The Shape in the Twilight
by
alandp
on Wed 17 Jan 2007 07:18 PM CST
More Google Earth stuff...
Here's a composite I put together of the old hunting place, which is across the highway from the previous picture. One thing that strikes me is that the old roads are utterly invisible. I don't suppose they'd have been any easier to see 20 years ago, since as I said before, they were little more than double-wide cow trails. You can probably make out the long slanted rectangle standing on its corner centered in the picture. That was the whole place, back then, except for the small square of cleared land right at the bottom center. Now, the back part of that place, which is heavily forested, belongs to someone else. The smaller front part is the only part I have access to now, including the small clear square at bottom center which the owner bought after he sold his back 300 acres.
By the way, that area that I outlined in gray is our current homemade rifle range.
The three yellow dots were my three most common deer hunting places. My dad and I each had our own favorite spots. I really don't know where my dad's favorites were, because our usual custom was for him to drop me off near my spot and then drive on to his area.
The lower-most yellow dot was in the clearing uphill from the tank in the back. Since it was a great watering hole for all kinds of wildlife, there was always lots of stuff happening there and I enjoyed hanging out and watching even if I didn't see a deer legal for taking. That clear area below and right of the dot wasn't there then. It was bulldozed clear many years later. The only "clear" area was the narrow, twisting trail that we used for a road to drive all the way down to the tank. You can see a little of it angling upward and left from the dot.
Once I had taken a position there behind one of my improvised ground blinds, made up of some fallen trees and limbs that we had dragged into a low wall to hide behind. I was sitting right on the ground and it was a very pleasant day--not too hot or cold--when I was approached by a group of armadillos. There were at least a half dozen, and they came toward me slowly, snuffling in the ground and digging around just like tiny pigs. I had never had an opportunity to watch armadillos up close before, so I didn't even bother keeping a lookout for deer down the clearing. I just watched the armadillos.
They made little grunting and squeaking noises, something like baby pigs, but softer and more muffled. Occasionally one of them would stand on its back legs, apparently balancing on its tail. I guess it just wanted to look around and sniff the air. Some of them had small whitish blazes on their foreheads. I was fascinated, having never seen armadillos so up close. A few of them finally reached me, snuffled around my outstretched legs and boots, trying to figure out what I was and what I was doing there, I suppose, before they lost interest and went on their way. One of them came far enough up my leg that I could have reached out and touched it with my hand, but I didn't want to scare it so I just kept still.
The topmost yellow dot was right on the back fence, where one of our makeshift roads went straight down the entire fenceline. I had a tree stand there that allowed me to see much farther in either direction than I would ever have risked shooting. It was in a good spot, though, and most of the time the deer I saw were within 100 yards, many times 50 yards away or less. The dot towards the middle is the one that this story is about.
To be continued...
