Nov 15 is opening day of Mi gun deer . Opener is about the same every year except this year ! I had just finished Mondays shift at work and got home around 11:50 pm.Upon walking in the door I was greeted by the smell of bakeing cookies. Jen,my wife was baking some to take to the blind in the AM. I headed to the gun room to pull the rifles from the safe and case them for the morning. Double checked gear and finally hit the pillow around 2:00 AM,having just set my alarm for 5:15 AM. Dead to the world, I was awakin by a dog jumping on my head and my wife yelling ! I see my wife standing in the door way yelling and holding something black. What's going on ?I yelled. There's a possum in the house !! I jumped up half awake to see a possum run and hide in our pile of shoes and boots. I went into action and grabbed it by the tail and took it to the porch.With a couple wacks from a 4cell maglite ,I took care of the problem.lol
I asked how it got in and Jen said she let one of the dogs out for a potty break . When the dog returned it ran to it's cage, but had dropped something. With no lights on or wearing her glasses she saw the other 2 dogs peering at the object on the floor. She flipped on the lights and saw a "dead" possum ! So she grabbed a trash bag from the kitchen to pick it up and it jumped up and hissed at her ! That's when I got involved. After hearing the tale I tried to get back to bed.
Not long and it was time to get up.grrr...
Got dressed and we headed out to my Grandfathers farm to meet him and my dad. I've been hunting with grandpa for 29 ish years.I'd go opening day with him even before I was old enough to hunt myself. Grandpa is 89 this past Sept and gets around pretty good. We all went to our blinds and awaited daylight. Not long after daylight a small buck showed in my field. I looked him over and decided what the heck,he'll eat good. Besides I had my .223 AI which wanted a go at a deer.(grin) One squeeze of the trigger and BANG FLOP ! WOW ! Not hardly as much as a kick. Sweet, I giggled inside.
After sitting awhile I took pics and gutted my deer .I walked up front to the ditch to clean up and wonder over to see the wife. She had seen a couple does and a small half rack buck, that she passed on. After a brief chat I headed back to my stand.
Here is her little ,but cozy shack...
After a little while, my 2way radio spoke . " You guys ready for a sandwich ?" Yep ! Be over shortly gramps. Soon I headed over to grandpa's blind and home base. My dad traded me spots and he took Jen a fresh cooked burger.Mmmmm.... I ate and talked about the morning and my deer. We swapped some old tales and after a bit I thanked g-pa for everything and headed back out.
G-pa's blind and him cooking lunch !!
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I took my deer up to hang in the shade and returned to my stand for the evening hunt. The day turned very warm and the night hunt was deerless. After dark we gathered at the farm for stories and chilli and grandma's fresh apple pie !!
What a great opening day once again. The farm isn't big ,nor the deer, but the times we have are the BEST EVER ! It's a family tradition.
Thanks for reading and see you next year .....
Tim