An Eventful Week-End

It's so good to be home after a fun "EVENTFUL" few days at the cabin. The kids look forward to this hunting season every year. This year I even went with a tag to fill and a hunting license!

The laundry is started, the bags are unpacked, the kids are in school and Javon is still with Dave at the cabin so I will share our weekend with you on here as I'm wrapped in a blanket waiting for the house to warm back up.

We left really early Saturday morning and spent almost four hours at Cabala's! We had some gift cards that we had fun using and we also had breakfast there, we then got on the road again and off to the cabin. Games were played late into the night and the kids had a blast with cousins!

Dave and I got a four mile run Sunday morning before we had our own time of "Sunday School" at the cabin...:) We made a big breakfast and did lots of snuggling with blankets, reading and talking. The guys went out to check all the tree stands for the Monday morning hunt before our yummy  supper. Papa's came to join us along with a few more hunters.

John Ervin and Anna Ruth joined us to. She is expecting a baby in three weeks and was a bit nervous about sending her husband off without her so they both joined us at the cabin so they could be together...:) Thanks for joining us guys we loved hanging out with you! Thankful that baby didn't decide he/she wanted to be born on this weekend...:)

Sunday night was more late night games and it was past midnight before getting to sleep!! I guess guys don't need as much sleep for hunting?? I know I was SO tired when the wake up call came at 4:15AM!!!

Monday morning was cold and still. Perfect for the first day of buck season (said the hunters) We were all bundled up and I felt sure I would lose the enormous pants that I was wearing over all my other layers!!  John Ervin then borrowed me a belt...~whew~  We drove to the farm and Dave and Justin flashed Jordan and I to our spot (it was pitch dark) and they went off down the trail a bit to another spot.

Jordan and I got settled in the double ladder stand with the gun propped up between us. It seemed to take awhile before the day broke....

Jordan was my eyes and ears the whole morning! He kept saying "Did you hear that??" I say No?? Then I look around a bit and see a squirrel scurrying around! I kept getting the gun up and looking through the scope to see if my aim was okay if something did come along. Remember I only shot this gun like three times last week! It felt really awkward to me.

We were seated in our stand and about an hour after daybreak two deer came slowly down off the mountain. Jordan said "Mom, there is a deer" So I got the gun pointed over that way. Soon Jordan put up two fingers (meaning two of them) We saw they were both bucks. Nice racks, maybe 6-8 pointers? Both shooters anyway, so I got the scope on the first one and went to pull the trigger but I forgot to off the safety!! That one stepped into the woods. (we only had a trail to watch so if we didn't get them as they were crossing on the trail we missed the chance) I got into another position for the second buck. Down on my hunches on the floor of the tree stand with the gun kind of over Jordan's legs since he was on that side of me. (I had a tree branch for prop but my position felt awkward) I had him in my scope just perfect but then the thought came to me "If this gun kicks to hard I'm going to fall right off this stand, so I opted to not shoot!! Jordan was so beat out!! His legs were shaking for long after that!!

I got down out of the tree to pee one time and we both had loud coats on. We were not the most quiet hunters but it was so much fun...:) I love to tease them and give them stuff to talk about...:) My clementine I was peeling kind of fell the one time and Jordan just shook his head at me with a grin...:) I dozed off a bit the one time,  it felt like I had a good snooze to!  With Jordan on guard I guess I relaxed enough to shut my eyes for a while.

Jordan was checking the time every ten minutes after nine and he was ready to go in by ten o'clock. I kept telling him we will wait just a bit yet. At one point a bunch of deer ran across the trail but they were moving to fast to get a shot. Soon we heard shots going off like crazy around us. We waited a bit longer and we heard some deer moving down the mountain and onto the trail. They were not moving fast but still crossing over the opening that we had. I stood up and propped the gun onto a branch. I got them into my scope and they were kind of crossing in a single file line. We saw five bucks first! I kept thinking I'm going to get one of these guys but they were all small ones until the one came through with a really nice looking rack! It just so happened that my gun was just ready and positioned when this guy stalled on the trail... POW!!! I SHOT!!

Thunderous sound!! I had time to plug my right ear but I then had to lean my left ear into the gun to get a good aim and my ear rang for long!! This buck then fell on the spot but still wiggled his way into the woods out of sight! Jordan was like "YAY you smoked him!!" But I kept asking him "Are you sure he's dead??" He was convinced that he was!!!

