Deer Blind Diaries #2

Back in early January of 2022, I woke up cold and achy from a long week of work and the night before workout.  It was Saturday on the last weekend of white-tail deer season and I wanted to get one more hunt in.  I asked the boys the night before if they wanted to take the 50 min trip to Medina county with me for one last hunt, but they both passed claiming that they needed to rest.  I get it.  They are growing up so fast, and I no longer can get them excited about a 5AM wheels down trip to ride out to the lease for a cold morning hunt.  This year was a challenging year on the lease.  New lease, new blind, new land to get used to and learn.   Still it was 500 plus acres of South Texas heaven and I felt the call to get one last trip in.  Normally, I would drive out on a Friday and spend the night in the camper and wake up on the lease for the morning hunt, but these days to slip in a 2 day weekend away from the family is getting harder and harder to do.  So I found a sliver of time on Saturday, thinking I could wake up at 5AM drive into the lease, set up in the blind around 6AM and hunt until about 8AM.  If I shot something, I could field dress, load up and drive to Boerne for processing and drop off and still get home around noon.  That seemed reasonable.  It was a plan at least.  Well, you know how plans go ….

This particular morning felt raw.  I was alone on the property, all to myself. The emotionless landscape and solitude gave me a feeling of spiritual insignificance.  The danger of nature makes you feel alive.  Sitting in a blind by yourself, watching the world turn second by second, reminds you that the great conductor is alive and well.  There are some days that you just know something is going to happen.  This day was one of those days.  The drive up was nice.  Good time to reflect, still my mind and visualize what I wanted to happen this morning.  It was a cold morning, but not too cold.  The visibility was good and I only brought the rifle today.  Packed light knowing that this would be a very focused trip.  If I didn’t see anything by 8AM, I would throw the gear in the truck and head straight home. 

As the sun woke up and shined it’s beauty on the land from behind the blind, three hours passed very quickly with minimal activity at the deer feeder.  I was content, happy with just the ability for one last try and another morning being in the presence of God’s creation.  As I was about to start packing up, I looked up and there he was.  A buck standing about 40 feet from the feeder as if hand delivered from above.  He was not huge, but definitely big enough for a good harvest.  Especially this late in the season.  I waited about 5 mins for him to slowly make his way across the field to where I had a clean shot.  It was all on me now.  No pressure, no excuses, no one to distract me.  I quickly said the sign of the cross, aimed and fired.  A crack, the smell of gun powder and a racing heartbeat.  The shot hit, but didn’t hit vitals so the deer took off.  I tracked with my eye as he scurried fatally injured across the field into some brush about 50 yards to the right of where I was viewing.  It’s still hard to explain that feeling of sadness, triumph, excitement and guilt all in one emotional state.  But that is what it is when you take a life intentionally to give life to yourself and your family.  I waited about 30 mins for the deer to bed down and take his final breath.  As I got out of the blind and walked toward the direction of where he went, I had a sense of presence that can only be explained as divine.  The air, the nature, the experience, the present moment.  I quickly found a pool of deep dark red blood and a trail of droplets that led to more brush and led me across a dry creek bed.  Tracking a bedded deer is an experience all in itself.  For a moment, the flow and concentration of visualizing where the deer went to by looking at small specks of blood on the ground, speaks to the immense focus and concentration necessary to know where the trail leads.  All focus, no distractions and just a pumping heart beat and a fear of not being able to find the animal.  After about 45 mins of tracking and a few prayers for a successful find, I finally started to see more and more blood down a very weeded trail and when I looked up there he was.  Down, lying peacefully in the brush.  As I approached I said the sign of the cross, thanked the lord for this day, this harvest and the opportunity to experience this moment. 

Days like this make me feel completely alive.  The older I get, the more I appreciate real life experiences.  The more I take my time to revel in the small moments of being in the presence of the divine, the more I realize the complexity of the world can not be explained with words, but rather only understood by experiences.  But we have to immerse ourselves in these experiences, recognize the moments of our own personal insignificance, while surrendering to our inability to comprehend all of God’s plan in our earthly time.  That is called Faith my friends.  Cheers to a Happy and Hopeful New Year in 2023!