Why most women don't hunt.

As I write this Hubby is scuttling around the house gathering the last bits of gear for a duck hunting trip in North Dakota. When this trip was planned I raised hell, because hey I want to go somewhere fun to! That led to the compromise of the trip I took earlier this spring with my mother to the horse farm. But it still annoys me.

If you have a hunting/fishing spouse you soon discover that the seasons are not spring, summer, fall, and winter. It's more like, deer, duck, ice fishing, regular fishing, turkey etc etc. The only thing that keeps Hubby from doing it more is that we live in a pretty populated area of the state and there are TONS of people in every available spot to hunt or fish. What I envy though is not the gathering of gear or even the large amounts of money spent on the newest gadget or license it's the absolute ability to declare "I'm going deer hunting this weekend" and never give a second thought to arranging care for the kids, shuttling to & fro, doing the laundry so there is clean underwear to pack and the like. It's assumed that all that is taken care of - and it is.

Maybe that's my fault, but I don't think I'm alone in my sentiments as I've heard other hunting widows complain. Even when you can plan to run away it seems like more work than it's worth, doing laundry up so you only come home to small mountain and not Mt. Everest. Laying out the kid's schedules, stocking the fridge (while Hubby cooks he's expensive if he goes to the grocery store) and getting the 200 things done you'd normally do in the time your gone done. Just once I'd like to declare "I'm leaving this weekend" pack a bag and walk out the door leaving a mountain of laundry knowing it will a) be the same when I return or the even better b) washed, folded and put away.

I think it's the ability to just go that drives me the most nuts. Not that he goes, but that he just assumes I'll take care of things, and when I go it begins a logistics nightmare.