What now??? Jordan wanted to get down and run to see him but I was afraid he wasn't dead yet so I texted Dave and told him we shot one!! He said WHAT?? We did to!!! Him and Justin had just shot and chased down Justin's four point!! Justin shot five-six bullets!! Those must have been some of the shots Jordan and I heard but they were down below us and the deer we saw came from above us??

Dave and Justin then came up our way and saw the blood on the trail where the buck fell. They couldn't see him though. Dave saw corn in the blood (which means gut shot) Jordan and I got down and joined them but Dave said we better wait a bit to track. Then he decided if we sneak a peek over the edge down below we might see him laying somewhere?. We followed the blood and sure enough up ahead lay this guy... DEAD!! I'm pretty certain he never got up again, just kind of wiggled his way into the woods a bit...  I shot him in the gut somewhat but also caught the liver. I forgot to aim for a certain spot on the deer! I just saw body in the scope and shot!...:)

My first ever deer...A seven point...

They say he is a big one for this area! The part that he was big was fun, but the most fun to me was watching Jordan and his excitement through the whole experience!!

Justin's four point...

Martina was out with Jonathan and he coached her through shooting this nice six...

These three bucks were all shot within about twenty minutes of each other...:) It seemed the action on our pine farm came just when we were starting to get cold and ready to go in for breakfast.

We left the guys do the dirty work back at the cabin and then we had breakfast/lunch. What a great morning heading off into the woods with Dave and the two older boys. I think at this point I'd feel left out if they were to have done it without me...:) Thanks Mom and Marilyn for watching my Little's at the cabin so I could join in on this action...:)

Back at the cabin later... Justin lost a leg of his deer!! So many shots, two caught the leg! Not even sure how many of his five or six bullets hit his buck??!!

Four of us filled a buck tag... Reviews on the two archery kills...

The two latest are off to get butchered and the meat will be especially special this year...:)
I think we have a doe tag that we can fill yet so maybe the hunting is not completely over yet. maybe Jenika can shoot this one....:) For me the hunting is over. I need to start thinking other things. Time to get the suitcases out and the packing started. Time to wrap these gifts and get the Christmas cheer rolling...:)

I must tell you about the ride home yet... Last evening my four children plus Ashley and Martina headed for home after the evening hunt and supper was over. (about 7 o'clock) The school children needed to get to school this morning and we were having some crowding issues so Marilyn decided to stay for today yet with the guys and I was going to get the kids off to school this morning. My tire had been low so Dave told me to put air in when I stop for gas in town. I don't think the air pump put any air into it (I probably didn't know how to run it?) So I figured oh well we will be fine on a little low air but about twenty minutes later we were about to get on the turnpike and I heard it! A flat! One mile to the gas station really really slow is what we did but they were closing and not at all helpful! We waited on AAA for about an hour and a half in the dark parking lot of this gas station.

AAA put on the spare tire but told me I can never make it back to Lancaster on this spare! No more then fifty miles on this thing. And, aw yeah... No faster then fifty miles per hour either!

We went the half hour back to town, found a gas station that also worked on tires and they replaced the bad tire and took the spare back off. We were set to go now, But... do I drive the two hours home at eleven thirty at night, ~dead tired~  and with all these kiddos (who were at there wits end) Or do I drive twenty minutes back to the cabin, let them sleep in in the morning and then be late for school?? Dave called me and said "don't push yourself" (I was up 4:15!) Plus I could not see getting the kids up and to school that early when they still were not asleep at this time of the night!!

We went back to the cabin, slept till eight thirty, made breakfast and left Marilyn with the clean up while we boggied to school! I got them Chick-fa-la for lunch and they made it in after lunch for a few hours of school! We are all still tired and it will need to be an early bed to make up for the loss of sleep the days we were away...:)

 It was an eventful four hours from the time we left the cabin last night, until we crawled into bed then, but the kids did great and we made the best out of it! (I told them... "hey we just had a four hour adventure") Needing to pee got taken care of behind signs and in ditches, having to freeze while we all had to get out of the van while they jacked it up to change the tire... The kids just ran around (in the dark parking lot) to keep warm...:/ Okay I'm still sain and it could have been much worse. I'm thankful for the helpful people we met along the way!! I tipped the tire guy ten bucks because he was super nice about getting me a replacement tire at eleven o'clock at night!!

Thanks for joining in on our "Eventful" weekend...:)

Dave and Javon just arrived home with the rest of the stuff that needs to be put in place so I'm off to get busy... Seems I sat way to much the past hours!!