The truck is mostly full, and I dunno where the rest of it will go. Thank goodness I can't find three longjohn tops, or I know for darn sure that the load wouldn't fit.
I almost couldn't go, and I was fretting very badly, as I desperately need the time away from my life's stressors. So, here I sit, instead of loading the last of the stuff, because coffee is good and I like to take one last look around before getting on my way. Once again I will see fall turn to winter, walk the woods a free person, bristling with weapons and steeped in grateful humility. The moon is full, and will wane over the course of my hunt, and I intend some long conversations with her.
Now I see that a member of this board, who has always lent a kind hand and a gentle smile, will not be hunting this fall, as he has stepped onto the trail that leads beyond. I will include him in my campfires, offer him what I have, and try to come up with a story for him every day that I hunt. Each of these days is precious.
Killder :wavey:
Enjoy your adventure Killy! Something magical about nature in autumn.
Looking forward to reading about your yearly pilgrimage to the forest and re-connection with Mother Earth. I hope this journey refreshes your spirit and mind.
Kathy you are leaving with the right feelings;enjoy your hunt,good luck.
Felix
Good luck to you maam! Be safe! :campfire:
Good luck Kathy! Be safe my friend...
Sounds great!Good luck and keep warm.
The prelims to renewal sound great! Have a great trip.
Enjoy the refreshment only available in the mts. and drink of the fresh air. Be safe and look forward to the pictures upon your return. Stay safe.
I wish I was always able to muster up that sort of positive attitude. It's the journey, not necessarily the destination, right? May your journey be pleasant. Best of luck on your adventure and stay safe.
S.
:thumbsup: Sounds like your hunt was successful before it even started.
Kathy,
May the "Great One" guide your spirit and your arrows. Have a blessed hunt.
Good Hunting and Be Well...
Good luck and enjoy killdeer!
You talk in nature poetry & your word gift is appreciated by all. Thanks & good hunting. Hope Brian makes your campfire.
As long as your truck is loaded, keep on driving down to Oklahoma. I've got a couple of decent spots down here, and some horses to ride as well.
Best of luck to you, come back to us safe.
Have a great time!
And so it begins....
My favorite thread of the fall.
I hope you enjoy Company Kathy, because there is quite a crowd following your every footstep.
Enjoy!
good luck sister, enjoy and walk in beauty!
Real nice Killy. :campfire:
good luck... I want to see pictures.
Good luck and I envy you. Seems other things if life have short circuited my hunting so far this year.
I'll be anticipating a detailed account of each step you take while out there.Savor your trip.
Have an amazing adventure !!! I can't wait for the storys :)
:campfire:
Be brave. :campfire:
Hoping you have a perfect trip, and Be Safe! :campfire:
What staitera said X2. Love reading your posts Killy. Good luck and may your arrows fly true !
GOOD LUCK My Sister!!!!! May The Great One send "Good Things" your way!!! :archer:
Good luck Killy! Keep the wind in your face and your feet on the trail. Looking forward to hearing about your hunt.
Best of luck..........and may your cup be filled and running over with all that Mother Nature has to offer.
Be safe and shoot straight.......we are all awaiting your return from "refilling" your passions.
Winterhawk1960
Enjoy Killy and may you return the better for having gone!!!
Travis
good luck kathy may the spirit of the wolf look after you and guide your arrows to the sweet spot. and i think Brian will be there Guiding and looking out for you no matter where you walk. walk softly Girl. go get em. :wavey: :archer:
Good luck Kathy, and stay safe......looking forward to the stories upon your return.
David
year in and out it semmes to allways bring back to the fall for great blessings.trips and frends is the bleassings that we all need and deserve
No one writes it better, looking forward to reading of your adventure :campfire: be safe
Enjoy the moment.
I'm back.
I have to unload the truck, buy clothes for a funeral, and go back to work on Tuesday, which is when they are going to inspect my apartment building for bedbugs.
Gee, I missed this place!
Killdeer :rolleyes:
Glad you got home safe and sound, look forward to reading your adventures. Bedbugs not included.
Welcome back Killy. I'm waitin for your stories with keen interest. Welcome home. :campfire:
Good Luck and Good Hunting! :thumbsup: :archer: :archer2:
Welcome back! I'm looking forward to your story and photography, too.
Can't wait to hear it.....
Ciao Killie.
