Growing up in a neighborhood full of boys, it wouldn't take long for someone to make a bad play during a street game and someone would mouth off to the tune off - you swing like a girl!. Everyone would laugh and away we went. Being all grown up now and having a daughter of my own I can admit that she does throw like a girl, shoots like a girl, fishes like a girl and hunts like a girl and I am proud of it. Heck I wish I could shoot like a girl sometimes, because she is pretty darn good and getting better every day. My daughter Kaleigh has always loved to fish and shoot, but just in the past couple of years has she taken the plunge into hunting and I must admit, she is getting really good at it.
With our busy schedules time in the field with my kids is limited so any time that our schedules open we jump on it and our schedules allowed us to enjoy an afternoon in a backwoods puddle for an waterfowl hunt. I picked my daughter up at school, made a quick trip to the archery shop to have a quick fix done to her bow, grabbed some lunch and headed home to load up the gear and head off to the swamp.
On the way up the road I got a call from Busch Pilot who was on his way to join in the fun. Kaliegh and I got the canoe unloaded and I loaded it up with the decoys and headed out to setup a spread consisting of some mallard decoys and some goose floaters. While I was doing that, Kaleigh was carrying gear to the blind and keeping our lab Hannah from following me out in the canoe. Once the decoys were set, I pulled the canoe up on shore and hid it in the brush and joined Kaleigh and Hannah in our hide. Busch Pilot showed up about 30 minutes later and joined our group. After BP got his normal welcome of a face full of smelly lab tongue from Hannah, we settled in and started scanning the sky and listening for any hint of ducks or geese all while enjoying the incredible fall colors that were made even more vibrant with the setting sun.
It was a pretty quiet afternoon, right up until about 20 minutes before sunset, which is legal shooting light in CT, when I swore I heard geese off in the distance. Busch Pilot and Kaleigh both claimed I was hearing things but I did convince them to hit the call and sure enough we got a response. We couldn't see them yet but could tell they were coming in for the night and hopefully they would land on the X which was wide open and out in front of us. I picked up the 4 geese just as they broke the trees about 50 yards behind us and they were low and heading in and looked like they were going to land short so Busch Pilot told Kaleigh to go ahead and take em. Just as they were about to get their feet wet, she stood up with her Remington 870 and squeezed off a shot and two geese hit the water. We all stood there in amazement with our mouths open and forgot about the other two geese that were making a hasty retreat for safety, which they succeeded at.
Kaleigh had fired one shot and had her limit of two geese while Busch Pilot and I were lighter a couple of shells and had to hit the drive thru for dinner. So when I say she shoots like a girl there is nothing negative about that comment. Heck, both Busch Pilot and I wished we had shot like a girl that night and couldn't have been more proud of her. Maybe if we are lucky she will gives us a lesson or two.
Passinthru Outdoors is all about sharing the passion for the outdoors with others and this past weekend Busch Pilot and I had the opportunity to take a youngster out for only his second turkey hunt ever. Earlier this week Bubba was telling us about Dylan, whose father had just been deployed and his serving his country as a member of the Air Force and that Dylan had no one to take him Turkey hunting. Bubba was going to be out of town with his family so we didn't hesitate to say yes when asked if Busch Pilot and I would take him out for youth day here in CT. The chance to take a youngster out for a hunt is always top on our list, but to take a youngster who's father is currently serving our great country and protecting our freedoms is definitely number one on the list.
Turkey we named Fingers who was on our hit list.
Dylan had completed his hunter safety course last spring and got his license just in time to hunt the last day of the 2011spring turkey season. Dylan was fortunate enough to tag his first deer last fall and was really looking forward to trying his luck at spring turkey and we were excited to be part of it. Any time we take a new hunter out to the woods, especially a youngster, it always adds a little bit of extra pressure as you always take the opportunity to teach and you want that person to see game and have a positive experience and if possible to fill a tag. Well this hunt offered up everything we had hoped for.
