Good day to you! Well, another deer season is about to start on Saturday! My son Blake, brother Chad and his son Drew, and my father Jerry hunt Northwest of Karlstad Minnesota. My brother owns 158 acres of land and a beautiful cabin. This is a picture of me and Blake with his first deer back in 2011. I’m about 30 lbs heavier in the is pic than I am right now.. but Blake’s first buck has a story of its own!
Lets look back to November 6, 2011! (I’ll make it quick) My alarm goes off at around 5am and I get up to get coffee brewing! I get that going and start a light breakfast.. head back up stairs in the cabin to get Blake up for his first “real” deer hunt. Now back when I was his age I couldn’t sleep the night before opening morning… anyway, I go up there and he is in a deep sleep… “Time to get up.. there are deer running all over the place out there” Blake rolled over and said “I’m to tired, I’ll come out to the stand when I get up”.. I was like.. ok. It kinda had me wondering what it was about deer hunting that he loves the most..
So I head back down and fill Blake’s New Thermos with coffee, have a piece of toast and get the plan set with my brother Chad for the morning hunt. We like to know where each is sitting so we stay safe and don’t shoot in the wrong direction etc. I head to the stand at about 6am by myself with out my big hunter Blake. I get out to the two person stand and get all comfortable and pour a cup of coffee… gorgeous morning! I sat there wishing Blake was with me and how much “bonding” we could be doing on such a great morning. I watched all kinds of birds wake up and start chirping.. music to my ears! Oh, and then the chipmunks start in.. they love to scurry around in the leaves and make noise similar to a deer walking in the woods.. drives me crazy. Anyway, it was an awesome day to be out in the woods and enjoy the fresh air and peace and quiet.. Then all of a sudden my phone vibrates…
I get a text from Blake.. “I’m coming out… where is my Thermos?” I giggled a little bit. I texted him back.. “Early bird gets the worm.. I have it filled with coffee here in the stand.. put your hot chocolate in my old one” lol!! I looked at the time and it was like 8am or so.. 8:45am I hear him coming down the trail. (I usually head back in around 9am) He crawls up in the big stand and whispers that I switch chairs with him so he gets the nice comfy one.. again I said “the early bird gets the worm”… he gave me an evil eye! lol!! He asked if I had seen any deer yet.. I told him all about how great the morning was and how much he had missed but also said there hadn’t been any deer.. He says.. “That’s why I slept in” 🙂
So he quietly pours up a cup of hot chocolate and says that its already cold and wasn’t happy with me taking his Thermos. I poured another cup of coffee and it was extremely steamy!!! lol! So he sets his cup down and loads his 243 single shot and has it ready. He doesn’t even get a sip of hot chocolate and this buck comes running right at us through the brush.. down the trail in front of us.. stands perfect for a great shot. He hasn’t been in the stand 10 minutes! He placed the shot perfectly. He was shaking like a leaf just like his dad.. It was awesome. We look out and the buck needed a finishing shot.. he takes aim.. I whispered in his ear.. “don’t shoot a horn off” Boom! The one horn goes flying! I couldn’t believe it! That shot was enough to put the deer down. I was so proud of him and proud to be with him on this morning! The best part of the whole hunt is when he looked at me while getting out of the stand to check out his first deer.. he looks at me and says.. “The early bird might get the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese”…..It was his first deer and a great morning hunt that I will always remember.
I did find all the pieces to the busted horn and put it back on and stained it. It turned out great.. I also wrote on the back of the plaque “the early bird gets the worm”
I hope you enjoyed my hunting story! I hope to get more pics of the cabin this weekend and hopefully another good story to share with you! Thanks and have a great day! Shannon
This is a pic of my nephew Drew last year…with the good Thermos!! we have so much fun!
Handy Grandpa 