It's been several months since Mark passed away but I thought I would bring this thread back to share something hopeful. Mark's widow Ann Harris has continued Mark's generosity by extending an invitation to those of us who hunting with him to continue coming out to the farm.
Frequently this summer I've thought of Mark. Over the summer I have come out to the farm to put in food plots and manage some habit. I've gotten trail camera pictures and my boys have done some fishing. All of these things were enable by Mark's work. To that end I wanted to find a way to remember him and in my own way pay homage to Mark similarly to what has happened with Chris Surtees.
To that end I talked to Ann and asked her if I could purchase one of Mark's bows and make it into a pass around memorial bow amoung Mark's friends. She quickly told me that Mark would want us to have it and gave me the bow. Mark had lots of cool bows including a Schafer, Zipper, and Black Widow. But I picked a simple Bighorn recurve that I had seen. It was a plain jane model and that gave me the idea to spruce it up a little.
I took it to the shop and worked it over with a file and some sanding to round out some of the edges and take some weight off the limbs. Charlie Lamb gave me his expertise and helped put the final touches on it when I visited him this summer.
Then I took it and had it camo dipped in Predator camo. I got it back yesterday and put some arrows through it last night. It's a good shooter and looks pretty cool.
My plan is to harvest a deer with it this fall. That way Mark can come along with me on another hunt. It will be one I will not forget! I'm anxious for the season to start. It's going to be exciting to see what the bow has in store for me this fall.
Then this bow will be given to Charlie Lamb, Andrew Kinslow, and any of Mark's other friends who would like to hunt with it. Maybe we can all put our initals on it and that can be our tribute to him and a way to keep him in our group.
Here's to you buddy. Thanks for letting me use your bow. I'm going to do my best to shoot it straight!
Hopefully in a few more weeks or months I can update this post again with an animal taken with Mark's bow.
Topic: Passing of a good friend...but keeping his memory alive page 3 (Read 2791 times)
