Hanging stuff in the new house... We moved to a smaller house to give my boys more land. As we hang our pictures on our smaller wall space I'm being informed that there's no room for my deer heads, or my mounted Tom... I seem to see room for them, but sadly, my wife does not. And as bad as I hate to say this she's often right about the available space in the house. (Insert lone tear being shed in stoic fashion here)
This sucks...
My (very few) trophies might at well be attached to me at the hip. If there is no room for them there is no room for me.
Sounds like you need a "man cave" if you will
I can totally relate to your situation, man! My heads went down in the basement years ago. And to add insult to injury, while on a two week bowhunt this year, she (my wife), "shrunk" my archery corner in the basement to about 1/2 it's size. She packed up all my stuff in very nice storage boxes she bought and I'm still looking for stuff months later. :confused:
Well you can always find a new wife, some mounts are irreplaceable :D
Time for an addition.
I think the move for your kids is worth while. I think you being able to relax in a space that has stuff you want in it is also necessary. there should be a common ground. I feel for you.
Tell her how you feel, maybe there will be room for your heads in the dog house?
Mine started in the den then went to the basement and then to the garage.
That is because there was only one and then they multiplied.
I too have been reduced to almost nothing. It's alright though as that's just how life is. More room for the kids to play and family stuff. It's really not what matters anyways. Hang in there...the pain goes away!!!
Time to build a shop in back.
Sounds like it is time for a small workshop/mancave!
A few months back my wife and I were sitting in the living room. I looked over at her and she was staring into space and had a really weird look on her face. I got her attn. and said "Whats wrong with you?".
She looked at me and replied back with "My living room looks like a museum!".
I got a big ole grin on my face!!!!!!
Good luck with it!
Bisch
P.S. - She does not know it, but I got two more heads at the taxidermist now!
I had to wait. As the kids got older they didn't need a playroom. I finally have a man-cave instead of their playroom! My girls are 11 and 14.
Now that I think about it, I almost wish I could go back in time and give up the man-cave to have them little again......
Is there a Sporting Goods Store near you where you know the management? They may be glad to have the mounts until you have a place for them.
Interesting ..... Ryan I have room for your stuff in my man cave ! The kids are now grown and gone.
Mike I think you need some accommodation for those trophies ... one or two each in the kids room or a nice pole barn or shop that will not crowd the house.
Good luck ....
I had to do the man cave thing, but I must say I like it. Except the room is small and full, LOL. Room for one more bear, after that Im not sure where anything new is supposed to go.
Many, many years ago, I used to have a man cave. I used a spare bedroom as a "trophy room". I guess I was pretty proud of it. In the fullness of time, my daughter began to refer to the spare bedroom as, "the deadroom". The name stuck....
Flash forward thirty-five years, or so, (different house), and my daughter lives 2,000 miles away, with a family of her own--and I am lucky to have a dozen European-type skull mounts on the livingroom wall.
Heavy sigh.... I still miss my bear rug--and those two fox squirrels, (one sitting with an acorn in its paws, and one just standing there, looking stupid). I can't remember what happened to the pronghorn antelope, the smelly boar head, and the largemouth bass....
At least, I can still fletch wooden arrows on the kitchen table.
Women!!!
More land = More room...for an outdoor workshop/mancave/"doghouse".
Whew!!! Tough deal, I guess the best deal is a compromise here. If the heads are older rip them off the mount and hang em euro style if that will help.
Fortunately for me, my wife has her own collection of dead heads.
Back when my construction business was thriving, I built an addition on the house nearly as big as my house. We traveled as much as we could to hunt and I noticed that she was accumulating more mounts than I was. Good for her but also good for me! She couldn't or wouldn't attempt to put the critters in the dungeon as she would be exiling her own memories.
BigJim
Big Jim and I must be the luckiest bowhunters on this site. My wife and I often discuss where we will put the mount of the big buck she has yet to put on the ground. When she does she will have her own space on the wall. She already has a bear head in amongst my mounts.
Bummer!
We have plenty of room but if I was starved for wall space for some of my memories I'd be having a discussion about shoes, pictures, and knick-knacks scattered about hour abode.
For most of my adult life I couldn't afford much taxidermy; 1 bear, 1 deer, 1 squirrel, and 1 gobbler. The deer is probably 5 or 6th from my largest but it is the best buck with a recurve I've taken so it is on the wall while bigger racks are in boxes in the garage.
