This week was a more interesting week for me than last week. Coming into Saturday I checked the weather and saw there was a small cold front moving in for Saturday. I arranged a plan to do a morning sit with Tim and then spend the afternoon hunting squirrels in the woods. As with all things, the situation proved different than expected.
I got up Saturday morning full of excitement. I finished up my morning routine preparing for my day and getting things ready for everyone else. Unfortunately, I received a call from Tim to tell me he wasn't feeling well, so I altered my plans accordingly. I got my layers on and moved to my scouting spot in the back yard. To my surprise there was a doe not 15 yards from the edge of the woods.
I crept back out of the woods and grabbed my deer gear. The sun was just barely creeping over the horizon and it was already legal shooting light. I knocked an arrow and decided to stalk the doe hoping she'd get far enough from the neighbors that I could take a shot. Well, she did get far enough away. Unfortunately, it was because I snapped a twig under my boot.
I wanted to give the woods enough time to settle before I went out and set up, so I headed back into the house and added a little more caffeine to my blood stream. By this time, Ben had woken up. After last week he'd been dying to go out with me again. I decided that the deer could wait another week, after all I had already put in for a rut-cation later this month.
I asked him if he wanted to go squirrel hunting and he flew into his room to get dressed. When he came out of his room I instantly knew I had to spend a little more time with him teaching him the proper way of layering for chilly weather. I had to stifle a laugh as Kelly chuckled and told him he looked like a hunchback. He had 3 t-shirts on followed by 3 sweaters. This wouldn't have been that bad, except that the last two sweatshirts were actually hoodies and the second one's hood was inside the third causing a rather large bulge above his shoulders.
We stopped by the edge of the woods and he received a refresher course on gun safety, as I always do before a hunt. Once I was confident in his ability we set off into the woods. We ended up making three loops through the woods over the course of about 2 1/2 hours. The first squirrel we came upon he couldn't see well enough so I took the shot and dropped him.
The excitement came over him like a wave as he walked up to it. I'm not sure which was actually exciting to him though. Was it the hunting, or the fact that he now had something to eat. He spent more time talking about having him for lunch than anything else, though I tried explaining to him that we'd probably not be eating it today.
The second squirrel worried me when we came to it. I took what I thought was a clean shot, but only managed to spine him. Even on such a small animal, this does not feel very well. Even without the ability to move well, the squirrel was making his way quickly over the branches and rocks. Ben took the second shot and missed. I finally managed to catch up to it and end his suffering.
We took a moment after that experience to soak it in. I answered his questions about mortality, suffering, and the emotional difficulties of hunting. I also explained the reason it was important to be a part of the food chain instead of removing yourself from the cycle of life and death. He took it fairly well considering, and it did not tarnish his determination one bit. As a matter of fact, he's already planning next weeks hunt.
We returned from the woods successful with two squirrels to lay on the butcher table. We spent some time thanking the woods, and the squirrels for the nourishment they would soon provide us. Then I got him cleaned up and back in the house. By this time, Nicole was awake and looking for a chance to head out too. Unfortunately, we were running short on time.
We only managed to make two loops around the woods, and they were at a fairly quick pace. On two separate occasions we came across squirrels but were unable to get within range. Then as we were walking she motioned me to stop and she had her gun aimed. I could not see the squirrel she was aiming at. She fired a shot and missed. I then saw the target leap to the trunk of a tree and climb up frantically.
He reached some higher branches and began to move more slowly. I took aim, and he moved, now behind a branch. I moved, aimed again, he moved behind a twig. Three more times we played this cat and mouse game. Then he made a mistake. He had stopped on a thick branch and pressed his body close relying on his natural camouflage ability. It did not serve this time as I fired and hit.
He managed to hobble about five feet up the branch and then tried to leap to the next tree. He died in mid leap and simply somersaulted to the ground. At this point though, I was not sure he had passed, so I dashed into the briar patch where I thought he had landed. I searched and searched as Nicole stood at the edge of the patch, next to the tree the squirrel had been in.
Finally she asked me what I was doing. I explained that I did not want to let the wounded squirrel suffer. She stated that he wasn't suffering which made me stop. I looked at her and she pointed to the base of the tree. Right there, at the bottom, was the white belly of the squirrel. I'm sure that had she not been pressed for time, she would have let me stomp through that briar patch for an hour chuckling to herself.
We retrieved her squirrel and headed back up to add it to the butcher table. A quick skin and cleaning job and we had some meat in the freezer which I will make into gravy for biscuits next weekend. Nicole and Ben are now both looking forward to next weekend probably more than I am, and that's saying a lot. All in all, this was probably the best hunt I've ever had and I'm extremely proud of both of them.
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