Two Does One Night

I finally filled my tags!

I have delayed writing this post because of the emotional roller coaster that this week has been.  Thursday morning just minutes before my alarm was set to go off for hunting my phone started ringing.  My cousin was calling to let me know that their five-year-old little girl had just lost her battle with cancer (F**K CANCER!).  So I unloaded my hunting gear from my truck and rushed over to his house and didn't give another thought to my tree stand.  As the day wore on it was time for all of us to go and allow them to have time alone so my husband and I headed home and loaded up the truck again.

Whenever I'm feeling lost, scared, angry or hurt all I can think about is running away to the woods so that I can clear my head and pull everything together.  Thursday I was feeling all of those emotions and a whole lot more so I was grateful for the opportunity to hunt that evening.

My husband drove me in to the tree stand then left to pick our son up from school.  Our plan was that they would get changed and join me on the property for the evening hunt.  We decided that since I could hear the truck starting down the road I would just send a quick text message if there were deer in the area so they didn't come hiking in and scare everything off.  One little detail that we overlooked was that fact that the freezing temperatures wreak havoc on my phone and usually it dies.  Sure enough...two does stepped into the bluff just as the truck started down the road and my phone was dead so I couldn't warn my boys.  Slowly the deer came into range and as I drew my bow back I could hear my boys on the trail.  The doe turned broadside and I took the shot.  My husband crested the hill just as I was releasing but he did not see my arrow and thought he had scared the deer off until he saw the one fall.

Once the deer was down they rushed up into the tree stand and we all settled in to wait and see if we would get another chance this evening (I lucked out and drew a doe tag in addition to my regular archery deer tag this year).  Not twenty minutes later another doe came along the trail under our tree stand.  The GMU I was hunting allows me to take any deer and Thursday was going to be my last chance to hunt and I decided that a doe would taste better than tag soup.  The doe was behind a bush so I drew and held my bow waiting for her to step out.  My son was absolutely buzzing wondering why I wasn't shooting, so much so that I began to wonder if he would spook her off.  Eventually she stepped into the clearing and I took the shot dropping her in her tracks.

Late archery opened on November 25th in our area and I have hunted every day possible since it opened.  We have had a very severe cold snap so most days I was not seeing any deer movement, and one of my spots had been taken over by moose.  I was beginning to doubt my hunting/tracking abilities.  Then Thursday evening in the stand I just couldn't go wrong...There were deer everywhere they were moving along the trails that we were set up on and no amount of movement from my son was spooking them off.  I truly believe that our little angel blessed my hunt and helped my family find a great distracting and healing moment.  Now we have two mature does that will feed our family well and we had family come together to process the meat.  A bit of healing that only the great outdoors, God and family can bring.