Ellie’s First Deer
Earlier this year Ellie expressed interest in going hunting with her Dad. It seemed like quite a task to me thinking the next step would be to find a hunter’s safety class, practice shooting and then get a license in the fall. I didn’t realize that in South Dakota, you can get a mentoring hunting license. So when the application dates opened up in May, Brian got Ellie a license. It sat unopened on his desk for months, just waiting for her interests to peek again.
And it did. As the weather turned in the beginning of October, Ellie asked about being able to go hunting again. This meant getting a riffle that fit her, and possibly Jackson as well, and then getting it sighted in. Turns out she is a pretty good shot. Just ask her about BB-gunning with Grandpa Doug.
With a fresh skiff of snow, colder temps and rifle season looming in a few days, they prepared to go out the last weekend in October. In good fashion they started well before sunrise. It wasn’t until they returned that I got to see all of the awe they took in that morning as they came up on a rather large heard of elk migrating over the hills. And here we thought they didn’t exist in the Black Hills.
With out seeing much other than a few deer from the side of the road and a couple road side pee-ers, they came home to eat lunch and warm up before going back out that afternoon without any luck before dark. They thought that they hiked about 5 miles that day.
They went out again after Sunday brunch. The weather seemed a bit colder with the breeze that day but it was the last day to try before rifle season started for the month of November, which meant they would have to wait until December to try again.
As the sun was setting at home, I got a call from Brian to let me know that she had downed a deer and that they had to go track it. He wanted to make sure I didn’t get worried because they wouldn’t be back until well after dark.
The smile on their faces were priceless. To have shared that moment in time was pure joy for Brian. You could tell that Ellie felt accomplished. She was most excited to make it all into jerky.
