Chicken Fingers

The company I work for shuts down the last week of December every year. So in 2008 I decided to do something a little different. I had been talking to a buddy of mine about going to his place near Breckenridge, Texas to do a little hunting. Since my wife had to work, I loaded some gear and my two youngest, Zachary and Olivia, and off we went.

The first evening we hung around town with my friend Billy. It was the kids first time to meet him and immediately they took to him. And he, being a big ol' kid himself, seemed to enjoy having them around. After spending the night at his house in town we headed out the next morning to his place to look it over. We rode around and the kids had a lot of fun. Billy has a camper trailer on his place and we decided to stay in that the second night so I could get up early and do some bow hunting.

When I woke the next morning, it was obvious how cold it was. I then noticed how much company I had tight against me under the covers. Seems I wasn't the only one who realized the temperature dropped. Since spending time with my kids was top of my list, I decided to hang with them. We play some video games, picked on each other and just had a great time being lazy and warm.

Once we got up and moving we decided to make a run into town for an early lunch. As I drove by Billy's I noticed he was home. I decided to give him a shout and see if he wanted to join us for lunch. He had a job to do though and suggested we ride along with him. He repairs phone lines and had to check the lines at a large ranch near Albany. Since we were in no hurry to get anywhere, we decided to tag along. And the day just kept getting better.

After checking the lines and finding the problem, Billy called the ranch foreman to let him know. The foreman told Billy to come to the dinning hall where he was eating lunch. As we entered the hall I noticed the two men sitting at one of the tables. The one with his back to me had a long ponytail ad I immediately knew who was sitting there. As we approached the table the foreman introduced us to Ted Nugent. Turns out his camera man had come down ill so he was in the dinning hall instead of out hunting for his show. You might think most 9 and 10 year olds wouldn't know much about him but since my two watch hunting shows with me, they knew who Uncle Ted was. We sat down and the cook brought out some lunch for the kids. Yep, they had chicken fingers with Ted Nugent. Ok, maybe not "with" him but at the table next to him. This is the part where I tell you about my terrible decision to leave my camera in my truck back at Billy's. So all we were able to get was a few grainy cell phone pics.

We left the ranch and headed back to Billy's to get my truck. The kids yapped the whole way about meeting Ted. Ok, maybe their dad did too. I'm not one to put alot into "celebrities" but it was cool the way the day unfolded. And believe it or not, it just went up from there. I decided to head back out to Billys ranch and try an evening hunt. Since we had to head home the next day I was going to make the most of it.

I got in the stand a few hours before dark. Billy had a tripod set up on a feeder atop a hill and I decided that was my spot for the afternoon. Sitting there in the calm silence I thought about how the past few days had went. I watched some quail scurry through the brush. And a hawk soar around a few times. Then there they were. It amazed me how those three does got so close without me noticing. The two smaller ones went right to eating. But that third one was a little more cautious. After she had mad her third pass in front of me I couldn't stand it any longer. I drew back my bow and settled my top pin on her. Or did I? She was only 12 yards away from me and I still am unsure how I got that shot off. But I did and the arrow found it's mark. She bolted and then stopped about 25 yards away. She stood there a few minutes (an eternity to me) then collapsed.

As I sat there in that tripod, I began to shake. Yes it was cooling down fast as the sun begin to set. But my shaking was from much more than that. I had just done something I had never done before. I had just took my very first animal with a bow !! The whole day seemed surreal. Of all the people to meet that day, I ran into to Ted Nugent on a private ranch in central Texas. I spent some time with a dear friend. I made my first bow kill. And I did it all with my two youngest tagging along !!

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