Last deer season was a bust. A total bust. I got sick a few days into firearm deer season, and then proceeded to spend weeks upon weeks coughing and weak. Which meant I sat in the woods maybe five times and shot zero deer. DH hunted heavily, but kept waiting for that big buck to come into his sights. It never did. Then in late doe season, he saw no does. So, he shot zero deer. It's been a long year without venison in the freezer.
This deer season, however, is a vast improvement (and it's not over yet!). Opening day of firearm season, we were both up early and in the trees.
dawn's early light: blue woods
We'd had quite a bit of snow earlier in the week, and even though temperatures were rising, the snow was still about five inches deep on the ground. Perfect for spotting deer in the woods.
Other than the neighbor to our south, no one got a shot off on opening morning. Lucky neighbor, he took a nice buck.
Our afternoon hunt was much more successful than our morning had been. And I do have to say, I love snow for tracking. Makes things so much easier, especially in the near dark.
such bright red in the gloom
blood on side of snow, on top of fallen tree that buck jumped over
Landing point, on other side of tree
I can't even begin to express how happy I was. My very first set of horns (seven points!!), and fresh venison!
tenderloins for breakfast
nice 7pt buck
We were back at it the next day (although I do have to confess that I slept in, since I had a deer hanging). DH always checks his trail cam on Saturday mornings, so he brought the SD card from it in with him after the morning hunt. On it, we were surprised to see a picture of my buck, only about a half hour before it made the fatal mistake of walking my way.
The afternoon was sunny, beautiful for sitting in a tree in the last hours of the day. I only saw deer from a distance, and birds close up.
Red bellied wood pecker
blue jay
Apparently I looked enough like a tree that the birds were comfortable getting up close and personal. I had a tufted titmouse nearly land on my head! No pictures of that, obviously.
Do I look like a tree?
Golden hour;
when the woods light up as the sun approaches the horizon at the end of the day.
DH, however, was the successful hunter that afternoon. He got a nice six point buck that was kind enough to just curl up and die practically right underneath his stand. No tracking necessary.
Two days into firearm season, and we've got meat to last for months! Of course, there were many hours that went into processing that meat and getting it into the freezer as the outdoor temperatures rose and melted off all the snow. I meant to keep track of how many pounds of what cuts we harvested, but I lost count. I do know that my deer yielded 65 pounds of meat, because I insisted DH weigh it after it was deboned and before tossing it in with the meat from his deer for the final processing.
Venison burger to last for months!
Estimate of 40 pounds from the two deer.
Since day 3 of season, it's been hit and miss with getting to the woods. The weather has been spotty, I've been back to work, and DH didn't hunt as much as he had wanted during his final week of 'vacation' (in which he had to attend to some business affairs via internet and conference calls at our dining room table). The times we have been out, we've seen deer, but not been able to get a shot off. Either too far away, too much brush between us, or in my case, one came directly under me. Literally, I had to look through my feet and the grating on the stand in order to see it. It was a button buck, so I just took pictures and let it keep walking.
Hello, little boy
Over my shoulder, behind my tree.
Sunset
We're hoping to get one more deer. That would be nice; it would mean lean red meat to last most of a year for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment