Outdoors

19 Nov | 2012

Froggie Goes Hunting

A couple of weeks ago, I had a special visit by Mandy, Amy Lynn, and Callie. It was a lot of fun to get to see them. The girls are so into hunting it’s a lot of fun. They had to pet Cody’s mounted ram and Callie correctly identified the deer on my iPad as a Buck (rather than simply calling it a deer.)

As it turned out, Amy Lynn left her stuffed Frog. I sent it with Cody to the deer lease in case we met up with them. I strapped it into the seatbelt so that it wouldn’t fall on his filthy floor.

It was a funny sight, so later on, at the deer lease, I decided I should get a picture. Cody decided to dress it up.

This gave me the idea to tell a story for the girls of the Frog’s visit with us and it’s trip hunting. So, Cody, Froggie, and I drove over to the lease to hunt.

We hunted at the stand we call the 7 mile hike- it’s a long walk. So I carried Froggie.

And we followed Cody:

Froggie enjoyed looking out the windows at the feeders. He had to be super quiet though.

Cody even let Froggie look through the binoculars.

Unfortunately, Froggie didn’t get to see anything but a few birds.

And, Cody and I could only marvel at the things we’ll do for kids. . . .

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17 Nov | 2012

It takes a Lot of People

It takes a lot of people to watch one guy dig in the mud to fix a water link. Don’t tell them, but it’s really about friendship and solidarity. While Lee earned the respect of everyone else for being the grunt man, most of the other guys at the lease stood around, and talked. None of them went hunting while someone else was working and couldn’t go hunting themselves. Often times, I think they jsut tolerate my snap happy hanging around, but it’s fun to get pictures of the action that goes on at the deer lease.

Of course, my social butterfly husband was totally in his element.

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16 Nov | 2012

The Graceful Naked Lady

There is this tree at my deer stand that I love. It used to be the most graceful standing tree I’ve ever seen- well, I suppose you have to have imagination to see it though.

It’s technically a pretty crooked messed up tree- but to me, even though we’ve lost the top of it over the years, it’s graceful lady. Cody and I affectionately refer to the tree as the naked lady tree.
I always find myself staring at her from the deer blind and I almost always take a picture of her. She stands there with her long legs gracefully supporting her as she arches her back and raises her arms.
Well, she lost her arms over a year ago. Cody and I mourned the loss. And in some ways she’s looking much worse for the wear. But she’s still gracefully standing.
The other day I was watching Cody as he did some work around the feeder. I looked up and there she was right beside me- my companion for all these years. I realized I don’t think I’ve ever taken the time to explore a camera angle besides the usual one from the deer blind.

Of course, she’s not doing well these days since she lost her arms. I will surely miss her when she falls from grace.

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11 Oct | 2011

It’s Deer Season

Well, it’s bow season at least. Cody’s hunted one morning for the past two weekends. He’s kinda hoping that he see’s this guy.

But of course, you can’t eat the horns.

Of course, for Cody. . . the socialite that he is. . . it means a chance to talk and hang out with every one on the lease.

And more of me waiting on him to quit talking. . .

and talking. . .

So we can get some work done. We added a couple bags of corn to the feeders and checked the cards opening weekend.

The game camera captured this one.

We love our game cameras- they capture so many things- like this little guy (or gal)

Cody was not feeling the camera thing- trust me, I didn’t even try to capture a shot of us kissing using the game cameras. . . (See this moment here when I busted him the last time.)

He wouldn’t give me a chance to get the sunglare figured out. . . Should have posted the one with the glare right over his nose that makes him look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. . .

Of course, I’m not sure I can totally blame him. . . he did have a little bit of other work to do- but not too much.

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17 Nov | 2010

Weird Things I Wonder: Deer Season Edition, Part 2

Buck or Bull

Here’s another weird thing I wonder: Why is a male whitetail referred to as a buck but a male elk is a bull? A female whitetail a doe but a female elk a cow? I’ve stopped to think about this on a number of occasions including the other morning when we had Sunday hunting shows on.

