Surprisingly, I've hunted very little since Christmas other than checking fields from the truck a few times before & after work. This is the first year in too many to count that we haven't headed to Arkansas right after Christmas for a duck hunt. I have to honestly admit that I have really enjoyed the extended holiday with Brandi & the kids.
Sunday afternoon - I was planning to hunt the shooting house in my river bottom but my neighbor must have gotten a new 4-wheeler for Christmas. He was making plenty of noise right across the propert
y line, so I decided to head out to our lease at the Grove & climb up in the shooting house. I ran 3 or 4 does out of the food plot on the way in, but I did have a nice surprise waiting for me! This rub is on a cedar tree that I can just barely reach around with both hands - obviously made by a GOOD deer! Funny, I'd looked at this tree every time I hunted this spot & thought that it would be a great tree for a big deer to rub - it was :)) Saw a total of about 10 does, but no horns. Still, a very good afternoon for this farm.
Monday afternoon - my best afternoon of hunting the entire season! I was a little late getting back from making my rounds to the out-of-town stores, so once again I planned to run down to the river bottom to sit till dark. The weather was mild, deer were already starting to hit the fields, & I only had about an hour before dark, so I asked my Molly if she'd like to go hunting with me. Of course, she very excitedly said Y
ESSSS! Both the girls are always asking something like "Daddy, when will I be old enough to hunt?". But, almost since birth, I've had a feeling that Molly is going to be my little huntress. I simply CANNOT WAIT until the day that they are ready to actually hunt, but on the other hand I was to be very careful & introduce the sport that is such a big part of my life to them in the correct way. I want them to be old enough to respect both the animal & the weapon, and to understand all the reasons why we hunt. Until such time that their Mom & I decide that they are ready, I hope to let them tag along with me as often as they will.
We got settled in the shooting house about 4:15 & only had to wait about 20 minutes for the first deer to appear. Ended up seeing 12 does & 2 bucks. Molly was able to spot each one as t
hey stepped out into the field & had to check them all out through her binocs! The highlight of the afternoon was at dark though when she started playing peek-a-boo with one old doe out the shooting house window! We were going to spook the deer anyway as soon as we got out of the house, so I let her have her fun! After she had their attention, she insisted of showing them her mermaid doll with the light-up tail. That really got em going! Apparently, whitetails don't care much for mermaids - who knew?? :)) PRICELESS! An afternoon I'll never forget & one I hope that she always remembers as well!
Tuesday afternoon - back to the Grove. I thought I was getting there plenty early, but at 2:30 I still ran deer out of the plot. The rapidly approaching strong cold front had them up and feeding early. Spike & several does. I was pretty sure that the spike was the only deer that actually saw me, so I was confident that the would come back. They did - first 2 does back out within 30 minutes, the entire group (spike + 4 does) back within an hour. They fed until about 30 minutes before dark & then slowly filtered out of the plot. Nothing else showed before dark.