Look forward to hearing the experiences that some of us are presented yet never stop to notice, nor acknowledge, admire or enjoy. Some of us may be blinded and deafened by anticipation and miss the greater wholeness of the experience.
Your messages remind me of a great movie that I continue to discover interesting and sometimes significant occurrences that I missed the previous ten times of viewing.
Been away a little while and one of the first thing I wonder was where is Killdeer, and her wonderful stories! Have a nice hunt, Killy.
Been thinking about that Postal Gal myself. Cant wait to hear the words.
This would go a little faster if I knew how to get the file size of my videos down. I am still digesting, and need some sleep.
Sorry.
I won't forget, really.
Killdeer
:coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :biglaugh:
Ciao, Felix!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/IMG_3296.jpg)
Killdeer :wavey:
Killdeer,
Your new Sheepeater is sitting here waiting for your return from the wilds. Will ship on Monday.
Mike
My HERO!!
:bigsmyl:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Videos/Spirit/th_3203SheepeaterSpirit.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Videos/Spirit/?action=view¤t=3203SheepeaterSpirit.mp4)
:bigsmyl:
Killdeer,
And here I thought Wingnut was talking about a bow . . .
AWESOME you drew a sheep tag!!!!! looks like the tracking dog did her job as well!!!
It always seems to be something... right before the season. Now, to some, hunting season seems to be of not much serious import. Kinda like preseason football, or the Ice Capades.
I plan my whole year around it. I have since the mid-eighties.
This year, a long-awaited death in the family, five days before departure. Circumstances were such with the rest of the family that the funeral was postponed until this week. I was sweating bullets, though.
Clark, dealing with the devilish details here, gave me his blessing to go. I think he was happy to get me out of the house, to be truthful. So, as it was in my beginnings, I was alone on this trip, and poor Clark was on his own down here.
The truck got packed, stuffed to the gills, even though I cut down on stuff. I filled the cooler on the way out, and I was off. The weather was balmy. The mountains loomed big and beautiful in the distance. Freedom.
Killdeer
:campfire:
Most of you know that I hunt in the National Forest, and have been going to the same place since 1986. As I have related before, the place is old home to me, though along with the comforting familiar, some uneasy change has taken place over the years. The big one is that the area has been designated a "no logging" zone, which has changed the character of the woods over the years. How many... ten? Logging, as a source of renewing the browse and thickets that keep deer in place, is good, as long as they don't take that tree that you like to sit under, or the one that you took your first deer from. So, my old favorites keep on getting older, decaying, and falling to advanced years, wind or lightning. But the deer population has fallen as well, though the acorn crops are splendid. There are more bears in the place, too, as trees get big enough and hollow enough to provide good hibernation shelter, and the human traffic has decreased.
The hunter numbers are drastically down. I saw two Virginians during the two weeks of muzzleloader season. The other folks I saw go back on the trails were carrying the full backpacks and wearing Spandex, looking like models for REI.
The old chestnut shelter is gone, and a gaudy bathroom has been placed in the parking lot. This disturbs my view greatly, and babies down the rough feel that the place used to have. Many of my favorite features remain, though, and there is ample room for my somewhat ornate camp. The firepit, which we rebuilt after the shelter-razers dozed it, carries the flame of 25 of my years there, and those of the ones who hunted there before any of us were born.
So I return.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/IMG_3307.jpg)
Killdeer
This camp was full of somber thoughts. Stresses at home, work, and life in general keep me flailing away at depression. As my father wanes, I of course give more thought to my own mortality. We lost a fellow archer right before I left, Brian Krebs, and I vowed that he would share my fire. I have not heard of Bodark Okie's condition, but it seems that we will lose him too.
Well, if we wait long enough, we will lose everybody, eh?
That makes the Now very important. Sharp and fleeting. When I put up the camp, I kept all of my fellows in mind, I wanted this fire to burn bright, the spirit to flame up, that it might be shared. I believe in such things, that there is more here than meets the eye, that there are things that we will never be privy to, and that prayers in the heart are probably heard louder than any choir. Well, I hope so, anyway.
I got a new cookshack this year. I know, my camp looks like a commercial for a certain very large, very well-known outfitter, but dammit, the stuff works. And it is far better than that leaky old EZ-Up, the one that has leaked like a tuna net since Day One.