I am saving a prime spot for a bull moose though. My wife would prefer a bighorn sheep (as would I of course) but when I suggested we'd have to sell her car for me to go to Alberta (with a 2-year wait) she thought the moose would be dandy.
That's the reason I went with a skull mount for the buck I took w/ a shotgun this year. My photography, books, fishing gear, fly tying desk and full mount have the mancave pretty crowded. My son is tking his 2nd mount back to his home in Ohio after christmas.
the real trophies are the friendships and memories.
QuoteOriginally posted by Rob DiStefano:
the real trophies are the friendships and memories.
X2
I bought a piece of property a few years back. We wanted to build a house but at the time there was a cash flow problem as I bought more property than I should :)
We built a pole barn and finished off 1000 SQ feet for an apartment to live in. My wife should have known what was up when I left the ceiling 12 feet. When we built her a house this past spring I got to move my family out of my man cave and now I have room for mounts, a set of bunks for a couple of friends and a butcher shop :)
Even though I have plenty of rooms, like Rob said, the memories are what counts, for every deer, bear, elk, or turkey I have a mount of there are five stories of ones that got away or walked all over me. I keep those memories in a journal for the guests to read and someday when I am too old to hunt, me too :campfire:
That's the reason to have things mounted after hunting.... The memories that go with them!
I have no idea what it would be like not to have space or a wife that would limit it. But, I did get married later in life and had a small house packed with guy stuff that my to be wife thought was great other than me and the dog kept it about 55 degrees in the winter. It took a while to track her down, but well worth the time and effort.
I have my loading, arrow building, and gun room in half the little basement with a nice spot on one wall yet for something. The walkout family rooms has all wall space for my mounts and wildlife stuff with a couple small spaces left. The wife did get a little wall strip between two doors for a little rack of girl stuff. I have a nice spot reserved in the living room ready to go for something special, nice space over the main stair and then there is that nice spot over our bed. Then there is the little sun room with two great wall spots and 10' ceiling yet to get anything stuffed on the walls. My problem is I don't have enough stuff to put on the walls so feel free to ship me some of your lonely neglected critters so they can be properly displayed and appreciated. :D
Oh and then there is the pole barn, shop, indoor bow range, hunting gear headquarters. I do screw all my scrub racks on the walls out there. strictly off limits to any general household or kids stuff.
I am all of a sudden feeling very blessed.
I never went for taxidermy so upstairs I don't have anything besides a ton of waterfowl art, one mounted canvasback on a lamp and about 100 antique decoys spread about.
The basement workshop however houses a pair of mounted wood ducks and a whole ceiling beam and wall lined with antlers into which go significant arrows and a delaminated Bear Kodiak.
I keep the couple of mounts I have at my parents house on the "Deer Wall" Just the other day my girl asked me when I was going to get them from there and bring them home and hang them in the livingroom??..I even get to hang my bows in the livingroom.
My wife and I just built a new home this fall and she gave me the entire basement to 'do what I want with it'. It's unfinished now but she's been pretty good about the future plans I have for. I honestly think my wife likes that I hunt (gives her some alone time too). Plus she typically enjoys the meat. We're having antelope meat loaf tonight!!
after reading this post I discussed it with wife. she was watching Driven and they shot nice buck she said... you can mount one like that!! that's it!!. I have in my garage my first buck, wild boar, bull Buffalo, bobcat, and a couple of smaller game skulls (BONE COLLECTOR!) all are cleaned skulls no taxidermy here. she gave me the smallest room in the house for my Man Cave, it has bow rack, gun rack, my computer and all my archery stuff in it. not much room for anything but!!! I can get a mounted deer on wall over computer!!heheheeh
LarryDawg
Build another Cabin close to the House for YOU and Your Priceless Stuff to Live in!! Ha! :thumbsup: Problem Solved!! :archer2:
Time to buy a hunting cabin, to hang the trophies !, that's what I'll be doing real soon.
