The opening weekend of bowhunting was finally here! Once again this year it was decided that Barnacle, Pedro, Paco, & Lefty would meet at "The Corner's" restaurant for a season opening breakfast. "The Corner's" is only a few miles from Mudbrook Valley and Underdog's cabin...which is where the boys would be staying again this year. After breakfast the boys headed for the cabin to unpack and ready themselves for an afternoon of golf competition and camaraderie. Later in the day Paco's brother Red Squirrel would be showing up with his son Sleepy and our old friend Jimmy...who decided he wanted to show up again this year. Before the 4 club members could play golf they were forced to wait out a rain shower by playing a bean bag toss game in Underdog's basement bar. The teams were Barnacle & Lefty against Paco & Pedro. Barnacle & Lefty are both left handed and they pretty much dominated the right handed boys. Paco was finding it very difficult to even hit the landing board with his bean bags. It wasn't pretty...and Pedro was hoping that Paco would perform better on the golf course (it certainly couldn't get much worse).
Finally the rain stopped and the golf competition was on. After 27 holes, more than a few beverages, and some hysterical moments it was once again Barnacle & Lefty soaking in the sweet sensation of victory...the decrepit old "has beens"! Just as the last hole of golf was being played the Red Squirrel, Sleepy, & Jimmy arrived. Barnacle & Lefty had never met Squirrel or Sleepy before so introductions were made while Pedro and Jimmy exchanged unpleasant salutations to one another...all in good fun of course. After the greeting it was time to head back to the cabin for some fun and the annual venison feast. Lefty and Barnacle once again put on a spectacular spread of food that filled everyone up and then some. It was fantastic!! By this time darkness had fallen and it was time for everyone to go to bed for a good nights rest before the opening morning hunt...this, of course, did not happen. Instead, as is customary, the whole gang retreated to the basement bar for social hour, hi-jinx, hunting stories, and the usual karoake singing to the juke box tunes. These festivities carried on until early the next morning, and thus, not one person woke up to go hunting on opening morning. Rumor has it that Barnacle & Lefty woke up early enough, walked outstide to do a weather check, and decided it was too windy to hunt so they went back inside to bed.
Saturday, September 13th
After sleeping in to avoid the opening morning hunt, the Highbanks Hunting boys lounged around all day in preparation for the season's first evening hunt. There was more bean bag toss competition (which Barnacle & Lefty dominated once again) as well as lots of catch with the football. Finally the day had passed and it was time to climb into the treestands. Following are the results of the first evening hunt:
Paco - Buck Hollow: Saw 4 does and fawns.
Barnacle & Otis - Taint: Saw no deer.
Pedro & Jimmy - Lucky's Corner: Saw doe and fawn at 25 yards. No shot opportunity.
Sleepy - Birch Tree: Saw 12 does and fawns. Missed a doe at 12 yards.
Lefty - Beaver Swamp: Saw 2 bears...very typical for him!
Red Squirrel - Gulley: Saw 2 does, 4 pt. buck and 6 pt. buck. Not shots taken...afraid to miss!
Sunday, September 14th
On Sunday morning there were actually three guys that woke up early to go hunting. Surprisingly Paco and Pedro were the first ones up and when Paco went to wake up Barnacle and Elmer it was Barnacle who decided to get up and go. That was a good decision on Barnacle's part because he went to the Skycraper stand and killed a dandy doe. He said it came walking through at only 15 yards but when he shot he thought his arrow clipped a branch and got knocked off course. Instead of a nice lung shot Barnacle hit the doe in it's hind leg. The blood trail was very heavy and the deer died a short distance from the stand. Way to go Barnacle! I guess sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. By the way, Pedro and Paco didn't see a deer between them that morning.
The Opening Weekend Crew L-R: Jimmy, Barnacle, Jesse, Lefty, Pedro, Paco, & Red Squirrel
There is really no explanation needed for this one...Paco provided great entertainment with his Ted Nugent impression.
The "outlaws" Jesse & James perform "Devil Went Down To Georgia"
Jesse & James get ready to take an exam in Mr. Beam's class
