We just got back home from our annual hunting trip to northern Minnesota. We went earlier in the season this year and the fall leaves were stunning! This was also the first trip that we hunted in tree stands with our girls, now 8 years old. It was quite a trek up the ladder in our bulky hunting gear, but my heart settled back down the moment we got their safety harness clipped onto the tree strap!
Hunting from a tree stand was definitely an upgrade for our girls this year in their hunting experience! Hunting from a ground blind has given us amazing opportunities to see deer up VERY close, but there's nothing like being able to sit out in the fresh air and scenery, taking it all in.
It's confession time: I have never actually shot an animal.
There, it's out. I feel liberated.
Last year I got my first shot and missed a nice doe; this year I got my second shot and missed a little buck. Apparently, I need to practice shooting more throughout the year, not just in the days and weeks prior to a hunting trip. Despite the fact I've never put any meat on the table for our family, I love the stories from both of these shooting experiences. (Yes, I am making a goal for myself to practice shooting year round starting...next month :))
Last year, we were all huddled into our ground blind and I was wondering what yardage I should set my bow at. The number 32 seemed right, so that's what I set it at. Not long after, a nice doe stepped out of the woods and Tim ranged it for me: 32. There was no doubt in my mind that was my deer, so I stood up, positioned, and shot. The doe lunged forward, then towards us, not knowing what just happened. It was a clean miss, thankfully. I just couldn't get over celebrating the fact that I had my bow set exactly to where that doe would be!
This year, on our first night out, Tim got my daughter and I settled into the best tree stand on his parents' property. (Yes, Tim gave me that privilege because he is so excited for me to get my first deer - sweet guy!) A yearling doe came out within a few yards, walked right under and grazed behind us for a while. A few others came out, and then a nice little 2-point buck 36 yards away.
I slowly stood up, but couldn't get my feet positioned correctly because we were forward-facing on the narrow tree stand platform, but the buck was to my right. I got the range finder put away, twisted my torso to the right and took my shot. He bounded back into the woods that he had just come out from. It was so exciting! I felt sure I hit him and both my daughter and I were celebrating! I texted Tim that we must go find him right away, and he replied that we must wait until dusk.
I put the champagne away and we got settled back down. We saw several more deer and I was drawn back to shoot a doe when Tim came walking up the path and scared it away. Yes, I was feeling like Rambo. I figured I'd just shoot a deer for everyone in the family and get our tags filled that first night!
I was all but dancing down that ladder, hoping the deer didn't travel too far back into the woods. Looking for a blood trail, we found my arrow - as clean as could be - stuck in the ground. It must have went right over that buck and explains the huffing I heard from the woods. That whole ending didn't go as I had planned in my head.
This is where a quote from The Lego Movie seems appropriate.
"I think I heard a whoosh." - Emmet, The Lego Movie
Every deer I have shot at so far has only heard a whoosh. I probably get excited and shoot too fast, they tell me, but sadly this is the second year in a row that I've had the same outcome: fun stories, but no deer.
Yet I did come home from this trip feeling richly satisfied! Our time visiting with Tim's parents was so meaningful, and our time hunting together as a family filled my tank right up as always. I love the outdoors: breathing in the clean air, observing the scurrying squirrels, listening to leaves rustling in the breeze, gazing at the sunset over corn fields, PEACE. To sit in that tree stand for hours with nowhere to go and nothing to do but just enjoy, appreciate and ponder - that is abundant life to me!
Someday I hope to tell the story of getting my first deer! But for today, I am smiling in wonder as I reflect in gratitude on the times we have gotten out into nature together as a family, eyes wide open, senses alert. And for those of you to whom this is a completely anti-climactical ending, please be comforted knowing that Grandpa did get a beautiful tom turkey that night!