Sunday Morning

As we prepared for bedtime on Saturday night, a group of hogs came into the back yard to feed on corn that Michaela and Jeanette had put out earlier in the day.  I could almost see a little apprehension in Michaela's eyes as she watched the hogs, thinking about the potential of being amongst the hogs in the ICE Blind the following morning. 

Nevertheless, she was excited about going out with me.  She packed her backpack with toys, and we decided we should take her MagnaDoodle in case she got bored! 

Sunday morning came quickly.  I showered and dressed before waking Michaela.  I thought there might be a likelihood of her not wanting to get up before daylight, but as soon as I woke her she had a grin on her face.  Nothing was going to stop her from hunting with her daddy!  I dressed her in layers, as it was a cold morning.  I also decided it might be wise to bring along a sleeping bag and pillow just in case she got too cold or tired.  We loaded in the pickup and headed out to the ICE Blind.

We were situated inside the blind well before daylight.  Michaela still had a grin on her face, but couldn't wait until daylight arrived!  We had forgotten to get the MagnaDoodle, but I let her hold my grunt tube to keep her occupied.  She could barely contain herself, and blew it loud and often!  Daylight finally started its approach, and I strained against the semi-darkness in search of movement.  I felt three taps on my ribs, and I looked down at Michaela, thinking she was going to point out an approaching deer that I hadn't seen.  I leaned down, listening intently as I tried to slowly look out her window.  She put her lips to my ear and whispered, "Daddy, I gotta go potty."  We forgot to take care of one thing!  It was just getting daylight, and she had to go potty?  I don't know if she could see the frustration on my face, but she soon followed up with ". . . but I can wait."  We waited just a bit, but then decided to go ahead and get it over with.  Now she's an old pro at "squatting," and I'll save you the details of how it happened, but she ended up getting her drawers wet during the process!  We removed them, tossed them into the brush for retrieval later, pulled her warmups back up and got back into the ICE Blind. 

Bless her little heart, Michaela was just about as patient as you could ever expect a 5 year old girl to be.  She whispered songs to herself, rocked back and forth in her chair, blew on the grunt call, sounding more like a sick duck chuckle than a deer, and did just about whatever she could to occupy herself while the deer weren't cooperating.  I was almost shocked that we didn't at least see a doe or two in this area, but for whatever reason, we didn't. 

Finally, the lack of activity was more than I. . .I mean, she, could take.  We had sat for almost an hour and a half, and had yet to see a deer, hog or javelina.  We decided that it was time to leave.  On our drive back to the cabin, we soon found out where all of the deer were!  There were deer, both does and bucks, along the road for as far as you could see.  When we rounded the "long mountain," again we saw a large group of deer feeding in the road.  The bucks sauntered off slowly as we approached, and then sat and watched us from just inside the brush line, about 100 yards away. 

We watched them for a while before deciding to leave.  When we got back to the cabin, Michaela was excited to tell Mommy about the deer we had seen.  She didn't care if we saw them while riding and not from the blind, she enjoyed just seeing them!  We should all be so appreciative.

I decided since it was still fairly early that I would go back out to the Swivel Limb stand on Hi-Line road and see what was moving.  My dad and step-mom were out riding around, so I went the back way so I could find them to let them know where I would be so they would not drive by me while I was hunting.  After talking to them, it was obvious why the deer were so scattered.  They were leaving in an hour or so, and had been driving around emptying out the tailgate feeder on the pickup, which meant they had spread corn throughout the entire ranch.  It made for good viewing from a pickup, but lousy hunting from specific locations! 

I turned off the Hi-Line road onto the "cutoff road" and pulled my pickup into the brush.  Just as I was getting out, I spotted this awesome buck as he came out onto the cutoff road, less than 50 yards from me! 

Initially, I decided I would set up my camera on a tripod and attempt a stalk on the buck.  However, after realizing that my tripod was still in the ICE Blind, I chose not to attempt the stalk since I was committed to not shooting unless I could get the shot on video.  Besides, as magnificent as this buck was, I was still looking for the bigger buck I had seen last year. 

I walked on down to the Swivel Limb, and after an hour and a half of little activity, I started questioning my decision to not make an attempt at the ten pointer.  I reviewed the video tape several times, and finally, I came to my senses and decided that I would go see if he was still there, and if I could get a shot, I would take it. . .again, provided I could get it on video, even if it meant setting my camera on the ground (now there's a novel idea!)  Unfortunately, the buck had finished his morning feeding, and was nowhere to be found.  I retreated back to camp for a bite to eat.  Meanwhile, the ten pointer is worth another look!  Click on the image below for a short, if not shaky, video clip.