Today was the end of shot gun season for deer hunting. And that, my friends, is a good thing. For two weeks, our mighty hunters have traipsed out into the woods nearly every day, waking up before dawn, studying their movements, and occasionally asking Amie or myself to try to scout out certain areas. Right after deer season began, Ben got a young buck (button buck) that we quickly processed and made venison burger and steaks out of. But since then, between Forrest and Ben, they hadn't been able to down any more deer. It was not for a lack of trying or from a lack of deer. I saw a beautiful 10 point buck in the pine forest (the protected part of camp) that played it safe by staying in the lower part of camp along with his "harem" of girls. But there were plenty of deer everywhere else. But today was the end. After feeding in the rain and cold, I get a text to help scout out deer in one of the woods. So, since I'm already wet and dirty, I head back out to "help" the mighty hunters. While I was successful in finding the deer, the boys (rather Forrest) was not successful in finishing the job. After an hour of running through the woods, I called it quits and headed back to Amie's to change into dry warm clothes and sit down. After an hour or so and after starting our lego project, Amie decided to take hot chocolate out to the boys while I watched the 3 ornery kids and proceeded to make sense of the lego mess. Amie stayed out to help the boys a bit more as the natives grew restless back home. Just towards the end of the day, Forrest finally hit paydirt as he took down 2 deer (one large doe, another button buck). They succeed in dragging the deer out of the forest and into the truck but the check station is closed for the evening. As the boys arrived back at the house, it looked as though they had been through a war. Wet, bloody, and muddy and with clothes that may never be worn again. Our (Amie and mine) afternoon and evening that was supposed to be spent together playing with legos and making dinner turned into one of us watching kids and the other helping with the deer. One trip into Delphi to grab subway sandwiches for the adults later, two deer gutted, and one laundry room cleaned and bleached (and I bleached every door knob they touched as I followed their trail from the house to the deer) and our mad day has come to an end. (By the way, Amie and I still got an hour with the legos.) I know that 2 deer are awaiting us within the next 24 hours to cut up and that it will be an extremely long night doing it. It's not just the cutting and processing but it's the clean up. Cleaning the garage, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the knives, and everything else too. But our freezer will now have 3 deer, one lamb, and soon, one very large pig. We will eat well. But thank goodness it's over!!
Funniest thing of the night as chaos is erupting all around us as the hunters have returned and decisions are being made:
I'm sitting at the table as Gavin came in asking relentless questions and I commented that I had lost my sanity and could not answer until I found it. He asked where I lost it. I said it was with all the legos (the lego project being a very frustrating one, plus dealing with the kids and their moodiness). He then said he knew where it was (I'm not sure if he knows what sanity is), ran to the toy room, came back into the kitchen after a minute and pronounced he had all of it in his cupped hands. And I quote, "It was all over the room but I gathered it all up for you." He held his cupped hands to me and I took my "sanity" back. Best moment of the day!
Life around here cannot be explained, only experienced. And it's always an adventure!
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