One Week to Go
I woke up this morning and started to feel the rush. Things were piling up. I started getting that caged-animal feeling at 0400. I went down to the Reloading Cave and sharpened knives, and cased up some of the deer rifles. The Opener is just a week away.
The whole past two weeks have been hectic.
I’ve got the S-10 Deer Wagon in for a last-minute oil change, and some new rear tires. We’ll drive it to deer camp this weekend and finish outfitting it for the Opener. It runs, but S-10 don’t age as well as they used to. It’s 15 years old. What’s that in Chevy years? I don’t want to be like the Jimmer and have my SSchlevvy take a SSSClhitt! (see Escanaba in Da Moonlight). It gets a new battery tonight.
I’ve got a box of miscellaneous stuff piling up in an Amazon box– for months now, I’ve been collecting odds and ends. Socks, a can of peanuts, handwarmers, vitamins, etc. The collection looks like it was compiled by a seriously diseased mind.
Last weekend, I couldn’t stand the tension and drove down to the farm at 0500 on Sunday, just to watch the sun rise and get out for a hike. I busted two doe out while I was out. I sang to them. I’ve figured out that calms them down. One followed me for 200 yards or so and kept telling me I stunk. Yeah, well.
Since I was driving down for no good reason, I decide to take a bunch of stuff with me that I’d be sorry if I missed. I got a week’s worth of underwear, socks, spare batteries and stuff like that already there. I have my Opening Day duds all set aside. I brought down ammo for every deer rifle we’ve got. Licenses are already tucked in our possibles bags along with a compass, whistle, emergency blanket. I put in a spare Chapstick before I left.
The forecast for The Opener is looking on and off dismal. A month ago the long range forecast for November was still warm and dry. Now it’s looking like a rain nearly every day. It happens nearly every year. The butterfly in Kansas waggles its wings and there’s sleet. He waggles them again and it’s sunny and warm. The models are really sensitive this time this time of year and they almost always overstate the precipitation, but I can’t help but look. BTW: Weather Underground is still pretty doggone good. I don’t care what you say.
So I’m out walking the property. I’m jonesing on all kinds of logistical problems, stuff left to buy, stuff that’s overdue, and of course I’m being followed by this mad deer that wants to tell me and every other living thing in the county that my deodorant is not up to scratch. I just can’t put one foot in front of another fast enough to get out of this hell.
Finally, I look up.
Dang. It don’t get much better than that! That was just too much to take in. On top of everything else, on the ride back to town, I encountered a total of 5 rainbows on the AA Highway.
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Less than two days out, and I’m sure most people that hunt in my neck of the woods are happy with the forecast. 25 degrees and mostly sunny skies for the Saturday opener. High of only 40 degrees. That is a little too cold for my taste, but it’s better than rain I suppose.
I’ll get to hunt Saturday-Monday, then it’s back to work for 3 days before Dad and I head off to Land Between the Lakes for a Quota hunt. We have more deer at home than there are at LBL, but it is a time-honored tradition with my Dad and I to spend a weekend hunting LBL every time we can get drawn for the hunt. So we will drive down Friday to do some scouting, and hunt there Saturday and Sunday.