Sunday, November 15, 2009

Deer Hunting

As is becoming more and more usual with me, I have not updated the blog in a couple of weeks. There are a couple of reasons. One is I am not much of a picture taker. I either forget the camera or, as more usual, I have the camera but forget to take the pictures. The second reason is that I have been so very busy of late that there is just nothing of real interest to blog about. I could blog about all that I need to get done that I just don't have the time to do, but it bores me to the verge of tears so I can't imagine what it would do to everyone else.
This weekend I took off from all that was going on here in "busyland" and took my son deer hunting. We are one week behind opening weekend because we had a football game last weekend. ( A playoff game. If they had won we would have played for the league championship this weekend. Bittersweet I guess, we had a great time) So Bub and I took of Friday afternoon (he had early release , I escaped from work early) leaving the Mrs. at home with the girls all weekend. As it turns out it was the Mrs. birthday but fortunately for me she was raised by a deer hunting father (Papa) so she is used to being left alone by the men in her life. BTW - I bought her a great gift that she has been hinting about for weeks so she was cool with it all. Anyway - I said all that to say all this. We hunt at the land that my in-laws own in East Texas. It's 37 acres of pure Heaven! It's probably not the greatest place in the world to hunt, but we don't have to pay outrageous lease fees or fight with drunks on the lease, and because I have very gracious and loving in-laws, I feel very comfortable treating the place as my own, which is a nice feeling. Every Labor Day we haul the camper down and set it up for the long haul. We go down as much as time will allow through deer season and we spend an entire week there every Thanksgiving with the Mrs. parents and my mom. Take a look at this trailer. It don't get more level!
Here Bub is at about 5:15 in the AM getting ready to go hunting. This is his first year to show any interest in hunting. Amazing how fast he is growing up. It was a real pleasure spending a whole weekend just him and me. We had a great time! He is a real joy to be with, outside of being as lazy as the day is long, but I guess that comes with the age.

Here he is all ready to go. Actually from the light coming in the windows I think he is just coming in. I may have had to stage some of these pics (see earlier in this post about how bad of a picture taker I am) but just go with me. Bub never complained in all that we did and I was so happy to get some one on one father/son time.
Just a look at the woods at Bakersfield (this is what it's called - not a town in California). This is a shot up the trail to one of the deer stands.

Another view of the place. Kinda pretty ain't it? If I could figure out how to become independently wealthy overnight I could live here full time.

One of our two feeders on the place. I saw a Jeff Foxworthey routine about deer hunting and I am in total agreement that the deer probably costs around $166.49 per pound if all expenses were taken into account. But I challenge anyone who says , " what is the hunting in feeding a deer in the same spot all year and then shooting him when he comes to his dinner table?" to come out and give it a try. I'm sure there are more challenging ways to hunt, but it ain't as easy as it sounds.
Me and Bub in the woods with guns! America - gotta love it! BTW - It's hard to get everything in the camera when your holding it at an arms length.

Bub walking in the woods. The shirt he's wearing is an adult large. It's huge on him. I say that cause it makes him look pear shaped in this pic, which he's not.

11 year olds with high powered rifles! Texas!!!

Me and my deer. I got this the first morning we were there. He was a little 6 point, but I've learned that where we hunt if it has horns - shoot it. They can be few and far between.

These are lousy pics. I had to use my laptop! I forgot my SD card for my camera. Didn't get one until after this deer.

Me and the boy with my deer. He didn't get one this weekend. The man that cuts the hay at the place came over Saturday afternoon and bailed the hay, so it pretty much killed the rest of our hunt. We had an awesome time together. I love being the father of a son so I can do my best to give him the tools to move him into honorable manhood. Don't think I am leaving out the girls. I plan on taking Sissy (the Elder) hunting Thanksgiving week. She's only 8 but she takes after her Momma so she's already a crack shot. As usual God is so good to me and as usual I don't notice it often enough. I seem to spend a lot more time focused on work, school board stuff, and church business than on relationships , either vertical or horizontal ones, but I think God is dealing with me on that as well. I hope He gives me a plan of some kind to consolidate my life. It goes by so fast, I don't want to wake up one day and realize I put all my priorities in the wrong places.


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