old beat up furnishings."

Fin, seeing an opportunity, "Well, what do you think it would cost for new furnishings?"

Mrs. Fin, knowing something is afoul, "Why would you ask? Tightwad accountants would use the moving boxes and consider them new."

Fin, trying to settle the dust he just kicked up, "Really, I wanna know, what would it cost?"

Mrs. Fin, falling for my bait, "Well, they say you should add 10% of the cost of your house as a budget for furnishings."

Fin, holding his chest while trying to leverage the moment, "(cough) 10%? You know how much 10% will be on this new house? I don't know if that will cover what you're trying to do."

Mrs. Fin, now clearly conflicted by her desires for new furnishings while instincts tell her I have ulterior motives, "I bet I could make this work for 7-8%."

Fin, seeing the moment of weakness uncharacteristic of Mrs. Fin, "I think you should budget 15% of the house cost."

Mrs. Fin, almost collapsing in surprise, "What's the deal? You are such a tightwad, you must be up to something. You gonna spring some bad news on me?"

Fin, trying his best to shoot straight, "Nope, no bad news. Just thought that since you let me hunt so much last year and I have all these points built up for future years, I can't be so selfish. I'm on board with you doing 15%. If I start cashing all these points, you might not see me for months at a time. Only seems fair to me."

Mrs. Fin pauses long, really long, "Just so we're clear here, you're offering me 15% of the cost of the house for new furnishings, and you get to hunt all you want? That hunting money will still come out of your hunting slush fund, right?"

Fin, seeing a once-in-a-marriage opportunity, "Yup. All out of my slush fund. And, if you want to take your sister to Vegas once a year, add that to the deal, just don't ask me to go."

Mrs. Fin, knowing I'm no fun to be with in Vegas and her sister is a riot, cannot resist, she sticks out her hand, "Deal!"

Fin, grabbing her hand and knowing this could go down as the best negotiation he ever made, grabs her extended hand, "Deal!"


And for nothing more than new furnishings in our house, in 2004, I negotiated a lifetime "hunting pass" and got out of the painful annual Vegas trip that was like getting a liver biopsy without anesthesia. I'd make that deal again, every day, and twice on Sunday.

It is deals like this that make me feel qualified, maybe falsely, to give so much marriage advice on my podcast.