Weekend in the woods

We had a fun weekend, Dayne and I went out to Ranger with his cousin, Preston. His uncle Chris and Mr. Paul Johnson, Prestons other grandfather. We did not have intentions of shooting deer this weekend, just watching and hoping to shoot a hog or varmint.

We woke up early on Saturday morning to find a very healthy 4pt buck under the feeder,as the sun came up eating, all he could. This little guy was as fat as he could be and we had a good time watching him. About 30 minutes later we saw the biggest buck I have ever seen. This was a beautiful, magestic animal and it was a blessing to see him and Dayne was very excited to see "a big deer" After the hunt we headed back to camp where we were able to be apart of his cousin Prestons first buck. We went and picked up the deer from the field and introduced Dayne and Preston to "field dressing". I don't think they knew what to expect but they did not want to help once they saw what it was all about. We left to take the deer to the processer and on the way out we taught the boys how to track a wounded animal. Dayne's uncle Chris had run across a couple coyotes that morning and was able to get a good shot at one. We found good blood and followed it down the road and across. We lost it in the deep grass but the boys had a great time putting the clues together to follow the wounded coyote, at least for a little while. After we returned from the processor we had a great afternoon running around the woods, shooting what ever moved and hundreds of BB's will forever be lost in the red dirt of Ranger Tx.

We went out that afternoon to the woods were Dayne, armed with his little compound bow awaited anything to step within shooting distance so he to could get his first kill, but nothing ever came close. No birds, snakes, rabbits, squrrls, hogs, coyotes,bobcats or anything else was brave enough to stare down his arrow. Right at dark, he was drawing back to shoot an arrow out of the double seated tree stand when I looked up and a group of hogs were running into the fild in front of us. I stopped the release of the arrow and asked if he wanted to watch them and maybe one would come close or would he like me to try and shoot one with the rifle I had carried with us. He told me to try, so after a couple minutes of watching them run around I picked out one of the smaller ones and pulled the trigger. We went to see if we could find blood but none was found. He told me "he was proud of me and I had tried my best and thats all that had mattered". We finished the night up with a great steak dinner and a great camp fire. Dayne and Preston enjoyed the fire so much they could not keep there clothes on. They decided since the fire was so hot they would take there shirts off.

They had a big time around the fire, looking up and seeing the milky way for the first time. It was a truly special day!

We went to sleep thinking of the great hunt in the morning, but it was too much. The previous day had worn us all out and we all slept in. Preston and Mr. Paul walked the roads a little after they awoke, but Chris, Dayne and I slept a little longer and awoke to begin packing up to come home. While the big boys packed and cleaned the little boys went over to the pond to finish off nay frogs that dare show themselves. It was a great weekend and alot of great memories will forever be eched in our minds. Dayne has been practicing shooting his bow since we arrived at home and is excited to get back out into the woods.