There have been some slow deer seasons and then there is this one. Our big excitement for the weekend was my nephew Justin seeing a doe in the clearcut across from the shack.
My daughter Megan and her husband Ben took the wheeler in the dark over to a stand, parking and walking in before shooting time.
They sat until 11 a.m. when you can run wheelers again. When they walked up the trail they found a surprise in front of the side by side.
A wolf had left a large calling card, nearly still steaming.
This is not the sign we are looking for and we even tried to make the best of it by saying there wouldn’t be wolves if there weren’t deer around.
With the hunting action slow we found solace in playing numerous games of smear. For those shacks that don’t play cards, I’m not sure why not. Even with an odd number of people (smear is normally played with four people), we rotate players in and out so everyone gets a chance.
That might mean if you’re not playing you could be doing dishes or stoking the fire or enjoying one of the most cherished times: a shack nap.
There’s something about kicking back and closing your eyes in a shack heated by a woodstove with friends and family debating if my nephew Hunter played trump on the last hand or not.
We had eight for dinner on Saturday night which was served just past 8 p.m. due to some unforeseen circumstances. For one, our honored guest was late in arriving. Well, Roger is often late so maybe he was on time.
However, we also ran out of propane for the stove and Roger volunteered to change the 100-pound cylinder which turned to be a complicated task due to the cap being rusted on. Yet, no one was upset that the steaks didn’t hit the table until later.
That’s shack life.
Can’t believe the season is coming to an end this weekend. Even if we don’t bag a buck, we will have made memories and had fun at the shack.
That is priceless.
