The Stories of Hunting Year
------David,Lee,Lyle, & David Yarborough or "KIWI"
Well, Hunting Season "1999" was a little different then those of the past few years. For one thing David (the Deer Slayer) Brown actually shot a Buck worthy of the pole. This was a great accomplishment all by itself. I needed a little more assistance then in past years. So I brought the eldest son, David, to be the camp goffer for the period. He did marvelously well, got to go for this and that all week.
Prior to this however, we need to start at the real beginning. The Consolidated Turkey Shoot that happens each year, is a special occassion where 5 of the hunting camps of the "U.P." get together for fun and a little shooting competition. It was the (Mackie) McDonald Camp that had the honors of running the annual zero and competition this year. They chose this year to have only four targets for accuracy and of course one turkey for overall point winner. Not a great turn out but we did have around 20 shooters of varying abilty. As usual the wolf tickets (alibyes, self back patting ect.) were being sold by all those who figured they would be the top shooter of the day. There were many a fine weapon on the shelf that day. At the end maybe some of them should have stayed right there on the shelf too.
As the dust settled from the riggers of stress and competion there is always Good News and of course Bad News. Well, for us at the Carrot Patch Estates, the Goods News was we took four of the five turkeys. The Bad News for us was, David (The deer slayer) Brown took them all. Nice shooting Dogger.
This year was the Carrot Patch Estates turn for the mid weekend feed. Where all the camps come to share their stories of success and near misses. Our stories of success were adequate as we had deer on the pole thanks to Dogger, and his outstanding success during bow season. Then there was the David (kiwi) stories that left everyone wondering just how he managed to do all he said had happened and yet have NO deer on the pole. We all figured of course it must have just been Buck Fever that bit him in the ass and let it go at that, but you NEVER know about them New Zealanders.
All the food was outstanding and Paul even brought us some Ostrich soup he had made up. Man was that ever tasty. Thanks Paul! Couldn't seem to find the deer jerky that was suppose to be there, probably got eaten to fast. Due to the new road into camp even Fruggy found his way to camp. It was great to see him and all our friends enjoying the evening.
After which it was time for me to say good bye and get ready for the flight back home. More missions awaited me. Thanks to all my deer friends that made this years trip possible. With out you none of this would have been able to happen. Thanks!
See you all again next year. God willing.
Well, folks. Hunting Season 2000 was a bust for Lee. New drug trials and poor logistics kept Lee from enjoying another deer season in the U.P. Which did cause some withdrawl pains for him. All things considered we gave way to the inevitable facts that some things just need prioritizing and those things we did accomplish. We did get a chance, however, to take a trip to Michigan in 2000 if only for a short while. Had to visit my chums Dave, Rachael, Lyle, Margaret and the rest of the crew. Then it was home again and back to the business at hand. Hoping for a better 2001 season.
