Hunting

We went to Paris over the weekend so Nick could go bow hunting.

Annie, you might want to just skip reading this whole post. You're not going to like it.

I decided, being the wonderful wife that I am, that I would go with him. My job: drive the jeep, watch the left side of the road for deers. Let me tell you, I had some good spies. I saw a mama deer with a little bambi, he was so cute. He was just prancing around all over in the field. Although my hubby likes to kill innocent animals, he does draw the line at killing mamas. Besides, he wanted a big trophy buck.

Don't tell him this, but I didn't think that we would see anything. And if we did, I really didn't think he would hit it.

So we drove around for an hour, and there it was. The trophy buck. It was 102 yards from the road (a long ways to shoot a bow). My sneaky husband snuck up the hill until he was 80 yards (still a long ways to shoot a bow). I watched the whole thing through the binoculars in the warm jeep. I was impressed at how big he was. So Nick gets ready and shoots. And he hit him! Right above the shoulder. He just piled up right where he was standing. I was so proud of him!

I hiked up the hill with him to check it out. This is where the fun ended for me. This was my first hunting trip, mind you. Poor bambi was flailing around on the ground, looking at me with his big brown eyes. Nick said he hit his spinal cord or something (I can't really remember) so he was paralyzed. Then he got out his knife to slit his throat and put him out of his misery. "My knife is really dull." Poor thing. If you're going to kill him, at least make it quick. Don't make him suffer.

Then it was time to gut him. This is when I found a stump to sit on a ways away so I couldn't see. "Karalynn, come hold this hoof up for me." Ugh. I'm not impressed with hunting right now.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those freako animal rights activists that thinks meat just magically shows up in the supermarket. I'm know my steaks came from a real cow. I just didn't really enjoy watching him die I guess.

Then it started snowing. Giant snowflakes. In August. They were the size of snowballs. Giant snowballs. See the white spots in the picture?

Turns out he wasn't all that big, just a two-point. But, it was a big two-point. We took him to the butcher that day and he said that he didn't see any deers that big until the end of rifle hunting. See the snow on the ground?
After he was gutted and tagged, we went back to the house to get the trailer. I decided that my hunting days are over, so I stayed and Nick went back to get it. I made skunkberry jelly with Marlene. I love skunkberry jelly! They are actually a kind of currant, but they are called skunkberries because, well, they stink. Not like skunks, but more like when you've tried on the whole bottle of every kind of perfume at the store. Really strong. Come over to my house sometime and I will give you a taste.

When Nick got back, he had to introduce Ben to Bambi.