Cody and even had a conversation about it- he added- why is a baby whitetail referred to as a fawn and a baby elk a calf? Yes, I guess you could say we wasted minutes of our life talking about this stupid difference.

I mean, come on, their all variations of deer- and you find the variation in terms in more than just whitetail and elk- but for the sake of keeping this simple, I’m just using those examples. Really, what’s the difference? It’s not we ranch elk. . . at least not anymore than folks raise a herd of whitetail. . . (and don’t get me started on all that. . .). So why do elk get the cattle terms and whitetail different ones?

I can only think it’s done to confuse hunting widows and kids- to make this just one more thing about hunting to learn or to get confused with. Perhaps the men who feel there should be separate terms only feel that way because they think it’s funny to hear their wives refer to a bull elk as a buck. Seriously? Is it that funny? Is there one good reason for this?

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15 Nov | 2010

Weird Things I Wonder: Deer Season Edition, Part 1

Sometimes I spend too much time pondering weird things. Cody’s learned to put up with it and not to try to figure out what prompted the weird thought. (And usually, I can’t always tell you where the thought even came from.)

Of Arms, Legs, Hips, and Shoulders

Yesterday, knee deep in deer processing (a doe for those of you interested in Cody’s Hunting), it was pretty obvious to see where my weird thoughts came from. Cody was about to start working on the front shoulder. . . I was in the kitchen cubing meat. (Not my favorite task but it makes things go so much smoother and faster)

That’s when it hit me. . . why on earth do folks call it the front shoulder?

Can I call the part that comes off the shoulder an arm? After all, that’s what we call the limbs that extend from our shoulders.

It wasn’t the arm that Cody was working on. . . but a leg. . . Leg’s don’t have shoulders. So, why do we call it a shoulder?

And why a front shoulder? Don’t give me the arguement that it’s where an shoulder would be if the deer could stand on it’s hind legs either- Hello, it’s the front shoulder. . . . meaning there’s a back shoulder. . . do what?

Told ya- weird. but, it’s the folks who call it a shoulder that I think are weird.

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20 Aug | 2010

Then and Now: 5 Years- Some Pancakes and a Stink and Triggers

So, a few months back we went to the Caldwell Zoo with Lisa and Jack. (We won’t talk about all the problems with the truck that followed that trip!). While there I “manufactured” a shot to compare Jack then and now. I knew I wanted a similar shot of him, so I helped myself with a little gentle push of Jack.

I thought I’d share those two pics today now that I’m starting to catch up on a back log of pics that I have for editing. (New Computer= Freeing Lightroom with some Speed!- Sorry got geeky there, didn’t I.) As I looked at them I noticed that I also had then and now shots from the same two visits in our kitchen.

It’s amazing to me how much this kid has grown in such a short time, but then again, part of me can’t believe it’s only been five years since the 2005 shots. Was he really that little then? It won’t be much longer and he’ll be taller than me. . . and really not that much longer than he’s taller that Cody. . . or at least I expect he’ll get that tall.

Ok. . . Comparison #1- In with the Rhinos where it definitely stinks. I couldn’t quite get him to make the same expression. . . .

Summer 2005:

Summer 2010

;

A side note that I find interesting: The difference in his size and my camera is fairly obvious. But what’s not as obvious is the similarities in his shirts. The first shirt, a humorous look at 10 things not to say on a road trip, is from a trip he took with his Nana and Papa. The second shirt is from the trip we took with him last year.

Comparison #2- While #1 is somewhat staged, this one certainly isn’t. It’s something that happens everytime Jack comes up. In fact, it even happens at the deer lease and finally happened just last week when we were at his house.

Summer 2005

Summer 2010

Back then of course, we helped him make the pancakes. These days we just sit in the living room demanding he cook us breakfast. . . not that he isn’t a willing participant or that if he wanted us to come in there we would. But, he can make them from start to finish on his own now- all those early mornings of getting up to help him fix pancakes are paying off now- I can be lazy now.

Comparison #3. . . so while typing this, I realized I had yet another pair of then and now shots from these two visits. While the others show progression in size and cooking abilities, this one shows a whole other progression- one that I’m sure Uncle Cody is super proud of and one that Jack is more than happy to make.