I looked and looked. I really tried to find a suitable alternative. I hated like hell to push the "add to cart" button on something called a "gazebo." Well, wouldn't you? But, floorless is a plus, the reviews were good, they stressed its toughness, and, while I could do without the screens (which enable mice to climb the inside walls very easily), it seemed the ticket. So I cringed, squeezed my eyes shut and clicked.
That EZ-Up is SO out of here. I never got a heavy snow, so I have not completely tested it, but I got some steady rains and moderately high winds (35-40 mph), and it never flinched.
I will not use the G-word for it. It is my cookshack.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/IMG_3368.jpg)
Killdeer
In said cookshack, I stashed a goodly supply of wood, scrounged from various places all year. Leftovers at Baltimore and ATAR, found pieces on the side of the road, chunks from fallen trees and two goodly ash logs salvaged from an Asplundh (gesundheit!) operation on my mail route. These green logs were carried to my truck, where they aged in the bed for three months. They provided the backstop that I like for my fires, and burned slowly. Two logs were just right for three weeks.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/IMG_3372.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/IMG_3370.jpg)
Nice camp!
I also brought along all the leftover meat from my freezer. Had some bear from ApplePie last year, and some venison from a customer who pities my low success rate. Oh, and a couple of beautiful NY strip steaks from Safeway. And some Italian sausages.
I know that I like grilled meat, can't really grill at home, and there is seldom any meat in my hunting camp for some reason. :rolleyes:
Killdeer
shoot straight and have fun.good luck,steve
Too late now, but thanks, Steve! :D
Killy, been waiting on this story! Glad you made it home safe and sound. Pics of the camp are great! Makes me wish I could see the place. Thanks for sharing with us. :thumbsup: :clapper:
I really, really hate to bring up a downer thing, but PLEASE don't anyone transport firewood ANYWHERE, especially ash. The emerald ash borer is devastating ash tree populations all over the northeastern US, and is spreading like crazy. THE MAIN WAY IT IS MOVING IS THROUGH FIREWOOD!! Dead ash is one of the finest firewoods, and green ash is almost as good. The bug got started in Michigan from an imported shipment, and has spread as far as Missouri to the west, Tennessee to the south, and the Atlantic ocean to the east. I get an update from APHIS every few weeks on the latest place it's been found. It's in Virginia, Killy, where you got your ash logs.
It is not native to the US, and our ash trees have no resistance to it. It's the American chestnut all over again. Our chestnuts were likewise killed out by an imported bug that carried a fungus that our trees had no resistance to.
Please, folks, get your firewood where you camp, and don't bring any from home.
Sorry about hijacking your thread, Killy, but this is really important. My main job is overseeing an international program in the US to stop the spread of imported bugs in wood products. Our employees audit wood packaging producers all across the country to make sure the wood they use has been heat-treated or fumigated to kill any bugs that could emerge in a foreign country and kill their trees. Most of the developed countries of the world are participating in the program, but where the emerald ash borer is concerned it may be too late.
We also have several other imported pests at work on our native species, but the ash borer is the worst one we know of for now. No more Lousiville Sluggers, if it's not stopped.
Kathy,I really understand your melanchonic feelings.I am very glad that the emerald arrow coming from East was on your camp.
:thumbsup:
Well now, i hope you cooked "them" bugs til they were well done! :)
Please, please continue....
Nice to see you had a good time.
I understand your concern, Don. I was in contact with the folks monitoring the purple 'bug catchers' that they hung on my route. They informed me that none of the insects were being found there on the collectors. The trees were healthy, the logs were clean, once I got the poison ivy vines off of them. They were felled to clear some power lines that they were afoul of. The sweet birch and maple splits were purchased in town at an exorbitant price. The rest was red oak and two pine boards found at camp.
This being a public forum, I expect a little hijacking, and your point is well taken. I thank you for educating us.
Done scrambling, now, where was I? I may have to unpack the journal. I had to shop for funeral clothes, and was completely unsuccessful. Just got back and I have not taken anything out of the truck except the coolerater.
Ah, Wannabe1 wanted to see the place. Here is one of my favorite places. The beavers have completed their work and moved on. Now there is a meadow, full of asters, a small muskrat seep and sedges. The deer use this at night.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/IMG_3313.jpg)
This is the trail above the meadow, which i still call the Beaver Ponds. As you can see, I carry too much stuff.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/IMG_3311.jpg)
And for Don and Karen, my favorite camp tree, an old hollow maple that is likely older than my dad.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/IMG_3304-1.jpg)
Killdeer
ahhhhhh i needed this! funerals and gloom on my end as well sister, been a hard month, i thank you for taking us along on this trip!
