Life

So apparently I like Ethiopian food

/ hsoi

I don’t know how I initially got the yen to try Ethiopian food, but I did… some long time ago.

I heard about this one restaurant, Taste of Ethiopia. It’s not in Austin, it’s in Pflugerville, which is just outside of Austin, and a schelp relative to where I live. I’ve been told it’s the best Ethiopian restaurant in the area, so I’ve been trying to go there for a while. But, it’s difficult to justify the long drive merely for a meal. However, today we had to do something up that way, so I figured we could finally try it. Yes, took the whole family. I figured they would be game to try something new and different, and given they liked Indian food, I figured I had a shot here.

Finding the place was no problem. It was a small but reasonable place. I saw they had a lunch buffet. We did tell the waitress we’d never had Ethiopian food before, so she explained a few things to us. She suggested we could try ordering off the menu and eating in the traditional family style. That style of eating is quite natural to me, either from Wife’s home-cookin’ roots or my Korean heritage. After thinking about it, we opted to do the buffet as the best way to survey a wide range of food. However, Oldest didn’t want the buffet; he saw this thing on the menu – Kitfo, and ordered it.

Let’s see if I can remember what was in the buffet. There was a lentil soup. Of course, the injera (which I’ll talk more about shortly). Doro Wot. A zucchini wot. I think ater kik. Some rice. Collards. Something with green beans and carrots. Another that was potato and cabbage (and turmeric). A few other things that I can’t remember.

But I tasted it all.

Oh my.

It was wonderful!

I love the seasoning. That berbere was just fantastic. I did love the way to eat it all too, with the injera – just tear some off and use it to pick up the food. The injera texture and flavor was really neat, very different. I’m not really a bread guy and by itself I doubt I’d eat it, but given its role in the meal it was really nice. I will say that I had to stop eating it and just use a fork, because I’m trying to keep the excessive bread/carb intake minimize, but boy it was hard today. 🙂

I am surprised to say I liked the zucchini wot the best! The doro wot was good, but it was chunks of white meat chicken; I think legs or thighs would have tasted better. They had a goat-meat dish on the menu, and if it’s a “goat wot” I bet that’d be good. This is just personal preference. I think something a little “greasier” would work well.

But what really got me? The Kitfo. Oh my. That was amazing. The seasoning was just so wonderful. The texture too was so velvety. There was just the right texture, the right seasonings, the right fat (I read now that there’s butter put on it). Oh, it was so damn good. My mouth just loved it in every way.

I see on the menu this chefuye, which could tempt me next time.

Gee. I really really liked this, far more than I expected I would. The kids liked it too. Oldest isn’t a big fan of hot-spicy food, but he couldn’t stop eating the Kitfo… it just draws you back, you just want to keep eating it.

I wish it wasn’t so far away.

I can’t wait to go back. I think next time we’ll order a few dishes, continue to try dishes we haven’t yet tried, and eat them family style. Wife also wants to try the honey wine… not sure she’ll like it (she wasn’t a fan of mead), but it could be prepared differently and/or complement the food just right.

Just before we left, the owner, Woinee Mariam, came out and we spoke with her. She was impressed with Oldest bucking the trend and ordering a traditional dish. 🙂  She was so kind, so sweet; she made us feel right at home. I love businesses like this, as you just want to keep supporting good people doing good things like this.

Can’t wait to go back.

AT&T debacle – coda?

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

So my AT&T troubles….

When last we left off, someone was to come out on Christmas Even between 2 and 6 to fix things. A tech came out to the house earlier in the day. Alas, since the problem wasn’t directly reproducing he couldn’t be sure it was fixed. Given the work I do as a computer programmer, I totally understand a need to be able to reproduce the problem in order to fix it. He did what he could, looking at the line, seeing a problem out on the line about 500 feet from the house. He went out, found some switch, replaced it, came back to check and the analysis looked better and closer to normal. Still, we weren’t sure if that was the actual fix.

Turns out it wasn’t.

Christmas morning and the phone line was back to being dead.

