Deer Opener 2012

SUCCESS!

The 2012 Deer Season opener was a success. Arlene bagged a nice fat four-point buck about 12:45 PM.   It was an odd time for deer to be roaming around but there he was. She decided that rather than waiting like she usually does, she would go ahead and take her deer early.

It was a good thing because we never saw another thing for the next two days.

We had to do things a little differently this year as Arlene was celebrating her 70th birthday on Wednesday, November 14th. So her daughters and grandchildren came over for sloppy joes and cake and ice cream at 5:00 PM. It was a really nice party.

I had run out to camp early and got the generator running to warm up the trailer and unloaded our gear. Then I came back to the Soo for the party. After the party, we jumped in the car and headed to camp.

We got to camp and squared everything away and went to bed early. At 5:30 AM we were up early to get ready and by 6:30 were both out in our deer shacks. I saw quite a few deer in the morning and it was about 12:30 when I called Arlene and told her I was going to take a break and fill up the generator.

Just as I was headed to the trailer, I heard a shot and knew it was Arlene. I called her on the radio and sure enough, she had got a buck.   I changed my clothes and in my rush to get out there, slammed my thumb in the trailer door.   Man did that hurt.
 
I jumped in the car and went to help her with the deer. He didn't run far but ended up in a thicket. We tied his legs up and tied a rope around his neck and both gave a big pull on the rope and he didn't even budge. What the heck? He wasn't very tall but he must have been pretty damn solid or we are getting pretty damn weak because we could not move him. We managed to drag him about five feet and could not pull him over a fallen log.   After about ten minutes of pulling and tugging and swearing, we got him over the log.
 
Finally, I said "I'm going to go get my 4-wheeler". So, I get the 4-wheeler and get back to her hunting spot. Now there is no easy way to get that 4-wheeler back to where that deer is. I tried a couple of different routes and got stuck four or five times but managed to finally get the buggy back there. We got him tied up and I drove him out of there through a little path that Arlene had cleared for me.

It was kind of nice to take care of a deer in the daylight instead of in the dark. We had him taken care of and hung up on the Buck Pole by 3:00 PM. Mary Sue came up and gave us and hand and then she and Arlene "celebrated" R's deer while I went out and went hunting for the rest of the day. When I got back to the trailer, they were pretty happy.

Mary had to go to her Dad's and we had to go to my brother Chris's house to get my trailer. I took Arlene out to dinner at the Sundown Lounge. Mary's sister called and left a message for us while we were at dinner. So we called her back and found out that they were going up to Hessel casino for a while so we met them up there.

We stayed until closing and headed back to camp. It had been a long, long day.

Friday morning at 5:30 AM when the alarm went off, I could have stayed in bed but got up and went hunting. Arlene went out to her shack also but came in about 10:30 AM and sat with me for the rest of the day. We didn't see a thing.

The deer processer that we used last year, didn't have his sign up this year so we had to find a processer.  We had seen a number on a sign on the way to Chris and Judy's house for deer processing so we gave the number a call. The man's name was Dave and he said to bring the deer in as it was supposed to be 50 degrees the next day.
 
So, here we are in the dark, taking the deer down and wrestling him onto Arlene's 4-wheeler and into the trailer. We took some pictures as we forgot to do that before we hung him up the day before and headed out to 18-mile road to deliver him. We didn't get back until after 8:00 PM and had dinner and went to bed.
 
Saturday, Arlene slept in and I went out hunting and didn't see a thing. About noon Mom called and said that she would be up later to deliver R's birthday present.
 
Chris, Judy and Ross came up about 12:30 PM as I had promised Ross he could sit in the deer blind with me that afternoon. Now, my nephew was born in Denver, lived in Albuquerque and moved here from Spokane and has never been hunting. Not to mention that he can barely sit still for more than 5 minutes so his parents were doubtful about his ability to sit still in the deer shack.

But, they left him in my care and we went out to sit in the shack at 3:45 PM. He did great! I had him bring a book to read and gave him the job of operating the deer call. Just before dark two deer came in and then a few minutes later, another doe appeared. It was really cool watching him watch them! He found it odd that when it got pretty dark, he couldn't see them very well with his naked eye but they were still visible with the binoculars.

When we were ready to come in, I told him to use the buck grunt call to run them off so they didn't see us get out of the shack. He thought that was funny the way the grunt call scared them.

His folks came up a little later to pick him up and R fed them all her daughter Janet's world famous deer season lasagna made with wild leeks and venison. We had a nice visit with them and then went to bed shortly after they left.

Sunday, R slept in again but I went out and sat at 6:30 AM. All I saw was our little resident spikehorn about 9:00 AM. Arlene came out about 9:30 AM and sat with me until 1:00 PM. Then it was time to do our chores and pack up our stuff.

Why does the time spent at deer camp go so fast? I guess it is because we enjoy it so much.

Well, we have one more weekend of deer season left so hopefully we'll have another buck story to tell.