rickyp: you and bemanbeme have me rollin' on the floor. I can just hear the neighborhood kids now: Nooo Mom, not Rudolph, waaaaaaa!
Hey, here in neu yawk it was never a law but just a policy our En-con Game Officers observed that whitetail being transported after being harvested should be covered as best as possible. En-con received many, many complaints about the obvious sight of dead whitetail in the back end of a pickup truck, or strapped to the hood of one and rotting in the hot sun while En Con and company were either soakin' up beers or breakfast, so En-con enforced the policy for a number of years until it became practice, and that's ok with me.
As for the tripod set-up you mentioned - they look good - I've seen adds for them. Fortunately for me I have some very nice trees with good thick branches where I dress my whitetail and simply use a come-a-long and a rope and can get almost all my work completed in the field.
Regarding your mother - neither she or you are alone here. My younger brother was observed by my mother doing what you normally do and she lit into him for it - he was 50 at the time but wasn't very considerate of her or other's feelings about that sort of thing, so he moved his operation to a location out of sight of most people or passers-by and is happier for it, now. And I know folks who do as you do and get the normal comments when people go by. One fella and his wife are local and live next to the local post office. Now, here's the trick - most of the postal workers come out, at one time or another, to compliment the fella and his wife on their harvest(s); many of the folk who stop at the P.O. do the same when they observe them at work but, there are always those who say - how could you do that, or how does it feel to kill a helpless bambi, or how can you do this in plain sight of influential children, and all that?
I guess it boils on down to whatever floats your boat but I have found that although there may be a bit of an incovenience moving your operation, the lack of bs and agita you get when you are preparing your harvest seem to make the process go more smoothly and you don't wind up with a bad attitude when you've finished.
JMTCW. Mikey.
