drdi

I was born and raised a city girl. Married a farm boy and moved to a farm. Somewhere along year number 7 of our marriage, he talked me into going hunting with him. We are now on year number 18 of our marriage and I spend as much or sometimes more time in the woods hunting then he does. There are so many funny stories to recall. Here is a classic from my early turkey hunting years. I wrote this up to send to family forour annual Christmas letter. Kind of long, but I smile every time I think of it.

The first Saturday of the 2002 spring wild turkey season, Mike and I got permission to hunt a small woodlot across the road from our farm. I had been scouting the property all spring and the turkeys normally roost on or next to this parcel of land. We got out to the woods before first light and we set up separately on opposite sides of the woodlot. We have two-way radios so we can keep in touch.

First light and the turkeys start gobbling, not too far, but not very close either. We don't have permission to hunt the next property over so we decide to stay put and see what comes our way as the morning goes along. I caught a quick glimpse of a turkey about 6:30a.m., but I couldn’t tell if it was male or female and it left as quietly as it appeared. We call periodically. No turkeys are gobbling close by and so in between our intermittent calling, we sit and wait.

About 7:30-8a.m., I REALLY have to pee. So seeing as nothing is really happening, I get up to take care of business.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the woodlot, Mike spies a turkey walking in my direction. It's in some heavy brush in front of him so he can't see what sex it is, but close enough he can't risk moving or talking to me on the radio without spooking the bird. He decides to wait until he is sure it has left, and then will radio me that it is heading my way.

Back on my side, I am happily peeing when I look up and here comes this bright white head a-bobbin' through the woods directly toward me. Dang! First time I have called in a turkey all morning and it comes in silent and when I have my pants down. Oh, and it's right about this moment that Mike gets on the radio and says, "There's a turkey heading your way.". NO KIDDING!!!!! So I decide to see what I can do with this situation. I wait for the turkey to move behind a tree. Keep in mind it's walking at a nice steady pace. First tree.....I pull up my pants. Second tree......I sit down on the ground. Third tree.....I reach for my gun. Fourth tree......I shoulder my gun. By this time, I can see it is a Jake and I am in such an awkward position that I do not feel comfortable taking a shot so I just sit there and enjoy the show. He gets to within 10 yards or so, cocks his head at this strange stump sitting in the middle of the woods, and slowly saunters off.

Now by this time, I am nearly hysterical with laughter. I wait until the turkey is gone and try to call Mike on the radio to tell him what was going on. But I am laughing so hard that the only thing my husband can understand in my garbled message is something about having my pants down. He makes some wisecrack asking me if I was bored or something. I do finally get the message to him and hear him laughing just as hard. So that was my first memorable moment of the morning.

Shortly after all this happened, Mike decided to go back to the house to do some errands. I stayed in the woods, set up in a new location and did some clucks and yelps every fifteen minutes. About 10 a.m., a Jake came in silently to my set up and I shot him at about 25-30 yards. My first bird that I called in all by myself.