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I had a thought last Friday as I was packing gear into the back of my vehicle in preparation for the two-day antlerless deer season. It struck me, as it does each and every October, that there are simply too many nifty things to do in the out-of-doors and far too few days in which to accomplish them all.

The antlerless hunt in Area 236 was a good one for my father-in-law, Ron, brother-in-law, Mark, and me. A liberal dose of good fortune is always welcome in our deer camp, so when Lady Luck drops by for an occasional visit, we're quick to scoot over to share a tree stand with her and give her the credit she deserves. We were indeed the benefactors of good luck last weekend as each of us managed a deer within an hour or so of shooting on Saturday.

I won't bore you with details or excuses, but Ron and I took two deer that, had we taken them to the meat market, would've worked out to about $4.00 per pound, respectively. Enough said about that. Needless to say, we didn't feel that shelling out $160.00 to process these deer made a lot of sense, so after registering the animals at the Big Marine Lake Store, we skinned and butchered them in Ron's garage. We had forgotten what an ordeal it can be to butcher and package deer meat, particularly after a long day in the woods. Our sore backs and a sliced knuckle on my right hand reminded us why we decided some years ago to leave the butchering to the professionals. I know we're in the throes of some tough economic times right now, but sometimes throwing money at a project or problem to make it go away isn't such a bad idea.

With a halfway respectable start to the deer season behind me, I'm now looking forward to a long weekend at the family cottage in north-central Wisconsin. My neighbor, Arron, just picked up a good pump gun and wants to get back into the upland bird hunting game. We'll walk some of the multi-use trails and work the aspen and poplar stands. I have one spot in mind I happened upon last season that was full of clover, ground berries and nearby witch hazel shrubs that held a sizeable covey of birds. It's well off the beaten path and not easy for other hunters to find, so I'm looking forward to visiting that spot again.

Another activity I'm looking forward to this week at the cottage is chasing walleyes on Big Trout Lake, near Boulder Junction, WI. The brothers-in-law and I will stop in Minocqua to load up on redtail chubs and shiners and work the lake's rocky islands and underwater humps with jigs and live bait rigs. My wife's entire family will be up and there'll be plenty of kids that will jump at the chance to catch a few walleyes and claim bragging rights.

Like I said, there's too much to do in a limited amount of time. I didn't even mention duck hunting with my friend, Matt, or running up to the North Shore to fish the rivers for steelhead with my sons, Anders and August.

I guess the trick this fall will be to cram as much hunting and fishing in as humanly possible without dissolving the marriage and living the remainder of my days in a seedy trailer park, with an ambiguous name like "Whispering Pines" situated behind an auto salvage yard.

I can see now how a guy could go overboard in October and overdo things a bit. A brief, disturbing vision of myself in a tank top T-shirt, heating up a can of corned beef hash on a Coleman one-burner tabletop stove, just came and went. On second thought, I think I'll stay home for a while after we get back from the cottage.

Dan Brown's weekly outdoor column is brought to you by Frankie's Bait and Marine, in Chisago City, and St. Croix Outdoors, in St. Croix Falls, Wis.

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