Did Mr. Clean bring a dish to Thanksgiving dinner?

[Guru]

Ted,you are doing an awesome job...great stuff!!!

[the Ferret]

Yes I am enjoying it immensely....well... except for the lapses in time.

This is truly a great story told in a very entertaining way.

Can't wait for the finale' this evening.

[Flatstick]

AAAAAhhh! DANG-IT! Who started all this dragg'n out the story stuff?    :mad:  Although I'll have to admit this is a good'n    I really like the way you have told the story..NOW GIT ON WITH IT SON !!!!

[Shaun]

Great story work so far. I like that you have a committee too. Lots of chatter up there for many of us - not during the shot though, one arrow all consuming. Look forward to the pics and the rest of the tale.

[Bama Stan]

You guys think it's bad for you? Jeeeeeez. OK,I'm going back to Guru's thread.

Stan

[mike hall]

Take your time Ted. I'm just hanging out and waiting for the wife to tell me it's time to go to the hospital. Baby three should be here soon.
It's been a very entertaining read.
BTW I killed my first last Thanksgiving so this is extra nice for me.

[Canyon]

Didn't I tell you all I liked this guy Ted. Great story teller he is. Once he finishes this little  story complete with all the pictures of course we'll get to talkin about the proper medications to help him take care of those...uh.. em' voices.


Jim Coffey

[Razorbak]

great story...wish I had a good story to tell with mr. clean but you guys are doing great

[kcbrown]

Was that 10 or 11 am or pm ??????? Good story so far. I am glad to hear that I am not the only person that has things talking to him.     All these years and I thought it was just me  

[SuperKodiak38]

O.K. I am home now you can tell the rest...

[Ted]

Phew, now that SuperK is up to speed, I can continue.

Sorry I'm a bit later than promised fellas.  I will try to crank the rest out tonite before bed.

Ted.

[Ted]

. . . so where was I.  Oh yeah, right about here on my last blood.  

 

When we got here.  I took at deep breath and said "How do you want to do this boys?"

Guru: "We've got plenty of time, let's glass for a few minutes, think, and get back in the game."

Razorbak: "I agree. Ted, get the thanksgiving crap out of your head.  You need to get back into hunter/killer mode."

I did as they suggested.

Ted

[Ted]

To facilitate the process, Osagetree suggested that I back track just a little bit and get my eyes used to picking out the blood again.  So I did . . .

 

 

 

The blood was six hours older and didn't look as good as it did when it was fresh.  The wind was blowing all day, so some it had blown away.  I realized, "Uh oh, maybe she isn't bleeding as well as we thought she was."

At this point, our biggest concern was having the hole get plugged up as gut shots tend to do.  Given the angle of the shot and the hair at the sight of the hit, that exit hole was probably right at the bottom of her.  YLeeCoyote suggested that the hole would probably get plugged up sooner or later.  Guru pointed out that we still haven't found the top half of the arrow; it could still be inside her.  He wondered aloud about whether or not that could keep the hole from being plugged.

Well, after these thoughts, OsageTree remind us with a simple look that we needed to get back to business.

We went back to the last blood and surveyed the hollow where any remaining drama would unfold.

 

[nick_the_tinkerer]

Dang,

The anticipation is killing me.....     :D  

I cant wait for the rest of the story.

[Ted]

We started to take the blood trail into the hollow.  We were an efficient group.  Guru led Team Eagle Eye, which consisted of Guru, Myself, and YLee.  Our goal was to find blood and keep us bearing the right direction.  OsageTree led team DeerThink, which consisted of Osage and Razorbak.  Their role was to 'think like a deer' as Osagetree put it.  They kept their eyes forward and continued to think about where they would go if they were a dying deer relative to the last blood coordinate transmitted from Team Hawkeye. We were so efficient, in fact, that I am willing to bet that if you were in a tree stand secretly watching this event go down, you would think you were only seeing one trad ganger, let alone five of them.

Right around this time, Razorbak reminded me of a quote from Jeremiah Johnson that I've always sort of liked at times like this.  Bearclaw says "The human man, he likes tracking.  The Indian, well, he just figures it's natural".

This quote seemed to fit what the teams were doing here.  I wouldn't necessarily say we were 'natural', as Bearclaw said, but we were doing a good job.  There was no needless chatter (save the occasional fat joke from Guru - the fattist).  We were down to business and making some progress.

