Deer season is more than hunting

Deer hunting in a sense is our vacation at home with friends and relatives. We really try to get all the outside work done before the Thursday or Friday before the start of Wisconsin’s 9-day firearms deer season around Thanksgiving. We didn’t get it all done this year. The manure handlers had a major breakdown at the previous farm so they got delayed by three days and then Mother Nature gave us some rain. We have a large chunk of open land on a ridge across the valley from our dairy which we can’t easily access with tractors and spreaders. The corn was recently shelled and we hoped to inject manure into the field using a hose.

Everything was set up for manure spreading. The pump was in place. The agitator was working. The hoses were laid out and hooked up to a non-disturbance toolbar. By Thursday evening, the field was supposed to be covered and the process done so the hunters would be able to get to the cabin. When the hose is under pressure, it is very hard and impossible for a car or pickup to get across. The hose was lying over the road going to the cabin.

Everything was operating smoothly and 30 minutes later the 3-point arm broke on the tractor with the toolbar. Everything had to stop, and the manure contractors decided to come back early in the morning with another tractor and tool bar.

This ended up being a 45-mile tractor drive, and when they arrived at the farm, the 3-point sensor would not allow them to operate the lift. After waiting two hours for a technician, the tractor was back in operation. They hooked on a different toolbar, traveled through the woods, up the hill road and re-hooked onto the hose and began injecting manure again. In the meantime, everyone was warned not to drive across the hose and so had to park their vehicles about 250 yards from the cabin, creating a parking jam. By 9 p.m. the manure contractors had blown the hose out and disconnected it to allow the pickups to get to the cabin. Some hunters were a little upset, but a beer, a meal and a good card game cured that.

The last three years, I’ve not even stepped into the barn on opening weekend. It’s the only two days of the year that I wish to stay on the farm and relax. I pack a lunch, take a book, suit up in brilliant orange and find that spot that, “No man has ever set foot upon,” as my dad would say. This year we actually had a couple inches of snow before opening day which made seeing brown animals much easier. Something about the peacefulness in the woods is so cool. The only sounds are an occasional squirrel, a turkey flying down from a roost, or the ringing in one’s ears. The deer are so quiet you rarely will hear them. I did not see a single deer in the woods the first two days. I sat in my blind within 100 yards of a spot that the big bucks had been visiting this fall, but my book was more exciting than the scenery. It was my first time sitting in a blind. The wind was ferocious but inside it was calm. The wind was probably why the deer weren’t moving.

Our cabin is just a 40- by 20-foot building with bunk beds, insulation and wood heat, no water and no electricity. It warms up quickly with 16 hunters and kids. Card games introduce youngsters to games they used to play for pennies and now play for dollars. There is no cell service, so conversations are carried on all across the room. With three generations of hunters, the tradition hopefully will stay alive for a long time. The walls are decorated with mounts. Some are older and very small. My 77-year-old father shot one titled, “I thought I saw horns.” My grandfather Ed shot an 8-pointer near Hayward in 1948 that is preserved on the wall. It still has the metal tags he used to register it.

Almost everyone leaves deer camp on Sunday evening and returns on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This time the girls from ages 8-17 came along. Jacqui and Aunt Cheryl keep the girls occupied by teaching them how to make lefse. The pile of warm lefse was almost gone at noon when the hunters came in for lunch. Lefse is so good when covered with butter and jam and rolled up. The girls also make gingerbread houses and paint little doll houses and love helping Jacqui do hospital chores and feed newborn calves before going to the cabin. There was 8 inches of snow, so both boys and girls had a lot of fun sledding. Friday night there were 28 people in the cabin. The highlight of the night is a game of Polish dice won again by a 10 year old that can now buy Christmas gifts.

My dear hunting was getting pretty boring by the second weekend, as I hadn’t seen a deer of either sex while hunting. Sunday, the last day of firearms season, was beautiful: about 20 degrees, no wind and everything covered with snow. At 3 p.m. I could see antlerless deer hundreds of yards away through binoculars. At 4 p.m., I noticed a deer walking across the field and took a double take because it had large antlers. It was about 150 yards away and when I stood up, I bumped the blind and the deer stopped. After what felt like five minutes the buck started to walk again, and I bumped the blind again. After another five minutes, it started to walk away slowly, but at an angle that would’ve required a Texas heart shot. The buck was approaching trees, a marsh and a fence and it turned and gave me a good shot. After I shot, it ran. When it crossed a small creek, the buck crashed into the ground dead. Jacqui’s boys helped me get it home. Dragging a 10-point buck in a sled behind a 250-horse tractor in the snow was a great end to my dear season.