WINTER SOLSTICE 2021

  This would have been the last day of the deer season in past years. But this year, after a short holiday break we get an extended muzzleloader season. There's still time to take meat after Xmas. From Dec. 26th until Dec. 31st we can draw blood legally. Today, even though I previously alluded to the fact that our deer drives had been  canceled. Savage, Bird and I convened - as we did yesterday - to put on drives. Things changed. 

    Yesterday Bird shot a nice doe behind the shack and today we were to start off the day at Paradise Pond. This is Savage's home turf. He would do the first leg of the drive and then we would switch places and I would finish it. On the last drive I put six deer in front of Savage and he took a mature doe. One eye and a bum leg and the guru drilled her right behind the front shoulder. I dragged her out.

     By the time we got back to the shack for lunch it was 2:30 pm. The venison stew that had been cooking on the wood stove for three days was a thick, savory soup. Lunch done, burning daylight, I drove behind the house once more for Bird and Savage. Yesterday Bird jumped a shooter buck across the road that went out the backdoor and could now be in these woods. As I slogged through the swamp I thought back to another solstice. This one was the shortest day of the year in 1818. 

    Instead of enjoying a day of deer hunting with his brother and friend my 5x great uncle was pissed off at local farmhand and a black sailor for taking trees off his property. The black sailor and the white farmhand explained that they worked for my uncle's nephew and were just doing their job. Then the sailor swung his musket around and shot my uncle in the head. Missing and ripping off an ear, the farmhand then grabbed the musket and beat my wounded uncle to death with it. It only gets crazier from there. True story. The drive continued. I see deer moving.

   I spent the past two days putting on deer drives for my brother and my best friend. I never had the hammer back. My musket remained unfired as I wore off boot leather and drug their deer out of the woods. I can't remember a better couple of days I've had in years. I love to hunt. Whether it's by myself or with a couple of people I'd trust with my life, it's the hunt not the kill that's paramount. 

     Today Bird shot another deer behind the shack. This time it turned out to be a shedded buck. I also drug it out. This will be the issue as we approach the extended season- shooting bucks we think are does. As I was reticent to shoot a doe with her yearling a couple of days ago, now it may become a prerequisite so as not to shoot a prematurely shedded mature buck. These are the real world concerns in a world of deer hunters. It's so much more fun to hunt with friends and family than worry about hillbillies taking trees off your property. We all know how that can end up. I just got my pot delivery. Phew! Things are looking up. The shortest day of the year just got a little bit longer. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..........