Thank You To A Great Friend

[Autumnarcher]

wow, its late, I gotta get up for work at some ridiculous hour of the morning, but right now I cannot sleep. I spent about 7 hours on the road today, so I could spend the day with Bob. A special day for sure. Hes a fighter, that I know for certain.

We sat in his bow room as he showed me a bunch of bows he's working on selling. More on that later. He's got some nice ones, a bunch of Bear's,Dartons, Damon Howwatt's, Shakespeares, you name it.

I told him a while back I was looking for something a little heavier for my son Austin to grow in to, along with a couple of beaters for carp shootin.

I ended up buying a couple from him for Austin. One is a 45# Kodiak Magnum that is absolutely beautiful. Mint condition older model, flush button, OD green glass, dark and light brown riser. The other is a Browning recurve, 40# for Austin for carp shootin. For probably the only time in my life I wished for a moment I was right handed when Bob showed me a early model Super Kodiak that looks like Fred Bear himself just took out of the factory. MINT! if I was a righty, it would have came home with me.

Bob loves collecting, trading and buying bows, particularly Bears. I love sitting with him as he shows me all the cool stuff in his collection, bows, broadheads, arrows, shooting gloves, you name it.

After some time, he was tiring out, so I slipped out to let him get a nap while I strung up my longbow and took a couple arrows with judo points and walked the woods surrounding the house and did some stump shooting and turkey scouting. I have had some great times turkey hunting there, and the mixed growth of pines and oaks filled my nose with that awesome scent. A cold north wind made for a brisk outing, but soon enough I was up on top of the ridge at Turkey Park. I found a deadfall log bathed in sunshine and sat for a bit to watch and listen for birds. They were not around today.

I thought about how great it is to have friends such as Bob, how much my boys love going to his place to hunt and fish. I stood, focused in on a pinecone that caught my eye about 20 yds away. I felt that cold wind on my face, followed by feeling the string slip from my fingers. TH-whack! My arrow slammed into that cone, and I again started wandering the woods.

I spend a couple hours, making sure Bob got a good nap in undisturbed. The cancer leaves him tired and weak, which must take some doing as its not like my friend to be either. Bob is full of life. He is determinded to fight till he cannot anymore, and that I am sure of.

As I walked, I thought back to when I got my Bear Grizzly from him, the one I really learned to shoot with. My oldest son Alex also cut his teeth shooting that bow. If it werent for Bob, I might have given up trad archery before I ever got hooked. I could have easily gone back to the wheels, and thought nothing of it. That is the impact one friend in your life can have.

we talked about crossbows, recurves, bloodtrails, turkey hunting, deer, and, dying.
I made sure he knows how much his friendship means to me, and my family too. Since none of us know for how much longer he will be with us, and i hope its for a good long time, its best to not take things for granted.

Enjoy the popsicles, my friend.

[bowmaster12]

autumnarcher, liek many of said wha a great tribute to yoru friend your story hits home hard, 7 years ago my dad died of skin cancer he was not only my dad he was my best friend, hunting and fishing partner. I feel what yo uare going hru and you are doing a great thing by spending time with yoru dear friend its amazing how many people fail to do that when faced with times like what ou are going through.  Your writtings brought back great memories of spending time with my father (still hard to think about) We are a very few lucky people to have turley such great people cross our paths no matter the lengh of time, my thoughts are with you your friend and both of your families
jesse

[Autumnarcher]

When I was over to see Bob, he gave me his string tying jig and a few rolls of D-50 as well as an instructional video.

So, tonight I learned how to tie up my own strings! WOW thats kinda fun. Much easier than I thought, a few things I need to fine tune though.

Bob is still passing on his skills and knowledge to me,gotta love it. Every time I do a string, I'll think of how much Bob taught me.

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

Godspeed, and His peace be amongst you.