The tech had given me his card with his direct number on it. I called it, left a message (it was his day off; besides, no need to bother with this on Christmas). This morning he called me back and said as soon as he’s in the area he’ll stop by and look into things. As soon as I arrived back home from the music store with Daughter’s new cymbals, the AT&T truck had just pulled up a few minutes prior. He tested the outside line, the inside line, and looked at everything. Looks like there was a short on one of the lines running into the house. He was able to switch things over to another set of wires, and viola. Things are working.

And so, hopefully this ends the saga.

Now don’t get me wrong. Many people along the way here were nice people, good people, trying to do what they could. Certainly this tech was a good guy, continued to work at the problem until it was fixed. I don’t have a problem with the individual people along the way. The problem has been AT&T themselves — the giant “bureaucrazy”. It would tell me one thing, then require of me another. It would only have so much information, and generally it was never the right nor enough information. One group didn’t know what the other group was doing. Lots of contradictory information, even between what the employees knew and said about procedure and policy. It was just a giant mess, lots of communication FAIL. That was the problem, and it’s a huge problem.

Alas, I don’t foresee AT&T fixing the problem. They’re too big and what motivation do they have to actually fix it? I’d love to be proven wrong.

Well, we’ll see what happens. I have requested to be credited for the almost 2 weeks of downtime. Yes in the end it seems to have been a wiring issue within my house, but why should it have taken 2 weeks to get here? Why should I have gotten the runaround and hassle from AT&T like I did?

Well, whatever. Hopefully this goes quietly into the night.

on being reliable

/ hsoi

Wife and I were talking and it hit me that the concept of reliability has been a central issue in my life the past some weeks.

There’s our problems with our home phone service. AT&T’s phone service wasn’t reliable, and while certain people I spoke with were kind, helpful, and understanding, their general repair process was proving to also be unreliable.

So everyone suggests to me to switch to VoIP, but the main reason I’ve stayed away from that is because Time-Warner Cable’s RoadRunner Internet service tends to be unreliable. In fact, as I was going through the AT&T debacle and even blogging about TWC’s unreliability, my net connection went down numerous times.

My car is old and starting to have big problems not worth fixing. It’s reliability is failing and I don’t always trust it to get me around. When I took the kids on that deer hunting trip? I rented a truck, not just because of the hauling utility, but because I figure a new truck will be more reliable than my old car and minimize risk of being stuck on the side of the road and the hunting trip ruined due to such problems.

Furthermore, as I shop for a replacement vehicle, I’m looking for something reliable. Heck, the reason I bought the car I have now was because I wanted a reliable car.

Buying that M&P to have as a new carry gun? I won’t carry it until it proves itself a reliable gun. I’m betting my life on it, so it better be something I can count on.

Then there are friends. There have been some issues with people flaking out, and while that’s alright every so often, a pattern of unreliability becomes a problem. Wife even mentioned to me that’s one thing she really appreciates about me: how reliable I am.

I just find it interesting how the concept of reliability has been at the forefront of so many things in my life right now.

People talk about important traits one should have: to be honest, to be hard working, punctual, honorable, humble. As I think about it, people don’t often talk about how important it is to be reliable, yet it’s something we all do want be it from our family, friends, co-workers, cars, businesses, politicians or really just about anything in our lives. It’s understandable because, due to its nature, you come to take it for granted when it always is there, it’s always working, it’s always doing what you need and expect. It only becomes noticeable when it breaks or isn’t there and is no longer reliable. Perhaps we need to consider reliability more explicitly and foster it as a trait, and not take it so much for granted.

APD’s 12 Rules of Christmas

/ hsoi

The Austin Police Department Burglary Unit posted “12 Rules of Christmas” to their Facebook page.

Unfortunately, they posted them as images/graphics, and not in the most public of ways. It’s good information to heed, not just around Christmastime but all year. So, going to transcribe and reprint it here because it’s good stuff.

