The Baron of Bufflehead
05-08-2006, 04:04 PM
Well, Saturday was the big day I was holding out for. Both my nieces (7 and 9) really wanted to go turkey hunting with Uncle Rob. I mean really... who could say no to that?
After a narrow escape from a new spill job that came in Saturday, I was able to keep the date. We hit the woods around 4pm, just after a light rain had stopped. I had set up two portable blinds, only about 10ft. apart just off the edge of a small green field. We had quite a crew - my nieces in the "shooting blind" with my wife and my brother in-law (nieces Dad) in the "spectator's blind".
It was an excited walk in with the girls and they thought the blinds were cool. I put out a hen decoy, got everyone situated (a task in itself) and settled in. I had been so rushed, that I hadn't really thought about what we were doing until my butt hit the chair. Then as I looked at the nice green grass, hen decoy and beautiful woods around me I thought "this is great - we're turkey hunting"
Let's just say that feeling lasted about 37 seconds.:rf:
I learned a lot this day. I learned that the attention span of a 7 year old / 9 year old girl for sitting still/not talking can only be measured in nano-seconds. Wow - they never even talk that much at home, why do they do it in the turkey woods? Oh, right - no TV to mezmorize them.:NW:
I quickly acepted we were not actually here hunting, we were here to entertain two very special girls and have some fun learning about the turkey woods. They asked all kinds of great questions. Like the classic "if a turkey were to get into the tent with us, would it kill us?". As tempting as it was, I decided to go with truthful answers. :LAF: Both girls wanted to call a turkey, so they squeeked and squaked on a box call / slate call far too much. After an hour of "fun", they couldn't sit still any longer and had started little mini-missions out of the blind to sneak up on my wife/their Dad in the other blind, look at trees with the binolculars, etc. So, I suggested a little walk and they jumped at the chance (literally). We went for a walk. And wouldn't you know it, my wife and brother-in-law saw a jake (I think - they said black bird, white head, no visible beard) in the field, in the 10 minutes we were gone. But, when they tried to unzip the tent for a picture, they got to see how fast a turkey can run. They were impressed.
After a total of about 2 hours, I figured we'd better wrap it up so the girls don't actually start to hate the woods. It was a fun afternoon. And I quote my oldest niece... "turkey hunting is fun, but boring". huh.:hs:
Anyway, I highly recommend a non-serious hunt with such endearing company.:cool:
Here are the girls and I heading out on our little side trip. As you can see, both girls are wearing "earth colored clothing" as I had suggested to their Mom.:MS:
After a narrow escape from a new spill job that came in Saturday, I was able to keep the date. We hit the woods around 4pm, just after a light rain had stopped. I had set up two portable blinds, only about 10ft. apart just off the edge of a small green field. We had quite a crew - my nieces in the "shooting blind" with my wife and my brother in-law (nieces Dad) in the "spectator's blind".
It was an excited walk in with the girls and they thought the blinds were cool. I put out a hen decoy, got everyone situated (a task in itself) and settled in. I had been so rushed, that I hadn't really thought about what we were doing until my butt hit the chair. Then as I looked at the nice green grass, hen decoy and beautiful woods around me I thought "this is great - we're turkey hunting"
Let's just say that feeling lasted about 37 seconds.:rf:
I learned a lot this day. I learned that the attention span of a 7 year old / 9 year old girl for sitting still/not talking can only be measured in nano-seconds. Wow - they never even talk that much at home, why do they do it in the turkey woods? Oh, right - no TV to mezmorize them.:NW:
I quickly acepted we were not actually here hunting, we were here to entertain two very special girls and have some fun learning about the turkey woods. They asked all kinds of great questions. Like the classic "if a turkey were to get into the tent with us, would it kill us?". As tempting as it was, I decided to go with truthful answers. :LAF: Both girls wanted to call a turkey, so they squeeked and squaked on a box call / slate call far too much. After an hour of "fun", they couldn't sit still any longer and had started little mini-missions out of the blind to sneak up on my wife/their Dad in the other blind, look at trees with the binolculars, etc. So, I suggested a little walk and they jumped at the chance (literally). We went for a walk. And wouldn't you know it, my wife and brother-in-law saw a jake (I think - they said black bird, white head, no visible beard) in the field, in the 10 minutes we were gone. But, when they tried to unzip the tent for a picture, they got to see how fast a turkey can run. They were impressed.
After a total of about 2 hours, I figured we'd better wrap it up so the girls don't actually start to hate the woods. It was a fun afternoon. And I quote my oldest niece... "turkey hunting is fun, but boring". huh.:hs:
Anyway, I highly recommend a non-serious hunt with such endearing company.:cool:
Here are the girls and I heading out on our little side trip. As you can see, both girls are wearing "earth colored clothing" as I had suggested to their Mom.:MS: