Whew ... We Made It!

Just a quick little update from the farm today, and then I'm off to get things prepared for our Christmas Eve Service. But, I'm glad to report that we have made it ... well I guess if I wanted to be technical I should say that we have almost made it, but the end is in sight. It has been a crazy couple of weekends (and a bit more), but by the grace of God all of us have come through unscathed. And what is this "it" that I'm talking about you ask? Well, I'm talking about...

DEER HUNTING SEASON

Here in Iowa, as well as plenty of other places I'm sure, deer season is a pretty popular occasion (especially shotgun season). And, if you drive around the state of Iowa for any amount of time you will realize that it is pretty much needed because we have quite a few deer that like to live the good life and get fat on all of the corn in our fields. But, when they open up the shotgun seasons hunters come out of the woodwork.

Some hunt solo, some hunt in with a buddy, and quite a few like to join up in big ol' groups and tromp through the woods blasting any little deer that moves. Actually I guess I should say that they plant a few guys at one end of the piece of ground their are hunting then everyone else goes to the other end and starts walking though (and making as much noise as possible) to scare the deer towards the waiting shotguns at the other end.

If that is the way people want to hunt, that is perfectly fine ... when I go deer hunting I like to hunker down under a tree near a spot I know they will come, but then again I always miss them when I shoot (I have other excuses ... like the fact I use a flintlock smoothbore). The thing that makes deer season interesting on our farm is that we own a little 40 acre chunk in the middle of a ton of land owned by one guy. This means there is a large group hunting every which way all around us.

I stayed close to home during both the first and second shotgun seasons, except for once when I needed to cut a little wood because I knew some cold was coming. And, like I said we made it safe and sound ... although there were times when it sounded like a battle outside! So, now that everyone is done with their shotguns, I'm going to go and take my somewhat-trusty flintlock fowler out there and sit under a tree (hopefully on a day when it snows).

I don't really care if I get a deer, I just want to experience the relaxation of hanging out in our very own little piece of woods.