Deer Hunting 2022

Last year Caleb didn't get a deer, so he was excited to get out there this year! He was excited to use Grandpa Steve's gun which is the gun he shot his first deer with. We had made plans for him to go to Norfolk and then Lester and him would head to Orchard to hunt at Grandpa Jim's land. Lester had been scoping out the area and had seen a lot of deer, so they were both excited. We had even planned to get him to Norfolk for both weekends of rifle season, so he had plenty of opportunities to get one. We went online to buy his permit Saturday morning and there were no permits left! We felt horrible. I guess since we aren't hunters, we didn't know that they had drastically reduced the permits that they were giving out this year due to a deer disease that decreased the population. Between talking to Lester and searching everything we could online we came to the sad conclusion that the only permit he could get for the area of Grandpa Jim's land was a doe permit. As you can imagine Caleb was pretty upset about the entire situation. After discussing it he decided that what he really wanted out of it was deer sticks so buck or doe it didn't really matter. Lester and him went to Orchard on Saturday the first day of rifle hunting and scoped out their spot and waited. It was getting pretty dark, and we hadn't heard anything, so we assumed that he didn't get one that night. A little after sundown we got the text that he got a good-sized doe, and his shot was great because they didn't have to track it at all it went down right there. Nice work Caleb!

They got it field dressed and loaded in the truck. After church on Sunday Caleb called and told me to get his deer checked in online. The website wasn't working, and I thought maybe it was overloaded with people. Nope! As it turns out you now have to check your deer in at a check station in person. Well, the problem with that was that Lester and Caleb had already started to debone it and had it cut up pretty good. Again, not a hunter but I guess this is very problematic and you can get in a lot of trouble. Lester and Caleb took the cooler of meat, trash bags of deer parts and the head and begged for forgiveness at the checkpoint. Turns out this was on the permit, but guys don't read directions. They thanked them for being honest and it all turned out fine. Caleb and Lester got the deer taken to the locker and Caleb decided to pay for the processing because we told him if we paid for it, he had to share the meat. He really wants that jerky and those deer sticks! Since we obviously know nothing about hunting, we are super thankful that Caleb has an uncle that is willing to take him to do this! Thanks again Lester!