  1. Lock your doors and windows!! A significant number of burglaries are committed by the thief simply opening a window or door that was left unlocked.
  2. If travelling over the holidays, ask a trusted neighbor or friend to park their car in your driveway while you are gone to give the appearance that someone is home.
  3. Do not hesitate to call 911 if you see someone you don’t recognize in your neighborhood who you don’t recognize or is acting suspiciously. YOU, better than anyone know who and what belongs in YOUR neighborhood. If it doesn’t seem right to you, it probably isn’t!! Police would much rather respond to investigate a suspicious person that is there for legitimate reasons, than to not have you call and officers have to later respond because your home has been burglarized.
  4. If someone comes knocking at your door… answer it!! If you don’t feel comfortable opening the door, ask who it is while leaving the door closed. (Thieves will often knock first to see if anyone is home).
  5. Keep valuables in your home out of view of those walking/driving by so they don’t invite an unwelcome “visitor”!!
  6. Close curtains and/or blinds when not home so that would be thieves can not tell if anyone is home or view what’s inside.
  7. Avoid advertising that no one is home. Leave lights on our put them on timers.
  8. When travelling, have a family member or trusted friend collect your mail and newspapers so they don’t pile up in your driveway/mailbox.
  9. If travelling during the holidays, don’t advertise! Don’t post on Facebook when you’re out of town as there are potentially those that are not your friends that could view your post (“Friends of Friends”, etc.) that can track when you are out of town and take the opportunity to break in.
  10. With the purchase of high dollar electronics and other valuables, make sure to not put the boxes out by the trash where a would-be thief can see what are now in your home (X BOX, Stereos, Flat Panel TV’s). Instead, cut the boxes up so they fit in your trash or bag them up after cutting them up.
  11. If you have an alarm, use it!!! (Even when leaving for short periods).
  12. When loading or unloading large quantities of gifts, use discretion so as to avoid would be thieves being able to take notice of all the property/gifts. This also goes when/if you are packing to leave/travel.

(A Freebie!!!!)

Write down your serial numbers!!!!!! In over 90% of thefts/burglaries, the owner doesn’t know or have access to the serial numbers on their valuables. Take the time to write these down NOW. With valuables that don’t have a serial number (i.e. jewelry), take a photo. Once you’ve written them down, copy the list/photos and keep them in various locations (one at work, one at home, etc.). (HINT: It doesn’t do a lot of good to keep the only list on your computer if the computer is stolen!!!)

Should you have your property stolen, the chances of it being recovered increased dramatically if you can provide serial numbers and/or photos. Without them, it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) for the police to determine who the property belongs to when it is located.

The APD Burglary Unit and the entire Austin Police Department wish you and yours a very safe and joyous holiday season!!

Some additional comments.

1. A couple recent local burglaries happened precisely because people didn’t lock their doors/windows.

4. Very good point. And note, you do NOT have to open the door. Just talk through the door. If you have a nice, big, scary dog, they perhaps can join you in the conversation. 🙂  The person on the other side of the door may try to get you to open the door; use your best judgment and if it doesn’t feel right, trust your gut… even if on the surface it seems wrong (e.g. someone with a sob story). As well, find another angle. If they say they need to be let in to use your phone because their car broke down, tell them you’ll be happy to call 911 or AAA for them (without opening the door). Don’t let them play (prey?) on your emotions and kind heart.

7. In-house lamp timers are good, but consider the exterior as well. You do turn on your exterior lights at night and keep them on all night, right? Remember, cockroaches don’t like light. You can buy replacement switches for exterior lights that are timers and smart enough to know the time, sunrise/sunset, and everything so that your exterior lights go on and off at all the right times. Not only useful to ensure your lights go on and off while you’re away, the fact they’re fully automated all year round frees you from having to deal with them. Automation is good. 🙂

8. You can also contact the delivery services to have them stop delivery. As well, you should have a trusted friend or neighbor regularly check your porch in cas the UPS or FedEx man dropped something off.

11. Yes. Use your alarm. I know so many people with alarm systems on their house and they never use them or are selective in their use. Do you know when someone is going to break into your home? I can’t predict such things, so it’s best to be in the habit of always using your alarm.

Stay safe.

See? Proof it’s a threat!

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Yup. Homosexuality is a threat to the sanctity of “traditional” marriage.

