Minnesota Deer Hunting opener obviously comes once a year. I have hunted pretty much since I was able to, around 12 years old, and it is almost a holiday in northern Minnesota. I have gone up to the Cotton/Toivola area now for the last 5 years, and I am amazed at the amount of orange you see out there for the 2 days. First off, I think a lot of people are like me, as it is a reason to get out of town, or get away with your friends. I hunt with 3 of my great friends and I look forward to getting to the cabin as soon as I can. We get there and we crack a beer and right away we get to playing cards. The game of choice has always been hold 'em, we play 4 way, and the previous few Thursday nights before opener we have been up til daylight. This year was a little more calm, we started the first few hours with Poker, then moved to Smear. Smear, I would only have to have been invented on the Range, but now it is the game of choice in Duluth with all of my friends. It is really fun getting up there, and we all talk about the same things, our home life, how good or bad it can be, Minnesota Sports, including how much we like the lineup of Power Trip, PA, Common, Barreiro. (My faves are Common, Power Trip, Barreiro, PA, in that order, even though I enjoy listening to them all.) It is the time where we get away from the wives and can talk about the things we want to talk about. As I was sitting in my stand on Saturday morning at 6:30 I have to share a few of the things that go through your mind on when you are alone in a stand, and you don't see anybody for 13 hours, and you don't talk to anyone for 13 hours. I wanted to throw out some of the things that I thought about most in the stand for the 2 days, 13 hours one day, 5 hours the next, keep in mind I saw 2 deer the entire time.

1. I am having a baby in 3 weeks, you can't help but to think about how my life would change with the baby coming, and how excited I am to be a father. I don't know what the sex is, so I got to think about what it is going to be like having a boy or a girl. I think that would easily be number 1.

2. Sex, yes I am a male, sex is going to go through your head even out in the cold, I am not going to go into detail around this part, but I think I would be lying if it wasn't part of my thought process.

3. Minnesota Twins---- Now I am having a baby, I mentioned that earlier, since my wife doesn't want to find out what we are having I have had to try and buy neutral clothes, well baby onsies in my mind are all neutral, and all the clothes I have purchased are Twins clothes. I thought about our lineup, and thought about our pitching rotation so stinking much in the stand it was a joke. I get 1 small bar of service in the stand and I was trying to see if there was any news about who the Twins may be going after, and the name I saw most was Earvin Santana. There are going to be a lot of names out there, I realize that, nothing is really going to happen any time soon I don't believe, but I am really trying to see where this team is going to go. I truly believe we have a 2 year window with the guys we have here, that includes Morneau, Mauer, Willingham, Doumit, Span. We have some tools that can make a contender. Can we get a pitching staff in free agency that can win a championship? I really don't think so unless you go after Greinke, and that is a really big chance. Or do we unload the key players? Well one thing for sure, is we are going to have too much money tied up into Mauer to make a run in Mauers career with the Twins, unless we take a chance now. It would be hard to think we can unload the likes of Morneau and Span to help with the rotation, you are just robbing Pual to pay Peter, unless you think Parmalee is as good offensively and defensively as Morneau, I dont' think so. I would love to keep Span, he wants to stay here, but if we can somehow get pitching for him, we can move Revere to center and Parmalee to right. Are we really going to get starting pitching for Span? I think the answer is no? At that point I really think we need to draft well this year, which means we will have 2 consecutive draft classes that should be promising, and go for it this year in free agency. I don't know the cost of Greinke, but if it is the only chance we have other than staying in medicrocy than dont' we have to go for it? I don't even know if I like it, but it seems our only option due to Mauers contract, unless we can unload Mauer to the Red Sox. I understand if we can't get Greinke, my next choices to look at would be McCarthy, Villanueva, Dice K.

