Deer Season and Thanksgiving Week

Yep, we are one week into shotgun season and there's one week to go.  Ben was able to get a big buck last Sunday.  Of course, whenever he gets a deer, it turns our entire evening, and subsequent evenings, on their head.  That night was no different.  After he'd shot it, I went out to help him clean it up and get it into the truck and then weighed at the general store.  His hanging weight was 150 lbs and he looks to be an 11 point buck.  However, we are convinced that the scale was off by 30 lbs so we're calling it an 180 lb. buck.  :-)  After getting him back to the garage and getting him hung up, it was time to clean him off and skin him.  We'd made plans to meet up with members of our Dream Team from this past summer (Rachel, Sarah, and Steven) and then joined us in the garage as Ben and I cut and they watched and chatted.  Eventually they had to leave (sad to say goodbye!) and we were ready to head in and get some dinner (at 10 pm).  On my way to pick up Sarah's gift, I saw the buck's friend wandering in the road, seemingly dazed and confused as he walked the yellow line in the middle of the road.  He eventually jumped to the field across from the TLC.  After some dinner, it was time for bed.

Monday went fairly smoothly.  I did go out with Ben to sit in the blind for a few hours but we didn't see anything.  I had bought a buck tag in the hopes of seeing that same confused buck and get us some more meat.  I was pretty tired by the time the evening rolled around but there was no time for bed.  It was time to cut the deer up into chunks so that we could grind him up into burger.  I don't remember exactly when we started, but we ended around 1:30 am.  We watched 2 1/2 movies through Netflix as we tried to keep our sanity cutting up this huge buck.  Comedies were on the docket as we watched Meet the Fockers, Tommy Boy, and Big Daddy.  Ben M. came over and helped us out some (and the next day remarked at the staff retreat that he couldn't get the image of seeing us in bloody gore out of his head).  After finishing up the deer (1 1/2 buckets full of chunks) and cleaning up the kitchen, it was off to bed.  The next day was our staff retreat and it was going to be hard to stay awake.  However, the never ending fountain soda would be key to staying awake.  The retreat was really good.  Some fun games from Tom and Joel and an archery contest with Kyle kept us energized and it's fun to hear the good natured ribbing that takes place as we go through material.  The state of camp is good, still good, even in this economy.  After the retreat, it was time to chunk up the deer.  A quick trip to Monticello for Thanksgiving groceries and freezer paper/bags, it was time to put together the grinder and get going.  We had a few issues with the grinder which slowed us down and we got down to the last small bowl of deer before it completely quit on us.  By 2 am, it was time to go home and shower up.

The next morning was extremely foggy.  So foggy they cancelled school and the fog didn't lift until noon.  We had a summer camp meeting at 9 am and went in with big drinks because we were dead tired.  Heard some very important and promising news that I don't think is public knowledge yet so I can't say anything but after the meeting, I found myself fired up again for summer camp.  After the meeting, Amie and crew headed out to North Carolina and I found myself in a quiet camp with my thoughts to myself.  A great feeling.  Revitalizing.  And that, my friends, was my week.