Summer 2005

Summer 2010

Cody had promised that Jack would get to shoot the pistols next time he came up, so they had to squeeze a little time in this trip to do so. Jack posted one of the pics from shooting pistols on his facebook and his comment says it all “I love that gun”

Another interesting to me side note: Back then, we had introduced Jack to Johnny Horton music (is there any better road music at that age?) and so the coke cans he was shooting became the “Bloody British”. Just last week, Cody said that a Johnny Horton song came on the TV while he was down there and Jack started singing it.

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5 Apr | 2010

Turkey Lurkey Do and Turkey Lurkey Die

Ok, I’m going to ruin this story. . . so that I can warn anyone who may not want to see a dead turkey, you might want to skip the last image in this post. It’s the fourth picture- just the quintessential over the shoulder picture)

Since, you can tell where this story is going, Turkey Season began on April 1st and ended, for us, on April 3rd. Even though it was super short, it has been one of the best! We’ve turkey hunted now for at least five years without much of a clue what we’re doing and no “success”. But, are totally hooked!

Cody hooked up with a Turkey Expert named David. A week before the season started, they went out to the deer lease and scouted. Cody came back more excited than ever for Turkey Season to begin and shared with me all sorts of things he learned. He made arrangements to meet David at the deer lease Thursday and Friday to call turkeys, show us the ropes, etc.

Wednesday evening as we headed to the deer lease, David called to see if we were going to go out the deer lease to “Put a Turkey to Bed”. . . Once he explained what he meant, we did. I snapped this picture of Cody and I hanging out on the tailgate listening for roosting turkeys with my iphone.

My iphone was the only thing I took with me hunting the next couple of days though I didn’t take any shots of us hunting because I didn’t want to move and mess anyone up. We walked a lot, we learned a lot. We started at six in the morning and didn’t stop until early afternoon.

Thursday, we had the amazing experience of watching a hen walk less than 12 feet in front of us down the road while we weren’t in any sort of cover. The hen just walked right on by as David talked to her. She walke dby David, myself, and Cody, then into the woods about 10 feet away from Cody. Too Super Cool!

We met another new Turkey hunter as we caught up with Scottie just after the hen experience. (I grabbed my good camera which was in the truck to capture this image while sitting in the truck).

Despite being super tired and hot, the two experiences together along with all that we were learning, made us so thankful we get to do things like Turkey Hunting. Thursday night, we went back out to “Put a Bird to Bed” though it was really to windy. It was a beautiful night and as the sun went down the stars came out in all their beauty.

Friday was windy and we didn’t hear a turkey all day! But, that didn’t mean the learning stopped. Just an amazing couple of days. You know, folks learn to deer hunt from other folks and I think the same is true of Turkey Hunting which, at least around here, is much more difficult. (Cody and I both recognize the value of leanring more about our hobbies)

Saturday, we went out with Chris and set out to use the knowledge we’d gained. After locating some turkeys with our new owl call, we set up. Chris began calling and sure enough, here came a turkey- the turkey would become Cody’s first.

So, now, officially Cody’s turkey season is over- he can only get one in our one month season. I think we’ll probably go back out there later just to keep learning and gaining experience though. Today on the way home I had to laugh when Cody said that all the talk of his turkey season being over made him start putting May on things instead of April.

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29 Nov | 2009

Horns

So, a week ago Friday, Cody was able to get his buck’s horns back. He had a local taxidermist do a European Skull Mount.

He realized, sometime after he had dropped off the horns and before he picked it up, that he really hadn’t had a chance to check out the horns. He’d been in a rush to get out of the woods before it got dark. Then, he made quick work of getting it the meat into the cooler. Then, of course, we made a mad dash to the house since we needed the cooler space. We dropped off the horns fairly early that next morning.

As he looked at the pics I’d taken, he was finally able to study the horns on his buck. . . but it wasn’t the same as being able to see them in person. So, Friday, he spent some quality time with his horns- and the horns of deers past.

It was often hard to have a conversation with him- I’d find him staring off into the dining room looking at his horns. I think the fact that he shot a buck was such a shock and then to see just how wide and tall the buck was became yet another shock.

