~~ Ninja Mission #8811 ~~ BBD ~~ Handle business at home till before lunchtime. Which including washing all hunting clothes in your Upwind Odor Elimination H-E Laundry Detergent. Double check everything and make sure you have your stuff all packed. Take a quick shower using the Upwind Hair/Body Wash. Put your clothes on that you get from the dryer. Decide .. my truck or his............MINE! Discuss what hunting locations are available and the reasons for hunting each and the reasons for not. WNW wind......I know precisely where I want to put the climber in. Past dragonfly field...go through pumpkin patch field by 5 rubs area next to the creek. Apply my Natural Camo Roll On Face Paint (naturalcamo) while on the ride to the hunting club. Trying to decide what colors to use because there are so many. So, arrive to the site, put my Upwind Odor Eliminator on the bottoms of my snake/water proof boots. Jump out of the truck to do a quick check of my area. We cut a few limbs and seeing holes. Get the climber in position. Safety check. Scatter some https://facebook/VappleProducts around the area to give off a nice vanilla scent. Then go to park the truck and potty. Parked the truck across the field 180 yards. Had to get out my trimmers to cut a hole in the weeds to potty in. LOL. Then start doing my pocket check. Range finder - check. Safety stuff - check. Release - on my arm - check. Jelly Bellys if sugar drops - check. Spray down for bugs - check. Spray down with Upwind Odor Eliminator (huntupwind coupon code:hrudd to receive a ninja discount) - BIG CHECK. Zip ties - check. Bungie Cords - check. Extra tissue paper - check. I am ready. Start walking the 180 yards to the climber and where I left my bow. The grass and weeds are so high it feels like I am running in a swimming pool. I am thinking that I hope I can climb the climber by the time I get there. I arrive and feel fine. I get into the climber and start on up that tree....slowly...taking my time. How far will lupus let me go today? One huge step, another huge step, another.....about 15 feet was the max but...I am ok with that. Secure everything in place and start the wait. Immediately start getting my first visitors...no-seeums...why do they call them that. I saw each of them. It felt like they had teeth as big as a giraffe. Each little bite felt worse than the 4 insulin shots I give myself daily. Then the mosquitos came in. Sounding like a small jet engine landing all over any open skin I have. I try to relax and just listen to the beautiful creek right in front of me. To my backside is an open field with radishes, beets, and pumpkins that are scattered every where. Lots of people didnt even know they were growing there. To my front straight ahead is the tree I am in, lol, and the mountain side. To the left and right of me (front view) I have the creek and mountain side. Now looking at all the signs I can see and have seen earlier that day visually....I was betting that the deer would come down the creekside across from me and past me on either side. I am keeping my eyes opened. Listening to the birds talking. Hearing airplanes go by. Watching the creek looking for trout. Listening to attempt to identify every single thing I am hearing at the time. ADHD starts kicking in. I look behind me and check the field out and notice a big hairy vine attached to a tree and free in the air...thinking, if I were still a kid, I would grab that thing and swing. But now knowing that HAIRY VINES on trees are BAD NEWS. Thinking about posting pictures later and warning people about touching hairy vines on trees etc....ok...back to hunting. I decide to spray some Honeysuckle spray..each time I do (3 times) I hear movement like minutes later. I am thinking in my head...if a bear is near, I will be on it because bears have 2100 times better smell than humans. But I am excited at hearing movement and just sit still like a ninja in a tree. Watching, waiting, wondering, thinking, planning..... Off to the distance I hear some mad squirrels. Not at me of course because they are too far away but it makes me pay more attention to that area. I love hunting near the creek for a little extra noise coverage but that means you need to make your eyes more opened to what you will see because as much added protection as it gives you --- it gives them too. So, it starts getting cooler and I am thinking -- I might not see anything today but I am thankful for the opportunity. I hear mad squirrels again. I look up the mountain and see movement so I focus in on it. Its a deer. Making its way towards me. I start thinking in my head....its coming. I need to prepare and go over everything in my head. The first thing.......remain calm. I see it around 45 yards away and its head was behind a tree....so I decide I need to stand up to prepare now. I stand. It doesnt even sense I am there. My bow is on the right side of the tree in my hands so I have to figure out how to ninja it to the right because if it stops in my comfy zone...and I have a clear shot............its mine. I wait until HE stops behind another tree. I up and over my bow --- making sure not to hit any part of the climber stand that will