We have the meat!

Josh, Jonah, and Micah each got a deer tag this year. And they all tagged a deer, too! It was quite the adventure...

On opening day, Josh took the twins up to the neighbor Mark's house before daylight. As soon as they got out of the truck, a big buck was right in Mark's yard staring at them, but it was too dark to shoot. They got themselves all set up ready to shoot, and just as it was about light to, the buck ran off. Jonah took a shot at it when it was at the end of the field, but thought he missed, because the buck ran over the hill. Right after that, the little one-horned one (it lost its other antler in our hammock over a month earlier) ran up in the middle of the field, and Jonah took a shot at it, and it went down. Josh took Jonah down into the field, and Jonah started to clean it. Josh then went with Micah to look for the big one. They saw it over in the field below Harris' in the sagebrush. Micah rested his gun on a post trying to get a shot. As soon as he was ready to take the shot, it disappeared into the sagebrush. Grandpa came up on the four wheeler, and he went over and helped Jonah while Josh and Micah walked back up the road towards Harris' driveway. When they walked over the cattleguard, there was some little bucks coming out of Harris' yard and into the field above our house. They waited there to see if they could get a shot, but then the deer walked back into the Harris' hard. Josh and Micah walked over to the wheel line to get a better angle and get them flushed down into the field. Right then, they saw the big one again at the end of Harris' yard. Josh left Micah there, resting on the wheel line, and he walked down trying to get the buck out of the yard and into the field where he could get a shot. After a bit, the big buck stepped out far enough where he could take a shot. He took a shot, and missed. The shot made the little bucks scatter and the big one ran off partway into the field. Josh could see it dragging its leg, and realized that Jonah's initial shot had actually hit in him the leg. The big buck stopped. Micah didn't have a shot from where he was at, so Josh took a shot and knocked him down. Josh and Micah slowly worked their way towards the buck in the middle of the field. Every time they got close, the buck would stand up and move. They continued towards it, doing this same pattern over and over. Eventually the big buck got up and ran down to the big berm on the edge of the field that borders the gravel pit. He laid back down, with his back facing where Josh and Micah were. This forced them to try and approach from a different angle. When they got close enough, Micah took another shot, and hit its jaw. The buck stayed down. They walked close enough to the animal, and thought that it was finally down for good, so Josh put down his gun to get his knife out to slit its throat. Suddenly at that moment, the buck went over the edge of the berm. Josh picked back up his gun to finish it off and got up so that he could get a good view of the buck, but the buck then fell over the edge and down into the gravel pit. Micah and Josh worked their way down to the bottom of the gravel pit, and the deer was STILL alive even though it had been shot 3 times and had fallen off the cliff! Josh finished him off with a shot to the head with a pistol and slit its throat. It was the craziest hunting account! The 3 of them each had a shot in it, and the whole process took over an hour between the first shot and the last shot! 

This is the biggest buck any of our boys have ever shot,

and it took 3 shots just to get it down!! It had a strong

will to survive, and even toppled over the edge into

the gravel pit before coming to its final resting place.

Jonah's deer had already started growing a new antler in the 

6 weeks since it lost its other one in our backyard hammock.

This black stub was the most interesting antler we've

ever see! It looks like a knife handle stuck in its skull!

Josh got hunting bags this year to cover the bodies with,

rather than using sheets, which were handy! Micah's

deer was SUPER heavy, and they could barely lift it

up onto the hook in grandpa's shop. 

The meat hung for a few days until we had

time to process it on the weekend. Josh cut the meat 

and the twins put it in a bag, and 

transported the contents to the house. 

Kanyon helped me grind the meat and I 

packaged it. 

From just Jonah and Micah's tagged deer, we got 7 roasts and 55 pounds of burger!

Josh continued to keep on the lookout, but even ten days after opening day, he hadn't spotted anything that he'd had the opportunity to shoot at. He decided he wanted to walk down through Perreau Creek Meadows. It was fantastic weather on the afternoon of Saturday the 20th, so we drove up to the Ridge Road and I dropped him off with his gun, some water, and snacks. His instructions for me were to drive up as far as I could get up Perreau Creek in about 3 hours time. It felt weird abandoning him on that mountain! He walked 6.5 miles during that time (without cell service which scared me) and didn't spot any deer--only other hunters! I drove up as far as I could get in the Jeep and waited for him, just like he'd instructed. The sun was starting to set, and I was getting nervous that I would lose all visibility and that he'd be stuck up on the mountain somewhere, but thankfully he came shortly after that. As we drove down Perreau Creek, he was on the lookout for deer roaming in nearby fields, and as we got to the Perreau Creek Road/Williams Creek Road intersection, he spotted some in his dad's field below Mark's house. He pulled over, and scoped out the field. Sure enough, there was a buck! He drove the Jeep into the field, parked it, got out, got himself set up, and took a shot at the buck he'd spotted, and got it in a single shot! It was twilight when he took it down. If he'd gotten off the mountain any later, the visibility wouldn't have been good for him to see the deer or take a shot, so the timing was perfect! He gutted the deer in the last of the daylight while the moon was visible overhead. We stuffed it into the back of the Jeep (I even had to help and it was SO gross!) and took it to his dad's shop to hang up. We waited for a few days before cutting it up and processing it together (it didn't take as long since it was just one deer). I had come home mid-week to perform at Salmon Idol, so that night after we got home, we worked on the job as a family once again and got it done in no time! Josh's deer produced 2 roasts and 24 pounds of burger. It is always so rewarding to have a freezer full of meat that the boys harvested and that we've worked together to process!