It was a calm cool evening last Friday and we had invited over some friends for a campfire with cider and doughnuts in honor of the beautiful season of fall.
Just before the company arrived the phone rang. It was Joshua who had been out hunting on public land. Everyone held bated breath and leaned eager ears toward Dad who had answered the phone, hoping that the message being relayed was that Joshua had "harvested" his first deer of the season. Watching Dad's face intently, our hopes were realized with Dad's raised eyebrows and rejoinder of "You did!". Pandemonium of high joy broke out around the house, and before dad had a chance to set down the phone he was bombarded with questions, "Is it a buck or doe?" "Did it run far?" "Is it a big one?" "Do we need to go help pick it up?" When he finally was able to answer all our flurried questions we were handed down this information: It was a doe. He was just tracking it and therefore did not know how far it ran or size of its body (when Faith called him a little later, Josh, who had just found the doe, exclaimed "holy smokes, she's a cow!") and no we did not need to go just then, some other friends were going to help him.
When we did get the deer home several hours later, our eyes confirmed Josh's opinion of her body size especially the length of it. After some deliberation, we hung her in the garage. That's right, this poor doe was not only shot, but also hung, and then later quartered and chopped up. Cruel aren't we=) The next day we transported her to the processor.
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Now lets jump to Sunday morning. I had gotten up to milk the goat and wandered bleary eyed into the kitchen to get the bowl and other implements I needed. Glancing out the window I saw Fiona on top of her dog house in a statue-like position staring fixedly at the back yard. I sleepily wondered if she was frozen=) it being a very cold morning, and in my stupor did not think to check out back and see what she was looking at. When I did glance in that direction I was shocked to see a half dozen or more deer wandering around our stream and pond.
The deer had never visited our pond in the daylight before, always just leaving their hoof prints behind at night. The reason for this sudden change, is that we have very smart deer! You see Joshua was gone that weekend to a pre-training camp for the National Guard, and the deer just to make positively sure there would be no danger, came on a Sunday morning when he wouldn't have shot them anyways. Very religious deer don't you think? ;) Seriously It was probably the cold snap that persuaded them to stay out a little longer, but we still lean toward are first theory just a little, because we haven't seen them since, the deer things.
Just before the company arrived the phone rang. It was Joshua who had been out hunting on public land. Everyone held bated breath and leaned eager ears toward Dad who had answered the phone, hoping that the message being relayed was that Joshua had "harvested" his first deer of the season. Watching Dad's face intently, our hopes were realized with Dad's raised eyebrows and rejoinder of "You did!". Pandemonium of high joy broke out around the house, and before dad had a chance to set down the phone he was bombarded with questions, "Is it a buck or doe?" "Did it run far?" "Is it a big one?" "Do we need to go help pick it up?" When he finally was able to answer all our flurried questions we were handed down this information: It was a doe. He was just tracking it and therefore did not know how far it ran or size of its body (when Faith called him a little later, Josh, who had just found the doe, exclaimed "holy smokes, she's a cow!") and no we did not need to go just then, some other friends were going to help him.
When we did get the deer home several hours later, our eyes confirmed Josh's opinion of her body size especially the length of it. After some deliberation, we hung her in the garage. That's right, this poor doe was not only shot, but also hung, and then later quartered and chopped up. Cruel aren't we=) The next day we transported her to the processor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now lets jump to Sunday morning. I had gotten up to milk the goat and wandered bleary eyed into the kitchen to get the bowl and other implements I needed. Glancing out the window I saw Fiona on top of her dog house in a statue-like position staring fixedly at the back yard. I sleepily wondered if she was frozen=) it being a very cold morning, and in my stupor did not think to check out back and see what she was looking at. When I did glance in that direction I was shocked to see a half dozen or more deer wandering around our stream and pond.
The deer had never visited our pond in the daylight before, always just leaving their hoof prints behind at night. The reason for this sudden change, is that we have very smart deer! You see Joshua was gone that weekend to a pre-training camp for the National Guard, and the deer just to make positively sure there would be no danger, came on a Sunday morning when he wouldn't have shot them anyways. Very religious deer don't you think? ;) Seriously It was probably the cold snap that persuaded them to stay out a little longer, but we still lean toward are first theory just a little, because we haven't seen them since, the deer things.
~Chs
