Deer Down!

When our alarm went off Saturday morning, I reluctantly got out of bed. It was raining, and I wasn't really in the mood to sit out in the cold and the rain. Luckily, Eric told me I could sit in one of our blinds. At least I'd only be cold and not wet. 

As I suited up into my camo, I remember thinking, Do the deer even come out when it's raining? I must have said it out loud because I hear Justin respond that he got his biggest deer in the rain. I still wasn't feeling very optimistic. After all, I'd been hunting quite a bit this season and have only seen one deer while I've been out. Our trail cameras say there's deer out there, but I've been starting to doubt them. 

I got settled into my blind and loaded my gun. After I put the gun in the corner of the blind, I got on my phone to try to help pass the time until I could finally get out of there. Every few minutes I would look up, and at 6:30 I was actually surprised to see two deer dashing from the fence line into the woods to the west of my blind. They were too far away to shoot, even with a gun. But, it was reassuring that the deer were moving. I was pretty alert for the next twenty minutes or so, but slowly drifted back to my phone to help pass time.

Shortly after 7, when I looked up I saw a doe heading straight for my blind. My heart began to quicken and I quickly grabbed my gun, waiting for the deer to look away so I could put it through the window. The doe was in the perfect position- turned away so I would have a clear shot. I pulled the trigger but nothing happened. Then I remembered that I have to pull the hammer down first (I hadn't shot this gun in over a year so I had forgotten about the hammer). 

So I regained my composure and pulled the hammer down. The doe walked closer. It seemed as if she was heading straight for my blind. I was sure that she had seen me, I mean, she was looking right at me. But then she turned to the side again and put her head down to graze. 

Heart racing, I tried to calm my breathing. As I let out my breath, I pulled down on the trigger and watched as she fell to the ground. The excitement I felt was unreal. I just killed my first deer. I immediately texted Eric that I got a doe. Apparently, he had texted Justin and asked if it was him that fired the shot. Ye of little faith! Eric instantly called me, and I could hear the smile beaming on his face. He told me that he thinks he was more excited than I was! 

As I waited for Eric to tell me that they were on the way to come help me with the deer, I couldn't stop shaking. I don't know if you've seen this video, but if you haven't you should watch it! 



I felt exactly like that little girl. I literally couldn't stop shaking (maybe not as much as that little girl, but I was definitely shaking). Even forty minutes later when Eric and Justin arrived to drag my deer out, I was still shaking. That experience was one of the coolest things I've ever done, and I can't wait until I can do it again!

Preparing for Shotgun Season

It's almost shotgun season for this family. Eric has been slaving away on some ground blinds (which I promise to post about soon) and finally has them in the woods. The only thing left to do is sight in our shotguns, or in Eric's case, his brand-new muzzle-loader.

And of course, the day we decide to sight in our guns was the day it decided to snow in November. Since when does it snow in November!? Anywho, Justin came over, we brought Bailey out, and we shot some guns.

We all got our guns sighted in for the weekend. It was pretty cool to see how far away you can shoot and still hit the target!

Bailey absolutely LOVED the snow! She loved it so much, that when we were shooting, we had to tie her up so she wasn't running around digging where we were aiming. And much to Eric's liking, our girl is not gun shy. The first shot startled her, but after the shot was fired she ran right up to Eric to see what was going on. Every shot after that didn't phase her one bit. Eric already sees a rabbit dog in our future.

Here she is just digging away. Bailey loved running around in the snow and digging her nose in the ground any chance she got. Eric and I can't wait until the house is finally ours and she can run around all the time. 

On a different note, the Stratus bit the bullet this weekend. We were driving home from sighting in the guns. I was in the Impala with Bailey and Eric was following behind. I left before he did so I didn't notice when he wasn't following me so closely. I got home and was unpacking the car and taking care of Bailey when mom tells me that Eric is on the phone. I ask Eric what's going on and he says that he is in the ditch. 

So I put my shoes back on and head down the road to find him in the ditch with his front end over a culvert. As a side note, this car does horrible on snow and the tires were in dire need of replacing. Eric said he started sliding and just slid right into the ditch.

We got a hold of the tow truck (their first tow of the season-yay!) and they pulled us out of the ditch. Unfortunately, when they were pulling, the culvert was pulling back. The bottom of the bumper got ripped off and a large piece of our car was now dangling down on the pavement. I'm assuming it was the radiator, but don't quote me on that because I know nothing about cars. We both knew that it would cost more to repair the car than it was worth. Let the car shopping begin!

Luckily, it didn't take us long to find a nice used car to replace the Stratus. We are officially an Impala family now! At least now we have a car that will handle the winter weather and will be safe for our little one on the way. A blessing in disguise!