Monday, September 9, 2013

Wondering about my Dad's big buck.

I come from an "outdoors" family.  They loved camping, hiking, fishing, and hunting.  All of the above gave them a great excuse to be out in the woods.  I grew up feeling the same way, although I do not hunt anymore.  When I was just a small child, I can remember the family getting together and building the camp which was later known as "Trails End".  To get to it, you had to take a wooded lane for about a mile which first went through two gates.  Our family spent lots of time there throughout the year.

What brought back great memories of this camp was a set of impressive antlers from a deer that my Dad bagged hunting from that camp.  Here is a picture of the antlers that my friend had mounted on a wall hanging plaque for me.


 This is a heavy rack and it has a lot of points.  I am not sure how many points it has because I am not sure how long a point has to be to count.  I have been told if you can hang a keyring on it, it can be counted as a point.  My Dad always only took credit for 17 points but other people have said that there is a lot more.  Either way, it is impressive to me.

I went and searched my boxes of old pictures this morning and finally came up with some original photos of the day he got this big buck.  Any of you who can not stand to look at dead animals and are vegetarians, you can stop reading here:

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For the rest of you, I scanned the old pictures.  This first one shows the buck with our camp (Trails End) in the background:

 
 
The last picture has my Dad in it, too.  I am not sure who the little boy is.  I don't believe it is me.  I think it is my cousin Bob.  I do not remember being there and I was a little older than the boy in that picture.

 
 
I really love looking at old pictures and they bring back a lot of pleasant memories.  Other than some illnesses that kept me down for awhile, I probably had the best childhood of any one.  I give thanks everyday for the family I was born into.  Now, you all have yourselves a very great Monday, you hear?

20 comments:

  1. NO you didn't,,, I did,,lolol. Never saw one hung with the head up, but it is a good one. My cousin and friends came down from Sherman to hunt one year, and hung their kills in my Dad's garage. When my Dad saw them, he told my cousin he'd get him a sandwich bag for his,,,hahahaha. Hanging there with all these big ones,,,lmao. When I got there and went out to look, cousin told me,,now, don't you laugh,,but ,, I did.

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    1. I bet the lille one tasted better. I love venison. One time in archery season a buck and a doe stepped out of the thicket. The buck had a fair rack but the doe was bigger. I firured you can't eat the horns so I shot the doe. That was in PA where at the time you could only get one deer a year.

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  2. Really enjoy the old photos, like time traveling without leaving the farm. Last weekend we cooked hot dogs with chilli made from venison, could have forgot the hot dog , would have more room for the chili.

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    1. You could have frozen the hot dogs for another day when venison chilli wasn't available. I, too, enjoy the old pictures. Wish we could all go back in time and all meet at Trails End.

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  3. Nice one.

    Dad gave most of his old photos to my lovely wife. Already we have some we can't identify and there are fewer people left to ask. Time marches on.

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    1. After my Mom died, I got all her old pictures and there is no one left now who knows who the people are in a lot of those pictures. I gues I am the one who must put names on them for those who follow me in life. I wonder if they would even be interested. . .

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  4. We love spending time with family at our hunting camp, although my one brother is really the only one who hunts anymore. My grandfather shot some really big bucks in his time and those impressive mounts are still hanging on the walls of our cabin. I myself enjoy fishing more.

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    1. That buck (and our camp) is in western Pennsylvania near Fryburg. Down here in Texas the bucks have big racks but the deer are smaller. That makes the racks seem much bigger.

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  5. butterbean carpenterSeptember 9, 2013 at 1:10 PM

    Howdy DD,

    All the real estate salespeople want to talk about, when trying to sell a piece of property in Coleman county is HOW MANY DEER AND THE HUNTING 'POTENTIAL' !!!!! They will tell you you can HUNT on a 5 acre place !!! BUT THE LAW SAYS THE BULLET CAN'T LEAVE IT !!! On my 42.3 acre mini ranch I can't shoot my bb-gun without it crossing a fence or the hiway and I have deer on it !!!

    I LOVE VENISON , any way it can be served, but unless someone is dumping 'last-years' in order to make room for this years, I don't get any.. Haven't had any for 4-5 years, now ... We lose'em by the dozens on the hiway, every year... The first year in the fourteen miles from city limits to the county-line there were 49 killed on the road !!!! What a waste !!!

    When the 'hunters' come to town during the season, you have NEVER SEEN SUCH STEAKS in the grocery store, 2" THICK and 20" long !!! They aren't there any other time of the year !!!

    Joyce heard one 'hunter' telling somebody that he had about $100K tied up in his 'hunting-rig' !!!

    Hope y'all get to go to the 'deer-camp', enjoy it, telling about all of those HAPPY DAYS, of yore !!!!

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    1. Yep, those were happy days but that was many years ago and 1300 miles away from where I live now. It is fun to find old pictures. They sure do jog the memory.

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  6. I love looking at your old photos... hope you're writing down the names and dates of all you can figure out. Someday a person will get interested in family history. By the way, I found some venison/pork sausage at the H.E.B.s in Texas.... it was really tasty.

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    1. I have hundreds of them. Some of them I have already scanned but it would take years to get them all scanned and saved electronicly. Since my Mom's passing, there is no one left to put names on the older pictures.

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  7. We really need to identify anyone we can in those old photos. Pretty soon there won't be any photos except on the computer or phone, but there is nothing like seeing an original print. To me they are priceless, and yours sure are great ones!

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    1. I even have some tintype photo prints. Now those are really old. I like to have something I can hold in my hands. I know it will not get a virus (grin). I like digital also because I can work with them and crop them to suit what I want to show.

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  8. "WAAAAAAAAAA" You tried to warn me and I didn't listen!!!

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    1. I guess I should have put the warning in BIG RED LETTERS!! Sorry about that. Thus, I must surmise that you are a vegatarian. (grin)

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    2. I just don't like to actually see food when it still has a face attached.

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  9. BTW, we have figured out that that little kid was me, and here I thought I was cuter than that. . .

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  10. I certainly enjoyed your pictures tonight.

    Nothing like looking at old pictures and being able to re-live precious moments.

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    1. MsB, I have a lot of old oitures, thanks to my Mom, and thus, I have a lot of old memories.

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