Anniversary and a Deer Tale

Well since I made a whole year without blogging, I figured I might as well sneak one in on this last night. Yeah, this is David, you guessed it. On December 29th, 2007 I married my best friend of 8 years and enjoyed a wonderful honeymoon in Jamaica at the wonderful couples resort.

Our 1st anniversary was spent in Asheville, North Carolina.  We spent a few nights there taking the scenery in and spent some time in the Biltmore Mansion.  The mansion was still decorated for Christmas so that was a neat time to see it.  We even took along the top layer of our cake and opened a FANCY bottle of champagne that Elizabeth won at a wedding show.  She had never won anything in her entire life much less a $200 bottle of champagne. That was one of our favorite food trips as well.  There were so many great local places to eat like the Tupelo Honey Cafe.

Our 2nd anniversary was spent just this time last year in Tampa, Fl.  Our great friends Abby and Clay were married so we decided to make it an anniversary/wedding/new year/ Auburn bowl game trip because we were in the outback bowl.  We went to dinner on our anniversary at the most famous Bern's Steak House. Our little bit was just about 9 wks along and he was just our little secret.  But then again we splurged the secret to Abby and Clay on New Years Eve, ha ha.

Now this brings us to this year, 2010.  It was an interesting anniversary to say the least.  We left Jackson after spending a few days there to visit with family for Christmas.  Owen came down with his first virus the night before and didn't really sleep much so we decided to head on back to Huntsville early in the day.  On our way back we decided to stop in Greenville for a little while to give him a break because Owen has recently decided that he does not enjoy being in a car seat.  Much less when he is running a fever and has a nasty cough and feeling generally, oh how do you say, crummy.  I took a quick glance at the weather report on my phone and noticed it was just a PERFECT wind to hunt for a deer in one particular stand.  So I left momma and little bit at Meme's house and thought I would sit for an hour until dark.

Now most people would say that was a little extreme, but this was no ordinary hunt you see.  My dad is currently building a pond and the guys working on the site kept telling us they were seeing a monster buck every morning on our place.  I decided to go investigate (this was three days before Christmas) and found a massive line of trees with fresh rubs which meant there was a very active buck in the area.  We put out the trail camera and caught the fella.  And from then on my dad and I were both pretty determined to see if we couldn't put our hands on him. Here is the trail cam pic at night.

So a few days went by with no luck, then Christmas, then we were headed off to Jackson.  Now we were heading back to Huntsville, stopped in Greenville, and I decided to give it one last try before going back to city life for a while.

I climbed up in the stand at 4:00 and watched a couple of does come out close to 5:00 so I knew deer were moving.  Around 5:20, which is DARK down in the woods, I almost climbed down and gave up because it was just getting too dark to shoot.  I decided to use my binoculars and give one last look on the tree line and I saw the silhouette of what looked to be a big deer.  I caught site of two large tines and put my glasses down and grabbed my rifle.  The deer came out behind me so I was faced with the decision to either try to stand up and shoot right hand, or just gamble and shoot left handed.  I knew he would hear me because he was only 30-35 yards away and anyone that spends time in the woods knows just how quiet it seems to get once the birds and squirrels stop stirring.  I dropped the power of my scope down to the lowest setting so that I could draw as much light in as possible.  Then I couldn't see him, it was just too dark.  Then he moved and I was able to find him again between two small pine trees.  With a quick prayer, left eye, left trigger finger, and steady cross hairs on the front shoulder I squeezed the trigger.  The gun went off and as I listened to hear which direction he ran I was surprised to hear nothing.  I picked up my binoculars and barely made out something laying on the ground.  I shined my light towards him and saw horns up, tongue out, and eyes shining back which to any hunter is a sigh of relief.  I knew that I had killed a large buck but I didn't realize it was the Big 10 until I put my hands on him.

I had actually pulled it off.  I had a perfect wind and a lucky left handed shot so dark that fire was coming out of the muzzle and the bullet landed perfectly in the heart so that he dropped in his tracks.  Talk about a sigh of relief. To make it even more special I used the Remington 700 .270 Elizabeth gave me for Christmas two years ago. I then walked back to the house and told my dad I shot a 4 point by mistake because it was so dark and I needed to load him in the truck.  Then we walked up and I shined the light and said, "That 4 point turned into a 10 point some how!".  So we loaded up the deer and took him to the processor to find that Brenda Hudgins had killed a huge 14 point at the same time.  It was a monster buck, so we both grabbed our trophy bucks and took pictures.

Then as crazy as it sounds, we loaded up our small family and headed back to Huntsville for a late night drive.  My most wonderful wife let me leave for our hour on our anniversary (with a sick baby) to go after a deer she knew was on my mind.  You can't ask for a more selfless partner to witness your life. So it was no anniversary with fancy food or city lights, but it will definitely be one that I will remember forever with our newest, special little blessing named Owen.

And by the way, we need a volunteer to baby sit so we can re-celebrate our anniversary sometime, ha.

Brenda Hudgins with her 14 point buck.  I hear she has been on a bragging tour as well, ha ha.