tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54785052678753089082008-07-26T20:21:34.158-07:00NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comBlogger147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-50604056940178380692008-07-26T18:21:00.001-07:002008-07-26T19:05:54.175-07:00

Ah, California - always at the forefront. I know you folks in the Other 49 are watching in fear as California implements a lead-ammunition ban in the state's massive condor region. That region happens to be where Boyfriend and I do most of our big game hunting, so you are cordially invited to live the fear through us vicariously as you wait to see if your state falls in line. With deer season

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-67995072051574001802008-07-22T08:14:00.001-07:002008-07-22T09:18:53.593-07:00

This has been an incredibly bad year of fishing for me: After three guided trips for sturgeon, halibut and striper (can you say $$$?), I had nothing in the freezer to show for it. Ouch. But Monday, the fourth time was the charm. Boyfriend and I went out on a charter boat on San Francisco Bay, and we did really well. Boyfriend caught his limit of three halibut, and I caught two that were legal,

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-75705507622620701992008-07-20T12:51:00.000-07:002008-07-20T13:15:38.636-07:00

At the end of each January, every duck hunter I know recalls every missed duck and swears he or she is going to hit the shooting range a lot during the off season. Then life takes over. We get busy, and the "twice a month" goal turns into "once in a blue moon." For me, yesterday was that blue moon. Or maybe I should call it a pink moon. A group of women I've been working with on some programs

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-84303765431496817982008-07-19T07:20:00.001-07:002008-07-19T08:43:17.938-07:00

Summer is reading time for me because school's out, and one book I couldn't wait to get to this summer was "Ricochet: Confessions of Gun Lobbyist" by former NRA lobbyist Richard Feldman. Guns, politics, the NRA? What's not to love? The main points of the book are that the NRA is wracked with internal strife, obsessed with power and control over the gun issue in politics and sometimes more

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-38447575755439771122008-07-14T15:16:00.001-07:002008-07-14T18:26:53.223-07:00

It was with a mixture of shock and amazement last night that I watched the scene across the table from me: A vegetarian of 24 years pinched off a nibble of Boyfriend's ethereal homemade pork sausage, smelled it tentatively and popped it into her mouth. Moments like this are unusual. How often are people willing to stick their neck out, literally outside of the world they've chosen for themselves

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-50903806212977495112008-07-09T18:11:00.000-07:002008-07-11T10:33:56.916-07:00

It would be so easy to sit at home and do nothing. The whole state has been on fire for nearly three weeks now, ever since the summer solstice arrived, bringing thunderstorms and lighting strikes that started 800 or so fires. The air has been filled with smoke ever since. It's hard to breathe. And it's hot. But Boyfriend and I don't have a lick of sense. Monday, we were heading down to Monterey

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-84264889173466492342008-07-06T21:38:00.000-07:002008-07-06T22:14:46.714-07:00

While most of the country was fixated on red, white and blue this weekend, someone was getting all excited about pink. Yes, the Pink Huntress - Keli Van Cleave - has surfaced again, and what has she got in her hot little hands but her newest product: pink binoculars. They're made by Alpen Optics, and they'll be available starting in August, which is when Van Cleave, based in Colorado, will

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-43112866222171557642008-07-03T20:49:00.000-07:002008-07-03T22:56:09.135-07:00

It's nice having a boyfriend who's a gourmet cook and all, but it makes a girl lazy. I used to experiment in the kitchen all the time, but now I tend to surrender that room to Boyfriend 24/7 because he's so good. Ever since I started hunting, though, I've felt bad about that. Here I was bringing home all this great game meat, and I wasn't exploring what it could do. But Boyfriend's gone on two

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-80956487248746964822008-07-03T12:05:00.000-07:002008-07-03T12:35:08.763-07:00

For as long as I've been hunting, I've maintained that women make hunting a better place. Just as we can take a skanky bachelor pad and turn it into a livable home that smells, if not good, at least not bad, so can we improve the conditions of hunting. My friend Dana can turn a duck blind into a luxurious, heated breakfast resort. As for me, let's just say the waders in my house smell a lot

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-41241451489751081772008-06-28T14:18:00.000-07:002008-06-29T15:58:12.741-07:00

With all anti-hunting propaganda out there suggesting hunters are nothing but a bunch of cruel, heartless drunks, it's easy to start thinking we might need to keep our mouths shut about exactly what we do on our weekends. Ya wouldn't want the person in the next cubicle to know that you ... gasp! ... hunt to put food on your table, right? WRONG. I mean, I've never been a fan of skulking about.

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-45083699142491578562008-06-26T08:47:00.002-07:002008-06-30T12:28:57.730-07:00

So I'm going through my email this morning, and what do I rescue from the spam filter but this important message from Cabela's. The subject line: Summer Sale: Women's Clothing @ cabelas.com. Woo hoo! I'm there! But I know what's going to happen when I click on it. I get this image you see here. Do you see any camo here? No. This is the kind of stuff Mark buys for Jody to appease her after

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-71116746879515035172008-06-25T08:40:00.000-07:002008-06-27T17:17:52.160-07:00

I miss my dad. It's been five years to the day since I lost him, and not a day goes by that I don't think about him one way or another, because he is such a huge part of who I've become. As you can see from the photo, Dad was quite a character. That's him with my mom (Dad loved that Wonder Woman physique) and my cousin at the old family cabin in the arid, rattlesnake-infested Piute Mountains in

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-39735361977565630172008-06-24T10:08:00.000-07:002008-06-24T13:40:30.260-07:00

Hunting has completely changed the way I see animals in nature - it's one of the great surprises and delights of becoming a huntress. But today, a non-hunting friend asked me this: Why? She asked in response to a post this weekend about my day at the lake, but the answer seems to be worth a post of its own. Here goes: Have you ever grown a plant for food? When you grow a plant for food, the

