Yes, it is, but sadly I haven’t been able to do much hunting yet.  Well, I take that back.  We went to Christian County, Kentucky over Labor Day weekend and hunted for three days straight, but all I have to show for it are a few pictures of a spotted fawn from the stand.  None of us even saw a buck worth shooting.  The “outfitter” was a joke.  It was more like you paid him $800 for the privilege of sharing hunting camp with him and his buddies.  We were told we could expect to see 18-20 deer per day.  I didn’t see 20 the entire time I was there.  We had mice in our bedroom (caught three of the little vermin in traps), and one even tried to make a meal out of Michael’s thumb while he was sleeping.  Oh well, lesson learned.  We need to do more research before we buy another hunt at the RMEF auction.

While I haven’t been hunting much, I have been training hard for the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day.  I’m running 20 miles per week now, and I’ve even made it to they gym for all of my workouts for the past two weeks.  Getting up at 5 AM to go run is tough, but until this heat breaks, that’s the only time I can run without suffering from heat exhaustion.  Ever gotten chills while running when it’s 95 degrees?  Yeah, it’s not a good feeling.

The running is coming along nicely though.  This morning I ran 7 miles in just a little over an hour.  My goal is to do the Atlanta half in less than two hours.  I’m currently managing about a 10 minute/mile pace on my longer runs, and I’ve got to get that down to 9:06/mile by November.

Whether I’m running or hunting, I really enjoy being outside as the dawn begins to break and the world comes alive.  It’s always so quiet and peaceful just before the sun comes up over the horizon.  It’s a wonder

ful opportunity to see a “mini version” of God’s Creation.  First the light, and as the light begins to grow, you can see the sky before you can see the ground.  Then a few minutes later the ground comes into view, and before long you can make out individual trees and other

plants.  The sun finally peeks over the horizon, bathing everything in its warm (or at this time of year, hot) glow.  Not long after that the woods come alive with the sounds of birds chirping and flitting from branch to branch.  The leaves rustle as squirrels begin to search for food, and then your heart skips a beat when you hear the unmistakable heavier footfalls of the deer moving through the forest.  With any luck, the deer will come into archery range, and as I draw my bow I’m reminded that God made us stewards of all the earth, and that he gave us bountiful game for food, and with a silent prayer, the arrow is on its way.

So yesterday after I ate the leftovers from my Mellow Mushroom calzone for dinner, I started getting my bowhunting gear out to do a little backyard practice from the treestand.  Well, no sooner had I started getting my gear together than it started to rain.  I was mumbling something about not getting to practice since it was raining when Courtney said, “Wouldn’t you hunt in the rain?”

“Umm…yeah, if it’s not lightning.”

“Then don’t you need to practice in it?  You’re not made out of sugar, so you won’t melt.”

By golly she was right.  If we hunters are going to hunt in adverse conditions, we need to practice in those conditions.  When it’s raining, you get wet…your clothes get wet…your bow gets wet…your stand gets wet…your peep sight gets water in it.  All these things conspire together to make shooting arrows in the rain nothing at all like shooting arrows on a bright, sunny day.  Not practicing in adverse conditions can lead to missed shots, or worse, wounded animals that aren’t recovered.

So I grabbed my rain jacket, put it on over my Muddy Outdoors safety harness, and went outside.  As soon as I got to the tree and clipped my bow to the rope attached to my stand, it started raining a little harder.  By the time I had climbed into the tree and clipped in, it was raining harder still, but I wasn’t going to let a little rain stop me from practicing.  I managed to get two broadhead-tipped arrows into the 3-D target before I heard the first rumble of thunder.  NOW it was time to stop practicing!

I snapped a few quick pics of the results of my abbreviated practice session.  The first shot was right on the money (don’t pay attention to the markings on the target insert.  It’s in backwards for the direction from which I’m shooting…besides, whoever put those markings on there needs a lesson in deer anatomy).  The second was a little forward, but probably still would have missed the leg bone.  Either one is a lethal shot.

As you can see, the broadheads penetrated all the way through the target.  While we want that on our deer, we don’t want that on our targets.  This is not optimal.  These were the first broadheads I’ve shot into this target, so it’s not even worn out yet.  It’s had maybe a dozen field points shot into it.  Broadhead-tipped arrows will probably zip right through it in just a few weeks.  This is the Field Logic GlenDel Buck target, in case you’re wondering.

I’ll be practicing (hopefully every day) almost exclusively from the treestand in my backyard from now until the week before the season starts.  Then I’ll have to take my stand down to go hang it in my opening morning spot!

This morning I ran 2 miles at an 11:35 pace.  I’m currently training for a half marathon in Atlanta on Thanksgiving Day.  It sure will be nice to run in some cool weather then!  This humidity is killing me.  Even when it’s not incredibly hot outside (so basically any time between 2 AM and 8 AM), the humidity is still oppressive.  Tomorrow morning will be a full-body gym workout, and then I’ll run 5 more miles on Thursday.

As hunters, we owe a lot to the animals we pursue.  Hunting is a very important part of conservation.  Without hunting, many species of animals would quickly overpopulate and put a tremendous strain on the environment.  One only needs to look at the impact of the wolf re-introduction in the Northern Rocky Mountains on the elk herds of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to see what happens when a wildlife population goes unchecked.  Anyway, I digress…

All hunters have the ultimate goal of killing the animal they’re pursuing as quickly and humanely as possible.  For the archer this means having a razor-sharp broadhead, a perfectly-tuned bow, and accurate shot placement.  When these three things come together, the end result is an arrow that completely passes through the vital organs of the animal, and when the hunter finds the arrow on the forest floor, it is covered in blood from broadhead to fletching…a crimson arrow.

Now, I know what you’re thinking:  “Wouldn’t that be a crimson arrow of death?”  Well, yes…and no.   To me there is much that can be learned about life through hunting and the outdoors.   Life lessons about the value of hard work, patience, and persistence are all found in God’s great outdoors.   My favorite lessons, though, are the ones during which God reveals himself to me, whether it’s the sounds of the woods coming alive in the morning, the beauty of a glorious sunset, or something in between.  Hopefully I’ll be able to adequately describe those experiences in my writing.

At any rate, I’m going to have fun trying.