That sounds dramatic, but it’s really not. I’m not joking – best. weekend. ever. In the history of weekends! Oh, where do I begin? Remember last week when I said I was planning on sitting in the stand some over the weekend? Well… I did. Trusty John knew how anxious I was to bag a deer, so he got me in the stand to start off our weekend in Georgetown. Despite running late, and a rainy front moving in, I entered the woods at 5:30 Friday afternoon/evening to begin my first official deer hunt of the season. I always sit down with too much adrenaline, often finding myself moving around/making far more noise than intended, so I made a point to chill out sit still and just enjoy being in the stand. Aaand 45 minutes later I found myself taking a plethora of photos to pass the time more quickly.

A few essentials for the day.

I felt a strong urge to convey my “itchy trigger finger” for some reason…

Sadly, no deer in the cross-hairs…

And then the sun started to set. Slowly, but surely, I was losing light. As I stretched and looked around, I took a gander into the woods behind the stand and – What’s that? A brown body was sneaking through the brush just as I turned. How could I have missed that?! I had a quick internal argument with myself and ultimately decided that I probably didn’t see the deer sooner because I don’t have eyes in the back of my head, nor are any of my ancestors owls. Re-assess. Focus. I decided to turn my entire body to the right so I could get a better view of the thicker brush in that direction and behind me. The photo after my itchy trigger finger? Picture what is to the right of that open area, and that’s where I kept my eyes for the remainder of the hunt. Not 5 minutes later, I saw more movement. Position rifle. Check. Examine the situation through the cross-hairs. Check. 7 point buck in view. Check. That’s right. A nice little 7 pt was poised for harvest. Presenting me with a  perfect broadside shot (albeit between two trees), the buck stood relatively still munching on some deer munchies, so I took a few seconds to calm my nerves and double check everything. From my angle, his rack was tall, and appeared to be outside the ears. What am I waiting for? Nothing. Safety off – boom. I saw him take off, marked his location, and a few seconds later there was nothing but silence.

Unless my scope was knocked off balance at some point over the past few months, I knew I had to have hit him. I waited until I just couldn’t wait any longer, snagged a flashlight {add this to your list of essentials if you will be hunting in the evening}, and took off towards my mark. It only took about 30 seconds to find the blood trail. My dad has always told me that once you find blood, don’t move from that spot until you see another. Well that’s exactly what I did, calling John in the meantime to head on out with the 4-wheeler because we were bringing home a deer. Four or five blood spots later, John arrived to save the day, as the sun has set completely and it was getting super dark. With the 4-wheeler headlights, it only took another minute or two to see that big white belly of the buck just beyond where I was standing. SUCCESS! Onto the from of the 4-wheeler he went, and we headed back for a few photos before taking him to the processor. We ran out of venison in the freezer last week, so the variety of dishes I am going to make also became a constant stream through my mind.

See what I mean? His rack was tall, and his body was pretty big (weighing in at 135 lbs), but the mass just wasn’t there. You can also see (in the photo below) that he has been sparring with a bigger buck, leaving long scrapes down his sides. {Not from dragging him up on the 4-wheeler, as was my first instinct – we had him laying on the opposite side}. And as far as his ears go – look closely and you can see there is a notch taken out of the top of his ear. Both of them were like this… Any ideas? Despite him not having the massive rack I was hoping for, we figured this was a good buck to take out of the population because of all of that. Who’s ready for some venison?!

Wait! Don’t go anywhere! The weekend fun didn’t stop there…

John and I got engaged! A man after my own heart – he tricked me into hopping on the 4-wheeler before the Carolina game {we had gone to his parent’s place to watch it, along with my parents}. How, you ask? He said he had seen a huge scrape down near one of the duck ponds early that morning. With buck fever still in play, I jumped at the opportunity to see proof that there really are bigger deer down there. No, the scrape did not exist he couldn’t find the scrape when we went to look… But… Rolling through one of the fields, we came across this set up:

Champagne, Confederate roses, and one of our favorite songs playing under a nearly 1500 year old oak tree (my favorite one out there)… It was just perfect. I’ll spare you the details, mostly because I want that to remain a special, personal moment between us – but he asked and I said yes! A hundred times yes. After the bottle a few glasses of champagne, we headed back to continue the celebrations with friends and family waiting for us at the house. It is a day and a weekend I will never forget. I can’t wait to be his Mrs!