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-14185227688320145022008-06-21T20:43:00.000-07:002008-06-24T13:22:46.951-07:00

I almost didn't go to the lake today. It was hot - 105 degrees on the south side of my house - and crazy windy, which doesn't make for good paddling. But something told me to put my book down, get off the couch, load up my kayak and just do it. Now, as the sun is setting on the longest day of the year, I'm glad I did. My lake is Lake Natoma. It's a manmade lake five minutes from my house,

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-14562330012804539572008-06-21T09:28:00.000-07:002008-06-21T10:31:02.663-07:00

A few months ago, I posed the question: What is it with women and bowhunting? I wondered why the number of women bowhunters is rising far more rapidly than the number of women hunters. I've found one possible explanation for why women gravitate to bowhunting in a book I just devoured, "In Defense of Hunting" by Dr. James A. Swan. If you're an expert in psychology, please bear with my grossly

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-16599351986574272882008-06-19T11:13:00.000-07:002008-06-21T10:42:19.484-07:00

OK, I promise I'm not turning this into a blog about TV shows. But I thought it was worth sharing some of the responses from PETA fans to the FX television show "30 Days." To recap: The show, which aired Tuesday night, stuck a North Carolina deer hunter with a Los Angeles vegan, PETA-activist family for 30 days. The hunter arrived with a pretty callous attitude toward animals, and left caring

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-6680638710542783392008-06-18T09:15:00.000-07:002008-06-21T10:42:41.724-07:00

The good news is that last night's episode of "30 Days" didn't, for the most part, offend me. The show, which put a North Carolina deer hunter in a vegan PETA-activist household in Los Angeles for 30 days, didn't try to shove a lot of egregious hunter stereotypes down my throat. The bad news is that it left me disappointed. Here's the recap: Hunter George Snedeker spends a month with this L.A.

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-47971191012442283672008-06-17T12:32:00.000-07:002008-06-21T10:43:05.914-07:00

How often do hunters and antis really talk to each other? Probably not that often. Typically, we fight our battles in public forums, whether it's chat rooms, blogs or newspapers. But tonight, an episode of FX's "30 Days" reality show series shows what happens when a North Carolina deer hunter moves in with a Los Angeles PETA-activist family for a month. I don't know quite what to expect from

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-90308065417546580102008-06-15T21:49:00.000-07:002008-06-21T10:49:13.650-07:00

You wouldn't know it from my silence over the past few days, but things have been busy in the NorCal Cazadora/Hunter Angler Gardener Cook household.Well, at least on the HAGC side. While I've been kicking back, Boyfriend has been playing the part of butcher with all sorts of goodies we've brought home lately, including the pig I got last weekend. What he does with the fish, birds and mammals we

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-4363624805240638752008-06-11T09:42:00.000-07:002008-06-11T11:02:32.014-07:00

My first pig hunt (click here for Part I, here for Part II) has left me a lot of food for thought - yes, pun intended. Here's what I've learned: Gratitude: No matter how bad I feel about my shot, I should remember first and foremost to be grateful and thrilled that I came home with meat - and that I have a boyfriend who knows how to turn it into wonderful things. Yesterday I was feeling a little

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-20836509515243875032008-06-10T11:37:00.000-07:002008-06-10T20:06:45.666-07:00

Oh, you didn't think that happy ending in Part I of this story was it, did you? Hunter gets his pig, his buddies high five him, blah blah blah? No, after Jim found his pig in the barley fields of California's Central Coast, we had to get it back to Petunia, Phillip's Suzuki Samurai, and considering the pig was at the bottom of a ravine and Petunia was at the top of a hill, that was quite a task.

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-53769645021274387462008-06-09T13:11:00.000-07:002008-06-11T11:00:30.913-07:00

When I got home from my first-ever big game hunt Sunday night, I was exhausted - baked by the sun, whipped by the wind, dehydrated and sleep deprived. I unloaded the car bit by bit: first the gun, binoculars and camera, which I wiped down to eliminate the same coating of dust that had clogged my eyes and nose all weekend. Then my gear bag, still infested with foxtails in every pocket. Finally the

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-3736701881552678362008-06-04T18:01:00.000-07:002008-06-04T18:03:27.519-07:00

The prospects for this weekend's pig hunt were starting to look pretty bad. Though I normally shoot decently with a rifle, I'd had two lousy sessions in a row at the shooting range, and my hunter safety instructor's words were pounding my head like a bad hangover: If you can't hit your target on the range, you have no business hunting. You see, this is not only my first pig hunt, but my first

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-49225692542580457502008-06-03T18:13:00.000-07:002008-06-03T18:13:48.774-07:00

Good news, and good press: The Sacramento Bee reports today that the number of hunting and fishing licenses sold in California has risen for the second straight year. It's the first time since 1990 that sales have increased two years in a row, so that's pretty cool. Not only is the story fair - always a good thing - but its exploration of reasons for the trend covers a couple of my favorites.

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478505267875308908.post-54448685724428836702008-05-30T15:47:00.000-07:002008-06-21T10:51:48.906-07:00

No, really, Phillip: Don't read it. Go away. Is he gone now? Whew. OK. Now I can say it: I shot like crap today. The reason Phillip - a.k.a. Mr. Hog Blog - can't read this is I'm going pig hunting with him and the guys from Hunting with Jim next weekend. Yes, I'm doing my first-ever hog hunt - my first ever big-game hunt - with the the proprietors of not just one, but two hunting blogs. And

NorCal Cazadorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03134909592916671876noreply@blogger.com