This is my husband's favorite time of the year... turkey season. He enjoys it more than Christmas or his birthday. Our world comes to a complete halt every year for three weeks in April. My home is covered in camouflage: blaze orange vests, turkey decoys, turkey calls, boots of every type, guns and gun shellls. Other turkey hunters are here off and on for the duration of the hunt. Taking pictures of the guys and their birds is my priority. I also have a photo album filled with pictures and good memories covering 30 years of hunts. Tommy's friends are my friends. In fact, I consider them my band of brothers. There is always a fresh pot of coffee to be enjoyed, tall tales ramble around the room mixed with a lot of b.s. to be shared equally with mud. Laughter, jokes and endless teasing flows like chocolate melting on an ice cream cone; messy but very enjoyable. We laugh a lot and often.
Tommy shot his turkey this morning about 9 a.m. It weighed 22 pounds had 1 inch spurs and an 8 1/2 inch beard. He has two more weeks to hunt and get another bird. So the house remains a combat zone for awhile. And that is ok with me. We lead laid back lives since we have retired. Our home is not a show case, it is lived in and homey. We are here some days 24-7; we have learned to be flexible and enjoy the mess.
Today was a good day. I only hope Tommy doesn't start hinting for me to turkey hunt....so he can go again--and again and again. I am no hunter. Tommy wants me to hunt with him so much, but I guarantee if I had been along today---he would not have gotten his bird. We have tried this before and it never works.
The first time Tommy took me turkey hunting was a perfect morning. We had already scouted the area. We knew there were turkeys in the woods. I had practiced shooting and I was dead on. I enjoy shooting guns. I have a Mossberg 20 gauge and she is sweet... except for the time she nearly broke my arm!!! I practiced standing up to shoot. Bang!!! I was in the red circle. We did this quite a few times. Then Tommy decides that I need to sit down and try to shoot. Well, I am feeling a little invincible and cocky right about now and I put the gun up to shoot and didn't anchor it like I did when I was standing. I fired the gun and screamed!! I was sure I had broken my arm !!!! I sounded like I had broken my arm. Throwing the gun across the yard, I started rolling around on the ground, cussing and crying like a little girl. Tommy was laughing hard while trying to see if my arm was broken. I couldn't move it. I didn't particularly want Tommy to touch me, since he ran to pick up the gun first!!!! My arm wasn't broken but I had a bruise that covered my upper arm and it hurt like a mama dog for weeks.
When it came my turn to hunt, I was sore but I knew I could fire a gun if I saw a turkey. We went into the woods before daylight..... we would be there when the turkeys flew down off the roost and started to eat and mate. I had already made up my mind I was not going to shoot if they were mating. That is just wrong...to me.
Tommy set me up in a blind so I could move a little bit. I can't be still at all and turkeys have great eyesight. Unfortunately, he sat my blind up on a pile of leaves. And I have a wonderful imagination. I kept wondering what I was sitting on---a snake, spider, ants, and or ticks. I scooted and squirmed as quietly as I could until I got to earth. Tommy told me to be quiet 3 times. I thought that was pretty good for the pile of leaves I had to move around.
Daylight breaks, the turkeys begin gobbling all around us. They flew down off the roost, everything became exciting. I had a big boy coming my way. I was ready, then another comes. We have a hen decoy set up about 20 yards from me. They are coming to her. I get my gun ready and I hear Tommy say "not yet". The bird comes in a little closer and he still says' not yet.' When he finally tells me to shoot ----I MISS--twice. Tommy threw a hail Mary at the second bird- and missed so I didn't feel so bad until I started talking to Tommy. He couldn't believe I had missed my bird. I casually mentioned that he missed his bird and he came unglued. Saying "I only threw up a shot because you shot". I am thinking, "Well bud ya missed.." I was ready to go home---but that was not the plan. I was going to shoot a turkey or we weren't going home. That is when I decided I didn't want to play anymore.
Tommy informed me that we would have to do it the "hard way now" I knew that fact was not going be good for me! We started walking, and we walked and we walked.
We came to a thicket of briers. He marches in like we are going to war. I am getting all scratched up, seriously thinking about deserting this war. I was about to say "Let's go home", when a rabbit jumps up between my legs!!!!! It scared the crap out of me!!!! In my mind, that rabbit was a ten foot snake. I scream-- and scream loud!! Tommy flips around and wants to know what is wrong--- I told him about the rabbit. I can hear him now," You did all the screaming over a rabbit???" I fired back at him, " I didn't know it was a rabbit at the time. I thought it was a snake! And besides it jumped up between my legs---what was I supposed to do?". Apparently, I did the worst thing possible on a hunting trip--beside scream and that is laugh! I got tickled. I laughed and I laughed and then I laughed and cried together, like I do when I am about to loose it. Nothing quiet was going on in my corner of the world and I did not care. I was hot, tired, lost and seeing things that were not there. I needed to go home and I needed an air conditioner!
Tommy could find nothing humorous about this whole morning. He was mad and he was going to walk my wazoo of... AND he did!! We went through places where even that rabbit could not have gone. He said he was taking me back to the truck, but I knew better. We walked at least 2 miles away from the truck before we started back toward the truck. For a brief time we were walking through an old slave graveyard!! I was exhausted, the gun felt like it weighed a 100 pounds by the time we reached the truck. I was thirsty and hot and ticked off...plus I was turkeyless!!
It was a quiet trip home until Tommy started talking about our "adventure" and he started laughing. I wasn't nearly as amused, since I felt like I was half dead and part of me wanted to shoot him!. However, I got in a better mood. He stopped and bought us a six pack of Miller Light and I drank 3 beers before we got home. I was in a much better mood, but I wasn't about to go turkey hunting the next morning,or the next morning--no matter what!!! And I didn't:)
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