The Deerslayer

Saturday, the opening day of deer season, found my grandson and his future wife here before dawn.  The temperature was, I believe, in the low 20's.  I noticed their arrival outside, but they didn't come to the house.  They went straight to their separate deer stands.

Around 8 o'clock, I wondered in a status on Facebook whether the hunters might like sausage and pancakes for breakfast.  Heather had her phone with her, saw my offer, and "liked" my status.  Then granddaughter Monica  saw it and mentioned it was her birthday, and wouldn't I, as a wonderful grandmother (ha!), like to make pancakes for her?  So that I wouldn't be cooking pancakes for too many at once, I told Monica and her sister to come on over and I'd do two breakfasts:  the first for them, another for Cliff and the hunters.  In my old age, I have become unable to judge how much food is needed for a larger group of people, and usually someone gets shorted.  I knew I cold handle two average-sized pancake breakfasts.  

Heather and Arick came to the house around nine and took a break for an hour or two.  They returned to their stands for three or four hours, came back mid-afternoon for a tenderloin sandwich, and returned to the hunt until dark.  Heather saw a deer, but didn't have a clear shot, so she didn't act.  Day one, no luck, but some disappointment. 

Yesterday, day two, they were once again out before dawn; it was even colder and there was a wind blowing.  They used every trick in the book to stay warm, but came back around 8 o'clock, frozen.  This time the morning fare was biscuits and gravy.  They hung around quite a while, then finally Arick decided to go back, although he didn't seem very optimistic.  Heather "didn't feel good" and decided to make use of our guest bed.  Arick went out, then came in later and went to check on Heather, who enticed him to get under the covers with her to warm up.  I've been sick the past few days, and I went to my own bed for a couple of hours.  Cliff, who had been sicker than I, decided to leave all the pansies inside and do something useful in the shop while his Sunday football games recorded on DVR.

Around 4 P.M., everyone began stirring, and after eating some chili, the hunters headed out with the intention of staying in their blinds until dark.

Heather, as usual, was passing time with her phone, cruising Facebook (of course the phone was on "silent") and keeping one eye on the valley ahead.  Some does wandered by, and she only took pictures of them because she was after a buck.  In the process of taking pictures, she looked up and saw... an eight-point buck!  In trying to put down her phone so she could pick up the gun, she accidentally took this selfie:

She didn't even know she had taken the picture until later.  Can't you imagine what was going through her mind?  Don't you wish you could hear what she was thinking?  

She had success in the hunt.  The message of the story is this:  Always take a nap if you need one.  You are sure to be successful!

Just one more short story.  A former neighbor posted a picture of the deer he shot on Facebook, and I said, "Cliff, look at the picture Ryan posted!"

"Wow," said my husband, "look at that!  A nice, new, four-wheel-drive Case tractor!"