Truth be told, the horns were so wide that it was hard to get a good shot of them from our dining room.

Cody has spent the last week proudly showing off his horns to all of his friends. I suppose his joy has gotten to me. . . I’ve told him to hang them on my fireplace. . . and if you’d have told me even a year ago that I would be saying that now, I’d say no-way. But, I just feel like that’s where they should be

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13 Nov | 2009

This Week at the Lease

We ran into town and I thought I’d share a short blog post by cell. I’ve loved having our own little humble abode. Each time I make the beds I start singing Daryl Lee Rush’s “White Trash Paradise.”

Cody is in “paradise” with his buck that he got last night. For those who want to see pics, click here:

http://www.jenkinsprojects.com/Deer/Deer11-12-09/index.html

Things are looking good ’round here.. .

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13 Sep | 2009

A Day of Rest: Sunday Scribbles

Today, well at least this afternoon, has been a day of rest in the Jenkins household. I declared later last week that we would rest. . .no matter what the weather did. Sunday we would get some rest. Sundays should be filled with faith, family, and rest. We haven’t observed that rest part in quite some time.

I thought scribble down some goings on just to keep you all in the loop.

- I said the day was a day of rest- THIS afternoon because:

1) I woke up at 1 something this morning. Our old bed left me so achy that I got up and went to the living room to sleep. I never do that.

2) We got to church and there was no power. So, after arranging chairs/hymnals/etc into the Narthex, we had our monring services by window light and piano.

3) Since the church service was a bit warm, we needed something to drink. We stopped at the convenience store for a fountain coke and donuts (Shame, Shame, I know but the donut shop was right next door.) We wound up having a leak on the truck. . . Cody said it was a major antifreeze leak. I start thinking the worse. . . we’ve spent so much getting the trailer ready at the deer lease that the thought of a repair bill stopped me in my tracks. It turned out to be a hose that came loose. We walked over to Lowe’s for hose clamps, screwdrivers, and pliers (Cody’s tools were in the other truck from our trip to the deer lease yesterday.) Cody fixed the problem in the convienence store parking lot.

So, the day did not start of normal at all.

- Watched the Royals win again today! They’ve won 5 out of 6. That’s been fun. Now, it’s football games and hunting shows on TV.

- I start my new photography class tomorrow (Karen Russell’s) and I’m super excited about that.

- Cody and I are being sure to get some rest today because it’ll be a busy week. My class starts and Cody has an Elder’s meeting tomorrow. Then, next weekend, Cody has big hunting plans with some old college roommates. (I’m still finger crossed that it all works out ok for him.) I’m trying to figure out what I want to do next weekend.

- I mentioned my jelly roll purchases last weekend. I can’t wait to start sewing them into a quilt. But, first I need to finish a few other sewing projects including curtains for the deer lease trailer.

- We’ve got the trailer all painted- Olympic Morning Fog (my favorite color). We’ve started moving stuff in and it’s nearing it’s final stages for this deer season’s preperations. Can’t wait to have it done! Here’s a few fuzzy pics of the trailer just to prove it’s nothing fancy. Though we’ve poured our work into the inside and it looks much better than the outside at this point. (We’ll clean up the outside- when the water gets figured out- and someday paint it too!)

(You can see all the mess we have outside of it too! Can’t wait until we can burn and quit looking like white trash in the yard.)

Filed Under: Outdoors, Photography 3 Comments

24 Aug | 2009

Hunting on the Horizon

Hunting season is on the horizon for the Jenkins household. Really it’s all ready here. It’s time to plant, time to get all the last minute preperations done, start the feeders and cameras, etc. The season officially starts the first of October- for archery season. This is that time of year though when you can feel like you are speeding closer and closer to that horizon.

This year is bringing extra preperations. We now have a small old trailer in deer camp to fix up. Each week we get closer and closer to having in prepared. I’m “fixing it up” to be a little retreat. Cody has pretty much given me free reign as far as decor goes. He knows I won’t spend much and trusts me not to make it too girly- it is deer camp afterall. And, this trailer isn’t going anywhere.

