Up North

Day 1
Morning
Jese and I got up to the cabin at about 10:00 last night so the trip was not as long as we thought it was going to be. The traffic was not bad at all so that was nice. This morning people started to get up at about 6 AM, I could not believe it, I didn’t get up until about 8:00 though. My father was the last one up because he was feeling a little under the weather!! This morning Jese, Cassie, Nick, Amy, Adam, and I all went out to mine and Jese’s deer stands. Jese then got us all lost by trying to find the way my father told us to go, he decided to follow a deer trail instead of going east, silly boy. After we finally found our way back to the truck we went to Nicks stand, we didn’t get lost then. Jese is now doing his stats homework and Amy is having Ben help her with her Chemistry test, they are not getting very far. The Sletta boys are sitting with the window open trying to hit a bird with a stone. Cassie is reading and watching the Slettas. Adam is just eating. Les, my dad, and Nick all went out to put up my grandpas stand. I think everyone else is either trapping or putting up deer stands. Well that is all for now!

Christa

Tonight
Cassie, Amy, and I all cleaned up the cabin a little bit today but, you can’t really tell anymore! I played Amy in cribbage and killed her! Then she played against Les and she won. Cassie, Amy, Les, and Ben played a game of euchre and Les and Ben won. Then I played instead of Les and Amy and I won. We all got our hunting clothes all ready for tomorrow and we all got our bets in. I think we will see a total of 37 deer, I sure hope I am right so I can win some money$$!! I would be very happy. We had some steak and potatoes for supper, they were very good! My father sure is good at barbecuing!! I worked on my photography assignment a little bit today; I hope it turns out good. I am taking photos up here in black and white for my final assignment to show what goes on at the deer camp. Well that is about all that has happened today. We will all go to bed early tonight and get a goods night rest for tomorrow morning. Jese and I are getting on our stand about 6:15 am, so that is not too bad. The weather is supposed to be pretty nice so that is good. Well that is all until tomorrow!!

Christa

Day 2—Deer Opener
Well last night didn’t end too well. Some people came over to tell us that there was a sign from the DNR saying that I had to tear down my deer stand. I was not very happy, so at 7:30 that night a bunch of the guys had to go out and tear down my deer stand and put up a climber for me. Also that night Ben and I lost every euchre game we played, which ended up being against Amy and Cassie so I was not very happy with that either. Today went much better though. Jese and I got out to my stand about 6:30, and I got settled in about 6:55, Jese was not even at his stand yet and BANG I shot a deer at 6:58 AM!!! I was very happy, but not right away. I took ten minutes getting down from my stand and then I went to look for my deer. I could not find any blood or any sign of it at all and I was very hot, so I went back to my stand and took off my sweatshirt. Then I decided to go look for my deer a little bit more. I looked in the direction I saw it run, after awhile, I thought to myself, “I can’t go too far because I might get lost so I will just go to those fallen down trees over there and if I don’t see it after that I will go sit in my stand and wait for someone to come help me” thankfully I didn’t have to wait that long though, as soon as I got to the fallen down trees I saw a deer laying in the ground and I thought “YES, I knew I wouldn’t miss a deer!” And so I called my dad because I saw it had horns and I didn’t want to go up to it in case he wasn’t dead, but when I talked to him I got the nerve to walk up to him to see how many antlers he had, there were SIX! I told my dad that I shot a six-pointer, but the antlers weren’t very big but the body was big. After that I had Jese come help me gut it out, I did it all by myself except for the pelvic bone I had Jese help me cut that. It only took me a half and hour to gut it out completely, it took Ben two hours to gut his deer last year so I think I did pretty good. I sat on my stand the rest of the day and saw two more deer, I thought they would go to Jese’s stand so I didn’t shoot them but then they just made a circle around me and I couldn’t get another shoot at them. That night Mark, Jese, Nick, Jeff Allan, Ben, and I went out to get mine, Bens, and Jeff’s deer. When we got back my dad informed me that my deer was probably the biggest 6-pointer he has ever seen. He thinks it might have an 18-inch spread, so that is sweet. The rest of the night everyone was tracking Mark Lenway’s deer or playing euchre. There were 6 deer shoot that day, Sam, Ben, Jeff, Mark L., Jamie Allan, and myself all got one. Jeff’s was the biggest; it was 8 or 9 points I can’t remember. I shot the first one; Jeff shot his 15 minutes after me. 33 deer were seen total today, that is all!

Christa

Day 3
Today I didn’t go out hunting; I just decided to sleep in. I let Grandpa sit in my stand, but he didn’t see anything. Jese didn’t see anything so that sucks. At 2:00 we left for Winona. The trip went very good, I drove the whole way, but once I thought the stop light turned green but it didn’t so I almost got us killed, but I didn’t so it is okay. We got back and wanted some real food so we went to KFC, then to my room to watch Desperate Housewives. Today 5 deer were shot, Sam got another one, Tom got his first deer, Les got one, and Nick got two, all were does but Sam’s, his was a button-buck. Now I am back to my room and I have good deer heart in the fridge to eat and I am ready (well not really) to go back to the real world tomorrow.

Christa