Saturday morning dawned crisp and chilly. We left the truck at 0550 to head into the woods to our blind and no head lamps were needed, the moon was so bright.
The forest floor was covered in dry, frozen leaves and it sounded like we were crushing full bags of Doritos with every step. Autumn was in the lead and kept looking back at me as if to say "sorry I am being so loud Dad!". I nodded and whispered there is nothing we can do about it, just make for the stand.
It took us 40 minutes to get to the blind and I realized we probably should have set out a bit earlier but oh well, by 0630 we were tucked into the tent and on the watch.
After about 30 minutes we had both cooled off from the walk in and decided to turn the heat on. The tent was covered with snow and ice when we got there and it did not take long for the heater to melt it all off. We sat and glassed the woods and listened intently for over an hour. Autumn was hungry so I broke out the beef jerky and she ate her fill then asked for the book of short stories I had packed for her. She is 12 and likes to read. One of my favorite books is this book of short stories by Willem Lange called "Tales From the Edge of the Woods". Its a paperback copy, smallish and easy to stash in my backpack.
She sat and read and I continued to glass, watching and hoping. As the time ticked by soon it was 0930 and Autumn reminded me that we had to deliver the fresh baked bread she had made for the two land-owners whom properties we have permission to hunt on. I noted we had a 40 minute walk ahead of us as well so we may as well break down the tent and head back.
As we neared the edge of the woods Autumn took the rifle off her shoulder to a port arms carry position and crept up on the edge of the field
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As we snuck up to the edge of the field she looked back at me and reported there was a gaggle of turkeys out there
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We watched them hustle out of the field as we walked out into the open and proceeded back to the truck to make our deliveries. One landowner was home to receive the fresh bread, the other was not so we left the loaf in their mailbox.
I should note that my daughter has a bit of a reputation around the hill where we live. She loves to bake - cookies, brownies, cupcakes, cakes, bread, all sorts of stuff, and she is quite good at it to boot. She bakes so much there is always more than we need so about every other week she asks me to drive her around to our friends on the hill to deliver her goodies. By the way, she came up with the "appreciation bread" idea on her own which I thought was super thoughtful, she is a really good young lady.
After the deliveries were done we headed back to the house so she could grab some lunch and a nap. I did the same, ate a hoagie and sat in my comfy chair by the fire and closed my eyes for a 30 minute power nap.
One o'clock rolls around so we suit up and hop in the truck for the 1/2 mile drive down to the farm. We shoulder our loads (I carry my backpack, the folding stools, her shooting stick and of course the Buddy Heater
, she carries her rifle and the pop up blind that carries nice and neatly like a backpack when all folded up.)Our afternoon spot was my preferred spot of the two we planned to hunt since it puts us on an access route between dense softwoods that transition to open hardwood and a small field surrounded by woods. On Tuesday evening last week, around 5 o'clock I was walking into check our trail camera after work and I unknowingly bumped deer that were in that field, I was on a bee line for the trail cam and looked to my left to see 4 flags bound into the darkness. I like this spot
As we hiked into the woods to set up we came upon some promising sign maybe 30 yards inside the treeline
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