See? We have proof!

Adultry? Nah…. just the fags. They’re the ones screwing up marriage. Obviously.

*eyeroll*

I know this will probably annoy some of my more conservative readers, but that’s how I feel about it. I don’t see why people who love each other and wish to be committed to each other should be denied such things. I fail to see how homosexuals threaten “traditional marriage” and I fail to see what is gained by denying homosexuals the ability to marry. As you can see by Sen. Koch’s behavior well… if she’s so concerned about protecting the sanctity of marriage, why did she violate it? The fags sure didn’t make her do it, did they?

In the end, it’s pretty simple. They’re not infringing upon my life. I am not being injured by people making life-long commitments to each other. I am leaving them alone to live their life, and only ask they leave me alone to live my life. It isn’t my thing, but there’s a lot of things in the world that aren’t my thing and there are a lot of things in my life that aren’t someone else’s thing; is that justification enough to ban and deny things? They had no say in whom I chose to marry, and I’d be pretty upset if someone opted to stick their nose into my business and tell me who I could or could not marry. Don’t tread on me. Treat people as you’d want to be treated. All that good stuff.

Plus I just find it disingenuous to say they’re passing these “sanctity of marriage” laws, when they are nothing but a means to legally discriminate against homosexuals. If you really want to protect marriage, then work to protect it. Maybe outlaw divorce. Maybe make adultery illegal… oh wait….

The VoIP problem

/ hsoi

In recounting my AT&T problems, folks have suggested I go with VoIP – Voice Over IP, basically telephone over the Internet (instead of your phone lines). This is services like Vonage, MagicJack, and even the local Time Warner Cable provides such service.

I’ve been reluctant to do this because VoIP can have issues, tho the software and systems are getting better and these days folks have reported generally good experiences.

The main reason for my reluctance? Time-Warner Cable’s Internet service has more ups and downs than a roller coaster at Cedar Point. Maybe not long stretches of outages, but if the service drops while you’re in the middle of a call and doesn’t come back for a couple of minutes, what good is that when you’re in the middle of an important phone call?

And in just the past 48 or so hours while I’ve dealt with this AT&T mess? My RoadRunner Internet connection has burped like this at least a dozen times. All short downtimes, but still interruptions in service.  Hell, as I write this post it went down twice! *sigh*

For all of AT&T’s customer service failings, the actual service has been quite reliable. Reliability is very important to me. Unfortunately AT&T’s customer service has been anything but reliable.

I just feel screwed no matter which direction I turn.

….

Oh and get this. As I write this, AT&T continues to boggle my mind.

I just got an automated call from AT&T (on the apparently now working line). They are now saying someone will be coming out tomorrow — Christmas Eve — between 2 PM and 6 PM.

Um… that won’t work.

And what happened to all this “priority” and “expedited” for this morning service?

Wow. AT&T. So much FAIL. So much FAIL.

AT&T — WTF?

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

OK AT&T.

So now do you or don’t you need to get inside the house?

I’m sitting here writing another blog entry when the phone rings. It takes a moment for me to realize it’s the house line ringing.

That’s the line that’s been down.

And apparently is no longer.

So I guess they don’t need to come in at all?

Am I still going to have to sit around tomorrow and wait for a tech that will never arrive, but now for a different reason?

If all this time it was an outside problem, why wasn’t that known until now? Why was I ever told they had to come into the house? Why wasn’t it discovered on Saturday the first time around?

I’m truly mystified.

And as a result, I’m now going to have to spend time on the phone with AT&T to see what’s going on. Which, is more of my time wasted due to AT&T.

Why did I get a call saying they wouldn’t finish the work, but apparently they did finish the work? Am I going to get a call here shortly to explain that yes in fact things are fixed? Or is AT&T going to continue to fail at communicating the state of the repair to me?

*sigh*

Yeah again I know, #FirstWorldProblem. It’s still annoying to my first-world-self.

Updated: Oh this is rich. It does seem the home line is working (at least for now). So I check the “CallNotes”.

There’s a call from Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM from AT&T to confirm my Thursday afternoon appointment.