Looks like a great time in some beautiful country.
well glad ya had a good time kathy oh and i like that camo benie ya had on around the campfire nice and warm eh awesome pics girl :thumbsup:
Great pics and story, luv'n every minute of it.
Thanks
Shoulda known you'd do it right, Killy.
Your story is sure bringing back some memories for me. Rest a while, and give us some more, please.
:bigsmyl:
THANKS for the trip! Haven't made it to the woods yet. This would be my first season without my red dog Jag. I miss her company, and that may be one of the reasons.
Thanks agin for the Trip!
Johnny/JAG
Always love your stories, Killie.
:bigsmyl: :wavey:
Good luck and enjoy the best of times .
Kathy there are some beautiful colors there.
I've been patiently waiting for this tale to unfold. I'm reading it on my phone for now and will have to wait until I return home next week for the pictures. I know without looking though that they will match the wonderful prose.
There is more to come but I still have not unpacked my journal yet. Between dead folks and bedbugs, and now being back to work, I am strapped for time. Oh, I should be in the shower now, but I just had to relax a little by reading the threads here. I will see if I have an old pic of the shelter. I sure miss that thing.
Killdeer
Enjoying this very much Killie...Autumn is meant to be soaked up to the last drop!
In its last days:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/Camp2004.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/Shelterandme2004.jpg)
Oh, the slides I took of that shelter! I need to scan some. In mid-November, when the snows came, and the heat inside would melt the lowest layer on the roof and cause it to drain off the back, what fantastic icicles! I was snowed in there once by a Nor'easter, my car stayed in camp for eleven days. I had a six-point hanging from the beam out front, and plenty of propane. I would chop wood just to keep warm, and to keep from sitting inside burning propane. I stayed there when it got down to 15 below. Hard, hard cold with trees making loud pops in protest of it all. The whole world seemed brittle.
During the thunderstorms, it felt so safe in there, the solid logs and thick log beams felt as though they would protect me from any tree that might give up it roots and fall. Cozy, as long as it didn't leak, and as long as the propane held out. Many a wild night I would have to get up and find a way to patch a leak in the roof or wall. I brought tarps, and plastic sheeting, a hammer and nails. Duct tape for reinforcing where I drove the nails in the plastic. Come time to leave, all that stuff came home with me, to use again next year.
There were names and dates carved all over the walls, inside and out, going back to 1933. People pounded pennies into cracks, shell casings into the ends of the logs, and I put my carved eagle feather on the back wall, with the year of my first hunt there, and then my first deer, and then my second...
All gone now. Many nights I slept there, me and the mice, and all those whispered names.
Killdeer
That's a cool looking shelter, what a shame the chestnut trees are all but gone.
Wonderful.....you can't beat a lean-to. Spent many a night in the Adirondacks fishing trout ponds in the spring. Got snowed in one time as you did,but I had a 4 mile walk out in 12" of wet snow. Great nights spent looking at the stars and the moon, hearing owls and loons.......good stuff!! :thumbsup:
Enjoy your story Killdeer and the pics.RC
Ahh, I can see why you miss it. What a lovely shelter. Thank you for sharing your story.
Kathy,
Your tales of adventure (and photos) bring a smile to my face (and warmth to my soul).
Looking forward to the continuation............
:campfire:
Have a fine trip! and a safe return! AND everyday is precious!!!!!
Great story, Kathy. I'm glad you got to get away for a bit. I'm looking forward to the rest.
Great story and pictures.
Thanks for the pics, Kathy. I hope that your travels bring you out my way.
great read Killy, love the pics :campfire:
Ain`t it something how fast time goes by sometimes?
Kathy,
Thanks for the photos. OUTSTANDING :thumbsup: :campfire:
You go gettum girl!
When it comes to tales of adventure and doing it right, I always look forward to my favorite brother of the bow... who just happens to be a sister.
And guys Kathy tells a mean story because she is so articulate but mainly because she "gets it".
:campfire:
I understand the the grief of losing someone you love and the solace of a familiar place,thanks for sharing.
Girl,I absolutely love the way you put feelings into words,your up there with the best of em!Thanks ever so much for sharing all this with us.
