what a saturday Lee & i had. holy cow. I KILLED MY FIRST TURKEY.
we were after them once last year for 3 days straight.
early mornings.
cold noses.
no turkeys.
crying ali's so sad i wasn't able to get one.
but all that has changed.
once again, 4:45 AM rolled around...did you hear me people AM, that's stinkin' early.. & i was actually quite chipper. we ate 350 calories worth of blueberry muffins, Lee had his coffee (me not so much), & off we went.
a snippet from Lee:
The night before the hunt was quite gloomy and rainy, but that didn't stop us from attempting to put a big longbeard to sleep. After one faint gobble sounded off through the trees next to the edge of a field our spirits were lifted as anticipation grew for the morning to come. My mind instantly scrambled all of the possible options as to where we would hide the blind along with placing the decoys. Weather Channel called for sun, no wind, and a 90 % chance of FANtastic turkey action.
so off i trudged in my new $25 wal-mart special, but dang nice hunting boots Lee so lovingly purchased for me. thanks Lee. the next boots on my list are Uggs sir ;) it was a sloppy walk through the mud the rain created for us, i kept up with lee pretty well (he is a speed demon).
he set up the blind and camoflauged us in moving branches and other wilderness items to hide us. we watched the sun rise (don't get to see that very often) and soon after had 4 young jakes about 10 feet in front of our faces. Dictionary--> jakes are a first year, male turkey. i was freaking. i wanted to scream and laugh so bad, but knew 1) they would run away & 2) that Lee wouldn't be too happy with me so i held it in as best i could. it didn't feel like real life. they were so close. that was the closest i had been to a turkey yet, but it was stinky because they were not what we were after. now i am so glad we held out, but at the time i was sad and a bit mad i didn't get to shoot something right there-ahhh.
once the jakes arrived they stayed for FOREVER. Lee stated that we were being held captive & really we were. they circled the blind & would not leave us alone. i enjoyed seeing them, but knowing i couldn't shoot was irritating. they were finally distracted by a trotting hen across the field. Dictionary--> hens are female turkeys. thank you hen.
we moved to one more spot before arriving at the one God had perfectly planned for my first turkey. silly God why did you have to make us move so many times?! because in the end his plan is more perfect than any of ours that's why.
back to turkey mode...we were situated next to the Red River in Fargo where normally we are seen catching cat fish, not this day (but later that night where we caught nothing..okay one tiny one.. and played i-spy in the boat all night). Lee ended up calling another stinkin' jake across the river it flew over & my heart was just a beating because at this point in the day we were maybe possibly probably going to shoot a jake because i wanted to "get one" so bad. there were two others across the river too smart to come over and join their little friend & all of a sudden the jake started to make these little chirps. i was not by lee, but in a tree about 10 ft away and during the chirps i was like oh yes he's making noises this has to be a good thing & now lee tells me that was his way of saying to the others something is up over here fellas... boooo.
A snippet from Lee:
During my calls to the 3 visible to us we heard a very faint gobble off in the distance about a mile or so. We did not expect him to show up, but heard his gobbles continually getting closer and closer. After the jake flew back across & tattled on us I told Ali that we were going to find the "mystery gobbler". Well, the "mystery gobbler" found us.
as we were just getting up to head in his direction we heard a loud & very near to us gobble forcing us to scramble our way to two new trees, i was once again on my own away from Lee eeeek. it didn't take more than a minute or two for him to appear in the midst of the woods all fanned out. he was truly a beautiful little/big turkey. he strutted his stuff all the way down to the decoy without much of a "fuss" as i explained to lee. Dictionary--> it didn't take him long to get his butt down to the decoy.
there we were face to face. about 13 yards separated me from that turkey. i was a nervous wreck especially since lee wasn't there for guidance on when to shoot. i had to choose myself. & it was perfect. & i screamed & yelled i did it...we did it...i'm your girlfriend and i ROCK at turkey hunting.
THE END