Well, everything is relative. In our house, in the living room we have the elk wall (vaulted ceiling), the white tail wall, the mule deer wall and the family picture wall. I don't like to brag but 3 to 1 ain't bad! I'll take those odds. :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
Mine are all hanging right where they have always been. My wife has expressed that she would decorate differently if given the opportunity. If we ever move I know these mounts won't go in the living area again so the deal has to include some room for a man cave. I would have moved them for her years ago but there was nowhere else for them to go and at least she understands they represent an investment in time and money to me. I only have 2 shoulder mounts and a few ducks. All my other deer are plaque mounted. These days the hunt itself is more important than trophies. The deer I hunt don't have to be antlered to be a trophy. Guess I'm finally over the antler thing.
Have land = Build man cave separate from house.
This is where pictures are so valuable. . They don't take up any space. I sold off my collection of mounts years ago and realized after they were gone that I prefered not having them around. Go figure
My wife bought Santa hats for all my mounts in the living room. I'm pretty lucky that we are on the same page but I really wouldn't have it any other way.
My wife was warned before we even got engaged that my heads and hunting stuff were not ever going anywhere until I'm dead. We bought a house with a full basement. Basement is mine upstairs is hers. Only thing in the basement she has is the laundry room :-)
Kids can share a room or perhaps an addition is in order. I am lucky that my wife enjoys having the trophies as decor and is even trying for her own!
QuoteOriginally posted by Rob W.:
My wife bought Santa hats for all my mounts in the living room. I'm pretty lucky that we are on the same page but I really wouldn't have it any other way.
Christmas garb on a 17" Pronghorn is not cute, IMHA! Maybe women get reindeer, that pull Santa's sleigh and antelope mixed up?
Time to assert your identity. Those mounts are worth as much as her drapes at least. A man is not just a creature to be tamed. This is a huge problem in marriages today. Mens' identity as men and quality of life needs have gotten nullified and made the subject of a punch line or cheapened into fodder for pop culture trash. The house is half yours too. I went through this 'establishing dominance/equality' phase in my marriage not too long ago, being a young guy and I have stood my ground for the most part and it has paid dividends; my wife was initially a bit ruffled with me asserting myself as far as how space is shared etc but she respects me now and at least sort of gets it. We just moved into our new house and I get consulted on decoration (not that I care that much but its the principle) and I won myself a dedicated room that is my hobby space and studio and it is generally off limits to her cleaning endeavors (that one was hard for her to let go!) and my "3D organizational style' can reign free. There's even a lock on the door (she knows where a spare key is hidden, but again, its the principle) Its working out great. Gentleman, don't let yourself get pushed into the garage or shed.
I don't really think it's about establishing dominance. I'm a powerlifter and ex prize fighter. I've also done a lot of things that people are in prison for. I've been homeless and it's only through grace that I'm alive. I've known my wife for over twenty years. She knows my past and she loves me. She's tough as nails, sometimes tougher than me. She contributes to my house and raises my two children, one of which isn't hers. She eats the game I bring home but doesn't want mounts in the house. So there's no mounts in the house. I think most men here who have been married a long time will say that sometimes it's better to be happy than right.
I'll never have a trophy hanging on the wall. Somehow, I find it disrespectfull to the animal. JMO. I take a good picture, make an 8 x 10 glossy print and keep it in a special album.
I lost my wife to cancer this year, she didn't want any mounts in the house, she decorated the house like she wanted to and kept it immaculate. I never made an issue about her choice and adjusted to agree with her completely after several years of marriage and getting out of "single man" mode.
I mounted the first big buck I killed 40 years ago, back when they stuffed the cape with sawdust, looks real bad now. Killed several huge bucks since but grew to realize that for me, mounts are a poor representation of the magnificence of a live buck but the memories of the hunt will never fade.
I tack up my antlers on the wall of my shop along with my ancient 8 point mount, they fit the best out there.
Honor your wife's opinion guys, somewhere down the road you may will look back and see the respect and consideration you had for your wife as a huge feather in your cap.
We, too, moved into a smaller home for retirement, and there's room for only 5 in one room. I sold my 6x6 elk--there is no ceiling tall enough for it, even when I build my man-cave in the second garage. One bear skin rug and a buffalo hide also found a new home. The one thing I still have are lots of pictures and memories. Stuff happens and things move on...
I was never a big fan of mounted heads in a house. My buddy has a full strut turkey standing on top of his TV, kinda freaks me out. I much prefer european skull mounts. Even then, I would never put one in our living room. Such things belong in a den or hunting lodge. The few deer, javelina, and a hog I've done are in my bow room along with my bows and photos.