Busch pilot and I spent time doing our scouting and getting an idea for what was going on and it was interesting how things changed in just one week. The birds were broke up even more and were much more quiet. Even their roosting habits changed. There are hens on nests and we are catching them returning to roost very late in the day. This is why scouting on a regular basis is important to successful turkey hunts. Friday evening before the hunt we had 6 jakes work through the farm and head off to roost on the adjoining property, the good news was we felt they would work right back on to the farm or at least we could get them to do so as they would be well within range to hear us calling.
I picked Dylan up at his house at 4:30am and we made the short drive to the farm where we parked and waited for Busch pilot to show up because stopped down the street to talk with fisherman waiting for the 6:00am start time for Connecticut's opening day of fishing season. We got our gear loaded up and headed off to the lower part of the farm which would put us close to where those jakes headed off to roost. The first signs of light were greeted with a long distance gobble, which perked all 3 of us up. It wasn't long after that when the next gobbler sounded off and others responded. We had gobblers close enough that we knew we could work one and it wasn't long before Busch Pilot was working his magic and talking turkey. We had been talking and teaching Dylan about what was going on and what we thought might happen and he was very attentive and asked some questions. The best question was when he asked us if we should load the gun! We got caught up in listening for birds and explaining things to Dylan that it was almost 15 minutes into legal shooting and we still hadn't loaded the shotgun. We all had a good laugh about that one.
Check Fingers off the hit list
We had gobbles not far from us and knew they had crossed the property and were in the lower pasture of the farm we were hunting and now all we needed was a visual. I caught the first bird moving up the field and put the binos on him and could see it was a good tom so Busch Pilot gave him a few calls and he stopped and looked right into our setup. As he stopped to look, we noticed more birds coming in the field below him and it was the 6 jakes from the night before. All we needed now was for one of them to get interested in the sweet sounds coming from Busch Pilot's slate call. When that tom took two steps towards us, we knew that this was going to happen. That tom worked our way while the jakes continued up the field and out of sight.
I had the camera running, BP was calling and we couldn't forget about coaching Dylan who was extremely calm and ready to go. At one point when the tom was in range BP and I had a discussion and we decided to let him keep coming to the decoy to offer up a closer shot and the Tom obliged. When he got to the jake decoy Dylan had the gun up and a bead on him and when we gave Dylan the okay to take the safety off and take his shot. When the Remington 870 20 gauge barked that tom flipped over and Dylan had his first turkey on the ground. I think Busch Pilot and I were way more excited at first but it didn't take long for Dylan to join in the celebration. We exchanged high fives and hugs and let our adrenaline calm down and then sent Dylan out to retrieve his longbeard.
Dylan brought the bird back over to the blind and we looked it over, filled out his tag and took some pictures before breaking down the blind and packing up the decoys. Dylan's first bird was a two year bird weighing 20lbs and had a 9" beard
and had just incredible color. His bird was also one of the birds on
our hit list known as Fingers and there were plenty of folks in our crew
hoping to claim his as their own, but not a one was disappointed in the
news that Dylan shot fingers. Matter of fact, everyone was extremely
happy and excited for him, even my daughter who held out last weekend in
hopes of getting a poke at Fingers.
Dylan with his first turkey - 20lbs 9" beard
Just as we made it back to the trucks, some friends showed up to check out Dylan's first bird and offer up congrats for a job well done. We then headed off to Busch Pilot's house to clean Dylan's bird and call it a day. Dylan plans on mounting the tail and beard and I hope that every time he looks at it he remembers this hunt and thinks about how he can share the passion with someone new. Because in the end, it's not about the trophies on the wall or the filled tags, but the memories of sharing the passion for the shooting sports with someone else.
Saturday April 14th was the first of two turkey youth hunting training days here in Connecticut. These days are designed to allow licensed youth hunters to hunt prior to the opening of the general season as long as they are accompanied by a licensed adult. Only the youth hunter is allowed to carry a firearm or bow and the only one allowed to hunt. This offers up plenty of opportunities for the youth hunters to learn as the adults teach. Great concept and very valuable in getting kids excited in our sport of hunting.