4. What if I saw a Sasquatch in the Woods? This is where the ridiculousness of sitting in a stand comes into play. I was sitting there hearing noises and I randomly thought about what would I really do if I saw a Sasquatch. I need to say I watch the "Finding Bigfoot" show, and I can't not watch it because of how ridiculous it is. But there is a 2% chance I am giving it, that it could be real. At least imagin with me sitting there and you see an animal that is standing on 2 feet walking towards you that looks like Bigfoot. What are your options. 1. Shoot it. 2. Watch it and do nothing. 3. Try and get your cell phone out to record it. Lets explore option 1, Ok nobody has ever had in captivity or found a BigFoot, this would be the biggest story ever to actually have a Bigfoot. Would it be illegal to shoot the Bigfoot? Would it be considered a human, and you get a murder charge? There are lots of problems with actually doing that. Let's look at option 2, Watch in awe at this thing and have not one person every believe you, and maybe hope you can see tracks of the animal, this I don't think could ever be an option. 3, if you spook it you don't get a chance to watch it, and what if it started coming up your stand as you are trying to video tape this thing. Do you try and talk to it, or do you have to just shoot it? Pretty crazy things go through your head, the funniest part of this whole scenario is when I get home and I look on Yahoo!'s page there was a really interesting Sasquatch video. http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/39929/hikers+take+flight+when+what+they+thought+was+a+bear+resembles+bigfoot/ if you haven't seen it.

5. Why the hell am I sitting here staring at the same places for hours on end hoping to see an animal I have seen for 32 years quite consistently? I am only here to shoot a trophy, and the odds of that are pretty slim. I had a doe sit in front of me for 15 minutes I could have shot, but that isn't why I am out there. I am out there because of the adrenaline rush you get when you are out in the woods with a weapon, for the opportunity to see a big animal that you have paid a registration to the DNR to shoot, and brag to your friends that this is what I shot. There are two unknowns that are really exhilarating, 1, when the bobber goes down and you have sucker minnow on it, there are lots of options of what that fish could be, and it could be a 30" walleye, 40" Northern, or a 50" Musky. 2, when you hear the sounds of what could be a deer walking towards your stand, and it could be a small fawn all the way up to the 30pt buck, and I guess that is worth sitting in the stand that long every year.

6. The Book-- The "Book" of Baseball-- This went hand in hand with the Minnesota Twins lineup, which I am going to talk about in my next blog post, along with the Twins Handbook.

I thought it would be a fun post, as it was a long weekend sitting reflecting on things sitting in a cold deer stand seeing only 2 deer. If you went hunting this weekend or any weekend and have some fun thoughts thorw them out there.

We did the same. Got up there Friday and uncle Joe already had about a 5 drink head start on us. "Take the 4 wheeler and put out some apples over there by the clearing," he tells me. Not an hour later there's a 8 pointer standing there, tail down. Evidently Uncle Joe had gotten him into a habit. So he grabs the .338 and sits himself on the picnic table outside the garage. My brother who lived in Seattle for the past 10 years talked him out of it, luckily. "Save some for us deer virgins." So okay he puts it down. Joe paid us back Sunday morning though. We are just about to head in for the day, pack up and make the 4 hour car ride south to the cities when bang. 50 pound spike buck, great. Oh, Uncle Joe also happens to be allergic to deer so guess who had to dress it, skin it, and butcher it. That venison meat up in St Louis county tastes like dogsht anyway. I'm done with deer hunting.

I've never hunted (though I would like to) but I used to fish a lot as a teenager with my grandpa, so I know what you mean about having a lot of time to think quietly. In response to your topics...

1. I BET you're thinking about that. My only advice: marriage is the foundation and the kids are the house. Don't ever risk the foundation for the house. You will be tempted.

2. Well, of course. Kudos for admitting it.

3. Don't worry too much about Mauer's money. The Twins can build a good contending team on the remaining $70M, especially if they get to starts with a catcher that can bat 3rd.

4. Do you bring a camera that has any kind of zoom?

5. I look forward to the next post.