The hunting season is over. The Gawkers won! Not only did I not get to shoot a deer or an elk, I did even see a live elk or deer during the season. I did see a dead doe that someone had shot and killed and then just left it there. That kinda makes me mad, but nothing I can do about it. It probably ran off the road after they shot it and they thought they missed, then it died about 200 feet off the road on a nice trail. This was probably my most discouraging hunting season ever. Not because I did not get anything, that has happened a lot. But because I put in a lot of effort this year and did not even see anything. In past years that I did not fill my tag, I did not put much effort into finding a deer, so it did not bother me that my tag was unused. This year, I hunted a lot. Not just road hunting either. I was out in the timber and brush, hunting. I found lots of sign where the animals had been. But never got to even see them. The last day of the season did get my hopes up one time. I was hiking back to the truck after a couple of hours of hiking and looking in some plantations and timber, and I heard something creeping in the brush about 100 feet away. So I very slowly and quietly started stalking it through the woods. It was moving away from me. It would got a little ways and then stop for a minute and then move again. I followed it for about 20 minutes, getting ever closer to the unidentified creeper. Then I finally got sight of it about 50 yards away. It was a guy out in the woods picking mushrooms! He had parked beside my pickup, and then went crawling through the woods picking mushrooms! Why you would do this when there are people with guns all over the area I do not know. But thats what he was doing. So much for hunting there. I moved on. Then darkness soon came, signaling the end of deer season for 2008, and I still have 2 unused tags in my pocket. This is the type of year that makes me wonder why I bother to hunt. I wonder if it is worth the time and money. But I am sure by the next hunting season, I will have forgotten this year and have a new batch of unfounded optimism that will drive me out looking for those Gawkers again.
Now if you read my first blog about Gawkers way back before hunting season, you may remember that I said in that blog that God would provide for our family one way or another. He does not fail! As the season came to an end, and I was feeling sorry for myself, my brother in law called and said he got a deer and needed someplace to store it because his freezer was not big enough. We said that we could store it, since I did not get anything there is plenty of room in our freezer. Then, today, when he called to let us know when he would be bringing it up to put it in the freezer, he said that he did not want it all and we could have what was left if we wanted it. Of course we said yes and he delivered the front half of his deer to me at I-5 and I spent the evening after the girls went to bed, cutting it up.
So God did provide some meat for our family just like I said he would. Just not the way I thought he would.
If you ask Brooke what animal this was, she will probably tell you it was "one of those 4 legged doedeerbullcowbuckelk things!" She just doesn't understand the difference! This was a buck deer for those interested. It was not a big one, but it is meat in the freezer.
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