I would love to hear your litterary comments if I could get you into our North country elk hunting,it would truly be a classic!
QuoteOriginally posted by Charlie Lamb:
When it comes to tales of adventure and doing it right, I always look forward to my favorite brother of the bow... who just happens to be a sister.
And guys Kathy tells a mean story because she is so articulate but mainly because she "gets it".
:campfire:
I could not agree more.
More please. This is outstanding!
Your words are hitting home clear across the country to Oregon. I am leaving in a couple of days for time in the snowy high country looking for love sick muleys. My heart is looking forward to the quiet of the winter woods without a time clock and the adventure that unveils each day. My arrows have some mighty fine Mercury nocks on them that came from Va. :0) Thanks for this story as a preparation for my journey.
Killy, you would've been the most popular person at the campfire in years past! Your story telling skills would've been and are above reproach. Keep it coming my friend. Excellent job!
OK, one phase taken care of, funeral tomorrow, and then it will be just work and bedbugs keeping me from the keyboard. Brought my journal in.
Without the journal, my timeline would be garbled, and details would be lost. Many times, it is the details that are the most important thing. Other than a highlight or two, the hunt would be forgotten. Maybe that is not a bad thing, as a reduction in clutter leads to clarity and completion in one's doings. I am a pack rat, though, of tidbits and doo-dads, I carry too much stuff and am used to it.
Killdeer
Wow! Long trip! More pictures!
We'll be waiting, Kathy. Our sympathies are with you over the loss of one you loved.
Just checkin in Killy. I'm looking forward to the rest when you are settled and ready to speak of it all. Loved the cold night lean-to story from years ago.
TTT.
Thanks Killdeer great photos
Are you ready to pick up where you left off?
Man, I had to go back and see where I left off!
This isn't really fair to you real hunters out there, as you know very well that no animals are harmed in the recording of my hunts. So, unlike Curt or Charlie, RC or Stone Knife, I really have no business drawing out a story.
I packed the truck on Friday, full of too much stuff as usual. I doubt that a stick of gum could have found a safe place to spend the night in there. And I am trying to minimize. Saturday, the 23rd of October found me at the grocery store, filling the cooler. I always take meat. I know me.
Saturday evening, as it grew dark, my camp was set up. Palatial tent, and a new cook shack, new sleeping bag and lanterns set up just in time. After the drive, and all the work getting set up, I was too tired to eat more than a few pretzels and some water. A pair of barred owls shattered the cool night air with a sunset serenade. I couldn't find my alarm clock, had not brought a pocket watch, so I was offline with a vengeance.
Killy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.
I fell asleep listening to the ringing in my ears, dreaming of the eagles that I had seen on the way up. The moon rose big and full, shining through the walls of my tent. I awoke some time later, as there was a deer blowing mightily in the woods behind me. She must have been astonished at finding my small city where she normally sauntered through on her rounds. She blew and blew, and still my house stood. I almost felt guilty.
Morning broke, a glorious Sunday. A Chamber of Commerce-type day, post-cardy blue skies, warm sun, cool breeze. Where in the heck was I? This is not the Monster Mansion that I have always traveled long to see! The next day was warmer still. I may have tanned a bit in my jeans and T-shirt. This was SO wrong!
Killdeer
Back tomorrow. :wavey:
Vonnegut, but no slaughterhouse?
Busted!! :biglaugh:
Pshewww Killie, Glad you are ok. Its been a while. I's afraid someone had gone postal after having to return to "organized" chaos.
There commenced a series of days of warm temperatures, decompressions of the spirit, a shedding of stress. In contrast, aches and pains cramped my excursions. The heel spur that has dogged me for a couple of years now, plus a new hitch in a hip, made each mile hard-won. The only deer that I saw were at dark, and the ones that taunted me as I exited the outhouse were most indiscreet in their comments. Evidently, my hunting prowess had become the stuff of common talk amongst them, and their assessments were unnervingly honest.
In an attempt to put the fear of the Hunter in them, I broke out a package of bear meat from last year, wrapped the medallions with bacon, and built a fearsome fire.
(\\/ Click to see video of fearsome fire. \\/)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/th_MVI_3328.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/?action=view¤t=MVI_3328.mp4)
Made ME feel better, anyway. There was a good, solid, soaking rain that night, and I slept as soundly as I ever had in my life.
