Its Hunting Season

Its that time of year again.  The stands are in the trees, the corn is being harvested, and the deer are on the move.  Yesterday my buddy convinced me to go out hunting with him at O'dark thirty.  We had set up a few tree stands last week right before he returned to his job and I left on a week long trip.  Neither the two of us are the kind of hunter that calls in sick the first day of hunting season so our excursion to the woods had to wait till our jobs left us with some free time.

  Well yesterday we finally found that time and after only a few hours sleep, we met up with his brother to go wait for some deer. For me sitting in a tree stand and watching the sun rise makes that struggle to get out of bed at 430 all worth it.  The solitude and quiet gives one time to think.  You hear the forest begin to awake with song birds and squirrels and you think 'Is this what growing up in the frontier was like 200 years ago?'
  Of course the pioneers never had a compound bow, and they were hunting to survive, but in my defense my bow is a vintage 70's compound with only the basics.  I don't hunt to survive either but more from a desire to connect to a past and to keep a few of those skills alive in my basic human DNA.  There also that heart pounding pulse of adrenalin that a hunter gets when after hours, and days of sitting in quiet anticipation, a deer appears from the brush and you need to take the shot.

    That surge of energy one gets when you let loose the arrow is hard to explain to someone that has not experienced it.  To see that majestic buck, sniff the air, cautiously emerge from the shadow of the woods,  all the while you lay motionless waiting for you shot - simply amazing.  For a fisherman its like fishing all day without a bite and then just as he has given up hope, up from the deep comes a fish, brilliantly colored, and holding that fly in his mouth as he puts on a aerial display.
  This day however, I saw no buck, I took no shot, and it passed like so many other days out in the woods, just me and my thoughts (which is a scary place for anybody that knows me).  The one exception was I did end the day on a high note.  It was not my shot that brought me joy but that of my fellow hunter.  Across the small valley from my stand, my buddy had made his shot and brought down this great looking Carolina Buck.  With a perfect shot through the lungs, he made the kill as cleanly and quickly - as if it was a lesson in a book.  The arrow had snapped between the legs and within minutes the deer was down.   Great Job Mat!

   

For myself, the time spent quietly in the stand left me with a plan in mind for a project at home.  I had salvaged some weathered cedar from my neighbors deck last spring and had been waiting for a project to use it on.  What I came up with was a rustic gun cabinet.  I had never had one, I needed one (My wife might think otherwise), and quite simply it gave me something to work on.  I can never stay idle for to long anyways and I always have a project or two in the works.
   In a few short hours I had the frame assembled and the weathered cedar sanded out.  I have high hopes for this one and I'll keep you updated on it progress but for now all you get is the pic to the left.  I know it looks like a coffin but just stay with me.  It will turn out looking great....... I hope.