Saturday,December 13 was opening day for KYs' second muzzle loading season. Because a friend needed some help, I didn't get to hunt that day at all.
On Sunday, I was in my stand long before daylight, but the higher the sun rose, the windier it got until I finally just gave up and went home.
Sunday night I barely slept at all because the Rheumatoid Arthritis in my hips and knees were killing me. Most likely in anticipation of the big front we had coming in.
When my alarm went off on Monday morning, I was so tired I just couldn't drag myself out of bed. Which was just as well as the wind was worse than it was on Sunday. By Monday evening, the front had already moved in and we had rain which lead to snow, sleet, and freezing rain.
Tuesday morning, I had to have a liver biopsy as the meds I take for the RA had caused my liver functions to spike. After a couple of hours in the hospital, I was told to go home and do nothing. Not to worry, cause I felt pretty rough the rest of the day.
This morning, Wednesday, I had to take my mom to a DRs appointment and by the time we got home, it was around 1 pm. I messed around the house for just a bit, then decided to check a couple of forums to see what kind of bargains had been listed on the classifieds.
Was looking through Graybeards when I noticed that time had gotten away from me and it was already 2:30 pm and I still hadn't changed into my hunting clothes.
I did a quick change of clothes, jumped in the truck and backed out of the driveway only to remember that I'd forgotten my condoms. No not that kind of condoms.... but the kind that you can buy to fit over your finger when you have a cut you want to protect. I use them to cover the muzzle of my gun when it's raining to keep my powder dry. Pull back into the driveway, get my condoms, jump back into the truck and drive the 12 miles to the farm where I hunt.
I get to the farm, put on my bibs and coat and start walkin toward my stand. There's a fine mist of rain floating in the air. Not a sprinkle, but just enough moisture that it eventually collects on the tree limbs forming drops that never seem to collect enough water to make them fall to the ground. The leaves are saturated with water from the snow and rain making it easy to slip along the trail with very little noise. I walk along the four wheeler trail to the old logging road and turn left going up the hill. As I start up the hill, I see big deer tracks going in the same direction. No dew claws, hopefully it's a big doe that I can take to fill my tag.
I don't get very far before the arthritis causes my hips and knees to burn like they're on fire and I'm forced to stop for a couple of minutes and give them a break. From there on out, it's a few steps at a time and then a break until I reach the buddy stand that my daughter and I hunt out of together. The stand sits at about the 7 o -clock position at the bottom of three hills. Where the hills meet, there's 2 big ditches washed out by years of rain. When the loggers came in, they left a lot of tree tops along the banks of the ditches and I've seen several deer use those ditches to travel from one point to another. My daughter and I have each killed a buck from this stand this year and I'm hopin it won't let me down today. I climb the ladder, get seated and pull my ol CVA Firebolt 50 caliber up to the stand.
It's a gloomy old day and it's hard to see through the woods. On top of that, it's only 3:40 pm and already the fog has moved onto the top of the mountain 200 yards above me.There's very little wind and the leaves on the oak trees below me are barely moving. By 4:30 I'm wondering if I'll be able to hunt much longer because the fog has moved to 80 or 90 yards above me. Somewhere in front of me, I hear a squirrel squawking. I can imagine him sitting there on his limb with his tail twitching at every squawk, telling all of his pals that all is well in the world and they are safe to move as they want.
By 4:40 ol Arthur is workin his magic and my knees and hips are aching from sitting so long. I slowly stand up to get some relief and then while looking down I realize I've goofed. I put the condom on the muzzle, but I didn't cover the lens of my scope and it's now covered in mist. I dig through all the layers of clothing and drag my big blue bandanna handkerchief from my pocket, clean the lens and stuff the handkerchief back into the pocket of my coat. I then cradle the rifle in my arm to protect the lens from more water.
As I'm standing there trying to stare through the gloom, I suddenly catch movement out of the corner of my eye. I slowly turn left and see two does coming out of the fog working their way down the hill toward me about 70 yards out. They appear like ghosts out of the mist. Just as I see them, the front doe looks directly at me and I'm forced to stand there motionless as I wait for her to make the decision to move ahead. She eventually drops her head and turns partially away from me and I raise my rifle thinking this might be my chance, but she's positioned at a bad angle. And with the fog and gloom, I certainly don't want to have to try and track her if I make a bad shot. I slowly sit back down and watch them for just a moment before they suddenly snort and start trotting up the hill with their tails waving in the air like white flags. Not a dead run as if they're frightened to death, but a trot as if they know something is not quite right. I'm disappointed, because I know that this will probably be my only chance today. But still I sit there in hopes that I get another opportunity.
It's not much longer until the dim light begins to fade to the point that I know it's not safe to take a shot and after lowering my rifle to the ground, I climb down the ladder and head back to the truck. As I walk along it hits me that in the not so far off future, the arthritis will eventually win out and days like today will be nothing more than a memory. And I realize that even though I'm goin home empty handed, maybe today was a pretty good day after all.
And who knows, tomorrow may be a good day as well.....
