MR. FIX IT

     A Canadian was traveling across the ice near the Arctic Circle when his snowmobile stopped dead. Fearing he would have to spend the night in sub-zero temperatures he was heartened to see headlights coming in the distance. Coming upon the stranded man the other snowmobiler asked, "Blow a seal?" "No." he said, "That's just snot on my mustache."

    Yesterday Savage Lynch showed up at the shack at 6:00 am with sandwiches and that joke. After missing two good bucks I needed a little humor. Savage was to hunt the morning in the cemetery while I went back to Gilkey's praying  Biggers would show again. Neither of us had much luck. I saw about a dozen does feeding in the field and by 11:00 am Savage saw a flock of turkeys and had spike pass the stand. Not much to write about.

    So we had lunch and plotted our afternoon. The subject of the mouse and running toilet came up again. I still hadn't fixed the problem (nor had any answers concerning the mouse) so Savage took a crack at it. After a few adjustments and my hand wringing that he would break it, the inner works now seem to be working. It's good to have handy friends. Not only did Savage fix the toilet he informed me that he spent the morning securing the burlap on the cemetery stand by tying little bows of ribbon around the shooting rail. Like Bird, Savage has the anal-obsessive gene that I lack. 

   Deciding to hunt Paradise pond, when Savage left I threw another shell threw the 30.06 to make sure it wasn't the gun that was off. Nope. I was off, not my equipment. This info. ate at me. So when I got back in the stand I ran threw the scenario again. How could I have missed that buck? Knowing it was going to rain today, in one last attempt to put my mind at ease I once again went in search of blood. I blew off  the afternoon hunt hoping to find blood, a dead deer or not. Criss-crossing the swamp and field I finally put the case to rest (sort of). One is never 100%, but I'm 90% sure I never touched that deer. Both misses were fast shots at long distances with a bad eye. Savage can't fix that. Once again my best wasn't good enough.  I had planned on shooting a doe this week. Forget that. From now until New Year's Day I'll be hunting Golden Boy and Biggers. I do like a challenge. I just have to try harder. Settle the crosshairs. Take your time. Breathe.