So Saturday Busch Pilot and I planned on taking out My Daughter and Bubba's youngest son Jared out turkey hunting at the farm. This would be Jared's first turkey hunt and my daughters second year. Last year Kaleigh was successful tagging her first bird on a youth hunt and we were hoping the same good luck would be with Jared.
A mature bird nicknamed Fingers - he is on Kaleigh's hit list
We have been watching the farm for weeks and knew we had plenty of birds using the farm regularly including 3 longbeards and a jag of young jakes. At times during our scouting the filed would be full of birds as much as 20 at one time. The Friday evening before we scouted the farm, and the birds did the exact same thing they've been doing as previous scouting trips which made our game plan simple. Busch Pilot and Jared would setup in the upper field closer to where the birds were roosting, while Kaleigh and I hunted the lower pasture hoping to catch one of the bigger toms skating around all the action.
Just as it started getting light the first gobbler sounded off and it started the typical morning chain reaction and we had birds gobbling on the roost all around us so we knew the kids would see birds today and hoped they would come close enough for a shot or two. Once the birds hit the ground they got a little quiet, but there was a good mix of birds in the field and heading down off the upper field which would put them in view of Jared's setup. Bubba had to work and couldn't join the hunt, but he was down on the road watching the show and his watch all while willing the birds into the Jared's setup. Busch Pilot is our Turkey Whisperer and speaks fluent turkey and he gave a couple of soft yelps and purs and that strutting Jake turned to look and got his first glimpse of the decoy. That strutting Jake walked right up to the decoy just 15 yards from where Jared sat and when that Remington 870 20 gauge barked that Jake hit the ground and never twitched. Jared's first turkey ever was on the ground bit the field was still filled with birds so they sat tight. Seeing we have a 3 bird limit on private land here in CT, Busch Pilot asked Jared it he wanted to shoot another one, which by the way was a stupid question, of course Jared did. So Busch Pilot worked a another Jake and hen into the decoys and told Jared to shoot when the hen cleared out and was safe. That hen cleared out, Jared shot and two Jakes hit the ground. Yup, another Jake was running in as he shot and both went down. So Jared's first every turkey hunt ended in him tagging out by 6:30am. That wasn't the plan, but it happens sometimes.
Jared's first, second and third Turkey of hist hunting carreer
Kaleigh and I could hear the whole thing and would catch a glimpse of the top of a strutting tom's tail but the only bird to make it to us that early was a bearded hen. When Jared went to retrieve his flopping bird, the birds spooked and flew off so Kaleigh and I decided to stay put and let things calm down. About an hour later we had hens talking and birds gobbling again so we got back to business and it wasn't long after that when we saw birds coming around the point and working are way. Kaleigh had decided that she wanted a mature bird and was not going to shoot a Jake and I thought that would be thrown out the window at the first sign of a Jake and she was about to be tested, not once but multiple times. As we watched the first bird coming our way we could see the second, third and eventually the 7th Jake coming down into the lower pasture. We looked them over good at a distance with the binos and then I asked Kaleigh if she wanted to shoot one and I thought for sure she would say yes, so when she said no I was shocked. I asked again to make sure and she reemphasized her no a little louder which was my signal to not ask again. So I asked her if she wanted to have some fun with them which she agreed to, so we gave a few soft helps and those Jakes turned and walked right to us. The milled around gobbled some, tried to strut there stuff but they seemed a little nervous which was probably due to the fact that Jared had knocked down 3 of their friends.
