actually, i did kill the deer

mike's friend roger came over & heard the story of the deer's hind end coming over the front then running off. roger said "lets go get that deer" they came and interrupted my fencing and asked me to show them where that deer crossed the fence. i said "i looked and there was no blood and it ran off fine. roger wanted me to humor them.

i tentatively told my story thinking i was to soon be the butt of some cruel hunting joke. having to relive my MISSED SHOT one more time we set off. i showed them where i was and where the deer was it was actually about 65 yards a little further than i had thought earlier and was feeling kinda bad about taking a shot at a deer out of recommended range. we saw the scuffle of leaves and no blood. i showed them the path and where the deer crossed the fence. still no blood anywhere. we crossed the fence and followed the scuffle of leaves mike and i went off to the right. roger with his astute tracking skill. found a droplet of blood while mike and i were checking out the old car bodies in the woods. roger said he's right here from off in the distance. i thought RIGHT here begins the cruel hunting joke. mike and i walked over to where he was and sure enough there lay a dead deer. the bullet hole in his side was almost in the perfect spot. mike started to beam with pride and telling that if he'd of shot it it'd been an inch and a half further forward. roger & mike started into an obvious great history of hunting antic dotes.

mike is very funny saying "we don't want to wear the woods out by spending too much time there a huntin'" and "no sense in wasting more than one bullet for target practice"

seriously though, i borrowed the gun last night after dark and left for the woods before sunrise. i never even looked down the sights of the gun until i lined them on the deer this morning. that is why i wasn't surprised to have thought i missed. when i saw the deer adrenaline was coursing through my body and my hands were shaking. i remembered from target practice as a boy 'time the wavering pattern in my hands and squeeze the trigger very slowly'

i must admit that it was incredibly lucky and we are blessed to have the meat for this winter. our kids are incredible carnivores and are eating us out of house and home. animal protein is one of the only things that calms tristan and kassi's activity levels to manageable proportions.

so here are the facts:
we need the meat
i have never hunted deer with a rifle
i haven't shot a gun in over 20 years
i didn't even look down the sights before lining them on the deer
we are very thankful and blessed for the meat.
i was in the woods for less than an hour

here is the most recent corner post that we worked on. the posts are freshly cut black locust that is supposed to last for 15 years. notice the turn buckle to tighten the top brace to the other post and give diagonal support via tension.


check out the matching angle notch pretty sweet huh?