::: post-protestant thoughts :::

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

::: the memory of a lifetime :::

what an unbelievable weekend . . . this was a memory maker for both jonathan and me . . . I took jonathan deer hunting for the first time in his life . . . what a blast . . . my brother lives in west virginia and has a great farm there . . . very little hunting pressure from ‘outsiders’ and tons of deer roam his land grazing all year long . . .

we saw tons of deer . . . mostly does . . . except for mr. big at 7:30 . . . jonathan and i are alone in this doe enters the field . . . I tell jonathan that it is likely that she is in heat and that it is probable that a buck will quickly follow her . . . right after I said that a buck prances into the field after her coming in from behind us . . . now both are in the field and the buck is looking for the doe . . . I tell jonathan to shot the buck . . . he cracks off a shot and misses . . . I follow up with an immediate shot and the buck drops . . . after a few seconds jonathan shoots another shot and hits the buck . . . his small caliber .243 lacks the shock power to kill the buck and with a surge of adrenalin the buck gets up and run toward us . . . only to fall again . . . I tell jonathan to finish him off aiming at the neck he shoots and misses AGAIN!! . . . the crack of his rifle scares the buck off and he run across the property line into the path of the neighboring farmer . . . you guessed it . . . one last shot and the SEVEN POINT buck drops on his land . . . can you spell potential conflict . . . jonathan and I walk over to the carcass and the farmer had put his knife and seat cushion on the deer and went to his house to get his 4 wheeler . . . I explain to jonathan the ‘rules of engagement’ as they relate to deer hunting . . . specifically the last shot owns the deer . . . and its on another man property . . . WE don’t’ have an arguable position . . . you need to understand that for a 13 year old who shot a buck for the first time NONE of this makes sense . . . IT’S MY DEER . . . he chants repeatedly . . . but IT’S MY DEER . . . I SHOT IT . . . he insists . . . I walk him back to the hayshed and after about 2 hours he finally realizes his objections are fruitless. . . I WAS ROBBED . . . THAT’S NOT FAIR . . . you get it . . . anyway . . . I know that all odds are in our favor . . . we are in a GREAT place . . . we know the travel patterns of the deer . . . he are not in the rain . . . the warmth of the hay put us to sleep several times this is a great situation . . . I tell jonathan to relax and evening is quickly coming . . . after all of the shooting jonathan, my brother, his son craig, and me . . . we stood in this hayshed most of the afternoon together . . . giggling, eating each others lunch, and laughing 'quietly' together . . . it was a blast . . . we kept making up these budwiser commericals about a couple of 'idiots in a hayshed' . . . i laughed so hard i'm sore today . . . the deer could talk and they couldn't get over the 'guys in orange over in the hay shed' . . .

fast forward a few hours . . . its now about 3 PM and we hear this sound coming up the other side of the hill . . . it’s the farmer from this morning . . . NO GUN just the 4 wheeler and a set of field glasses . . . he parks right in our line of fire . . . and with a 13 yr old at the trigger I was feeling pretty aggravated at this point . . . this guy (according to jonathan) has already stolen ‘our’ small trophy . . . already beaten us to the punch . . . and now he is decided to make a parking lot for atv’s right in front of jonathan’s rifle . . . can you tell I’m a little chafed at this point??? . . . we discuss the situation with my nephew craig who is 24 yrs old . . . collectively we decide to move to the ‘big meadow’ for more ‘privacy’ . . . we take the walk when we should have been scaling into the prime time preparedness . . . we get to the shed in the big meadow and my brother is already there . . . jonathan wants to stay with his uncle . . . craig and I decide to go our separate ways . . . he’s going to the ‘junk meadow’ (old cars and trucks are parked there) . . . and I’m going to the ‘big noll’ (where I can see EVERYTHING my brother owns all 100 acres) . . . as I am scoping 5 does in this little patch of woods it 4:30 PM . . . slight drizzle . . . foggy just enough to create a mood . . . all is quiet . . . the crows and hawks have all but carried the remaining guts of the SEVEN point we missed and the farmer shot . . . there was a stillness in the air that I don’t remember experiencing ever . . . it was quiet ‘on the hill’ . . . there was a peacefulness that was so still it SCREAMED God’s presence . . . I continued scoping/glassing the deer below me . . . there were about 5 . . . the drizzle was picking up its pace . . . and the quiet was interrupted with the distinctive crack of Jonathan’s small caliber .243 . . . I knew the direction that the shot had come from . . . the shed in the big meadow . . . the deer that I had been watching just looked up momentarily . . . and went back to eating . . . I looked toward the big meadow several times but I could see nothing . . . I went back to the seer below me grazing . . . all became still again . . . I thought to myself . . . no second shot?? Perhaps that’s good . . . perhaps that bad . . . suddenly the deer I had been watching for over an hour ran . . . and I could make out the distinctive clothing that my brother and jonathan each were wearing . . . I looked at jonathan closely with my binoculars and he wasn’t carrying his/my .243 . . . that means goods news . . . . I begin my descent down the hill to meet them at the path below . . . as my brother and Jonathan approach I announce: ‘how far away was it?’ . . . jonathan says how did you know? . . . how far away was it I insist . . . 35 yards he says proudly . . . it was a spike with one tine broken off . . . jonathan had shot and killed his ‘first’ deer . . . (not to mention the nice seven point from this morning that carried his bullet across the property line to the awaiting farmer) . . . this spike had made up for all of that . . . one shot and jonathan dropped it . . . it was a memory that will continue for a lifetime . . . jonathan will never forget these events . . . and neither will I . . . or my brother . . .