Thursday, January 15, 2009

More of the hunt

More buddies, from the old gang in Westlake, showed up Thursday night, Bryan and Mike. These two guys are talented in many ways. During the next couple of days they manged to jump deer everyday, either by entering or exiting the woods. In the evening the two pulled out their guitars and provided good entertainment with the music and singing. Bryan attempted to get me to sing along and I did try. I became convinced the frogs are the only ones to appreciate my warbling voice. Suffering with self-conscious embarrassment, I soon quit. I do have a shy side and have also been known to be afflicted with stage fright.

The highlight of Mike's hunt occurred when he startled and jumped up a huge buck lying on his side of a thicket. He got a glimpse of it as the monster buck bounded to the opposite side of the thicket and stopped, out of his sight, to present a standing-broadside shot to a young woman, around fifteen years old. The excited youngster quickly lifted her big black powder rifle, aimed and fired. She missed, but she was left with a memory to last her a lifetime.

Two noteworthy events happened to Bryan in the woods. One happened the first morning we hunted together in a massive thicket. We were only a hundred yards or so apart from one another, perched up in our respective trees. He was half asleep, still suffering from his sleep deprived night, when I shot. The unexpected resulting loud sound and percussion nearly sent him leaping out of his stand! The second highlight occurred for Bryan during the hunt of the final evening. Again, he was up in his tree, hunting over several big scrapes and rubs and heard a loud crashing noise advancing his way, through the woods. He turned to prepare himself to see what was the cause of the sound,expecting to see a deer. He was caught by surprise when, moments later, not one, but five deer came bounding by. He raised the rifle to take a shot. He yelled at them to stop. They increased their horsepower instead and quickly disappeared from sight.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Last Weekend

Noah left the woods Wednesday and returned to catch up on his hugs and kisses from his precious three daughters and wife, Krystal. I was a little envious. If you won't share this with anyone else, I'll admit to you that by this time, I was homesick and looking forward to do a little catching up myself. But, I knew if I returned home earlier than I said I would, I would suffer ridicule and embarrassment. Sure, Nancy would be happy to see me, the boys too, but they would kid and rib me for being too weak willed to stay the duration. I couldn't do it. I had to toughen up and stand my ground. I became determined to do what a man had to do. And I was glad I had reinforcements arriving later that night.

Loren, one of my old hunting buddies from Weastlake appeared around midnight with his camper and two strangers towing a second trailer. He almost seemed a little too gleeful to wake me from a sound sleep.

Troy was still awake when they arrived and I'm glad. He uncorked his bottle of energy and spent the next two hours pulling Loren and his new buddies out of of one mudhole after the other. They had managed to get stuck five times, trying to park their trailers.

The two new guys were Chad and Shannon. I must confess I was hesitant at first, to show them one of my favorite places to hunt, but after learning Chad had just began hunting at the young age of forty-one and had not yet harvested his first whitetail, I couldn't resist being involved in a special memory, in a positive way. And besides that, the two men impressed me as stand up guys, I felt I could trust. But just in case they both took an oath, not to reveal the place to their wives, family friends or anyone else that they feel may be inclined to climb my tree without me.

Loren took Shannon a different route to set him up in another one of our favorite areas. After leaving Shannon, Loren was to hike back to withinn four hundred yards of where Chad and I would be located. He ended up getting lost on the way.

Chad and I hiked and sloshed through the calf-deep, flooded timber, for the next one and a half miles. I set Chad up in the prime location and informed him to resist Loren's urges to place him elsewhere. Loren can be pretty persuasive at times and I was planning on leaving the area to hunt elsewhere, four people in these neck of the woods, were just one too many.

I climbed my tree to hunt and saw Loren. Lost and confused as to where he was in the woods, he had stopped wandering in the predawn darkness and climbed the nearest tree to make the most out of a bad situation. The only problem with his idea was he was so close to me, I could literally see him, pick his nose.

To make a long story short, we didn't see anything and the next morning, Loren succeeded in dislodging Chad from my favorite tree (remember, he was brand new at this stuff and had not yet harvested his first deer) and replaced him with the Lacassine big buck contest champion, Shannon. It's true, according to "No Primer Shannon", he had recently won a truckload of hunting gear in the contest by entering a small, short, forked horn, four-point buck earlier this year. What a hoot.

I never quite understood how "No Primer" Shannon who had already shot at and missed a hog on the first morning. The worst thing about the miss was this, if he would have brought along more than one primer for his blackpowder firearm, he would have (he assured me he wouldn't have missed the second time around, but who really knows) shot and killed one of the two fat does which suddenly appeared in front, minutes after the hog. The two deer hung around the area and camped out fifteen steps in front of him, for the next half hour or so. We gave him the pet nickname of "No Primer" after hearing of his misery.

