I would really like to have a long conversation with the person that made the calendar work out so that opening day can fall on the morning after Halloween. Most of my Sunday afternoon was spent digging out Halloween costumes and hunter orange clothing from behind everything else we own in storage. So, the night before opening day and all the hunters are LOADED with candy and need to get ready to get up and hunt in the morning and no one will go to sleep.

Fast forward to morning-for the rest of you that got to experience this fun this was the night the cell phone clocks got drunk and no one knew what time it was. We finally got everything together and we were off, well two of us anyways. So, we get into our stand (aka our new house that’s not quite finished yet) and finally it’s legal shooting time. She lasted half an hour. HALF AN HOUR!

We are now only on day two of deer season, but I have already discovered many things in the start to this year’s hunt. The first was that daughter’s level of patience is currently much less than mine but her ability to lose clothes is equal to or greater than mine. Luckily grandpa found her some spare gloves and the fact that mom owns a gun store and can replace the rest helps too. The second was that if you let her sleep when she wanted to go hunting (despite multiple attempts to get her up) she can pitch a fit the likes of which I have not seen before. The third is you are never too old to need help getting dressed or undressed. This morning my dad had to tie my son into his hunting pants, and we all laughed at him for not dressing himself. No sooner had he done that than my mom came along with the zipper on her coat stuck and my dad had to get her out of that.

All deer hunts seem to go the same. You get a great gun and ammo, your tags/licences, hunters orange, a place to hunt and best intentions. And you end up with no sleep, someone screaming, someone gets loaded, clothes get lost and almost always someone has to get you into/out of your gear. And we still do this every single year with the hopes of a deer and the food and bragging rights that come with it and the promise of lifelong memories.