And a hunter is born...the rest of the story...

Note: if any of you are squeamish at the sight of blood, there is a tiny bit in this post, so be aware...

My husband saw the buck about 75 yards ahead of them, in perfect line with my son's borrowed 243 rifle (Don't ask me what the 243 means. Or rifle for that matter. They're all scary guns to me). He carefully aimed...and pulled the trigger.

The buck jumped and ran off. My husband thought he had missed, but Kiddo was convinced he had hit him. So out of the tree stand they climbed, heading down into the clearing where the deer had been.

When they got to the clearing, they started the search for the telltale sign the deer had been hit...blood. They searched for several minutes, and my husband almost had given up when Kiddo said, "Dad, I really think he was further down than this. Let's go look down there." Instead of telling him that he didn't know much about hunting and that he knew how to hunt, Dad said, "Okay, lead the way!"

A few yards further down they hit paydirt...a blood trail. You know what that means? He hit that buck. His first shot on his first hunt on the first deer he saw. My eight year old son hit that deer. They started into the woods, weaving their way through the woods, not knowing if they would find him. It's always a hunter's dread to know they've hit something and not be able to find it. Not only because it's disappointing, but any good hunter does not want his or her shot to simply wound an animal and make it suffer.

They didn't have to search long. About 200 yards away from the stand, my husband turned and saw the buck's rump lying down in the leaves. They approached and both of them realized that my Kiddo had indeed killed his first deer.

Sorry about the blood...but I did warn you! But can you see how many points are on this deer? There are seven. S.E.V.E.N. Any hunter would be proud to get a 6 point. And my baby got a 7 point. I'm not a proud momma or anything.

My husband called me and the first thing out of his mouth was "7 points!" You could hear me holler all over the neighborhood. Then I got to talk to my son. Sort of. He was so excited he could hardly make a coherent sentence. I completely understood. I was so proud of my boy. And very happy I would no longer have to buy ground beef for a looooong while. My husband processed 20 lbs. of ground, 5 lbs. of backstrap (kind of like tenderloin), and a 3 lb. roast. I cannot wait to get my hands on that roast. If any of you have a good deer roast recipe, please let me know, since I've never cooked one. I know for sure I will be doing it in the crock -pot, but other than that, I don't know how do it. I'm a bit skittish about that much meat (I like ground and backstrap but I wonder if the roast will be gamey tasting). But I hope to get a good recipe that will make it larapin good.

I have only one thing left to say...is that the way you spell "larapin"?