The Jakes finally headed off down below us and continued to gobble every now and again. While all this was going on, we could hear two more gobblers off in the distance and we both knew they were most likely the mature birds we were looking for. I felt that trying to work the mature birds with 7 Jakes less then 75 yards from us would prove to be ineffective, but we gave it a shot. Just about 10 minutes after calling to those mature toms, that I hear that sound of a turkey strutting and peak out the window to the right and there is one of those Jakes just 10 yards from the blind. Crap, they came back. I once again asked Kaliegh if she wanted to shoot one and this time I got the head shake and a dirty look. So we sat backed and enjoyed the show that the Jakes would put on for almost 20 minutes. They huddled up by our decoy at a mere 15 yards and gobbled and gobbled and gobbled. They gobbled at everything. Crows, planes, geese, other turkeys, actually they gobbled at just about anything that made noise. All this time we could hear those two other gobblers still sounding off but getting farther away. Not good, but we decided to sit and enjoy the show which we did. We giggled at almost every gobble, Kaleigh took pictures with her cell phone and sent them to all her friends and she would ask some questions and I would answer.
Once the Jakes finally got out of our setup, we waited about a 1/2 hour and decided we would do some additional calling from our current setup to see if we could hear those other Toms before changing game plans. We got a long distance gobble here and there but they obviously had their ladies with them and wanted nothing to do with us. We did a little run and gunning but couldn't go to where those Toms were and nothing else responded so at about noon we decided to call it a morning and head out to get some lunch. We ate lunch and ran back to the house to check in with mom and it was almost 1:30pm and even though we could hunt until 5pm on youth day, Kaleigh had a birthday party to go to that evening and decided to skip the afternoon hunt. She was going to from camo and the turkey woods to a dress and heels all in one day.
Fingers the day after the youth hunt - Kaleigh took his picture
Success comes in many forms and success is really defined by the individual. Jared had a very successful day no doubt about it, and some may feel that Kaleigh didn't. The fact that Kaleigh made up her mind and stuck to her game plan and never wavered, even with multiple legal birds taunting her just feet from where she sat taking their picture, says different. These youth hunts are also about training and opportunities to gain experience, I'd say the hunt provided us with plenty of opportunities to discuss and learn from and for Kaleigh to grow as a hunter and I was proud of how she handled the experience. In my book that equals a successful hunt.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday we had a chance to take the kids out for a goose hunt. Busch Pilot, Bubba and his two sons James and Jared, my son Brendan, my Daughter Kaleigh and of course me all made the early morning trek to the farm with hopes of cupped and committed honkers dancing in our heads.
Hero Shot - The smiles are the best reward
The kids were eager to help with building our blind, which would be located at the end of a hedgerow, and then setting out 3 dozen Big Foot full bodies and 2 dozen shells which would hopefully pull the geese in for some up close and personal shooting. We construct the blind every morning we hunt this farm so we have it down to a science and could probably whip it out in mere minutes, but we wanted the kids to have a hand in every aspect of the hunt so they were banging in stakes, hanging the burlap and stacking up the corn stalks and I must say they made a great little blind. The wind was blowing from all directions and was supposed to be coming out of the Northwest so we set the spread hoping that would be the case.
Yes Jared is standing up - had to have him raise his hand
It was just starting to get light as we were settling into the blind and started giving the kids some safety and shooting instructions and we were greeted with a flock of turkeys yelping always as they were getting ready to fly down for their roosts. All this turkey talk was helping with the kids paying attention, but we ran them through a test run to give them an idea of what was going to happen. You know the drill, keep your heads down, don't move, ready, take em. The test run ran smooth so all we needed now was some geese to cooperate.
It wasn't long before we had geese in the air, but they were on a mission to go somewhere other then to our field so we just kept watching flock after flock off in the distance. I was beginning to worry, but that worry was washed away as a flock of geese broke over the tree line and were keyed in on our spread. Busch Pilot and Bubba worked their magic on the calls, while I manned the video camera. The geese flew right over the hedgerow and our blind, made a loop out over the field and turned to line up for a run at our spread. They were cupped and committed and started to land but they flaired off short of the spread and headed out. We tried to get them turned around but they just headed out. We were not sure what they saw, but we would be keeping an eye on that. The next flock to work the spread did almost the same thing and were committed to the spread at the end of the blind and they too flaired just short of the landing, but Busch Pilot called the shot and our first goose was down. Busch Pilot and I decided to move some decoys around and clear out more of a spot in front of the blind to see if it made a difference and most certainly did as the next flocks to visit did exactly what we wanted them to do.
