Jerry's First Deer, Part 2

If you haven't already, read Part 1. Here's part 2...

My hunting guide (also known as Shelly's dad, Denny) set me up with a great hunting location. It is where two rectangular shaped open fields overlap at one corner. Surrounding the fields are woods. If I have one (small) complaint with this location it's that the best way to get back to it without tromping through the forest and scaring all the deer, is to walk through a cemetery. I don't know if you've ever had occasion to walk through a cemetery while it is still pitch black out, but it can be a bit nerve racking to say the least, even a loaded rifle is of little comfort when making this trek. I was a little surprised to find this really didn't bother me too much this year. Having navigated the cemetery and crossed the field to my spot, I next had to ascend the tree stand. For those of you that are unfamiliar, many hunters use a stand located up off the ground for hunting. There are various styles, but the one that I used is a one man ladder stand consisting of a metal ladder about 16' high or so with a small metal platform with a seat at the top. My guide thoughtfully attached a rope to the stand ahead of time. Before I climb the stand I attach the rifle to the rope. Then after I am at the top, I pull the rifle up to me on the rope, which is the safe way to get your gun up in the tree with you. At this point I get situated in the stand using a vinyl covered cushion for my seat. It's not what I'd call comfortable, but it does the trick. This is when I make the final preparations with the rifle.

The gun I use to hunt is a .30-06 (pronounced thirty-aught-six) with bolt action. This means there is a lever on the side of the rifle that you lift up, then slide back, then forward to load the cartridge so that it is ready to fire. Even those of you not familiar with guns would recognize the distinctive lever design of bolt action. I don't know exactly how old the rifle is, but it has been around for a while and the wood stock has developed the beautiful shine that comes with age. So once I'm finally situated in the tree stand I lift the lever on the side of the rifle then slide it back and then forward, pushing the cartridge forward, and then I push the lever back down. The rifle is now ready to fire. This is where I lay the gun across my lap and take a deep breath. Despite the cold temperatures, I'm usually sweating at this point, even though the trip from Shelly's parents to tree stand only takes about 10 minutes.

Since it's only about 6 AM it's still quite dark at this point. Deer could easily pass through the area undetected since it's very difficult to see. This is the time to just sit and collect your thoughts. It's during this time that anticipation for the hunt increases as the first rays of sunlight begin to unfurl from the east, especially on opening day. This year the weather was exceptionally good with a high temperature around forty degrees, sunshine throughout the day, and very little wind. By the time it was light enough to shoot, I was really excited. I'd say I was on the edge of my seat, but there really isn't that much room in the tree stand.

Since this is for the blog, which acts as a family history, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a slight blemish on this year's hunt (sorry sweetie!). One of the things I really look forward to while sitting in the tree is taking a break to have a hot cup of coffee out of a thermos that I carry with me in to the woods. If you are going to make it through an entire day, the respite from a hot cup is absolutely essential. This year we all went up to Shelly's parents together as a family and stayed over night. When I got up at around 5:30, Shelly got up as well to wish me goodbye and good luck. She did so as I was heating the water for my thermos of coffee on the stove in her parent's kitchen. Since it was 5:30 she encouraged me not to heat the water so long that the kettle whistled for fear of disturbing her still sleeping parents. I obliged, but the end result was lukewarm coffee that turned out to be worse than no coffee at all. I did manage to choke down two quick cups at some point around 9:00, but they were literally hard to swallow. Buoyed by the good weather, I tried not to dwell on it too much. In the end, it really didn't matter, but even Shelly's dad thought this was just plain wrong (I think he may have said it was a "travesty") and encouraged me to let the kettle scream the next day, which I did.

Despite the lack of coffee I remained alert and awake as the sun rose higher in the sky. Occasionally I would try to guess the time, but since I didn't ever check my guess against the watch I carried in my backpack, I'm not sure what the point of the game was. At a point when I was guessing it was somewhere between 11:00 and 1:00 I just happened to look all the way to my right and I saw a quick flash of movement. Looking more carefully I realized that there were four does crossing the field about 75 yards to my right and they were moving fast. I brought the rifle up to my shoulder, but by the time I located them in the scope they had crossed the field and were on the edge of the woods on the far side. I managed to isolate one, but by the time I collected myself and squeezed the trigger it had moved. The only thing I saw in the scope was the distinctive white tail as it disappeared into the thick woods.

Now on an adrenaline rush, I gathered myself together enough to climb down out of the tree and see if by some stroke of luck I had hit the fleeing deer. I went to the spot where I they had disappeared, but didn't find any sign that I had hit anything with my shot. Looking at my watch for the first time, I saw that it was 12:30. Since I was out of the tree anyway, I took a walk around the edge of the field and then through the woods on a road that runs through a portion of them. Not only did I not find a dead deer, I couldn't find any sign that four deer had just run through these very same woods. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes just a few minutes before, I wouldn't have believed that they had.