So they call the broken line to confirm someone will be coming to repair the broken line.

*headdesk*

Even when I gave them an alternate number, which didn’t receive any call (tho who knows, maybe the call didn’t go through since I was in the deep country… tho lots of SMS was sent and received just fine), they still call the broken line instead of the number I gave them to reach me on.

Yes AT&T, your repair process is broken. You fail at communication.

Updated Again: No word from AT&T on what’s going on… the line is working, but the work order is still open from what I can see on the AT&T website. So I called in to see if maybe they have any additional information.

Nope.

The lady on the phone (Vanessa?) was very kind and understanding.  She did what she could. Tried to expedite things. Anything within her power to try to get this managed.

And it sounds like no, they won’t have to come into the house. And that no, I don’t have to stick around.

But who knows. The work order is still open, so likely more work has to be done. Just a question of my level of involvement. She entered in a bunch of notes that should go right to the tech. So it’s my hope that I can still go donate blood in the morning (I just will do a walk-in), and just see if they’ll call. They’re telling me to not wait and that yes someone will call if needed. So, let’s see if that winds up being something they don’t fail (again) at.

I did find it telling that one of the closing statements she made was “Thank you for not leaving us”.

 

Hey AT&T, thanx for wasting another day

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

So AT&T has been wasting my time.

Why stop now?

When I called and rescheduled, I had to reschedule it for today (Thursday) because of a hunting trip instead of “the next day” or “as soon as possible”. No way around that since, if in fact someone had to come into the house well… Wife doesn’t care to be alone in the house with a strange man, I don’t care if he is a certified repairman.

I had them schedule it “from 2 PM to 6 PM” because there was a chance the trip could have lasted into Thursday morning, I’d be home by lunch, thus this was the earliest time I could schedule it.

And so… I’ve been waiting. Wife and I again had to rearrange our day to accommodate the repairman that would never arrive. As the hours ticked by, no phone call, and honestly I wasn’t expecting to be on the phone with AT&T until I had to call them again after 6 PM.

To my surprise, my mobile rang. Strange number on the caller ID and usually I ignore those but I figure it could be something with the repair and picked it up. Sure enough, it was AT&T calling to tell me the repairman wouldn’t be coming by today.

Of course.

Supposedly he was working on an outside line problem but would still need to come into the house to finish the work. Wouldn’t finish today, would have to come back tomorrow. Um. OK. What else can I do?

I explained my exasperation to the woman on the phone. I did tell her I’m not mad at her, it’s not her fault, but it seems to be a general problem with AT&T and their communication of what’s needed. She apologized and said that no, I didn’t need to be there and that because there was an outside problem it wasn’t necessary for us to be around — that should have been communicated to me. But uh, the whole thing they’ve said the whole time is that they needed to get inside and couldn’t due to the dog? So really, I don’t know what the story is, if they’re bullshitting me or just clueless. I’m getting mixed stories and a lot of runaround.

And I’m told that we have “priority” scheduling for in the morning. They keep using that word….

But since I have no idea what’s going to happen, I just cancelled my blood donation appointment for in the morning. More rescheduling and rearranging our lives due to AT&T’s incompetence in relaying information. Boy, for a communications company, they’re sure failing at it.

 

Making Memories

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

After Daughter snagged her first deer, my father-in-law (FIL) checked with the property owner of his deer lease to see if he could bring his grandkids out to do a youth hunt (spike and doe). Lease owner said yes. FIL told me. We worked out a date, and it was set and ready.