make the loudest banging pot sound ever. I am successful. He then moves to the exact location I want him in. He is looking straight ahead of him. I am not moving. Thinking all kinds of things. He looks my way....not at me..but my way. He is not alarmed at all. NO TAIL moving nothing...just being nosy. I think...if he looks up the mountain...I need to pull my bow. I am praying the whole time that he doesnt sense, hear, or see my heart beating through my clothes. He looks ahead again. Just standing there looking ahead. Then he does it. He looks up the mountain. I tell myself this is it. I make sure my sleeve on my jacket is out of the way, make sure my kisser button is in the right place, make sure my placement is correct, looking at the right pin, my arrow vanes are turned right, I look through the hole and its blurry, I look to the right outside the pin at him and close my eyes for three seconds and regain my vision and look through the pin again. I can see him perfectly. He is 20 yards away. At this point it is about 7:08 pm. The deeper woods are a little darker but it is not dark. I can see perfectly. I release and THUMP! I hit him perfectly! He jumps and starts up the mountain and decides he cant run up it...he starts going batsh*t crazy down the mountain and across the creek. I watch him run 160 yards into the field and lay down. He almost jumped in my truck for me. So, I close my eyes and say thank you God for this harvest. I then start crying soft tears. I am happy, I am nervous, I am excited, I am proud. Not proud of the 8 points or higher that he was. I am proud that I am thinking I have harvested for my family and that is my goal. I am watching in the area I saw him lay down. The whole time thinking 180 - 200 pounds. Thinking of all the meat he will be. I catch myself jumping up and down like Mia (3 year old grandbaby) when she harvest fish. I remind myself that while I am not making noise, I am in a climber stand. I then watch and he is still there. Then ... I see him stand. He walks - slowly but walks cutting a V in the field back across the field away from me. I see him lay down again. I am thinking thank you Lord. My husband John Rudd comes and of course I cant hardly breathe for replaying the whole thing to him. He heard him go through the creek and saw him run across the field. I looked at him and said I did it, it was a perfect shot of course I started crying again, thinking all the hard work that goes into hunting and preparing, I did it... I am harvesting for my family. How proud that makes me. So, we decide to stay in place for a while longer. Cant see the deer but we know where he is and he is just lying in thick grass/weeds. We walk to the edge of the field behind us and do our light to signal to our hunting buddy Cody Wheeler to come here :). Cody comes and I am telling him about the story all excited and he is telling us about all the deer he saw that day and the 10 pointer that got away. We are all so excited. So we start looking...and see nothing. We go back to the creek and spot bright pink/red blood. So we realize that I was correct and had gotten a good lung shot. We didnt find my arrow so we were feeling like it was a lung shot that then hit the bone and stayed in him. We decided since it was 8:50 pm that we should all leave and John would come back in the morning with Victoria and track him down. So........what a long night. Scared to death that we will not find my harvest. Beep ..beep ... beep.... it was very hard to wake and go to work and not go help locate my deer. On edge all am, knowing that we are completely out of signal at the hunting property and thats I will know nothing till later. John and Victoria are there at sunrise and begin looking. Victoria has never tracked a deer or anything for that matter. John said she did really well. He was proud of her. They found blood every where. Then they found one major pool and thought....he is close. Then Victoria lead John up a place and John thought, no Victoria, that deer would have never gone that way...but sure enough more blood. And there is my arrow. The blood stopped completely. Interesting enough however thats where the major bear tracks appear. The bears stole this ninjas harvest. When I found out...my stomach sunk and acid re-flux set in. I have been totally upset all day. While I understand its the circle of life....I was proud and excited to harvest and to bow harvest a big meaty buck. Forget the antlers.......it was about the meat. Bears 1 - Kristle 0 - ALL in all, I cant say Kristle 0. While disappointed, I am still proud. I am proud that I did everything I could/should/would do correctly. I am thankful for the opportunity and no I cant win them all. I keep replaying every single thing and thinking....would I have changed anything? Truth is... not one thing. I did what I have trained to do and I will do it again. I guess it does make me not care for the afternoon hunt on a Sunday as much as other times but it didnt kill my desire or passion. Its in my soul. Its me. Hunt/fish on and remain ninja strong. Too be continued..........................
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 21:11:57 +0000