Having missed a great opportunity I tried to console myself with a chicken salad sandwich that I had brought along. It was delicious, but I was so keyed up from the excitement I ate it way too fast and got the hiccups. I collected myself and climbed back up in the tree to finish out the afternoon.

Hunting hours ended at around 4:30 and once I got back in the tree I put my watch on my wrist so I could keep track of time. The practical result of this was that every 45 minutes or so I was saying to myself that I sure hoped those weren't the only deer I was going to see. Since they represented the closest I had come to actually shooting a deer in my entire hunting career up to this point, this was a real possibility.

Looking back now, I can clearly remember looking at my watch at 4:00 and thinking well another day is in the books with no kill, oh well, at least the weather was good. That's when I heard the noise. I could tell it wasn't a bird, my long day of listening to bird landings taught me that much, but I couldn't be sure it was a deer either. It was clearly coming from behind a patch of trees that was only about twenty or thirty yards in front of me and to the left. I listened intently, rocking forward in my seat, rifle on my lap. As I had done earlier whenever I thought I might be on the cusp of taking a shot, I removed the bulky glove from my right hand so that I could pull the trigger unencumbered. I heard the sound again a few more times, but then it seemed to trail off. I continued to watch closely, scanning the area in front of me back and forth. That was when I saw them, two does walking slowly from behind that clump of trees.

I realized that what I had heard was the real thing and paused for a moment to assess the situation. While the does weren't very large, I wasn't in any position to be picky. Though they were moving away from me, it was at a very slow pace and at an angle, leaving me a view of much of their broad side. I knew that if I was ever going to shoot a deer, this was going to be my best opportunity.

I brought the rifle up to my shoulder quickly and managed to find the deer that was in front in the scope. Even now she was barely moving. Despite the fact that she was making it easy on me, my hands were trembling. I could hardly hold the rifle level. I remember taking a deep breath and saying to myself that this is what you've been waiting for, just calm down and shoot this deer like you've practiced in your mind a hundred times. I managed to steady my hands and my breathing. I brought the deer into my sights and squeezed the trigger.

The sound a rifle makes when it discharges is incredibly loud, but I honestly can't remember hearing it. After I fired the shot, I looked up from the rifle in the direction of the deer. It was then I knew that I hit it. As I looked out ahead of me it jumped and its legs seemed to flail out in front of it. It immediately began running away from me, up a small hill, where it disappeared at the edge of the woods.

Although I knew I had shot the deer, I wasn't sure how good of a shot it was. At this point it was possible I had only wounded it, I climbed down from the tree and looked at my watch. It was 4:10. I paused a few moments and ate an apple that I had in my backpack. If the deer was only wounded, I didn't want to give chase too soon, only to have my pursuit push the deer further away. I approached the spot where the deer had been when I shot it, and I could easily see a bright red trail of blood in the grass. It was at least six inches wide and it unspooled before me in the direction I had seen the deer run. I followed it only a few yards and the deer came into view, laying on its side at the spot where I had watched it disappear from view a few minutes before.

I approached slowly and carefully and once I was convinced it was dead, proceeded to tag the deer using the tag that I had purchased. For a doe this involves cutting a slit in the ear of the animal and attaching the tag using a piece of string, or in my case a large twisty-tie that Denny had given me. It was at this point that it really sunk in what had just happened. It was clear that the deer wasn't that large, but I still felt a tremendous sense of relief and accomplishment at having completed what I set out to do. Even though it was just a deer, I tried to maintain a somber countenance as I went about the business of tagging. Despite my pride, I could tell gloating over the dead deer just wasn't right.

The plan before I left the house was that when I shot a deer I would walk back to the house and Denny would bring the truck so we could take it home. There we could do the necessary field dressing which would be easier than doing it on the ground. Before I headed back, I took a moment to observe the deer. it had collapsed onto its side, with the gunshot wound up. The wound was larger than I imagined it would be. It was located just behind the front leg, and I could make out the splintered end of a broken rib poking up through the blood that had pooled in it. Having made it to this point, I felt confident that I could make it the rest of the way, despite the fact that its only after the kill that the real work begins.


To be continued (again) with photos in Part 3...

Jerry's First Deer, Part 1

I asked Jerry to share his thoughts on getting his first deer...

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It's difficult, if not downright impossible, to convey to outsiders how integral hunting is to Wisconsin culture. The annual gun deer season each November impacts the state in ways seen and unseen and much beyond the economic impacts of the hunt itself. The hunt really is a cultural touchstone of the state of Wisconsin. One which I sought to participate in starting five long years ago and culminating in my first kill this year.