I’m planning on painting it my favorite color- the same color that’s in my bedroom: Morning Fog, Olympic Paint D61-1. I pretty much knew instantly that I would use that color. I can’t wait to finish priming so I can add that small amount of color. It’ll will really brighten the little space up and I love the way the color will change as the light does. The little trailer has different wood tones and this will help to unify it- and make it more washable. (There is a practical side to painting.)

I’ll have hard wood floors too! It’s going to be my little haven. Seriously though, we knew we had to pull the carpet (who puts carpet in a deer lease trailer?). What does that mean- you put down linoleum. We went to Lowe’s and priced it. . . and there was a remnant of the hard-wood look. Of course, in a dream world it’s what I would have wanted- but this is the deer lease. Well, it turned out to be about a half to a third of the price of the plain jane stuff. So, we picked it up.

Two weekends ago, we got power to the place thanks to a friend from church. Friday evening it was the new AC unit thanks to Billy’s help. Next steps- we need to figure out the refrigerator and a shelf for the microwave we bought. Then I can finish priming and painting.

That’s just a small glimpse at all the stuff we get to do out there in camp. But, then, all this is taking away from the time that Cody can spend on the lease doing work. It will all get done in due time. . . and wasn’t doesn’t get done, won’t get done.

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21 Aug | 2009

Flashback Friday: Robber’s Cave and Broken Bow

While going through my old pictures, I decided to implement Flash Back Friday’s here on my blog- a chance to tell the unblogged stories our snapshots tell.

Today’s Flashback: September 2007. We took a week off and headed north to Oklahoma. We got a room at the lodge at Robber’s Cave. That was super cool in and of itself. It’s 20 rooms that look like hotel rooms. We were only one of two rooms filled that night and it was like we had the place to ourselves. . . Your room- like a hotel, step outside, like you’re camping. What a view we had!

(Here’s the problem with blogging this far after the fact. . . I have no idea. I don’t know if he just didn’t want to cooperate or there was, at that time, some type of story behind this one.)

Robber’s Cave in and of itself was quite a feat for me. I’ve become so scared of heights as I’ve grown older. (This didn’t use to be the case as I loved the Astroworld ride that dropped you 8 flights in a matter of seconds.) Robber’s Cave also meant lots of climbing. The views were spectacular from up high as well.

I was a tree hugger.

They were my friends.

Cody had no fear.

Even after this.

He was no worse for the wear.

And, I had a great time despite my nerves being shot.

We took a windy scenic drive before we headed back down south to Broken Bow. We aren’t likely to take that drive again any time soon.

But we were anxious to get to Broken Bow. We knew they were stocking with trout. We knew the trick to geting them. And we knew it would be perfect fishing the next morning.

Or so we thought. . . Turned out the lake must have turned over. There was too much sulfur in the water (and it stunk too) and no one was catching fish.

But we still enjoyed the beautiful water while we tent camped there at Beaver’s Bend.

And, we enjoyed getting on and in the water- but thankfully that was two activities instead of one.

Oh, and then there was the No Tell Motel Cody took me to. . . .

I created a little post card to myself to commemorate this great moment in our marriage. It reads:

“Just a Note

We’re having a great time here in Oklahoma. I really enjoyed climbing around at Robbers Cave. You should be proud of yourself for not letting your fear of heights keep you from climbing.
But, stopping at this no-tell motel was not one of your finest moments. This sign which seems to be from a by-gone era had been captured in my memory from our last trip here. Cody obliged your request to stop and take pictures. But as I took pictures I slowly realized that this was not the kind of establishment I should be parked in front of and began wondering what those on the highway were thinking of you.
Me, Myself, and I”

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18 Aug | 2009

Driving and Walking Around the Deer Lease

Last month, I went out to the deer lease with Cody to start preparing the trailer to be moved over to our campsite. That’s a long story. . . as the trip really wasn’t very productive. And of course, Cody isn’t going to pass up an opportunity to drive around the deer lease. I had my camera ready.

