MEMORY DOWN

Crazy girl in driveway recap: One last detail I forgot to mention. Earlier that day Guru Sauce (Jeremy) and I had lunch in Mountain Dale. I couldn't eat all of my pastrami sandwich, so I brought it home. I was looking forward to eating it as I walked up the hill. Then the psycho encounter unfolded, and I went directly to the fridge to get that pastrami in order to calm down. It wasn't there. At my age I can no longer trust my memory. I couldn't be certain that I put the aluminum foil wrapped sandwich in the fridge. So I emailed the guru to look in his car. He did. No pastrami. Did that girl go into my house, steal the sandwich, eat it and was giving thanks for the delicacy when I startled her?  Nothing would surprise me at this point.

The next day (Friday) I was walking towards the cemetery stand when a car pulled over. A guy rolled the window down and addressed me. "I just saw a monster buck chasing a doe across the river by the bridge." Now, one person's estimation of a "monster buck" can be very different from another's. The man, in rapid-fire delivery, informed me that he "hunted Yankee Lake." Then he pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of big ten pointer he shot last year. This guy was a serious deer hunter and probably a good judge of antlers. "Are you going down the hill?" I asked. "Sure." he said. "Jump in." My plans changed.

After getting a ride with my new friend Freddy, I set up in Julie Picasso's front field by Andrew Jackson's grave. The problem with hunting this property is people. GNJohn consistently needs to take a walk at 5:00 pm along the property line - prime time. It drives me crazy, but sometimes it can work in my favor. 5 minutes after he passed a buck popped out of the swamp. I didn't have my binocs, but at 200 yards I could see horns. It was a shooter. Then the buck stopped and turned, like he was going to come my way. Maybe a doe was in the field. To my dismay a car packed with loud art students, radio blaring, cut down through the fields towards the orchard. The buck spooked and disappeared back into the swamp. The afternoon hunt was a bust.

Yesterday I hunted a long afternoon above the bridge. I found good rubs and had a small spike stop in front of me, close enough for a shot. It was a gratifying encounter, just enough to get the blood pumping. This is the first deer I've had in the kill zone with the bow. Tonight I'm going back down the hill. The "monster" could be bedding on that ridge and going down into the fields at night to chase does. The rut is kicking in. It's time to get serious. Before I leave this afternoon I'm going to take a full inventory of my fridge and lock my door. Let's see what develops.