Pictures will be sometime soon. Eric took pictures with the digital camera, but I'm going to wait to post pictures until we get them all developed.

We went to the same place as last time.

Saturday, 6:05 pm
Left half after noon; got to the mountains at a little after three or so. Set up camp; about four Dad, Beth, and Joe walked for a bit, while Ben, Eric, and I went around the Loop. We got to the rendezvous on time, but Joe, Dad, and Beth were late. They had traipsed around for an hour or so.
When we finished setting up camp, we realized something important: we had forgotten the coffeepot. Guess we'll have to do with "cowboy coffee".

Later Ben ran outside to get our overalls (Dad's and mine) out of the back of his pickup. He had already taken off his shirt for bed. There was 2 or 3 inches of snow. When he came in, he said, "It's not all that cold out."
Dad said sardonically, "Shut the door. You're letting all the not-so-cold in."

Sunday, 11:25 am
This morning Ben had his heart set on traipsing up to a meadow (the meadow near the one I'd been in last time when I shot at that buck) by shooting light, which came at about 7:10, so we got up at 5, had "egga muffins" (sausage patty, egg, and fake cheese on an English muffin; like an Egg McMuffin), and Ben and Joe took off. Eric started walking down the road, and Dad, Beth, and I walked the opposite direction up the road. We walked a fence of a private property, and Dad saw one deer, but it jumped over the fence onto the private property (I KNOW those deer can read!).
We walked (with short breaks) from about 7 to 9:30 am, when we made it back to camp. Just before getting to camp, we saw a whitetail. I was the one who was going to take the first shot (since I hadn't gotten any deer yet; Beth can only get elk; Dad can get a whitetail doe and an elk), so I went on ahead. It was gone, though, so we went back to camp. Since Ben had taken his pickup, Dad fired up the van (our ATV!). Eric came up, and we started around the loop in the direction Ben had gone.
When we got to where the road turned 90º to the left and there was a steeeeeeep hill, we chained up. When we'd finished chaining up, we had a white pickup behind us. We went down the hill, then the pickup did.
We were almost all the way around the loop, and were in the same hollow Joe shot his deer in last year.
"There!" Dad pointed to the hill above the hollow. "Get your gun, Anne. Shoot the big one."
"Which is the big one?"
"The back one."
"Ok." I was in the passenger's seat (and they were on the driver's side), so I got out (leaving the door open, to not startle them), jacked a round in, knelt by the road, and took aim.
I heard Dad saying something. It sounded like "Shoot! Shoot!" But later he said he was saying they were small deer, all of 'em. Well earlier, Dad had told me, "If you get a small one, say it's because you like cute, fuzzy ones."
Anyway. I steadied my rifle (they were looking at us; about 75 yards away) and slowly squeezed (you only squeeze, not pull triggers if you want to be accurate) the trigger.
The funny thing is, when you're hunting and take a shot, you don't notice the kick or the noise, except for a slight ringing in your ears afterwards.
The deer I aimed at (glad it was that one and not another!) humped up funny and ran almost up the hill, then fell and slid halfway back down. The other two just stood there.
"Go get it," Dad said, so I started around the little meadow and up towards where my deer fell. Until I was almost to the middle of the edge of the meadow, the other two deer just stood and watched me walk.
Guided by yelled directions from Dad ("Straight up! Right!"), I found my deer. A perfect heart shot. I was surprised he could have run that far, and Dad was, too, when he saw it, because it was right through the heart, and some bones were broken.
I drug it down the hill to the meadow, then Eric came, gave his opinion, and drug it to the van. So it was small, but a perfect shot! As Ben said later, "You have to be a good shot to hit something that small!"
Dad and Eric loaded in a tarp and put it in the back of the van to take to camp. 
When we got to the bridge, Ben's pickup was parked and he was starting up the road from where we had just come. He told us a guy in a white pickup came by and talked with him. (It was the white pickup that was following us.) When we drove on a little, we saw Joe (who was walking) and got more of the story. The guy had come by and told them two whitetail deer were in the area. He said somebody had taken a shot.
"In a big blue van?" Ben asked.
The guy had said yeah.
"That's my dad," Ben had said, and the guy said "Well that must've been your sister shooting then."
So Ben knew I'd shot.

We got back to camp. Ben picked Joe up and came behind. They unloaded my deer and took a few pictures (Eric had me pose with his gun). Then Eric drug my deer off to the edge of camp, where the hill went steeply down, so I could "dress" it. He stayed to "tell me what to do", and Beth stayed to hold legs.
It took me about ten minutes, but it was a good job. Dad even congratulated me. I was faster than Joe, who took 40 or 50 minutes on his last deer, which was a small one too.
Dad cut out the backstraps (which were very small!) and put them in a Ziploc. Then he and Ben hung the deer in a tree.
Ben, Joe, and Dad left to walk. Beth, Eric, and I are here at camp waiting. Eric's babysitting the fire; Bethy's here in the camper playing solitaire. I'm writing this and babysitting the stove. I'm going to work on my novel now (it's in the same notebook).

