Deer Hunting-Days two and three

Couldn't post anything after the second day of deer hunting-I simply crawled in to bed. Didn't see anything.Didn't shoot anything.
Day three-I saw a doe and later shot at another doe, but I missed. Also saw a turkey, but there's no fall season for turkey here.
I still learned a lot.
1.The acorns this year are huge-and they hurt when they hit you on the head. Gotta remember not to say "oh crap" out loud.Scream it in your head, but not outloud.
2.In the summer you can use the restroom behind any tree available-deer season is different-apparently deer are upset by the smell of human urine.
3.Deer can't see orange.
4. It's very, very dark in the woods without a full moon.
5.Wolf spiders are very attracted to me.
6. Deer are not.

A good day for a Rodeo

Around the mountain and down the dirt road, there's a black stud horse. This horse is around seventeen hands high. If "hands high" means nothing to you -imagine a person of five feet tall could walk under the horse and not bend over-if the horse would allow it. He's makes Black Beauty look like a pony.
Lauren and some friends went to look at the horse and it just so happened that the man that owns him, "Hot Rod", was there. Lauren asked Hot Rod if she could ride him. Hot Rod replied that he reckoned that it been at least five years since he'd been saddled and even then he wasn't too gentle. A little spirited maybe (like Lauren). But she could ride if she wanted to try it-it might be a little bit of a rodeo.
Lauren replied that it was a great day for a rodeo and proceded to saddle the horse up. She kept talking to him and whispered something in his ear before she slipped the briddle on. Then, she climbed on-and the boys just smiled-sitting on a horse is one thing, but riding and making him mind is another story altogether. Lauren is a very tiny rider and this horse is a little bit more than above average in size, but she rode him like it was something that happened everyday. Rodeo indeed. Cowgirl up, Baby.

Musings from the deer blind- Day One

Like thousands of rednecks across Arkansaw, I donned my camo and orange hours before daylight. I was in my deer blind watching the sun come up. It's pretty awesome to watch the steam come off the ground and listen to acorns crash down. But sitting there for awhile, some strange thoughts come to mind:
1. If a bear comes, I'm playing dead. I hope someone finds me before I have a heart attack or the bear eats me. Dwight shot a bear climbing his deer stand. If a bear is dumb enough to climb a deer stand-it stands to reason, he would investigate a deer blind. Don't try and tell me he shot the last bear in Newton County.I've seen the shat. If there's bear shat, there's another bear around.
2. According to Dr. Oz on Oprah, the average person passes gas fourteen times a day. Did someone count? Can you imagine-hey, what do you do for a living? I count farts. Your mother must be so proud.
3. Does scent blocker kill the smell of a fart?
4. How do I know it was scent blocker sprayed all over these clothes and not doe urine? Can an inexperienced person tell the difference? If that man sprayed doe urine on the clothes that I'm wearing-he better plan on sleeping in the woods tonight.
5. Why was he so restless last night? He's killed thousands or hundreds of deer. Was he worried about me getting lost? Aww....Seriously, I like to hike. I don't love it. I know the path from my deer blind home. I'm happy. Enough hiking-virtually no chance of me getting lost.
So I didn't get a deer my first morning, but there's always this afternoon.

Faith

Faith is believing in something that you can't see. Now, Faith is also a name that we've given to a horse because there is no medical reason that she should live through the winter. No reasonable person can see it happening. She's been neglected and starved for a long time. Lauren and Dusty took the horse so that its owner wouldn't shoot it-and before you pass judgement-more that one person has said that shooting the horse would be doing it a favor.
I made the mistake of walking out to the field to get a good look at her and without thinking, I just whistled. She came trotting up to me and instantly nuzzled my neck. I'm not special-she does that to everyone. It has never occured to her to be afraid of humans.
Then I made my second mistake. I looked into her eyes. Great big brown eyes, the ones that you could get lost in. I looked for a long time and there's not one ounce of hatred or meanness in those eyes. It's just not there.
I don't wanna know what she's been through or how she got to be in the state she's in. I just want to know that she's doing better today than she was yesterday and that there's a chance that I might get to see her running in the pasture at a full gallop someday. I know the future holds no guarantees-I just wanna hope. Horses are a lot like people and dogs-if they've been starved for a long time, you just can't offer them a buffet and expect them to gain weight. It takes time and strength and maybe a little bit of love. So we're giving her as much grain, hay, and love as we possibly can-but if you know any tricks, chants, prayers, spells, or old wives tales-we're willing to try them.
Yea, I said a prayer for this horse(and will continue to do so) and I don't think God got mad that I was praying for an animal. I think He just smiled and gave it some special consideration. Call it Faith.

My fish

This is my big fish and why yes I do know that I'm making a funny face.My husband made me hold it through the gills so that I wouldn't drop it near the water-it weighed somewhere between two and three pounds. A great fish.

Trout Fishing in Cotter, Ar

This is the view of the White River from our take out point. Dwight and I left very early-the bottom picture is the view of the water after we had been there for around thirty minutes. The middle shot is one of Dwight fishing. We both caught our limit of trout by 9 am-and I caught a really big one-check it out on facebook.

Kate Versus Roscoe-the war rages on

Roscoe is the rooster that presides over our three hens. He crows when the sun comes up and every time he has sex-he is a very virile rooster. Dwight has warned me that feeding him bubble gum won't stop the constant crowing so Roscoe exists to crow all day and to protect the hens.
He takes protecting the hens very seriously.
Once the hens were eating bugs and seeds in the yard and were all around my feet.Roscoe kept coming closer and closer and I got the brilliant idea that he wanted to be petted. That particular Rooster never wants to be petted-he "spurred" me. That means his talons came out and he climbed my leg gouging as he went up. He's very quick or we would have had rooster and dumplings that night.
Now we have a game-I check for eggs each day, but I feed every body before I go into the hen house-actually, I run so he won't notice what I'm doing while he feeds his face.As soon as he sees me near the house, he comes running over ready to spurr me again. I'm trying to fix the nests. I'm adding fresh hay hoping to encourage the girls to lay some eggs, but I have to make sure Roscoe is busy-so far Ive fixed two or three nests and have about 8 to go.Chalupa is no help-Roscoe scares him silly. Now for a real diversion. Then, I may feed him peanut butter and jelly-extra peanut butter.

Freedom of Speech

There's a case in front of the Supreme Court concerning "Freedom of Speech". I'm all for Freedom of Speech-it upsets me that facebook has a button to report people. I mean, come on, we're just using words, but I can see the need for that button. Book banning/burning has always been sure to get my dander up. Now this case in front of the Supreme Court involves a church that was protesting at a funeral. These CHRISTIAN(?????) people held up signs at a soldier's funeral that read "God loves dead soldiers" , "Death to Soldiers" and a host of other things. WTF?What has happened to human decency? This wasn't a parade or political rally. This was at a funeral where a man was burying his son. This was his good bye that was made into a media circus.
Am I too old fashioned? I just don't believe a funeral is a place to hold a protest. The father is suing the church(this just blows my mind that it's a church and not just some peacenik group) for three to five million dollars. Sounds a little pricey, but what if it was your kid?
How much is the sanctity of your loved one's funeral worth?
To lose a soldier and put up with that crap-that man deserves much more. It's not about losing our freedom of speech-it's about doing what's right.
p.s. God does love dead soldiers and every single one of them out there busting their asses for US.