One, Two, Three...He's down!

So this past weekend was opening weekend for firearm deer season in Missouri (Nov 11). As tradition we went out to our 'camp site' to camp opening weekend. We had about seventeen people there, eight of which actually hunted, that camped out on Friday night. By Saturday afternoon, seven of them went home due to it being cold and the kids were about to go stir crazy. Or maybe the kids were driving the parents crazy...anyway, when I returned from hunting Saturday afternoon camp was 'much' quieter. We all had a good time...we weathered rain, wind, frost, and below freezing temperatures but we made it. (Woo-Hoo!!)

I took a friend out with me this year, she wanted to experience deer camp and hunting. I've told stories about the 'hill' that I had to climb one year to come up out of the 'draw'...I think everyone thought I was exaggerating, but T found out Saturday morning around 10:30 exactly what that hill was made out of. She refused to go back down that night. So I gave her my tree stand (which was on top of the ridge, not very far from camp), and I went down by the river with my dad. Needless to say by the time Sunday night rolled around I had plenty of exercise in.

Now to the good part...I GOT MY FIRST DEER!!! I killed, with the help of my cousin E, my first deer ever. It was a five point buck. What a story I have....me, dad, and E were heading out Sunday afternoon to hunt. We were walking along talking about where each of us were going to be sitting, when I looked up and there was s a deer walking through the woods ahead of us. I told them I saw it, they said shoot it...so I took a chance on a chest shot and let the gun fire. The deer took off running, dad fired off two shots and we watched as the deer ran on. So we start looking for it, E said that the deer hunched up when I shot...so we knew he had been hit. They jumped him in the thicket right under the hill. So dad decided to give the deer time to lay down and die and we went for a walk to the other ridge while E sat and watched the thicket...he decided not to go hunting. We found where the deer was standing when I shot, there was a pile of hair on the ground...dad told everyone we were looking for a deer with a fresh haircut. (We use walkie-talkies) About an hour later we come back through on the backside of the ridge, along the draw, and E comes down off the ridge where I shot the deer...we're boxing it in. Dad tells E to take a shot at it if he gets the chance, because we didn't want to have to track it forever. E was following it down the hill, giving us a play-by-play on where to expect it to come through; Dad and I are coming up along the sides looking for it. E takes a shot at the deer, then another...blowing it's back leg off. The deer is down, I see it crawling around on the side of the hill and E and Big E are coming up to it. Thinking about taking off another shot, I tell them that I'm below them behind the stump and not to fire a shot. The deer finally stays in one place, I finally make it up the hill (mountain), and then I put the final shot through the deer's neck (after failing with one attempt...I could barely breath after my climb up the hill). High fives all around, the deer is down with a group effort, S comes down to save the day with the four wheeler (so we don't have to drag the deer all the way out), and we go back to camp to clean the deer.

The people that were left at camp had a walkie talkie and had heard the whole scenario that was playing out on the hill side. We supplied the afternoon entertainment. I was happy to finally have a deer, though my cousin did help somewhat. The weekend was a lot of fun, and another memory to go down about opening weekend at deer camp.

Audio A and Mercy Me

I had the opportunity this past weekend to go to an Audio A/Mercy Me concert in St. Charles, MO. It was AWESOME!! I was given four comp tickets by the manager, Scott Brickell, to the concert. He's friends with my boss, and I also worked as a nanny for his kids over New Year's weekend in 2005. I got to see one of the better concerts I've been to in awhile...I went to Switchfoot the weekend before. The light show at Mercy Me was subdued, did not blind you, and very tasteful. Audio A rocked the house...I'm more of an AA fan, their music has a little more pep than Mercy Me (though MM has picked the tempo up a little bit). It was a great time, and I'm glad I went, even though the drive home was crazy...I got in around 2:00 am. The joy of living in the middle of nowhere.

'All Shook Up'

This weekend I went out with my dad, bright and early (5:00 am), to hunt. We found a new spot that a guy in our church is letting us hunt at. There were deer everywhere...it was awesome. We show up around 5:30, it's dark, my dad can't find my tree stand...so we're out traipsing around the woods. He finally tells me to 'stay put' and he goes walking around. As I stood there, I heard a squirrel off to my left and some other movement up to the right. When I started looking there were two deer coming up through the woods. I tell dad, via our walkie talkies, and he tells me to get my back to a tree. So I find a spot and get my bow ready, along with getting my face mask and everything on so I blend a little better with the trees. They eventually flagged and ran off, and dad found the tree stand.

I got up in the tree stand, it was a nice tripod stand with a swivel seat...so I was able to look all around without anything hindering my view. As I enjoyed the nice crisp morning (around 40 degrees), a deer came in on my right hand side. I was all excited, it was walking off, but dad said to sit tight and it would probably feed around me. So I sat and watched it eat up the hill, through some trees, and then down toward my tree stand. I stand up and get my bow ready, then wait for the deer to get with in shooting range. As it gets closer, I see antlers...it's a buck. The adrenaline starts pumping through my body and all my senses kick into overtime including the sinuses...which was a minor draw back. I had snot running down my upper lip and beyond. I would try to take 'calming breaths, but would end up with nastiness coming into my mouth. I couldn't wipe if off, that would be unnatural movement and alert the deer to my stake out. So the deer continues down the hill, I'm giving dad semi play-by-play run down of what's going on. He's telling me to take calming breaths because I'm getting to excited...which I can't because of the afore mentioned sinuses. My whole body is shaking and quaking...my leg was shaking so bad I figured I was about to cause the whole tripod to start shaking. Needless to say, the buck (about an 8 to 10 pointer) kept walking. I never even took a shot. He came within about 25-30 yards of my stand.

My dad has decided that I can be part of a buckitus club. It was awesome getting to him, I'm just sad that I didn't actually take a shot. I did get a good cardio work out though...nothing like a good jump start on the old ticker.

Hunting and Human Bowling

Not much has happened in the hunting sector of my life lately. I did go out about two weeks ago (before it started getting dark at 5:00) and hunted on my dad's place. I was supposed to be at play practice (I'm a member of the cast for CAOH), but I stayed on the stand till well past time to be there and had the chance to attempt to shoot a deer...'attempt' is the key word there. I had three does come in on the backside of the pond and cross the fence to get a drink. I watched them walk through and come out on the other side...I tried to shoot one of them at that point in time when there was light still available. But all I did was scare them off, two went north and one went south. The doe that went south was out there snorting at 'whatever' had caused her friends to get scared, so I started using my grunt call to call her back in. Eventually she came down the hill along the tree line and right out in front of me. She waited long enough though, and it was pretty dark. By the time she got within range, I was waiting for her to move so I could get a peg on where she was. She walked in front of a tree that had white bark on it and I drew the bow and took a shot. She ran off. I had to get my flashlight out in order to see to get out of the tree...it was a little dark to be shooting a bow and arrow. Dad came down and we looked for my arrow. I had to go out the next day and locate the arrow...from where she was standing and where my arrow was, I shot between her legs. Better luck next time.

Now onto an event that occurred at our church during our Fat Cow Party/Fall fest last weekend. HUMAN BOWLING!! It was a blast. We took empty Culligan bottles and a board on wheels and catapulted team members into the bottles as the 'bowling ball' to see if we could get any 'pins' knocked down. There were several gutter balls and a couple of strikes...but it was awesome none-the-less. Below is a video...enjoy!