Shannon snuck into my tree on the second morning and listened to the maddening choir of literally, thousands of frogs croaking in disjointed harmony. They were all around him. Given enough time, the frogs, I do believe, could drive anyone insane. They carry a tune as awfully as I do. Something toward the right moved and distracted No Primer's attention to the music. It was Noah's buck returning, the one I had intended for Chad. No primer, true to his word, seized the opportunity and didn't miss the second time. Now don't get the wrong impression here, I was and still am, very happy for No Primer. He had the presence of mind to harvest the buck. It's just kinda funny to me. I had advised Chad to remain in the tree and resist all of Loren's good will intentions to move him, as I knew he would. I can only guess, but Shannon must have been listening. No small wonder to me then, how he won the contest. Loren's motive in moving Chad was in good spirit and he really thought that he could pattern the deer after only one short hunt, without seeing it. It's nearly impossible. I on the other hand, after spending the last few days there, knew where and when the buck would reappear. Chad give me another chance and meet me again, next year, in the woods, we'll get it right.

Monday, January 12, 2009

More Red River

My adopted nephew, Noah, showed up at the camp on Friday, January the 2nd with his brand new climbing stand, Krystal, his wife, gave to him for Christmas. He's a fortunate young man. Noah first hunted with me last year and had such a fun time, he came back for more. And somehow managed to talk his Daddy (Joe) and his three brothers, Joey, Josh and Jacob to tag along. I enjoyed having them all. Josh managed to catch an eighteen pound catfish with his rod and reel, in the Red River. He had taken a piece of cut deer liver, put it on his hook and was back in camp three minutes later, with the fish. Troy immediately began getting the cooking oil hot and cleaning the fish to cook. Noah set out a throw line line into the river with a single hook and caught a second fish, wieghing seven pounds.

We all hunted hard, together, for the wily old whitetail, but failed to bag one. The weather had turned very nasty, by continuosly raining and flooding the canal we had to cross in order to hunt. Noah and the two older brothers were up to the challenge of crossing the deep canal. His father, I, and his youngest brother, Jacob, decided to play it safe and not to cross. We strayed into the opposite woods, instead.

Josh ended up rescuing my trip from an early end, by fixing the electric generator when it decided to quit working. I really need the generator to run the c-pap machine, I use to sleep. I have sleep apnea and can't get a good quality rest, without it. Thanks, Josh. And the homemade chilli was good, too.

Joe, Joey, Josh and Jacob decided to escape the rainfall and headed for home. Noah remained for a few more days. We tried to hunt, but four additional inches of rain fell and mostly kept us, confined to the trailer. The rainfall finally quit for Noah on his last morning and we eagerly hit the woods. He saw a six point buck, too late to shoot and then ten minutes later, at eleven o'clock, a doe. He was prepared to shoot the doe which was about to step out into an opening in the thicket. The only problem was that eleven o'clock was the time chosen to leave the woods. So just as Noah mamaged to calm his heart rate to make the shot count, I promptly showed up to leave and frightened the deer away. I hope my little buddy forgives me and returns with his Dad and brothers, to hunt with me again next year. I was really honored to be included in the family memory.

P.S.
I let Joey, Josh and Troy preview the manuscript of my first book, I hope to have printed soon and they liked it. All three want a copy when it is availabe. They'll definately be among the first on my list. Thanks, guys.

Stay with me, there'll be more later.

Red River Excursion

Hi folks,

Good news, I have safely returned home from my annual deep excursion into the heart of the wild, Red River WMA. The trip began shortly after lunch, on New Year's Day. I arrived there too late in the evening to do anything else, but set up camp. Troy, my new buddy from Eunice, had arrived an hour earlier and had saved a good spot of high ground to park the old Airstream, next to the muddy, fast flowing Red River.

Let me tell you a little about Troy. He is a good, talented person full of a positive energy, I wish I could borrow. He is an enthusiastic outdoorsman and a great chef specializing in Louisiana cuisine. He fattened me up every evening with delicious meals of jambalaya, fried fish, fried shrimp and grilled steaks. You name it, and he more than likely, cooked it. There's nothing quite like sitting around the camp enjoying good meals and swapping stories with my friend Troy. He's a great guy, I'll always appreciate and look forward to seeing again, next year. Without him, I'd be eating my normal fare of bologna sandwiches and smoked oysters from a can. Thanks, Troy.

I've ran out of time, there'll be more of the trip, later.