huntingal

We checked out trail camers two weeks ago when we went down to the lease to move a few stands and feeders, imagine our surprise when we saw these two fallow deer show up. Then ,as we walked back to the trailer through the field ,we saw them slowly walking from the road by our trailer. They must have escaped from the high fence exotic ranch down the road. Sure hope they stick around, they are beautiful, we hear not so good to eat but they are sure  223.JPG   926.91K   2 downloads  229.JPG   1.09MB   2 downloads  230.JPG   1.07MB   1 downloads pretty.

Sometimes after a long day of teaching 80 different personalities each day, this helps:

"It is a valuable practice at night to spend a little while revisiting sanctuaries of your lived day. Each day is a scret story woven around the radiant heart of wonder. We let our days fall away like empty shells and miss all the treasures."   John O'Donohue

Gently, quietly, look back over the day just lived. Recall moments and situations which led  to gratitude, joy, hope, peace. Give thanks to the Lord for these moments.

Look again, recalling moments and situations which were difficult, stressful, disconcerting. What could have been done to change the outcome? Pray to the Lord for the strength to change.  Once again, be in the loving care of the Holy One, the Lord. Be at peace.

A prayer for the closing of the day
Guardian of the night, my Lord and God,  day is drawing to a close. I turn to you with all that my day has held and I entrust it into your care. All my joys and happiness, all my burdens and troubles, all that I am and all that I have, I now place into your hands. I trust that you will hold it for me 'till the morning light. May I enter into a restful sleep and rise with renewed energy in the new day. Thank you for being an abiding presence, a resting place, and a source of peace.- Joyce Rupp

Sometimes, when we share our burdens with the Lord, our load is lightened, we can see with renewed hope the path before us.

Just needing to share,
Leah

On the Monday after the close to the special deer season, MLK Monday, I got up at the crack of dawn and went looking for the elusive Blackbuck I have been hunting off and on for two years. It was cold with a slight drizzel. I was sitting in a ground blind we made at a travel site about 50 yards from their group "poo poo pile" . ( For those who might not know, Blackbuck antelope usually go to the same place to do their business.) I was hoping for a chance to catch him as he passed by. I didn't take my crossbow because I figured if I did get a shot it would be long and I'd have to make it quick so I took my hubby's AR 308.

I hear fast approaching hoofs and turned my head slightly and there he was, not more that 8 feet from me. He looked me right in the eye and as I tried to reposition, he took off like a shot.
So, I went walking. Circled the lease and made it to a dry creek bed , saw movement about 50 yards away, and there he was. I dropped to a knee, and got my sights on him, he was looking straight at me. He finally turned, I waited until he cleared some trees, and got a shot off putting the cross hairs behind his shoulder. He turned away from me and trotted off into the woods. Well shucks! I could not believe I missed him!
Got to the spot and found no blood, got hubby, we looked for an hour tracking from the last spot I saw him all the way to the fence to another owner's property.
Finally we decided I shot over his shoulder, the bullet must have still been traveling up and went right over his back.

Well, he showed up on our trail cameras See you yourself. He is alive and well, no worse for wear. I am still in disbelief.

These images from a trail camera are almost to painful to watch. I was sent these from a friend of mine. Answers the questions of why  must we hunt coyotes.

I had a big disappointment to deal with this past Saturday hunting with my Ten Point and favorite hunting partner, Hubby.
I was hoping the deer I wanted, Tall Tines, ( shooter 8 point) would come in. I had seen another really nice 8 point on the trail cam come into this area as well , not consistantly but enough to merit sitting in the stand on mornings and evenings with the hope he ( or Tall times) would eventually come by. Passed a few nice deer holding out for a brute. He wasn't the Tall Tines 8 I was after but this one was a really nice shooter buck 3 1/2 years at least.Think base and a handsome rack.
I had already spend several mornings and evenings at this particular stand. Watching deer come and go, them never knowing I was even there.
Then it happened, Saturday evening just near the beginning of the end of shooting light, this 8 point brute comes in. After I got myself under somewhat control, I got ready for a good shot, just beginning to take the squeeze and he took that moment to side step, I held up, waiting for an eternity, Ten Point to my shoulder. Now many of you know what it's like to hold a crossbow up,sitting in a tripod, nothing to brace with but your elbow tucked into your side, looking through the scope, not daring to move, while the deer just eats facing you dead on. One slight move and I will be busted.
(We have to have a fence around these feeders here because of the cows on our lease. In Texas we can hunt over feeders.)
Ok, so I wait, beginning to feel the strain of being in the holding pattern longer than a human female can hold and he finally turns broadside. I set the arrow at the sweet spot, he's 25 yards and let the arrow fly. I see it deflect off the barbed wire, cut slightly at his underbelly and he is out of there like a bottle rocket.
In utter disbelief, not beliving what I just observed, the thinness of a string of barbed wire, the most hated object since open cattle range days, got in the way of me getting the biggest 8 point I have ever had the opportunity to shoot.
Waited and then went out to find my arrow, no blood, just a few hairs and a little fat.....the  Easton arrow split and bent at the fletching, the broadhead nicked.
So, I did what any red blooded , disappointed, tired, thwarted hunter would do, I returned to camp and cried in my ice cold beer while Hubby cheered me up with hunting stories of his own disappointments.