The blood was less frequent than Guru, the captain of Team Hawkeye, would have liked, but she was headed to the bottom of the hollow as we thought.

Team DeerThink suggested that the deer would likely cut down the hollow when she got to the bottom.  OsageTree pointed out the direction she would likely take:

 

[Ted]

When you look at the last picture.  OsageTree is pointing Mr. Clean to the North, which is down the hollow.  The blood trail at this point was going east to west to the bottom.  OsageTree was suggesting was prediction she would change directions when she hit the seasonal stream at the bottom.

You can't quite see it from here, but on the top of the far side hill is the bedding area I referenced earlier today.

Well, we got to the stream.  There was water in it.  Blood was not frequent, but we got her to the stream.  Team Hawkeye was having a hard time finding where she came out of it.

OsageTree was focusing his attention Northward glassing the potential hides that he could see downstream.

Then Razorbak suggested that we stop assuming that she would head down the hollow, staying with the water.  He said, "Let's assume for a minute that maybe she wasn't hit quite as hard as we think.  Maybe she would head to the bedding area.  Let's sneak on a line from last blood towards the hill top bedding area and see if we don't cut some sign.

We did and about ten yards beyond the creek bed, we found some scuff marks that could have been our deer and a step or two later we found a couple hairs, caked in blood and being feasted upon by ants.  

We were back on the trail, but somewhat disappointed as we were worried that 1) the exit hole was plugged, and 2) she had the strength to go up hill.

Just as we were thinking this, Guru spoke up "I've got blood.  Good blood!!!!  Possibly her first bed!":

 

She had some cover here.  It looked like an o.k. place for a dying deer to bed, but OsageTree said "Yeah, its o.k., but there are better spots all around here".

Sure enough, when we got to the blood, it didn't look like a bed.  Looked like she got there and stood for awhile.  We imagined that she probably weighed her options at that point and said "Well I can head to my bedroom; I'm tired, oh so tired, or I can go to the kitchen for a glass of cool rehydrating water; I seem to have a bit of a fever."  Obviously, it was a tough decision for her, as it looked like she pined over it for some time, as you can see below:

 

This sign renewed our spirits a little bit.  She was obviously losing a lot of blood and we gave here plenty of time to die.

YLeeCoyote: "She's gotta be close"

Team hawkeye looked for the direction she headed out of the decision spot, but didn't find much. In all honesty, Team Hawkeye was losing it's ferver.  Everybody now wanted to be on Team DeerThink.  We knew she couldn't be far . . . she either went to the bedroom or the kitchen:

The bedroom hallway:

 

The hallway to the kitchen:

 

[Ted]

Where would you fellas go . . . think on it, give me your answer and I'll continue this in the morning.

Ted

[Ted]

. . . wait a minute it is the morning (1am).  I was just kidding, I wouldn't do that do you - I will continue.

Ted

[Ted]

Well, as you might have guessed, the consensus said that the kitchen would be the most likely way to go.

I climbed out of the decision spot and I heard Guru whisper something to Razorbak about my big butt moving through the brush . . . that darned Guru.

Anyways . . . pretty much all of us now switched to Team Deer Think, with only YLee volunteering to keep Team Hawkeye alive, as we felt it would be prudent if one of us kept our eyes out for blood.

We took it slow and worked our eyes hard.  

Within 5 minutes, I heard the following:

Osagetree:  "Razor, give me the binocs . . . ahhh . . these cheap walmart binoculars are worthless . . . you need to invest in some nicer stuff, Ted . . . Razor, Guru, YLee, look at this; is that what I think it is?"

Razorbak: "I don't see what you're looking at.  Where?"

At this point all 5 of us plus Mr. Clean were looking down the hollow:

 

OsageTree:  "Look Close . . . Really Close:

 

OsageTree: "I may be crazy, but is that what I think it is?" . . . . .

[Ted]

. . . . it seemed simultaneous, but all of us at the same time said, I think it is.

 

We watched for a minute . . . no movement.

Razorbak reminded me that there was no rush as I probably already missed thanksgiving dinner.  To which I heard Guru snicker something like "I bet he doesn't miss the pumpkin pie".  Admittedly, that one even made me laugh.

Back to the matter at hand . . . the stalk was on and with each step it became clearer that stealth was not necessary and that Mr. Clean had done his job . . . again.

I think it really sunk in, right about here: