Site has been slow…..

Because I took my annual break to go hunting up in South Dakota. The freezer was getting a bit low and needed restocking! Normally I can get up for the week of Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas, but Val’s schedule this year hosed things up a bit, so I went a week early.

Last Friday I loaded up the dog and headed north. My father and law and I hunted 7 days for deer and pheasant. Got in a few prairie dogs as well, though the weather was pretty cold, so they weren’t out like normal.

Saturday we took 2 does, a limit of pheasants, and had a little fun with a guy trespassing on the land……

Tia after a big day of bird hunting.

And after big days of hunting, we have to have a bath….something that isn’t very fun.

Hunting birds on the section.

On Wednesday Val was able to make the trek up to join us. She blew up clay pigeons.

A limit of birds.

It may look like Tia is being good here, but actually I am choking the crap out of her because she didn’t think the “dog” should be laying near HER birds. The entire week, Sunny walked around acting as if the big white dog didn’t exist……”if I don’t look her way…she doesn’t exist….yeah that’s it!”

Friday morning we headed north of the ranch to scout for big bucks. On the way back in to go shoot some clays, we spotted a nice mule deer laying down in a cut bank, so we put on the stalk. Wayne was able to sneak up behind it.

Now you might think that we shot the deer, loaded it in the Mule, and took off. OOOOHHHH no, it couldn’t be that easy. See, we had spotted the deer in truck, stalked it, and killed it. It was in deep enough that we couldn’t get the truck anywhere near it due to the terrain, so we headed back to the ranch to get the 4 wheeler and the Mule.

We were buzzing along, Val and her dad in the Mule, and me following on the 4 wheeler having a blast. We were running up through a creek bottom trying to get close to the deer, when all of a sudden someone got stuck! And I don’t just mean stuck, I mean buried past the axles….hell the bed was in the mud.

We tried to yank it out with the 4 wheeler, but just couldn’t get traction, so that is when my fun ended and the 4 wheeler headed back to the ranch to get the truck. Luckily, we were in a spot that the truck could get to the Mule, and we were able to pull it out.

Tia was having fun, lol.

Just before dark, we were able to get to the deer and get back out.

Somehow I got stuck driving the Mule back to the ranch, which was quite the trek. It was COLD. I could have overtaken the truck had I not had a nearly flat front tire……

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and I had to come back to KC 🙁 But at least I came with a few coolers full of meat.