Anyone born after January 1, 1973, as I was, has to attend a hunter education course before they can hunt in Wisconsin. So in the early fall of 2005 I dutifully attend this course at a local bar that also serves as an auction house. The course material was informative and crucial since it was primarily concerned with the topic of gun safety. After successfully completing the class, I was able to obtain my deer license and the stage was set for my first hunt.

Shelly's parents live in a rural part of Oconto County, which is north of Green Bay and on the eastern shore of the state. The area surrounding their home is a mixture of farm fields and woods that are home to deer. Just how many deer there are in Wisconsin is a topic of endless discussion. This discussion revolves around an estimate of the deer herd issued by the government in Madison that is immediately dismissed as much too high by anyone who has sat in the woods in recent years. Regardless of the actual number, it's clear that there are some deer in the area.

In 2005 we had four children and Shelly was pregnant with our fifth. She wasn't due until January, so the mid-November hunt wouldn't have factored in our birth plan if we had bothered to make one. Hunting begins around daylight, but a good hunter is usually in his spot and quiet before then. This meant that I was in the woods around 6:00 in the morning and stayed there until around 4:30 in the afternoon. That first day I didn't see a single deer. I was disappointed, but my enthusiasm hadn't dimmed and as we went to bed that night I was looking forward to another day of hunting. I didn't know it at the time, but just a few hours after we went to bed, Shelly would go in to labor and our son Hayden would be born the next morning. His birth was more exciting than your average American birth, but that's the way it goes for us. You can read the story of his birth here. Because of this, Hayden will always now be associated with deer season, and it was on his fifth birthday this last weekend that the my efforts at hunting finally paid off.

The primary characteristic of a good hunter, I believe, is patience. Hunting is an active verb that describes what, these days, is a mostly passive activity. It's passive because much of the time is spent waiting for the opportunity to test your skill with bow or rifle, an opportunity that is only possible when deer come into sight. Even before our society became the hyper-connected web of iPhones and facebook that we confront today, I suspect most people would not enjoy long periods of quiet motionlessness, at least not outside of zen monasteries. But that is exactly the state I found myself in last Saturday as for more than 8 hours I sat in the woods. I answered no phone call, viewed no text message, I didn't update my status or check my 401k balance. The Korean peninsula could have erupted in artillery fire, like it did a few days later, and I wouldn't have known it. Once, a black-capped chickadee came to rest briefly on the toe of my boot, so I must have been doing a good job of not arousing the suspicions of the locals. Don't confuse my relative motionlessness with a state of boredom. While the patient hunter waits, he is witness to all the activity of the forest in late fall.

Chief among this activity are the goings-on of the birds and squirrels. Perhaps it's not just winter preparations that bring on such a frenetic level of activity, but both the birds and squirrels can often be seen racing back and forth from various spots, collecting food, protecting territory, and maintaining the literal pecking order. I didn't realize this, but apparently all of the birds of northern Wisconsin peck at the bark of trees, not just woodpeckers. I don't know if this is a feeding behavior, grooming, or something else entirely, but a dull tap, tap, tap, is frequently heard in the hunter's vicinity.

I don't want to shatter anyone's illusions with this piece of reporting, but the Blue Jay is the most obnoxious bird I've ever had the misfortune to observe up close. Their plumage is beautiful, to be sure, but the screeching call is grating to say the least. Perhaps they could be forgiven their vocal misfortune, but their behavior is bullying and downright rude. I witnessed many smaller and more humble birds driven off of a corn pile by the high-handed Jay. I can assure that it's not done out of necessity, some of these corn piles are more than a Jay would eat in a week. For my woodland birds, I much prefer the round little chickadee or the bright red feathers of the cardinal, who seems incredibly laid back when perched near a Blue Jay. Making these observations possible are two characteristics of the forest in fall, the fact that the leaves have fallen from the trees and the fact that there is relatively little background noise.

The naked limbs of trees have a sparse beauty all their own. Where others see only death, I see the superstructure that supports the summer foliage only recently removed. I see a bark chrysalis encasing a still living tree, biding its time until it can burst forth as winter melts into spring. The lack of leaves on the trees exposes the habits of the birds. The fallen leaves on the ground are like a low tech security system where every step, including those of a deer, reveals the steppers location to any willing to quietly listen. An attuned ear can begin to pick up differences in the crunch of the leaves that can identify various creatures.

Early in the day every crackle sounds as if it could be a deer, but is often just the small crunch of a bird or possibly even one of the last remaining leaves falling to the ground. From there though, distinguishing the leaf crunch of a deer versus a squirrel or turkey is much more difficult, at least for me. But near the end of my eight hours last Saturday, I was sure that what I heard from behind the tree was not a bird or squirrel.

