Only two bucks.... good price.

I hunted tuesday morning although we are weekend hunters due to work / kids / distance / schedule.  It was a special day.  A very unique offer came up.  

A quick aside:  Hunting requires knowing the area of alberta that you are authorized to hunt in from the provincial government.  Within that area though, might be 200 farmers.  500?  So after buying a tag you should invest the time and energy to make friends with the owners of the land that you plan to visit.  For example, I've met the Roe, joworskis, the dayments, the gardners (Cam, Barb), the greens, the mcphersons, and that's off the top of my head.  In my notes I've probably met 50 or 100 landowners.

This year my father and I have 5 tags each, (10 total, although often Chris doesn't fill his).  1 cow elk, 1 mulie buck, 1 mulie doe, 1 white tail open, and 2 white tail doe supplemental.

Elk opens a bit earlier than deer season.  We've been out on Roes and Garndners properties a couple of times already.  There are many hunters already out and no more elk on those pieces of land.  While staring at mulie on McPhersons property, I decided to touch base with them again.  Again we haven't got permission on their lands but maybe one day.  While talking to Shelly (she said no on her lands) she asked if I'd got permission on Dayments.  I met Larry for the first time in 2016.  Here's a family photo that we did on the Dayments property back in 2016.  

Now, I called Dayment (Larry), but usually you call in August for the hunting season.  So calling the day of a hunt is kind of unreasonable.  Still, Larry found a friday for me, and a tuesday.  I was going in for elk, but on the final day I ran into a pile of whitetail and then two mulie that ran over as well.  Seeing as I could probably do two animals on my own I decided that I'd take two bucks (a mulie and a white) over the chance of getting skunked on the day.

Here is a picture of the field just before sundown the day before the hunt.

and then the field just after sunrise on the day that I hunted.  

And some pictures of the bucks that I harvested.

And Now they've been hanging the garage for a couple of days.

Now, hunting is exhilarating.  It's a ton of prep, meeting land owners, getting tags, organizing your kit, making sure that your gun is accurate, before this 3 minute event.  Still, in that moment it is so exciting.  

Ok, now an aside about reflections.

This is the first time that I've actually hunted and harvested (taken a life) since mom died in the summer.  I had a long bit of time sitting in the field with those dead deer thinking about Mom.  The surprising feeling was emptiness, some loneliness with a side of sorrow.  Lots of sadness.  I don't know what I was sad about.  Maybe that I won't be sharing this day, this story with Arta.

I hunt to stay connected to the food chain, and for exercise, and to show my children what happens in the back room of safeway before you ge tthe steak, and because my mom loved hearing my hunting stories.  Just like this one.

It's been almost ten years of hunting now, I started hunting after having kids.  Maybe people start as a kid, but it wasn't part of  our family dynamic.  

I think that I crave the obligation of hunting as well, today I realize that the obligations once you've killed a living being are part of my journey.  I like to be part of the life of an animal.  It lives in the wild, and at some point I respect and carry it to my car, burtcher it, clean it, respect the gifts that I get from it.  I would like to think that it makes me a more respectful person.  Or maybe it's just me trying to see and experience all of the cool things in this world.  It is my lifes goal.

Today I think that hunting makes me more respectful.   I'd like to hope so.  I'll leave you with some good hunting photos from this year.  Usually during sunrise.

Thank you to Larry.