Back in the Saddle

For the last twelve days, I haven't given too much thought about work. I've checked e-mail and even took care of a customer issue, but not much else. Because of this, I haven't been on my personal computer a lot, either. Add to this the fact that we've had New York family in town for the last week, and I've been busy playing tourist and host instead of blogging. I meant to remedy that today with a summary of my cousins' visit.

That'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Today, regular deer season ended and I spent the last four hours of the season at the lease.

I didn't have many expectations, as I hadn't seen game in over a month. But, I thought I would sit in the popup blind, out of the wind and in a comfy seat, to close out the season. My expectations were so low that I didn't even worry about the fact that I couldn't find my hunting knife. There wasn't going to be anything needing cutting, right?

Wrong!

The first hour and a half were spent more trying to stay awake than anything. In fact, I think I took a little nap. However, I eventually got a second wind, and started actively looking. There have been several times that actively looking (instead of just sitting there hoping something comes out into the open) has paid off. The first was when I saw a doe in the trees. She ended up coming into the feeder and I was in shooting position because I was alert. Had she been a buck, I would have had more venison in the freezer. That was a couple of weeks ago, but the same thing happened today.

I saw a glimmer of movement in the trees. This made me more alert. I saw more movement behind the brush in front of the feeder. It was a deer. I started looking for horns, but the deer never lifted its head to where I could see. Then, it was gone.

However, I kept alert. I saw more movement by the feeder. Except this time, I watched as a hog fed itself. Again, a shot didn't present itself, but I kept watching. It disappeared behind the brush and into the treeline. I kept alert and saw movement in the woods. As I tracked it's movement from left to right, I remained ready with my rifle up. I switched from one window in the blind to another, hoping that the hog would continue.


I was convinced I lost my opportunity when the hog appeared from behind some brush. I placed the cross-hairs behind its ear and fired. The shot was true and the hog dropped. After floundering for a minute or two it was still. I chambered another and kept my rifle on it for another several minutes.

Upon inspection, this hog was much larger than the first. It is perhaps three hundred pounds and not stinky. I called Angie's uncle and cousin as I needed help cleaning the hog (didn't have a knife) and lifting it into the truck.

They came and we took pictures and tried to field dress it. However, the knife they brought wasn't sharp enough to cut the thick tough hide. We called the processor and he told me to bring it over. We could use their knives or someone there would do it.

So, on the last day of deer season I got another hog.

Good thing, too, as we were running low on breakfast sausage.

SL