This was going to just be Oldest and Daughter; Youngest has finally expressed interest in hunting. We thought about taking him along, maybe he could sit in a stand with his “Pa-pa” and Brother and just watch and learn, but alas the stands are small and it’s hard enough to fit 2 people in. Youngest was cool with it tho as it gave him some “spoil me” time with Mom. 🙂

Packed up the gear and the kids and away we went. Met my FIL up there. Got to the property, took care of a few chores, then got dressed in warmer clothing to go sit in the stands. My FIL took Oldest, I sat with Daughter. I took my Wilson Combat AR-patterned rifle in 6.8 SPC with the Leupold VX-R 3-9×50, Wilson Combat’s 6.8 ammo using a 95 grain Barnes TTSX bullet. Oldest wanted to use the Savage .308 bolt-action, but I managed to talk him into shooting Pa-pa’s trusty .25-06 deer rifle. My FIL has hunted all his life and shot just about everything out there, and he considers .25-06 to be about the best thing for hunting out here given how flat it shoots. I trust his word, he’s far more experienced than I. Due to this, I thought it’d be good for Oldest to expand his horizons and try something else just to see how it compares, especially something that Dad doesn’t have. But there’s more to this angle of the story later….

You have to understand that Mills County is overrun with deer. After we did our chores and before we went to the stands, FIL and Oldest ran back into town for some supplies. Daughter and I stayed at the property and the property-owner’s daughter took us around the area in their Polaris Ranger Crew (DAMN that thing is fun, I want one, Santa!). Showed us a lot of the area, which was really neat. We saw so many deer running around. Just a ton of deer. Unreal. So yeah, a little herd management is in order.

Since there were so many deer and since we were just going for does, there really wasn’t much need to be picky. Just look for older does, ones without yearlings, and then the biggest one of the lot. No need to sit for hours and agonize, y’know?

We didn’t need to sit long at all.

Started out with 4 does coming in to feed. We glassed them and figured out which one was the taker. Alas, Daughter could never get a clear shot. Either the doe was in a wrong position, or there was a tree in the way.

As we waited, more came in. And more. Probably had a dozen deer poking around (I was told this was an abnormally low count; more typical to have 30+, and sometimes upwards of 50-60 or more at a time… yeah, that ridiculous; I’m sure if we had waited longer we would have seen more). Of them all, only 1 buck. Small one, I believe just a 6 pointer (if I remember correctly). Too small and young to take, legally or management wise. There was one doe that was simply gorgeous; the coloring of her fur, this very light tan with the white under her, impossible to describe to do it justice, but she stood out beautifully. Daughter asked if she could take her, but no, one that good needs to be left around to breed.

But the waiting is always the hardest part, especially when you’re a child and the weight of that rifle starts to wear on you. But we kept waiting and waiting… and eventually Daughter had a clear shot on a big old doe.

She took it.

I could see immediately that it was hit, shoulder area. It ran no more than 50 yards before coming to rest.

Interestingly, while the other deer ran off, they didn’t run far. I thought it was odd they didn’t all hit the tree line and vanish.

We waited.

“Come on Dad! Let’s go see her!”

“No. Let’s wait. There’s 30 minutes of legal light left… let’s just wait. You never know.”

You see, the land owner was kind enough to allow me to also take a doe. So as soon as we confirmed Daughter’s doe was down, no reason to not switch off and let me try. The doe wasn’t going to go anywhere, and again, 30 minutes? No problem to wait, right?

And so I waited… Daughter grew impatient. I understand completely. But something told me to wait.

*BOOM* we hear in the distance.

(look at Daughter) “Hey… that must have been your brother.” We had been wondering how things were going for them. I guess that answered that question. Looking back, I realize the sound of his gunshot was a lot louder than I would have expected from a .25-06. I later found out why. You see, in my FIL’s rush to get out of the house he grabbed the .25-06 ammo, but not the .25-06 rifle. So when they got to the stand they realized they had a problem! FIL called back to the farm house and the property owner’s daughter let Oldest shoot her rifle — she doesn’t let anyone shoot her rifle (I later saw it, gorgeous wood work, fine piece). The rifle is chambered in .240 Weatherby Magnum. So uh… yeah… it’s got a lot more oomph. Oldest thought it was pretty cool, and I think it gave him some perspective.

Meanwhile, back in our stand….

Eventually I gave in. There was maybe 10 minutes of legal time left, so why not.

We packed our stuff up. Daughter climbed down the ladder. I started to climb down. Got one foot out the door when I looked up and out the window.

(to myself) “Oh shit! They’re coming back!”

(down the ladder) “Daughter, they’re coming back! Don’t move!!”

