Last Saturday morning, my alarm went off at 4:45am. Why? You might ask yourself. I asked myself the same thing. Then, I remembered when I saw the cammo gear spread all over my floor. I'm waking up with my husband at this awful hour to go attempt to find Thanksgiving dinner in April. Honestly, I was looking forward to it until I had to open my eyes. Andrew always tells me that waking up that early is hard, but once you get the lights on it's much better. So I turned the light on and started putting on long johns, sweats, more sweats and finally the gear that would blend me right into the land. It was predicted to be about 36 degrees that morning and they weren't wrong...unfortunately. We both got ready and grabbed our guns, made sure we had the hunting license Wal-Mart had so graciously given me, (they didn't even ask me any questions. How were they to know I knew anything about hunting?) and as we walked out the door, Andrew looked at me and said, "This is so great. Are you excited?" I could tell that nothing at that point would make him happier than for me to be hunting with him. Seeing what it is he actually does when he spends time sitting in silence in the woods covered head to toe in green leafy frocks was a real eye opener for me. Except for when I did doze off a few seconds around 7am and when I twitched, my gun did too. Twitchy guns aren't a good thing, so I re-positioned myself and paid attention again. We drove out of the town a little ways to a friend's house, followed by a tiny drive to a field, and a walk out into it. We sat with our backs to a big tree and got ready. Hours went by. The morning was super cold, but beautiful. I got to see for the first time what the woods look like while the morning sun shone through frosty leaves and what it sounds like when birds wake up after I do. Our friend used his turkey calls here and there, but by 8am after sitting for way too long, we decided to try another location. Luckily this one was up near his house so we went inside first and warmed up. We followed that by gearing up again and hiking up into the woods on his property. I will say that some day I hope to have more than just a strip of a backyard for my kids. It was fun to be out in wilderness, but also close to a home. We went up the hill a ways and got into position again, this time each of us pointing our guns in opposite directions on the sides of the tree. The calling began again and I started to get ancy. I guess that is normal Andrew said. I never pictured myself as much of a killer, but fishing in Alaska would prove me wrong in that matter too. I love the thrill of bringing in a fish, smacking it over the head with a club and eating it for dinner. Gross, yes. Yummy though. I began to get this overwhelming sense that I just wanted to see a turkey and shoot it. Alas, my bladder started to fill up, I realized we had left the kids with Andrew's mom for hours by that time, we had only heard one hen at that point, and you can't shoot hens. I would have probably shot anything that came up over that hill after all those hours. I got a little bit of a rush when I heard that turkey in the distance and I told Andrew later, "Maybe I am not cut out for hunting. I was just too excited about that thing getting closer, but scared all at the same time that I would miss my chance." His response, "Danielle, that's what its all about. We wouldn't do this if it wasn't a rush and a gamble every time." I'm more of a sure-kill kind of hunter I suppose. I want to go out on a mission and come back successful. I guess there are going to be lessons to learn for me after all. Patience, endurance, respect for the animals...those sorts of things. We'll see. I hope to get out there again, but maybe not this season. At least I got to try it.
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| This truck was bought by the friend who took us out hunting. I'm getting it printed as a thank you. I love old trucks. |
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