Wildlife Sighting

At 6:00 am On Halloween morning, M and his friend Randy head up to the hills looking for some game. They have been twice before but were unsuccessful. Could this foray turn out to be a lucky one?

The boys traverse about a 1/4 mile down a hill, stopping near a creek and some deciduous trees that their prey likes to visit. They hunker down and quietly wait, taking in the beauty of nature all around them. A few hours later, out of the tree line come a handful of does. M gets them in his sights watching for a buck to appear. Another deer joins the does, could it be a buck? M is uncertain. There is a tree branch near the deers head that looks kind of like antlers but it is hard to tell. But wait, the deer moves it's head and the branch moves too...BOOM! The deer falls to the ground dead. Randy and M make their way to the buck and find that M's shot pierced the shoulder and came out the neck.

Now for the hard part, lugging the deer up the hill and back to the car. First, Randy guts the deer, leaving the internal organs for some scavengers tasty meal. Then they each grab some legs and start their ascent up the hill. This proves to be harder than they thought. It takes them
3 1/2 hours to get the deer up the slope to the truck. When they get home, M says it is the hardest workout he has ever done in his life.

We ate dinner together and then took the kids trick-or-treating. Afterwards the boys went back to Randy's house to skin and process the meat. It took them almost 6 hours to cut all the meat off the bones. After splitting the meat evenly, we each got 4 roasts, a bunch of steaks, 4 pounds of hamburger and some deer jerky. M made fajitas for dinner with the deer meat and it was really tasty, very similar to cow meat. Even though it was a lot of work once they shot the deer, I think it was well worth it. They each learned something they didn't know previously and we have some yummy food to add to our food storage for the winter months. Well done guys!

Looking out over the area they were hunting in.

M with his first kill.

Randy gutting the deer. Both guys said this was nothing compared to watching the birth of their children. Apparently childbirth is more gruesome.

Taking a rest after hauling the deer up the hill.

Our exhausted boys.

M brought the deer home for us to see before taking it to Randy's to hang.

M cutting the meat off the deer.

Randy taking a turn at cutting off the meat.

After hearing about the kill, M's mom asked if she could have the antlers. She collects them. Here is a pic of K with the antlers on her head.