Bubba and James being good retrievers
We had a single come in next that got folded by both Jared and James who shot at the exact same time. There was plenty of hoots and laughs after that one. Then another flock that the kids dropped two from, but one got up and started heading out so Brendan went to put it down but he had forgotten to reload so as we watched the goose head down the field, bubba and James headed after it. The goosed crashed into the trees and was recovered by James. We had another flock just touching down a mere feet from the blind and Busch Pilot called the shot and the kids stood up I think they were in shock at how close they were because only one was dropped from that bunch. It was about 10am so we decided to pack it up and head home.
Don't tell Bubba's wife, but we stole her Golden Goose!
You can get a college kid to do just about anything.
We worked him hard.
It's tiring being a goose hunter.
Each of the kids got a goose and learned plenty about goose hunting. They had lots of laughs and seemed to enjoy every minute of it. I know Busch Pilot, Bubba and Myself sure enjoyed it and we couldn't stop smiling or laughing. Hope to get them all out there again over the Christmas holiday. There is nothing I enjoy more then Sharing the Passion with kids, especially my own.
I wish I was reporting on my daughter's deer hunting success but she is down in Florida spending some time with Mickey and friends and enjoying the warm weather. I think 10 days without power was too much for my wife and daughter so they are soaking up the sun and fun while I hold down the fort. Don't feel bad for me as I will heading down to NJ in a few weeks for our annual Muzzle loader camp - woods and cold over sun and sand. I'll take it every time.
Connecticut offers many youth hunter training days where it allows licensed youth hunters to get a jump on their season and get a little hunting in without the crowds of the regular season. All youth hunters are required to be licensed, which means passing a hunter education course and to be accompanied by a licensed adult. Only the youth hunter is allowed to hunt while the adult is there to mentor and teach. I am a huge fan of these youth training days and have been taking advantage of them with my kids and their friends for 8 season now and these days are by far the best thing for the future of hunting. There are those that complain about them as not being fair to let the kids out before the rest of us and for them I say in my best Sargent Hulka (Stripes) voice - "Lighten up Francis!"
Tired, cold, and ready for some lunch.
Connecticut offers 2 youth deer hunt days on the 2 Saturdays before the start of gun season. I was fortunate enough to take my daughter out on the first one. We were still battling power outages from the storm Alfred but we got our gear together anyway and made the best of it. I decided to hunt state land that day and thanks to the storm damage, I was unable to get to my first spot, so we turned the truck around and headed to a spot closer to home. IT was a cold day and I didn't think we would last long be we made it until about 11:30. We had plenty of fresh sign, especially around the tree tops that fell in the storm. It was like a lunch line of track around them. We also found a few fresh scrapes that could have been made overnight seeing we had a really bright moon that night. Even though we didn't see any deer, we had some laughs and enjoyed ourselves. My daughter was playing with an acorn and wanted to taste it and of course her trying to get it apart was worth a few laughs but when I told her she was a knuckle head and she turned to me with a wide grin with acorn between her fingers and said "No, I'm a nut!" I just lost it and knew it was time to go take a walk because if there was anything around us it was sure to run with all that laughter.
Bubba's son James aka Little Bubba, was also out hunting that morning and they too were met with a uneventful morning but that would change for Little Bubba during the second youth hunting day. Bubba's youngest just turned 12 days prior to the second youth day and was finally able to hunt. So Busch Pilot and Bubba took both James and Jared out for a morning hunt to a piece of private land we hunt. James had a nice buck come bounding off the hill but when he tried to move into position the buck spooked and ran towards hos brother Jared. The buck stayed low so Jared never got a look at it. As Busch Pilot put it, "well at least we saved Jim from a taxidermy bill.". That was the only deer around that morning. On the way home they had seen many deer out feeding in the grass fields so Bubba decided that for the afternoon hunt they would hunt over a grass field on a different piece of property.
