It is that time of year again. Time for the annual Thanksgiving deer hunting trip. A week in an old army tent in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Been doing this since before I got married. How else would I be able to do it over Thanksgiving? Told her before we got hitched it was part of the package. I think she's glad to be rid of me, but she doesn't let on.
My dad and uncle have been doing this trip since time began. I still hear the story about the year they set the tent up and decided to go hunting instead of cut firewood. They figured they had a good sleeping bag*. My uncle said he had all his clothes on inside the sleeping back and still was so cold he couldn't sleep. The next morning the soda was frozen solid and the pickup wouldn't start. He had to walk a few miles to a local rancher and get a ride to town to buy a new battery. The temperature was more than 20 below zero that night. That was 1985 and was the first year they used the old army surplus tent. We've always gotten firewood first thing ever since. This year we are bringing some wood from home. Sure to be dry that way.
My first trip out there was 1987. I was too young to hunt, but I caught a few trout from some beaver dams. Only time I've had trout that was fit to eat.
We were discussing the other day that we should have kept a diary of all the trips out there. We can remember all kinds of things** but can't really remember what year they were. Lots of things have changed. We don't go to the same place that we used to. They logged the area around Nemo and the hunting was never the same, so we moved to Whitetail Peak, and after several years we stopped seeing very many deer there so we moved again. There have been three or four forest fires in the new area, including the Jasper fire.
Anyway, you all enjoy your turkey. We will enjoy ours, if we come across one***.
* more commonly called a "fart sack"
** Like the year we forgot the tent poles.
*** Cut the breast meat of a young wild turkey up, and saute it in butter. Good stuff.
12 comments:
I've been eying an especially cold hardy sleeping bag at a military surplus store. It's pretty expensive, and I'm not sure if it will really work, so I don't know if I will ever get it.
As stupid as turkeys are, I heard they can be quite difficult to hunt. I know they have good eyesight--amazing, really. I want to see what would happen if you went turkey hunting with a small turkey. I wonder if it would work better than trying to use a call.
I've been trying to make my own briquettes. Rather, I've been trying to try, just been too busy. If you have the right stuff it should be fairly easy to do. I like the idea of being able to use compressed sawdust and newspapers for heat instead of wood.
The logging realy messed with stuff on my side of the line too. Good luck with the hunt.
Stay safe and warm. Hope you have a great time.
I must thanκ уou fоr the effoгts yоu have put in ρenning thіs blοg.
I аm hoping tο view the same high-gгade blog ρоstѕ fгom уou lаter on as wеll.
Ιn tгuth, your сгeаtive writing abіlities haѕ іnѕpіreԁ
me tο gеt my οwn, peгsonal websіtе noω ;)
My page ... http://policeauctionss.com/
Hope it was a good trip. How ab out a deer pic or two?
Almost forgot... my cousin knows someone who always exaggerates deer in an odd way. He will never say he saw/shot a 4 or 6 point, but half 8 or 12...
I'm back. I have a few pics if I can figure out how to get them off my phone.
Still waiting for the pics.
Gimme a chance. I've been sick, we just had a blizzard, the wife had surgery, and I'm behind on my list of stuff to get done before winter because of the hunting I've been doing. And winter didn't wait for me, dammit.
Plus, I don't know how to do it. With my old phone I could at least email them to myself.
OK
Hope your situation improves. I'm still trying to prepare for winter too.
Behold, Robo Duck. From this post about Soviet safety posters.
Post a Comment