Hunting Season

Steven's favorite time of the year!

Being a city girl from Arizona and having only shot a gun at girls camp- the whole hunting thing is new for me. Steven and his Dad, brothers and brother-in-laws put their names in this drawing to get to hunt a deer every year. This year they all were drawn out and headed up to Ashley Forest behind Strawberry to bring home dinner. Steven reminded me a several times that he needed to "provide meat for his family"...

In preparation for the trip, Steven made a hammock out of a tarp and some rope (idea was from his brother-in-law Thane). He tried sleeping in it one night but froze from all the air coming up. 

Because of his really flexible schedule, Steven went from Monday morning (4am) and got home Thursday afternoon. The good news was that they shot a buck! As seen in the last picture of Tyler- with the buck. Don't worry- once you shoot something then you get to spend the next 6+ hours skinning it and taking it apart. They cut off its legs and brought it home and hung it upside down on Dad's tractor and got to work. Pulled off the hyde and cut apart all the parts. Cleaned them. And finally wrapped them in paper. 

Whew! What a day! 

Deer Hunting (Jeremy, Steven, Tyler)

 The next thing Steven went hunting for was Pheasant. He loves Pheasant hunting with his Dad, Uncle Randy and brothers (and in-laws). They got up early on Saturday, November 5th, the first day of the pheasant hunt and didn't find anything but duck! Steven brought home 4 ducks that he shot at Lanney's pond. (They are now frozen (the meat) in our freezer).
The next week, we drove by the train tracks returning Dad's truck to him when Steven saw a pheasant fly up. Excitedly, he ran into his parents house, grabbed a gun and we headed back to the tracks. I was trailing behind him doubting that the pheasant would be anywhere near there. Steven went along the high weeds and BAH! Out flew the pheasant- not a second later BAM! went Steven's gun. He shot that guy right in the head and blew his head to pieces. He took it home and skinned it and we had it for supper that night.

Pheasant hunting (new kill and dinner)

Duck Hunt- cleaning his duck

Steven also went hunting with his best buddy Spencer Ward (his trainer from his mission) and Spencer's brother and his friend Tye. They went to Farmington Bay at 4am. They rode mountain bikes hauling a bike trailer loaded with waders, decoys and guns 6 miles to a pond. They waded threw the muddy water up to their waist  to set up the decoys and get ready to blast some ducks. They hunted until 12:00 with the grand total of SEVEN DUCKS! The weather was calm so it wasn't the best duck hunting day but he had a ton of fun. Later at Cabella's Steven found some waders for just $27 and got his own pair (he borrowed Josh Rittmanic's before). On the way back the very old "hunting dog" couldn't make the run back to the car so Steven hauled the gear AND the DOG most of the way back to the car.