There is an old apple orchard behind our house. When I was growing up it was a healthy and productive orchard. That was really a great experince having an apple orchard right behind the house. To make a long story short, the orchard is now overgrown and a perfect home to whitetail deer. There are 3 bucks out there that have been spotted. One of them is about an 8 point with a large body. I haven't seen him yet, but I've been spending a lot of time out there lately trying to get a look at him and stick an arrow in his heart. I've seen one of the other bucks and he is probably 1.5 years old and has a nice symetrical set of antlers with 4 points. There might be more but I didn't have my field glasses with me when I got a look at him.
I've been harvesting one deer each year for the past 3 years; and all have been does. This year I'm going to take 2 deer, one buck and one doe. I am going to take the buck first because I can take a doe with almost no effort. This is the first period in my 43 years that I have had any success deer hunting. I first went when I was 19 without any luck. I went a few time after that and came up empty handed. I got busy with life and only went out in the woods a couple times over the past 17 years. Now that I am having success, I am inspired.
I have not eaten much venison until the last couple years. I really wanted to have a full deer to be able to eat some more than just a few bites every 5 years. The first time I saw a deer killed I was kind of freaked out. It wasn't a warm and fuzzy feeling. I just resigned myself to the fact that it was a necessary part of the whole thing if I wanted venison. The first time I killed a deer was about 5 years ago. My life had been changed in a very significant way since I first saw a deer killed. I know this might sound strange, but it was a spiritual experience to take that animals life. It was a stange experience. I did not have a moral conflict and I thanked God for the venison. Today I pray for myself and the animal and ask for the hunt to be blessed.
I don't really know what compelled me to write about that. Oh, well, there it is. Chat later.
My fathers family are all deer hunters. I used to hunt myself. Thankyou for sharing this story,I agree about the "spiritual" aspect of it. Linda from Sanford,MI
Posted by: Linda Pomranky | February 23, 2007 at 04:17 AM