“OK, Dad!”

Sure enough, the ones that did hit the trees were coming back. I’m sure it was the same group, or at least, that one little buck was the same little buck.

I quickly grabbed the rifle and went to re-load it. This is one of the down-sides to an AR-patterned rifle for hunting: loading it will be LOUD. But I had no choice. I inserted the magazine, pulled back the charging handle and let it slam home. But thankfully no one noticed! No deer flinched, tho I winced in anticipation.

But the ugly part? I was in a horrible position. I didn’t want to move. I had one leg out the door, which then got wedged between the bottom of the door frame and the bottom of the door (my shin is still aching and bruised). I was basically kneeling, bad position, the rifle wasn’t well rested. I wanted to move, but was afraid of making too much noise (I’m big, the stand was very small, it was just difficult to move around without making noise). So I just did my best.

I glassed around, picked one that looked good. Slow smooth trigger press….

*click*

WTF?

Actually it was more like *CLICK*… it was a deafening silence.

First thought, dud? Do remedial action, and that told me the problem: I hadn’t seated the magazine all the way. Damnit. And I had previously told Daughter to always check the seating. *sigh*  Now I had to pull the charging handle again….. *cringe*…. and I did, it slammed home, and they heard it this time. Deer scattered, but not too far. Ugh.

My heart and head were racing. Time was ticking away. I really wanted to bag a deer as it would be sweet if all 3 of us got our deer in one evening.

I settled back down, the deer came back in. I tried to find a reasonable deer as quickly as I could. Found one, pressed off a shot… *BOOM* (good, it went boom not click).

And as soon as I saw the deer run, I doubt I had hit it. I watched as it made the treeline, no indication of faltering.

*sigh*

I did wonder if it could this be the rifle again having problems? Was it not the scope? I’m still wary with this setup, and I want to use it as much as possible to build back my confidence in the equipment platform. But in this case, I do figure it was my fault. I had a crappy shooting position and I was stubborn to not improve the position. Thinking back, I think I may have rested the barrel on the window ledge, not the rail tube. With the short length of the rifle, me being basically in the back of the stand, I recall when I first rested the rifle it “naturally” rested on the barrel, so I readjusted to rest the rail so the barrel floated. Well, when I had to reload I think in my haste I may have put it back down on the barrel, and that’s going to skew things. *sigh*  Stupid as well because I knew I’d have another chance in the morning, so why didn’t I just take the chance to get a better shot now? I was impatient, due to both excitement and being mad at myself for screwing up.

Oh well. I learned something, and will eventually stop kicking myself over it.

We went ahead and found Daughter’s doe. Notified my FIL. Eventually they came up on the Polaris with Oldest and his doe already in the back. We then headed to the barn, got the tractor (raise up the hay spear, hang the gambrel from it), and headed off to another part of the property to field dress the deer. I watched my FIL expertly clean the deer. I’ve cleaned things before, but still lack supreme confidence in my ability to dress things correctly and cleanly. So I took a lot of mental notes, knowing that when I got my deer I would clean her.

Deer cleaned. Hung up in the barn (it was going to be so cold that night). Off to bed we went, with 2 happy hunters… and a happy Grandfather.

The next morning I arose. I was going to get my deer.

Got suited up in my long-johns and gear, grabbed the 6.8, and my FIL drove me out to the stand. Opted to use the same stand as I did yesterday. Into the stand I went (solo) and FIL drove back to the house. Was out there about 6:40 AM, so I didn’t have to wait long for sunrise (legal shoot time started at 7:00).

Shortly after legal time, one small doe came out of the woods followed by a couple of others. The others ran up the hill out of sight, but the one came in to feed. I glassed her and knew she was too small and young to take, but I still studied her.

You see, everyone tells me I need to take neck shots. I see why they aren’t promoted to young hunters or inexperienced hunters, because a vitals shot is a more sure thing and a lot easier to hit. Neck shot, you have to get it just right. But if you do, you save a lot of meat and should get a “DRT” (Dead Right There) hit and not have to chase/track the deer, which is ideal. I’ve been studying the anatomy of things and I wanted to do my first neck shot on this deer. So while this little doe wasn’t going to be shot, I kept watching and studying her in my binoculars to be sure I felt comfortable with shot placement.

