“GIANT SNOWFLAKES“ - Jim Larsen

[Terry_Green]

“GIANT SNOWFLAKES“ - Jim Larsen


          It’s the holiday season again, a time for family gatherings, eating too much and spending time with friends too often neglected. This is also my favorite time of the year to be outdoors with longbow in hand pursuing whitetails or cottontails or wading a fast flowing creek with a pack basket full of traps with visions of furbearers in my head.
     It’s been raining for the past few days and what little snow that was covering the frozen ground is long gone. Christmas is only a couple of days away and I am praying for snow. As I stand at the kitchen sink, fulfilling a promise to my wife to help get the house ready for the coming guests, it begins to snow.
     Just a flake here and there but snow all the same. My spirits suddenly seem lifted and washing the dishes no longer seems like a chore. Soon the flakes begin falling more frequent and seem to be growing in size. I look at the clock knowing full well that I would have no time to go hunting and fulfill my obligations around the house. “Boy, I live all year long waiting for a day like this!” I say out loud to myself. How can I make the most of this opportunity I ponder?
     I turned from the clock and peer outside once more. “ Wow!” I exclaim as I spied the GIANT SNOWFLAKES slowly drifting to the ground. These are my favorite kind of snowflakes, the huge, wet, glistening flakes that cling to everything they touch.
     My mind begins to drift back to a late December day a few years ago. I was sitting on a camo-folding chair a few yards inside of a small woodlot watching a grassy power line that met up with a cut cornfield. As I sat there awaiting the white-tailed deer that usually made their way up the power line from the swamp to feed in the cornfield, it began to snow. Slowly at first and gradually picking up speed. Soon GIANT SNOWFLAKES were coming down. What a beautiful sight!
     Something catches my attention out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head to see a Cardinal land about 20 feet away and start pecking at the frozen kernels of corn on the ground. I am engrossed in watching the bright red male when a Chickadee lands on a branch just a few feet from my head and begins his beautiful song. Chickadee, Chickadee, Chickadee dee dee dee!
     Soon more Cardinals and Chickadees begin flying in totally oblivious to my presence. As I turn my head I catch a flash of brown and my heartbeat begins to quicken. A deer is meandering up the power line on a trail that passes a mere 10 yards from my hidden form. As the deer approached closer I see that it is a young button buck and my heartbeat begins to return to normal.
     The little fella is now so close that I can see the steam exhaling from his nostrils. He stops and shakes his head and then his whole body to rid his coat of the GIANT SNOWFLAKES. I watch him feed in the cornfield for the next 45 minutes and then he turns and slowly ambles down the power line towards the swamp.
     The birds all seem to one at a time begin flying off into the distance to find a safe place to sleep for the night. I smile as I grab my longbow and fold up my camo stool to exit the woods knowing that I wouldn’t trade that evenings hunt for anything.
     I am brought back to reality when my front door opens and in walks my wife. “Thank you for doing the dishes honey. I thought for sure that you would have gone out hunting and I’d be stuck doing them!” she said.
     “ I did. “ I replied grinning, “but I’m back now. “