5:35 pm
15 minutes past shooting light. Got to camp about 10 minutes ago. When Dad, Ben, and Joe got back to camp at 2:30 they were all tuckered out (except Ben, of course). I napped from one to two while they were gone. We had cup o'noodle water all ready so when they got here we "dished up" cup o'noodles. We saw a big buck on a hill faraway, so Ben took off and came back to camp when we were done with lunch. Joe decided to stay in camp; Ben wanted to go up to his meadow again, and Dad wanted to find the beginning of a road they hiked to earlier. So Dad, Beth, Eric, and I piled in the van and drove around. We found the road (turn left at the private airstrip!), and on the way there were tons and tons of deer, all on private property. We went to the end of the road and parked. And sat.  It was warm and comfy. Dad and Eric took a snooze (Dad laid his seat back, but Eric laid on the second bench). So just Beth and I watched.
We only saw five deer, but they were a maddening hundred yards or so from the private property fence, IN the private property.
Went back to camp; Ben got back a little later. We're having chicken sandwiches for dinner.

Monday, 4:45 am
*yawn* Ben wants to leave by six so he can walk up to his beloved meadow in the dark. lol How fun. Dad and I and Beth are going to the meadow we scoped out yesterday. Dunno where Joe and Eric are going.
Dad's making breakfast.
Wind is blowing somethin' fierce out there. Rocking the camper. No wait...maybe that was just Joe. (No, it really was the wind.) Last night Dad turned up the furnace because night before it got kind of cold.

12:10 pm
Wow. This morning Ben went to his meadow; Eric walked down the road, and the rest of us went our way. Joe stayed near the van (and in it, half the time), and we (Dad, Beth, and I) walked a fence and over a little hill. The wind was blowing soo hard, it felt like we were arctic explorers! It was sooo cold and sooo windy. Beth and I sat for a while and Dad walked a ways. We sat for two hours, then Dad came back and we walked to the van. The wind was even worse. We wondered if the van would actually be on its wheels when we came back, and I decided even if it wasn't, I'd get in anyway! It was, though. Dad clocked the wind speed, and it was 30 mph with gusts of 40-45. It was so hard trying to walk in that, even with the wind at our backs. It must have been pretty funny to see Beth and I stagger around like drunkards! But we finally got to the van. Driving down the road, we saw a herd of buffalo in a pasture. We hurried back to camp to get the camera. Picked Ben and Eric up at camp, went back. Took pictures; showed Ben where we had been.
Went around the loop; saw one. Ben went out to follow it but it went too far away.
Came back to camp; had lunch.

6:30 pm
Just got back to camp; Dad's making pancakes for dinner.
Joe and Eric stayed relatively near camp; the rest of us went in the mountains. Ben, Beth, and Dad went up to Ben's meadow; I stayed behind a little bit to watch a different spot. Ben, when he came back to me, said my little spot looked like Big Bird's nest: a ring of brush with a little spot to sit in the middle. Saw a grouse and two tiny birds; that was it.
Ben saw a herd of does (at least he was pretty sure they were does, and Dad confirmed it) about 20 feet from him, but he wasn't sure they were whitetails (can't shoot muley does here). So he didn't shoot.
Came back to camp.

Tuesday, 5:15 am
*yawn* Alarm was trying to get us up at 4, but we didn't get up until 4:30. The furnace went off in the night...we ran out of propane in one of the tanks. Dad put another take of propane on (or hooked it up), then restarted the furnace and fridge. He's making breakfast now; leftover egga muffins and chicken sandwiches.
Ben wants to go to his meadow again since there's no wind (or less, at least).
Dunno what the rest of us are doing.

10:10 am
Everybody went their separate way this morning. Close to 9 we heard a shot, then it snowed really hard. It snowed hard for 20 minutes, then let up some. I holed up and waited for the snow to let up. It was like being in a snow globe. Snow piled up on my suit, and I shook it off, but it piled right back up again.
Around 9:40 I started walking back to camp. Ben had picked Dad and Beth up, so they got here a little before me.

11:45 am
Anyway. Keep getting distracted .Everybody but Ben and I left in the van to road hunt. In a few minutes, Ben and I will go, too.
So, Beth and Dad got to the camper, I walked up, and Ben drove off to pick Joe and Eric up (they were in "Eric's Spot", down near the bridge), because Eric got a deer. Ben had been by there earlier, before he picked Dad and Beth up. He hinted to Dad it was a little deer.
So anyway. Dad, Beth, and I stood around for a while. My boots have bad tread that snow clings to, so every step I took collected about half an inch of snow. We laughed about it, and I collected more. It was taller than Beth, so Dad took a picture (normally she's about two inches taller than me; I was now three inches taller than her!). I clumped around more, and got almost as tall as Dad, which was a new experience! We wanted to wait for Ben to come back, and Dad would say, "Ben, you know drinking coffee makes you short...stand next to Anne and see if you've shrunk!" But he didn't come in time, and the 6" of snow on my boots finally came off.
So we went in the camper, and Dad heated water for coffee and cocoa. Cowboy coffee (with a splash of cold water to settle the grounds, Louis L'Amour style) was actually pretty good! I had a chicken sandwich for a snack, and Dad had a leftover egga muffin.
I turned my radio on. Joe said Eric got one, "a little bigger than your deer," he told me. We were thinking he'd gotten a small one. Joe said they found a bone-saw in the van, and sawed the breastbone (to get to the windpipe easier). we were like, "you need a bone-saw for a little deer?!?!?"



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