Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Sept 5 - KY hunting season starts and I was there!

So, the hunting season in KY started September 5. We were there! My first real hunt as a hunter! I was nervous honestly. I'm not sure why, but I always get that way till I'm settled and in position. So we get up Saturday morning at 4:00 after only 3 hours of sleep. We see deer, I draw back on deer and never release my arrow. Never saw a real buck. We did see a deer we have nicknamed unicorn because he only has antlers on one side. Fast forward till Saturday afternoon. We are heading back to the stand. Early afternoon ... Em texts to tell us storms are heading our way. As soon as we get in the stand we have deer on us. Several deer actually. I stand up for 1 1/2 hours straight, and even pulled back and help for about 3 mins before letting down and having arms of jello. It thundered on us and rained pretty good, but did it deter the deer? Nope, they are there. I finally got a decent shot at a doe and took it, only to miss. Steve says he knows what I did and it's basically at rookie mistake. Hey, we are all allowed. Neighbor Mike went hunting with us and shot a doe, so in the pouring down rain, we load up his doe, field dress it and get it hauled to the processor. Steve and I were soaked to the bone, because by now, it was raining really good! Sunday morning we got up at 3:30 and was in the stand by 5:15 or so. It was still dark. The sun rose while we were sitting in the stand. Had a couple of doe and a nice spike come up, but nothing to write home about till the very end and we had a HUGE bodied doe come in, but never close enough for me to get a good shot.

Hunting is a little stressful. First there's being scent free. Steve had me showering and washing my hair with scent free stuff for a whole day before we left. We had Scentblocker clothes also. And you spray down with the scentblocker stuff about 20 times. Then you hike as quietly as possible to the stand, through the dark in leaves, bushes and fallen trees/limbs. Then you take off your bow, hook it to the pull rope, then climb into the stand. FIRST thing you do is strap yourself into the safety harness. THEN, you pull up your bow, take off the quiver, nock an arrow quickly cause you never know when they will get there. Then you put on your jacket, gloves, facemask/head cover, spray down and then take a deep breath. You do all this as quietly and as fast as you can. Hopefully you won't be sitting too long without action or you'll go to sleep. I nodded off a couple times myself. After the deer come in, you've got to be really quiet and move really slowly cause they got really good eyesight. It's crazy what they can see. And their sense of smell and hearing is top notch!

It was a fun weekend. I especially like spending time with my hubby. Our 18 year anniversary was yesterday (Monday, Sept 7) and although hunting doesn't seem like fun to most, time spent with your life partner is always good.