I kept seeing movement by the tree line. Other does were coming out, but none wanted to come in. No matter. More will come. Patience.

Eventually some did, but either not shootable or not in a shootable position. Then I see off to my right, some others come in. One stood out to me: a 4-point buck, limping pretty badly. His right hind leg was messed up somehow. His left side was facing me so I couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong, but it was a good limp. He was followed by a doe, which I figured was his girlfriend. The buck eventually laid down while the doe poked around at food. I glassed her. She looked good, a taker.

I waited for an opportunity. Yes, I was going to take the neck shot.

She gave it to me.

DRT.

Obviously I didn’t need to wait. Signaled to my FIL that she was DRT. Packed up the bag. Headed down the ladder.

Walked about 90 yards to see her…. and then I realized… her was a him.

Yes, I had shot a spike. The antlers were barely peeking out of the fur on top of his head, but they were there. Who would have known at 90 yards? Impossible to have known. Size and coloration and everything looked like an older doe. But… wasn’t.

FIL later told me he was standing out in another field watching and saw the limping buck and the one I shot trotting over my way. FIL said that he had turned around to walk back to the house and hadn’t gone 10 steps when he heard me shoot and knew it was time to get in the Polaris to come get me. 🙂

We loaded him up, got the tractor, and under the expert tutelage of my FIL I field dressed the deer. I do feel more confident and, provided time isn’t critical, will certainly continue to dress and quarter my own in the future. The kiddos? They’re not quite ready for it. 🙂  Managed to save the heart and liver for the dog (she loves deer liver). I also was able to see that my neck shot was a little low, base of the neck, but still did the job of DRT. I learned from the experience.

Kiddos were done. They were ready to head home. I figure long weekends in the field will come later. I haven’t found the right words for hunting, but I have them for fishing. See, there’s “fishing” and then there’s “catching”. You can fish all day and never catch a thing and it’s a good day fishing. As a kid, as a first time fisherman, you want to catch; you don’t want to sit there and wait for hours and hours and never catch any fish. But the more you fish, the more you’re happy to sit and wait, to fish, to work, and again if you go home empty-handed after sitting all day on the water, that’s alright. For me, I’m transitioning from catching to fishing… well, hunting. I still want to take things home, I still get excited, I still want to “catch”. But I’m growing more and more content to sit, to wait. To see. The kiddos? Well, this was Oldest’s first deer and second kill; it was Daughter’s first whitetail and second kill. So they’re still squarely in the “catching” camp. And once we caught, they wanted to get back to the warmth and comfort of home. It just means we have to go hunting more often, that’s all. 🙂

In the end tho, it was a great time. I’m so happy that my FIL got to spend time with his grandkids. I know he’s been looking forward to hunting with them for a long time, and finally he was able to. He told me Oldest was so thrilled, so excited, and listening to my FIL recount the moments tells me that he’s got some pretty happy memories made by this hunting trip. To me, that’s what it was all about.

BTW, no pics because my phone camera doesn’t have a flash, but FIL’s did. So he took all the pictures. But he’s still out hunting for a few days and the reception out there is pretty bad. When he gets back home he’ll send me the pics he took.

I learned a lot on this trip, be it to double-check the seating on your magazine, to just risk improving your shooting position, that I really want a Polaris Ranger, improvement in my cleaning/field dressing skills, or to strive for the neck shot (DRT is good). I learned. It was enjoyable to spend time with my father-in-law and to learn from him. I liked being out with my kiddos, but again, I think the best part of this was enabling Grandpa and Grandkids to make some memories together. I know the Kiddos were happy for it and are looking forward to more opportunities in the future, as is Grandpa.

Back from hunting

/ hsoi

Just returned from a successful whitetail deer hunt with my father-in-law. Took Oldest and Daughter. We each got a deer. I’ll regale you with tales from the hunt later. Must catch up on numerous things first.