Success!

Last Wednesday was too perfect of a day to not go hunting. I put The kid on the bus and headed out. I parked in the first pasture, sat behind a clump of trees with a coffee, did a doe-in-heat call, snapped this picture....

...and out walked a buck! I was completely alone, and wanted to be sure of a clean shot so I rested my elbow on a stump. It was not quite the right height and I knew I didn't have a real good hold on the gun but the aim was perfect so I took a chance and squeezed the trigger. Intense pain attacked my face, blood exploded out, and my vision went black. I staggered around in a daze for who knows how long, my vision slowly coming back and the blood pouring down my face and shirt front. I checked my gun about three times, I had no idea what happened. Did my gun back fire? Did someone hit me? I pulled out my phone to call for help and thought to take a picture to see what the hell was going on with my face.

As I tried to pull my eyes into focus to look at the picture I realized I had scoped myself. My brain was still kind of fuzzy so I went down to the house and cleaned myself up and called the neighbour to come up and come with me to the recover the deer that I wasn't even sure I had hit.  We drove through the field to the spot I was sure I had shot him and there he was dropped right in his tracks. 

I took him home, hung him up and gutted, skinned and washed him down with vinegar water and got ready for work. I think I was still in shock, my nose was bleeding from the cut and the nostrils the entire time and it wasn't till I got to work and sat down that I realized, hey this is bad - maybe my nose is broken? I did my hour shift ( I'm a noon hour supervisor at my daughters school) and headed to emergency. Yes my nose was broken and I was given a choice of stitches or crazy glue for the inch-long slice down my nose. I chose the glue, they straightened my nose and off I was sent home with instructions of "don't touch your nose at all". Kind of hard when it's still bleeding and you need to wipe it every ten seconds! That night my face and nose got so swollen, the pressure in my face was almost unbearable. 

But I'm still smiling because there's a buck hanging in the shop! 

 

Deer!!

This fall I pulled a little trick I learned from my dad. I ask the kid if she wants to go hunting, I grab the gun, we sneak the power saw into the back of the truck and head out. After driving around for an hour or so, we break it to her that we actually were just coming for firewood. She has a little fit but helps with the wood anyways. We were on our way home when Toby interrupts herself mid-sentence to scream DEER!!! I jumped out loaded a bullet and shot as fast as you could blink, the deer does a wobble, takes a half leap over a log and drops dead. I'm suddenly forgiven for the firewood trick. Toby and I take off across the field to check it out, my husband backs the truck up to the deer. This is is one of the few times in 9 years my husband has been hunting with me and it was the first time I've gotten anything more than a grouse in front of his city-boy eyes.
"Grab a leg" I say "let's gut this and get it home"
"I have to touch it?!" He says "no way, that's sick"
I throw a leg at Toby and tell her to show daddy up and hold it, she reluctantly does it with two fingers. I give up! I hooked the back legs behind my legs and start to work. Toby just stares with a look on her face that just screams she thinks I'm insane and Big Daddy goes behind the truck to gag. I get it gutted and in the back if the truck and we head for home. A great end to getting firewood!