Have you ever wished you could fly? Like a bird? What about when you see a vulture? I knew, it a grotesque bird but when it’s gliding around, sometimes I wish I could at least glide through the air like that. (But don’t ask me to eat what they eat!)

Cody hunts on a 10,000 acre deer lease- it’s owned by a timber company. It used to be filled with trees. But lately, they’ve cleared so much of the lease that I really think half of it’s been cut and cleared. And what do you do when you hunt on a deer lease where they’re clearing? You check it out. One of the places is around the little lake.

Here’s part of an area near where Cody had a stand two years ago. The year that they were to clear both of his stand sites.

He got rid of that stand site to get his main stand site now. Which in the end, is where we headed. I’m not even sure why we walked down there other than to just take a look at it. I can’t remember that we did anything but walk around.

Of course, when we got down to his food plot we found this lone flower.

I mean out in teh middle of nowhere- in the middle of his plot.

There’s always something about walking through the woods- and I love to watch Cody while he things and plots what he wants to do at his stand sites.

I’ve talked about how Cody will stop and let me take pictures of the flowers like the one above. On this trip, Cody did the stopping to take a few pictures between his food plot and feeder. (Of course, he had to borrow my camera because he hadn’t gotten his out.)

I managed to get a little picture of him too.

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2 Aug | 2009

Hunting and Enjoying the Great Outdoors

I did not grow up around hunting. For my husband, it’s the opposite. It runs in his family on both sides.
It’s a family tradition that deeply rooted in his make-up- in what makes him who he is. To take hunting away from him would be to watch him slowly die. We all know things that are so intertwined into who a person is that you can’t take away from them- that’s hunting for my husband.

Cody’s Grandfather in Marfa

You can see just how much he enjoys it in his definition of a successful hunt. It’s not about whether or not you bring home meat but really about whether you enjoy the time spent outdoors. You might not see a deer but you can enjoy the trees or birds, or squirrels. Last season, Cody enjoyed seeing babies playing and turkeys while deer hunting. We had a great time the day I took the picture above just talking to a turkey that we never saw.

It’s that enjoyment that’s been passed down from generation to generation down to him that he’s shared with me. As any hunter’s wife knows, you either go with them or you’re a hunting widow for at least half the year. I choose to hunt with him. . . but I don’t hunt with a gun. My firestick is my camera and I take it with me. Cody recognizes that shooting a gun and hunting with one isn’t somethign I’m interested in. (Until the hogs make me mad putting us in dangerious situations or tearing things up, then I think about it for a short while.) And, as we’ve tried to figure out turkey hunting the past few springs, I’ve been the one with the turkey calls.

Marshmallow Woman- I really don’t enjoy the cold that much though

He’s also passing it down to our nephew. Who he’s bred for hunting from an early age. For the longest time, Jack thought all you had to do was throw out the corn. He’s been taught the same gun safety that my husband has taught me. I’m looking foward to seeing just how the true pleasure of hunting is passed down this year as Jack takes a gun into the field for the first time. The odds are that he won’t get anything though we really hope he gets something.

Because of the way that hunting and it’s true values have been passed down, we are not trophy hunters. As Cody will tell you, you can’t eat horns. We love it when we can fill a freezer. But, as we did last year, we still enjoy it even when the freezer stays empty.

A large part of hunting is giving back to the environment- improving animal habitation and managing populations. For us, hunting also means a lot of work. There’s fields to plant, blinds to build, feeders to maintain, and so much more. We know though that it’s part of what makes hunting so satisfying.

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Froggie Goes Hunting

It takes a Lot of People

The Graceful Naked Lady

It’s Deer Season

Weird Things I Wonder: Deer Season Edition, Part 2

Weird Things I Wonder: Deer Season Edition, Part 1

Then and Now: 5 Years- Some Pancakes and a Stink and Triggers

Turkey Lurkey Do and Turkey Lurkey Die

Horns

This Week at the Lease

A Day of Rest: Sunday Scribbles

Hunting on the Horizon

Flashback Friday: Robber’s Cave and Broken Bow

Driving and Walking Around the Deer Lease

Hunting and Enjoying the Great Outdoors

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