Why lookey there . . .what is that in our yard???

Just in case you didn't know this . . .I am married to a hunter. He was a hunter when I met him . . .and he is still a hunter 29 or 30 years later!! His family has a farm that is about an hour and a half away and he has spent many Friday nights and Saturdays at that farm.  (funny true story - he arrived to take me on a date . . .and we had not been dating long . . .and his car smelled HORRIBLE.  I couldn't imagine what the smell could be.  He told me that it was SKUNK (yes, I did indeed say SKUNK) scent . . and they had to use skunk scent to mask the human smell.  Thank goodness, they don't do that anymore - now they have clothes with charcoal in them that has to be heat activated in order to remove the human smell!!  I was so in love that I overlooked that skunk scent.  I fell head over heels for him!!  I remember telling my step-mom about how he went hunting every weekend and she said, "at least he is not out in some bar somewhere!!"  Perspective!!  (wonder if she remembers telling me that!!)


Back to the present . . .Mark went hunting during one of the first weekends of December. I was here alone and was cooking and messing around in the kitchen. I was standing at the kitchen sink and looked out the window and there was a deer in the yard. My immediate thought was that Jance (our next door neighbor - also a hunter) had put a target deer out there and was shooting at it. I even thought to myself, "surely he would not be shooting toward our house." About that time, she moved.


I realized that she was R.E.A.L. and in our yard. We live in the middle of a neighborhood and we are surrounded by other neighborhoods. When we moved here, that was not the case. There were woods all around us. There are still some woods behind us - but you have to go through two yards and cross a major road.


I thought to myself, "oh my gosh. I've got to take a picture and I need the camera." I wasn't sure my I-phone would be good enough. I ran through the house and grabbed the camera and then ran out onto the deck - in my pajamas with my hair sticking out all over my heard (and I didn't care!) I snapped several pictures but by then she was in our backyard neighbor's yard. I have blown up the picture so you can see her so the picture quality is not very good. The whole time I was thinking, "I can't believe that Mark has driven an hour and 45 minutes to kill a deer and there is one in our yard."


I was so excited to show the picture to him that night and I said something about "he" and "little." Mark said "he" is a "she" and "she" is a "big" deer.


It was so exciting to see "her" in our yard!!