Next morning, I headed to the outhouse. There was a deer next to it. I did not have my bow with me. My reputation stood intact, and I wondered if the outhouse would be accepted as a blind by my TradGang buddies.
Not to waste good footing, I stillhunted that day. Saw the belly of a deer go past, up the hill from me as it snuck out from where I had been stealthily breaking sticks.
About ten that night, somebody drove in and around with a truckload of hounds.
Still better than a day at work. :)
Killdeer
I am blessed by your writings.
As Charlie says "you get it!' and it's evident in your relating your version of the world away from the rat race.
I think we are reaching an age where the losses of others hit home far more frequently than when we were in our 20's.
Not intended to hijack but your tale helps me deal with the loss of a dear brother that was closer to me than my biological brothers.
I was hit and hit hard.
I thank God for folks like you Kathy. You help get me through the day.
Wonderful photos!!!! Thank you for sharing.
God bless,Mudd
There ya are, Girl!
Been watchin to see this pop back up on radar!
No matter the reasons, it's so GOOD to see you back sharing and writing and makin me smile!
su amigo,
Cookie Monster
The wind came up during the night. I wondered how the cookshack would do, it being the untried member of the enclave. The awning was up, and I was curious how it would handle the gusts. I figured if it got real noisy than I would have to go out and fix something.
Now, there is something of a coward in me. Wind brings that out. The trees, with the wind blasting about their limbs, put the fear of God in me. Their crashings and gnashings, with the wood coming down, well, I would rather be in the relative safety of a semi-open area. I pitch my tent with a wary eye toward an old friend, an aged maple that has drawn me to it for 25 years. It is likely at least 77 years old, and even likelier to be older. It is hollow, so, like an old-fashioned woman, will never reveal its true age.
This spring it lost a major upright trunk, which came down on an oak picnic table and destroyed it. I respect wood!
So, all that to say this, in the case of high winds, and these were moderate, at 35-40 mph, I stay out of the forest. What a grand excuse for a big breakfast! I ate, did the dishes, packed a lunch, and waited for the wind to die down. Brushed my hair, cleaned and organized the tent, read a book. Still windy.Broke out another book, there in front of the cookshack. The day was cool and clear, the sky a deep, intense blue.Four trainer jets played overhead, then left. I gave up on hunting. Broke out a growler of ale, read some more, dozed in the sun, daydreaming. Had some hot tea.
Then it happened. I heard footsteps. Four-legged footfalls in the leaves near the shack. It's not a squirrel. AH!
Bambi delivers! :bigsmyl:
(No matter how old we get, there is a naive child inside who believes in the kindness of the Fates.)
I set down my tea, and arose from the chair. Hanging from the center of the shack was my bow, quiver of arrows attached. Soundlessly, I took it down and nocked an arrow. I eased my nose outside, hoping to see the deer before it saw me.
Yes, I would slay any bambi in a heartbeat, even under such decadent conditions. Buck, doe, or ol' milk-lip, I have not killed one in so long, and straps is straps!
Well, I couldn't see it. I listened through my ringing ears into the silence...
A step. Another. I popped an eyeball out of the socket and cast it around the corner. It was not a deer. Broadside and oblivious, a black bear snuffled in the leaves ten yards away.
Cub. Would it make the weight? Remember, Kat, black is slimming. It took a couple of steps, looking just like the targets I have shot all summer. Tasty!! Hate to shoot it and have it come up five pounds short. (tasty!) Not a real hunt. (tasty!) Couple more steps, now it is twelve yards or so. It notices me as I lower the bow. I stare at it, it squints at me. It decides to angle off to its right, at a 45 degree angle to its original course, and it carefully moseys up the Shelter Ridge. It was then that I thought of my camera. DOH! It always seems that I have the wrong instrument in my hands when the opportunity arises to collect a specimen.
I had never seen a bear in camp (here) before, at least not of its own accord. It occurred to me that I should have scared it some, to keep it and future campers safe. But it did not seem to be the thing to do when it was happening, my spirit did not move in that direction.
No glory, no meat, but a good amount of diversion for an afternoon spent in camp. And I SO want to take a bear!
Killdeer
St. Pauli camp.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2010%20Highland%20Hunt/IMG_3336.jpg)
tasty!
When I started watching the video, I thought "but where's the meat?" Silly me. Still working on that patience thing...