To be continued...

Five Years Ago Today

Five years ago... Jerry, exhausted after his very first day in the woods hunting, was awakened by his wife in premature labor. His day had been long, but that night was a lot longer! Read all about Hayden's exciting birth here!

Instead of a prized buck he got something even better... his FOURTH son!

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY HAYDEN!!

Jesse Tree--Get Ready Now

Hard to believe, especially with the weather we've been having, but Christmas is just around the corner. If you are looking for a wonderful way to make Christmas meaningful I highly recommend a Jesse Tree. We've been doing this for several years now and love it!

You can start with Advent or you can just start on December 1st and go through Christmas day, which is what we do. Each day we read the Bible and a short devotional then hang an ornament on a little tree. There are many websites out there to give you ideas and there is no "right" way. Each family does it a bit differently.

There are "kits" you can buy, but it is easy to just make your own ornaments. The ornaments can be printed on paper or if you get real creative you can buy items to hang as ornaments that are a bit more three dimensional (like a mini-globe, twine, wheat, etc.). The tree itself can be a branch that is secured in a pot or you can use a mini-Christmas tree. That is what we do and it works well. There are free online devotionals or Jesse Tree Books.

The children really get a lot out of it. It reminds us each day about the reason we're celebrating! I think the review of familiar Bible stories helps them and it visibly links Jesus to other people in the Bible. I've told the kids we all have a "family tree" and since we are getting ready to celebrate Jesus' "birthday" we are going to learn about His family tree. We all know God was His Father, but He was also a man with earthly roots. God had it all planned out long before Jesus was even born!

It starts with the symbol of a tree stump, from the verses (Isaiah 11:1-2): A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. We'll talk about how God can take a tree that has been cut down (dead) and give it the hope of new life through a new shoot (Jesus). Then we'll move onto creation, the fall, Noah, Abraham, etc.

If you are interested, here are some links:
Jesse Tree Instructions, Devotions, and Printable Ornaments
Free Devotional (cut and paste into a document to print)
Another Tree with Printable Ornaments
Yet Another Option
or search "Jesse Tree" on Google

[Note: This is an edited re-post. I like to re-post this a few weeks before December each year so if you're interested in giving this a try you have enough time to get things ready.]

Win a $40 Gift Certificate!

I'm giving away another $40 CSN gift certificate on GB Savers! It's open to everyone. Giveaway ends this Friday so get your entry in before it's too late. CSN sells just about everything so this would be a great way to stretch the Christmas budget! Click here to for more info and to enter.

10/10 Weight Loss Challenge

I have a problem. My pants are too snug and I really don't want to buy more (unless it's because my current ones are too big not too small!). So who's up for a little weight loss challenge? Here's what I'm thinking... anyone who has at least 10 pounds to lose is welcome to join in the fun. It doesn't matter where you live, this will be a "virtual" challenge!

Anyone (invite a friend or two!) who wants to join puts in $10. You have 6 weeks to lose the 10 pounds. If everyone in the challenge meets the goal we'll all get our $10 back, BUT those who don't meet the goal will forfeit their $10 and it'll be divided among those who did.

To join the challenge you'll need to:

1. Email me (shellyshown@gmail.com) and let me know you're in by the start date.
   
2. Take a picture of the numbers on the scale (numbers only-no identifying features!) on the challenge start date and email them to me. This information will NOT be shared with anyone and will be deleted--but we don't want any cheating. You'll have to send another picture on the challenge end date to verify your loss. I will mail my pictures to one member of the group for accountability as well.
   
3. Mail me $10 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to send your money back at the end of the challenge! (see due date below)
   
4. Optional: Join the "secret" Facebook group I set up to encourage one another and hold each other accountable during the 6 weeks. [It is only "secret" because that is what Facebook calls the most protected/private group setting.]
   

Start Date: November 14th

Money Due: November 24nd

End Date: December 27th

Yes, I realize this includes the holidays. That's why it's a CHALLENGE! It's also why I'm giving us just over 6 weeks. :)

If you aren't ready to do the challenge now maybe would could do another one after the holidays. We'll see how this one goes!

November Menu

Well, I finally got my act together and made a menu for November. Actually, Jerry and I made the menu together which was very helpful! That way it's not just a bunch of stuff that sounds good to me.

As a reminder, breakfast and lunch are on a two week rotation. Each Saturday shows a weekend breakfast and each Sunday shows a lunch that we cook in the crockpot for after church.

I've been feeling a little in a dinner rut lately so if you have any suggestions for the December menu let me know!

(click to enlarge)