leader of the pack

today was the opening day of deer season, and the 3 boys have been planning their season logistics for quite a while. first off, they had to secure guns for everyone, as jerry and jacob didn't have their own rifles. then they had to decide who was hunting where. the day that i went out "turkey hunting" with jerry was really more of a "deer scouting expedition" since jerry had already gotten his turkey, and we found a great place for him to hunt.

but, when it came down to the day to hunt, he gave that spot to scott and jacob to share and jerry decided to hunt along our back fence row. he had been meaning to get back there and scout it out better (since he hadn't been back there at all) but just didn't get to it. when he walked back there this morning, he found deer tracks and rubs all over the place -- so he ended up in a good spot.

i was still at work this morning when the phone rang at 6:45 am and jerry said, "i just shot my buck!" i waited on the phone while he trekked over to the deer to hear what he had. he wasn't sure which points counted, but the guys at deer camp across the road called it a "small 6" as there were 2 points that were not very long. the deer was good sized, though, so jerry was happy. judging from the size of the rack, jerry thought this buck was probably just 2 years old.

ok, now the "fun and games" is over and something has to be done w/ this deer. jacob had brought the lawnmower and wagon down to help jerry haul the deer back to the house. they needed to get it pulled up somewhere so they could work on it, so they chose a tree rather close to my bedroom window for this commotion (as i was trying to sleep this morning). jacob was elected to climb up in the tree and place the pulley into position.


after quite a bit of encouragement and giggling, he finally got that part done. as the were pulling the deer up into the air, the pulley thing broke and dropped the deer right back down. this led to another overwhelming attack of the giggles for this group of boys. scott was the photographer -- that's why you don't see any pictures of him, but his voice was sure a part of the noise out there.

they finally got the deer up and field dressed before the younger boys headed over to hang out at deer camp across the road. jerry was too tired to do much else for the day, so he just hung out at the house. he was telling me how jacob came up w/ the idea to purchase a meat grinder and how they could process all their own deer meat at home. i quickly nixed that idea and gave jerry the information on a butcher shop near us that is more than affordable. i knew how that job would go -- jacob would be all gung-ho about it, scott would be gone somewhere else, and jerry would get stuck cleaning up the mess. no thanks!

so jerry hauled his kill off to the butcher shop for processing today and then spent the rest of the day resting from such a strenuous workout. the 2 boys spent the rest of the day hunting and hanging out at deer camp, so i'm not sure they'll be worth much tomorrow for hunting or anything else.

oh well, jerry has already shown them how it's done and now they just need to get to work and try and out-do him. jacob tried all through turkey season to get a turkey and out-do jerry, but he didn't ever see any turkey to take a shot at. now that it's deer season, jacob saw turkeys but no deer. looks like he has his work cut out for him and he's only got a few more days to get it done!