Hunting Weekend

Hunting trip - Completed. This weekend was so much more than I ever expected!!! We didn't shoot a deer, but that is fine. It would have been the icing on the cake, but now I just get to look forward to more time in the woods. I really was stretched this weekend as far as conquering some fears that I have/had. By Sunday night I was EXHAUSTED!

Our trip started around 10:30am Saturday morning after we dropped off the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's and Joel and Kori's. We headed out to the woods and got all of our gear on and headed to our tree stands. First fear to face - heights. Jay tied my bow to a rope so I could pull it up when I got in the stand. "OK", I thought..."Here I go, I can do this". So very slowly, I took each step up to the top, when I got there I was thinking, "How am I gonna climb on to this thing!" One step at a time.....I just grabbed ahold and there I was in my stand! It was nervewracking at first, but I harnessed myself to the tree and sat. Then I looked down. You know the thing that happens in the movies when the person looks down from a really high place and the camera kind of goes "closer then farther"? That happened to me, it was so weird! Then I calmed down and really looked around the woods and enjoyed sitting and looking around at God's amazing creation and just taking it all in. There was noise everywhere, birds, squirrels, frogs, I could even hear the leaves when they snapped off the branch and landed on the ground. It was so beautiful, and fun to just sit and take it all in. We had to exit the trees mid afternoon to catch Dillon's last football game, which he won! WOOHOO!

We headed back to the woods around 5:30pm to catch the evening hunt. Getting in the stand was much easier this time! I loved sitting again, the excitement of sitting there thinking that at any second your deer could appear is so awesome!!! OK, second fear to face - sitting in the woods and having to walk out in the dark. Not too bad, but as Uncle Joel put it, it can be easy to let your imagination get the best of you, it's really easy for that to happen to me. We made it out of the woods just fine, but walking back into the woods Sunday morning in the dark and sitting there in the dark was a little bit harder. I was hearing lots of noises and was quite jumpy. Then all of the sudden there was a fluttering and something about 10 inches tall landed on a branch about 4 feet in front of my face and just stared at me. I knew Jay would be a little mad at me for turning my light on, but I had to see what was looking at me, not out of fear, but curiosity. I quickly reached for my headlamp and flicked it on and aimed and there staring at me was the cutest little owl!!!!! He didn't get scared, in fact he wiggled his head at me and just stared. Then he flew to a little closer branch and watched me, then he landed on my tree, just a couple feet above my head. I couldn't believe it!!!

The last time in the woods was definitely the most exciting and nervewracking. We arrived in our stands around 3:00 in the afternoon to sit for the rest of the night. I was excited right off the bat because shortly after we arrived, I could hear rustling to my right in some brambles and thick cover. I also could smell pee. I thought for sure I would at the very least see a deer tonight. But sadly, shortly after that, a few gun hunters showed up, (not hunting deer) but we have no idea what they were shooting at, because they were all over the woods around us raining down bird shot. It was very frustrating and also scary to have all of those shots all around ya. Then just at the very last few minutes of daylight, there was that pee smell again and rustling. I was thinking now was the time, I'm gonna see something! Nope, at that very same minute, POURING rain out of nowhere, just pouring. But the coolest thing was that after about 3 minutes, the rain stopped just as quick as it started. The woods were alive with sounds. All of the leaves were dropping off and the big heavy drops were coming off the trees and it sounded like there were animals walking around everywhere. I was just trying to see in the dusky evening if there was an outline of a deer coming from where I had heard the rustling, when suddenly behind me, woosh and arrow flew into the clearing near me! I thought for sure Jay had shot at a deer and I had missed my chance since I was looking the opposite way. But there was really no movement after the shot for about thirty seconds then cracking branches and rustling!!! I thought maybe the deer was crashing, but nope, Jay was just releasing some pent up energy and had to shoot his bow - no deer.

All in all this weekend with my hubby was SO incredible!!! He was so gracious when I was nervous and it was so much fun experiencing the thrill of hunting with him. I cannot wait for my next deer hunting experience with him!!!!