Cabin Day Three

Though the hunters were back at it around 5 a.m. on day three, we still at the cabin collectively awoke at the much more reasonable hour of  7 a.m. Since Gabby had completed her hunt, she stayed behind to continue the guitar lessons, while Graysen and Brennen joined the bean field crew at the timber's edge. We ended up scrapping our breakfast plans, and awaited the arrival of noodles at noon. Hooray for noodles!!







Before the morning was through, my brother shot his first deer, too! Caelan had a "monster" in her sights, but got to shaking so badly in excitement that she missed. Her reload popped out of the gun, so the big guy got away. Though she was surely disappointed, the skinning crew already had TWO deer to take care of that morning. My brother took baby M out to see how things were coming along (okay, really he was letting mama have a few hours to catch up on her sleep between feedings :) I'm told my cousin A came out to help with the deer processing . . . in his church clothes. He was still wearing them later in the day, so he must have been successful in keeping himself clean during what I would think is a very messy task!

Throughout the morning, my determined young nephew was "hunting deer" too. He set a trap--which something broke all apart--he had his hunting gear set up in the tent, and demonstrated his smart packing skills by emptying the contents of his backpack in the living room. "I have this game in case I get bored," he said, amazing me by unloading a game we'd brought with about a hundred tiny pieces, lol! (Caelan counted when we got home and astonishingly, given all the locations this multi-pieced game was played, we made it home with ALL the pieces, including the tiny single block I found when sweeping beneath the upstairs couches on cleaning day :) My nephew also had to make some tough choices in what he could bring along on his hunt . . . a pile of underwear appeared on the edge of the couch. "I have some, but I won't need this many." I had to laugh. I told him, "You sound like your Uncle Buck. We were packing in our room at home, and he said, 'Okay, I've got everything.' I looked over his piles and said, 'Well, you might want to bring some underpants.'" Haha :)

For hours, my nephew stalked the perimeter of the cabin with a big stick and a switch blade comb from my boys. He said he saw deer prints and lots of other sign that the deer were nearby. And when the hunting crew returned from the farm, he and his sister naturally assumed they were meant to be in the hunting picture as well (where is my crying laughing face emoji on this keyboard? :)








Next year, B will be old enough to officially join the hunt. Whew! I better start saving up for all those tags now ;) I'm told our boys were extra good at spotting deer, sometimes in their excitement, deer that weren't even there! That's okay though, the ones that were grazing around are in a dire situation next year, for sure :)

So, you can see that our family likes noodles by the picture of Aunt C's roaster full of them below. Wow, noodles! And would you believe there was only enough left for four people to have lunch off of them the next day?

I can't remember if it was lunch or dinner on this day, but I got an hour-long lesson on chicken tending from my 9-year-old cousin. That girl knows her stuff! I confirmed several questions I had about things I'd learned from other people, and she gave me great tips on things I hadn't realized. Chickens don't like to get wet, so fill their water dish outside of their coop. Don't let too many eggs pile up or the chickens get mad. They need pea gravel to help them digest their food. Make sure you don't wash the eggs 'til you are ready to use them, and then give the egg shells back to the chickens to build up strong shells for the next round of eggs. I tell you what, that girl could write a book! Chicken Talk with Mags--I bet she could even guest lecture in a library or something (she's been homeschooling the past couple years and seems to be thriving at it! We've never had so much conversation before, and she'd repeatedly say, "Well, the thing is . . ." and then off she'd go on another chicken instruction. It was great! :)



That afternoon and evening the cabin filled with even more family! My cousin K brought her daughter (the boys weren't feeling good). My chicken tutor's mom and baby brother also swelled our ranks. It was fun to see my brother and my cousin with their sons, born just two months apart, and speculate on the stories they will have to tell in the future. I heard some new ones of their dads' adventures . . . how did they survive? ;) But, I think it's neat that pretty much everyone from the first round was finished with their family expansions. This meant baby M was to be without cousins his own age--unheard of in our matching age generations current and past. But, along came a little surprise, and now the boys each have a buddy to enjoy at family reunions for years to come!




There was lots of time for holding babies that day, one of my favorite things :) Brennen and my niece spent much of their time singing worship songs together with the guitar in the loft above
our heads. They both have very nice voices!

And wouldn't you know it, after my nephew headed for home . . . two deer appeared right on his hunting grounds! I think they must have felt safe because the great blonde hunter was no longer on their trail. They walked right into the open and looked all around. Good thing the *traps* were taken down earlier in the day or Mr. L would have had to come right back and take care of his prey! :)




Buck took the boys and Caelan back out for one more round of hunting. Caelan decided if she didn't get a deer, she was NOT getting up again at 4:30 a.m. to give it another try the next morning :) It worked out fine that last year she got a deer and the other two did not ... this year the other two got a deer and she did not. But she'll have to keep a look out for the guy in orange below. It won't be long 'til he's competing for venison too :)