Well, after the eventful deer stand climbing season ended for the day, and I walked back to the car, where this time Jeanne and Loki were waiting for me instead of Jeanne going to stand with me. As it was normally, I was afraid to go anywhere or do anything without Jeanne or Loki or both, but since arriving at the farm? Almost immediately I was doing and going by myself, driving around the farm, going down to Dad's place with Loki, besides the tree stand I was feeling absolutely great.
But this day had ended, and we drove back to grandma's, then chatted at Dad's for awhile, back to grandma's for more chatting then off to early bed, for tomorrow would be another early rise. Laid out my clothes, with a little more precision than the day before, and I noticed the alarm clock was set, however the clock seemed to be ever so slightly moving closer to Jeanne's side of the bed, I wondered what could be happening here, although I knew already. I'll be watching that closely here on out. She's sneaky that way I tell you.
Anyway, we awoke to the alarm clock, but she was quick to slap it and roll back in bed, but I heard it enough to get up and get moving, and down stairs for food, Loki hot on my tail to say good morning, and jumped up on Linda's lap on her chair to get her moving also. About time I finished eating Jeanne come zombie like into the kitchen. Shortly after we were off, her and Loki would take a nap in the car while I went off on my own into the great beyond, well maybe 300 yards from the car near where I was the previous night on stand, where I couldn't handle the actual getting into stand, anyway, this was on the other side of that timber on the east side.
Now, this stand was nice, a double stand made for two, but antsy-pantz is sleeping in the car, so I'd attempt to climb that sucker that I helped Dad, and step-brother Jason put in a few days ago, had branches around it, even the tree was surrounding part of it, and this one has a bar that comes down around you to hold on to, or rest your gun on, nice and safe right? Well, still dark out, which is good for me, easier doing new things when it's still dark, so UP UP and away I go, up to the top, soon as I started into the stand, I clammered down that ladder and said FUCK THAT, i'm sitting on the ground right BY the stand LOL.
Tree Stand TWO,, Lance Zero. As it turns out, it's probably a good thing I sat on the ground, I'll get to that in a couple seconds.
Beautiful morning, in the thirties as the sun rose, my hyperventalating was almost back to normal, was starting to feel pretty good, after all I was hunting, I was alone, and besides that damn tree stand I was all good. After about a hour or so, besides occasional bird chirping and 1500 squirrels running everywhere, the blue jays and squirrels cut loose in a rant to my north, well this not always means diddly, but never the less, my eyes are shooting laser beams that direction, and about 20 seconds later , crash crash crash through the brush about 100 yards away here they come, thump thump thump, what the heck is that? Ah yes, my heart, seems to be gearing up quite fast, because all I see is a decent 8 pointer running right at me, with a doe-fawn and doe in the lead.
I quickly raised the rifle up flicked off the safety and spent what seemed like eternity trying to get a sight line for a shot between all the trees on that buck, what was a matter of maybe 2 seconds I sent one down range at the buck what i thought was a decent shot, and he dissappeared for a second, I didn't honestly think I hit him, and with the flurry of crashing and excitement, saw the other two deer with him still coming through, now heading slightly away and to my right from me, and then the buck showed up again and on path behind, so once again, fighting all the trees between us I lined up for another shot, this time I really thought I had a nice shot, broad side, probably 60 yards in the scope all I saw was chest and squeezed it off, and off he ran, well geez, hunting is fun!! right? lol.
Got on my walkie talkie told Dad who was in his stand to my west probably 300 yards away, and no trouble figuring out it was me shooting, later he said, "heard the one shot, and thought alright he got one!" , then heard the second, and oh crap he missed. Well, I started heading up to last visual on the buck to look for blood, as dad says on the radio go look for blood, well duh, alrighty going dad thanks hehe.
Took me all of 5 seconds to find blood right away, called dad told him, and he was on his way. I assume once the buck seemed to dissapear on the first shot, must of dropped him, but he got back up. So, now the hunt for the blood trail begins, always enjoyed following blood trails, yeah the animal is suffering and scared I realize that. But blood trailing takes a lot of skill and patience so you don't lose that animal, and darnit it's fun trailing it to that final reward,,,,,, you hope.
Well, it crossed into the neighbor Larry Flannery's land, and he's such a wonderful sweetheart to the family since we sold off all the cows and rented out the land. Luckily a friend of his came walking up to chat with us, he'd scared the deer to me,, thank you very much, he didn't know this, and doesn't matter, we asked him to call larry, tell him what happened and ask if we can go trail our deer. Well, the wonderful guy said yeah, we can go trail it. BUT NOTHING ELSE. Don't shoot anything else, just that deer and then leave. Awww how cute, what a wonderful neighbor he is.
Well, we trailed very slowly, took quite a while, didn't bleed a lot of the time to well, then we'd hit a spot where there was a lot, honestly time went so fast I don't know how long it took, but we kept going, Greg called cousin Kurt to go around to other side of the timber on OUR land, in case we jumped it up, and god forbid chased any of LARRY's deer out that way, man I wish we did. But we stayed on course, wasn't too much longer and about 60 yards ahead, Dad says, wait, what is that down in the creek bottom, way down the hill, THAT'S HIM!!! Well we hurried down there fast, and sure enough, that's him, he tried to go up a steep incline and fell over backwards dead. W00h00, I never cared much for gun hunting, prefer bowhunting, but wow did that feel good, very excited, slapping each other around a bit, then looked at where we gotta drag that sucker through the brush.
And cried a little. Straight up hill the whole way through the brush about 350 yards or so, and this was a big bodied son of a gun, probably 225-230 live.
Well, tagged him, smiling the whole time like it was my first ever, kind of was after that long without hunting, wow I was pumped up. And now I get to gut this thing, and was actually looking forward to it, Heck didn't miss a beat after that long, took me maybe 4-5 minutes and done, used to do it in a minute or 2 but hey, i'm happy.
Not even going to talk about the drag out, and hoisting that heavy sucker into the truck after, it just sucked is all. badly sucked lol. But I have meat for the freezer. And another story to tell.
Told Jeanne she can head home on the walkie talkie, and we'd meet up there to show and tell. Wish Grandma could have came out to see, but she was pretty well stuck to the recliner for a while. Hand shakes all around, and what looked like some jealousy from the others, cuz once again they didn't see squat lol, Cousin Matt did get a very nice sized doe on Saturday, so he's good on meat as well. Grats!
And Loki, never seen one of these things, very curious pup I tell you, didn't want to leave that deer at all, he seemed proud of his Dad also.
Later that day, Matt and I loaded up my deer with his in his truck, and I'd attempt something brand new for me again after all these years. Drive alone with someone else, no Jeanne no Loki, and register the deer, and start to have them processed at the meat plant. Well besides he's a nut behind the wheel, I had a good time, did get a little jumpy on the way back, but another bridge crossed, that this farm has magic waters, If I tried that back in Burlington I don't know, just doesn't seem possible for me to do those things back there.
But I'm feeling better now than I ever have, since anxiety started. Why? how? I don't know, maybe because this is my home? I feel comfortable here? It's where I learned to do the things i'm relearning now? Nothing makes sense to me, but there is a sense of calm for me there and it allows me to feel great, by the time we left this time, i'd felt almost completely healed.
Alright, didn't see a darn thing at the nights hunt, have to shoot a doe before I can shoot another buck. Not sure if I need either, but more meat would be good I think, don't need another buck, but a fat old doe would work for me.
Tomorrow we'll continue on that hunt.
See ya soon.!
Lance
