Tomorrow Chris and I are heading out to the Mrdutt farm for what is now my umpteenth time at joining the boys for Opening Deer Weekend. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year because the girls hang out in the house and bake cookies, play with the kiddos and take a few shopping trips (ya know - girly stuff). We await a gun shot, or a phone call from the boys about a deer that they shot. My job is to drive the truck back to the deer to pick it up and haul it back to the house until they take it in to get registered. My job is pretty simple and I enjoy my role in the whole thing. My sister, being the vet she is, likes to get there fast so she can do the "gutting" and evaluate everything about the inside of the deer that she can. GROSS. She even spends a few hours in the blind with her sweetie pie, which I think is something Ben enjoys until Katie has an opinion about how (and when) he should shoot.
Last year, it went a little bit like this in their blind:
Katie - Hey - there's a deer!
Ben - Yes, I saw it 10 minutes ago, while you were sleeping. It's too small.
Katie - No it's not...shoot it.
Ben - No, it's too small.
Katie - Shoot it, darn it. It's right there, its a easy shot.
Ben - Seriously Katie, it's really small.
Katie - So what. Shoot it. You're just afraid you'll miss.
Ben - Do you promise to leave me alone then? Fine! *Bang*
Katie - You missed it!
Ben - No I didn't...do you see anything moving?
Katie - Let's go see!
Ben - No, give it a minute.
Katie - No, let's go! Let's go get it.
They walk up to the deer. It's a tiny spiker.
Ben - See, I told you it was small.
Katie - Whatever.
(This is probably not how the conversation went at all...but this is how I remember it.)
Someday I plan to take hunter's safety so I can go hunting with the boys. The problem is, I have never even shot a gun. Not even once. It scares the crap out of me. Plus, I don't like venison. Chris asked me once why I would want to go hunting if I don't like venison and I simply said "I won't shoot anything that won't go on the wall". So maybe next year, or the one after that. I almost did it last year, until I found out that the Nabozny boy was taking it too (I am intimidated by 12 year olds). Someday.
So it begins, the umpteenth year of deer hunting. I hope my hubby shoots something, something with a big rack...because I know that would make him happy. I hope all the boys fill their tags because that means more crazy driving through the hills for me.
Watch out deer...cuz Ben, Chris, Mark (& Jim?) are gonna find you.
Ha!
ReplyDeleteI told the boys last weekend I was going to do it. Now I'm determined. I shot a gun ONCE and it hurt my shoulder really bad but I hit the target! Next year is the year. Let's do it. Betcha we get the biggest ones...it's like when girls play poker, nobody suspects they'll take it all :)
Jen you should try it, once you hunt you never go back! Ha! I took hunter's safety about 4 years ago, with a bunch of 12 year old boys....yah, that really sucked, but I never had to see any of them again so that made me feel better! Have a good weekend!
ReplyDeleteSo its time for a Mrdutt family slaughter update. How many deer did everyone see? Pretty quiet at this end of Wisconsin, as a matter of fact, no deer. Perhaps today will be a better day.
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Mark shot a big doe...that's the own dead animal so far. They have all seen deer, but Chris won't shoot until it's a big buck. We will probably be here until dark...so I hope he shoots sooner than later...but there's always next weekend!
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