Losing Interest, Aging, or what? Hunting goals changed?

Not long ago an average weekend day looked like this:

Bow hunt the morning.
Race to the goose field for the 10:30am flight, then drag decoys and geese back to truck
Shoot quail and rabbits on my way to jumping ponds for ducks.
Race home and clean limits of ducks and geese and whatever quail/rabbits I shot.
Make it back to a tree for the evening bowhunt.
Go bar hopping with wife or have people over.
Sleep a couple of hours and do it again.

Now I just pick one and do it... mostly it's bowhunting.
I shoot whatever buck I feel like but now I don't kick myself as much if it isn't really big. We always have plenty of game to eat, I'm only interested in antlers or a cool hunt.

My priorities have definitely changed over the years. Just this year I gave up hunting on a lease in SW Wi where I had opportunities at big bucks every year and was coming off 2 years of bucks on the wall. It was a far drive and I really missed my family. We have a 40 with a cabin in northern Marinette county, not big deer area. I wanted to hunt with my son and wife more so that is where I am hunting this year. I probably won't see anything I want to shoot and I am ok with that. I'll still sit this same or more as I love being up in the tree. My goal is for them to each get a buck. I would be happier with that outcome then me getting a shooter.

Been trying to decide if I will put up a couple of ladder stands this year for hunting with my cross-bow......or just go rifle hunting and play golf. Also, I got a two-week trip to France with my wife this October....so time is going to get tight. Feel less compelled to hunt deer each year....yet I like the family time and seeing the excitement of my grandsons. May try a little bow hunting.....but my heart is about deer camp and the rifle season. Then.....off to OZ for some R&R and warm weather. It's all good. FORE!

Priorities definitely change throughout the different phases of life. I used to hunt skirts 2-5 days a week, now I'm married with 2 kids.

My love of the outdoors has always been strong. Like Freeborn, I live in the cities and can't stand filthy humans everywhere. I hunt because it gives me reason to explore the back corners of North America that most people don't know exist. Hunting gives me the opportunity to be aware of things I would ignore in the concrete jungle like wind direction, unique smells, morning dew, animal behavior, animal sounds, timing of sunrise and sunset.... Experiences that would never occur without patient observation. I feel close to my god in wide open spaces.

I enjoy a mission driven hunt for trophy animals. Passing shot opportunities is hard at first but it increases the number of encounters thus the amount of learning opportunities. I've eaten tag soup more than once and I've got no problem with it. I love carry my bow in the mountains and sitting in a tree... They require wildly different disciplines which keeps it interesting.

I currently find land management work relaxing. If it becomes a burden, I probably won't do it anymore. Its kinda funny my wife can hang out with a room full of strangers all day and feel recharged at the end of the day. I'm wiped out in 20 minutes. But I can go to the farm and work from sunrise to sunset and feel like a million bucks.

Art, with your north property a fall partridge hunt with a dog walking through the aspen is a great day.  A partridge flush will get your hart pumping and will humble even good wing shooters.  Much harder to hit a flying partridge then a pheasant in my opinion.

The old grade northwest of of cross-lake has some birds, that's my go-to place as its reasonably close to the cabin.