~Great North Woods~

My friend Gail from up in God's Country (HOME) told me she stopped by my weblog (I hate the word BLOG, sounds so iccky) lol.. and when she told me, it had reminded me of a story that happened when my ex, David, and I lived up there.. David loved it ..he was a hunter, bow and arrow, rifle, and even black powder deer hunting..he hunted for months as each gun is a different season and makes the whole deer hunting time longer.. Gails hubby Larry and son along with David were AVID deer hunters.. Up in the North Woods its a BIG deal- the opening day of Deer Season. Would you believe they used to..i dont know if they still do, but school was closed the first day of Deer Season as none of the boys would be at school..Was a tradition, every mothers son up there was a hunter lol...There were certain traditions and rules that apply to a true deer hunter.. On the opening day..a hunter takes a piece of venison(deer meat) from the deer the year before that he has frozen and kept..they build a fire out in the woods. for lunch..and cook the venison and eat it that opening day..Some hunters do this for breakfast..most for lunch tho...That i guess is a way to guarantee that you will get a deer this season...Seems to work too..David got his every year. Oh, and the guys all grow beards..until they get a buck..see a beard , no buck yet..clean shaven..TADA!!! they got their deer. A six point is ok..but 8 or 10 or bigger is THE best and the kind you wanna mount head and all..David kept all his horns..and each set was mounted...AND HAD to be hung on my living room wall now..yeahhhh lol..He had his wall with the deer horns..and the mounted fish, they were all on the one wall in our living room..it was really neat..I had put a great fly rod up across the top..then the 3 mounted fish..my northern pike and his brookie and my dads german brown from back in 1955...they looked really nice up there..was a great conversation wall everyone noticed it... David & Larry went hunting one night after David got off work..as it got dark in comes Larry & David and Gail.. David had gotten a buck..with his bow..the arrow was on a tracking string..but it had gotten dark and they wanted to track this deer, and wanted flashlights and lanterns and David was going to take his 3 wheeler to haul the deer out..so he loaded that into the truck and the 4 of us IDIOTS ventured INTO the National Forrest to track down this deer in the DARK... NOW, every one KNOWS you do NOT track a deer in the dark its just a no no .. up there is called the Sylvania Wilderness so does that give you an idea as to why you dont go into the woods, not on a trail or road in the dark? Well we did..just marched right on into the woods to David's tree stand, found the string..and proceeded into the woods following that line..which we gathered up as we went, just like we had good sense..ya we did hahaha. we are in the middle of the Ottawa National Forrest... We found the deer..the guys examined it, walking all over tying the deer to the 3 wheeler .. Gail and I sat on a log and chatted.. When the guys said "ok ..lets head back" we all 4 looked at each other saw the string we picked up..and we each pointed in a different way as to which way was back to the truck.. My stomach did a flip..I looked at Gail ..she looked Shocked and said " Oh my GOD... HOW are we gonna find our way???" well .. David and Larry says go this way..Gail and I said NO..its that way..but we went with the guys.. We started thru the woods..dragging a bleeding dead deer behind the 3 wheeler and off we went.. We walked and walked Gail & I are panicky now.. then we laugh..as we knew if they had to call out search and rescue for us..ohhh no no no..we would NEVER live that down not in the small town we lived in.. So we decided it was best just to stop wait till daylight ( it was midnite or later by then) and build a fire.. I was scared to death of a bear smellin that dead bleeding deer that we dragged with us..we would be easy game..lol..The day before now..it had rained...so the woods were wet..and damp..We all 4 looked for wood and then started to see how we start this damp wet stuff on fire as we were cold and a fire would be nice...We all smoked, not Gail..but who carries paper etc..we didnt know we were gonna have to build a bond fire out in the bloody woods at midnite to fend off bears and the cold lol...We dug all our ciggies out of the packs and used them to get some smaller twigs burning and before we knew it we had a HUGE fire going.. I told Gail I didnt care if we started a forest fire I wanted OUT of that woods..lol. It wouldnt have - the ground and everything was soaked..and we were careful..that is all we would need is to be chased by a forest fire, a hungry bear and no telling WHAT else..lol... We sat around this fire for AGES it seemed, trying to figure out what to do..all freezing and wet..and scared..listening to the sounds of the woods..hoping a bear wouldnt find us..Bears were and are very common up there ..the woods are full of them...Soon I hear something..I said "LISTEN..that sounds like our truck horn"...we all listen close and hear this HONKKK HONKKKK ,, David says "thats my truck horn..GREAT..now someone is stealing the truck!!" Gail and I just hung our heads thinking LORD.... what now.. The horn seemed to be in 3 toots then stop..then 3 toots again..David takes out his 357 that he brought with and fired 3 shots into the air.. we heard 3 more - TOOT! TOOT! TOOT!... We all jumped up and started off in the direction of the horn..after about 15 minutes and the sound of the truck horn getting louder we came across a old logging road and decide to follow it..not knowing if we were going into or OUT of the woods.. All of a sudden there were headlights glaring at us, we hear this STOMPING and CRASHING through the woods-- Gails son Larry came running up to us..Hugged us all and was SO happy to find us... let me tell you so were we.. needless to say..we never did that again..and it was a huge buck David got..a nice 8 pointer..but I still dont think what we went thru was worth it..but then I am NOT a hunter.. Some Joys of the Great North Woods... we didn't tell too many people either and swore Larry to secrecy about our stupidity lol.. that was some good eatin though.. M M M... The photo up top is another older one, my cam is out of commission for a while, hopefully will be up and running soon...You will just have to suffer with that one :-) Time for some food..made chicken breasts with rice, toh-mah-toh's and onion, baked, really really good.. (tomatoes really) lol..and of course..what? lol..yessss this girl is hungry...so its time to hit publish. nitey nite.. :-) luv ya Gail... Y'all have a good one now Y'hear? Luv ya & thanks.! Always, Lois**** May God Bless you today, I'm so honored to call you friend, I pray the Lord will keep you safe, Until I write again...