Little Bubba with his buck 2011 CT Youth Deer hunt
Jared decided that hunting once a day was enough for him so he stayed home and Bubba and James headed up the road for an evening hunt. The blind of choice this evening consisted of sitting under a old flatbed truck. Now don't laugh until you try it. This flatbed has served purpose as a blind on many occasions very successfully I might add. Well with about 30 minutes of light left James said he say a deer in the brush across the field and lost it. about 15 minutes later it was out in in the open in a small field just off the big grass field. Bubba wanted to get it on film so he hurried to get the video camera on and as soon as the camera was on and the buck in few he gave James the okay to shoot and before he could finish getting the words out of his mouth the 30-30 barked and the spike buck dropped in it's tracks. The shot was on the video but it happens really fast. My favorite line from the video was "your brother is not going to be happy!", but even if Jared was a little disappointed he was still happy and willing helped with the skinning later that night. This was James' second buck and he shot his first last year during a youth hunt that you can read about HERE.
Here is a short video clip of Little Bubba's hunt. Remember it happens quick.
The smiles on the kids faces make everything right in the world and with the sport of hunting. There is something about taking a youngster out in the woods and sharing your knowledge and passion for our great sport of hunting. I'd give up shooting myself if every day was youth day.
It was my daughter Kaleigh's birthday recently and her presents weren't necessarily those typical things that most teenage girls get like clothes, shoes, or shopping sprees. I was looking for something special that no one else had and would represent her new passions for the outdoors.
When my son turned 12 I gave him custom handmade knife, actually I had two identical knifes made. One for Brendan and one for me. It represented both the passion and the time we shared and continue to share in the field. It is something that when either of looks at our knife it is sure to stir those memories of enjoyable times afield. Not that I need anything to stir up those memories, but these knifes focus those memories on our outings.
So with my daughter finally getting into the outdoors with more passion I felt it was time for her and I to have something to share that was related to our outdoor passions and pursuits. So knowing my daughter I knew she would like something that she could show off and it had to be one of a kind just like her.
At first I thought this would be a daunting task, but through the course of catching up on many of the blogs I follow, the light bulb went on and I instantly knew what I wanted to do for Kaliegh's birthday present. See my very first "They Have the Passion" blog post highlighted Joel and his blog "A Year on the Fly" where Joel combines his passion of fishing and painting into a wonderful blog that highlights his art and I knew I just had to ask him to help me out with my idea. I emailed Joe my request and I immediately got an excited yet somewhat nervous reply from him but I could tell he was hooked. So I sent Joel a picture along with what I was thinking and Joel set off to do what he does, by the way did I mention that he does a dang good job at it. Joel communicated back often showing progress and introducing some additional ideas and thoughts and the result was better then I imagined.
I don't remember telling Joel about the custom knifes I made for Brendan and I, but he must have sensed something because he also sent me an additional 8x10 print of Kaleigh's turkey so I too will always have that visual reminder available to me and for that I am super appreciative. I could sense a little "what about me" going around the room so I'm certain that Joel will be hearing from me again in the future.
To say Kaleigh was excited and happy is an understatement. She was grinning from ear to ear and I think I even saw a small tear role down her check but don't tell her that I noticed it. She mentioned that her two favorite gifts where her Turkey painting and her new Buck Commander DVD that her brother bought her. I may have to buy her another copy of that DVD because I think she might wear this one out watching her favorites Chipper Jones, Luke Brian and Jason Alden.
I know how much the time spent in the field this spring meant to me and I only hope it means as much to her. I am looking forward to getting her out in the duck blind and deer stand this fall so I can live and breathe ever single moment as she experiences the raw addiction to the great out outdoors and our sport of hunting.
Now I just need to find that special place to hang Kaleigh's painting so she will stop taking down Brendan's buck mount and putting up her big smiling face.
Connecticut's 2011 Turkey season has been open for 3 days now and I've been stuck in the office all week, man I need a new job. Maybe one that allows me to hunt and fish all day, every day. Anyone know of any openings?
So the second of CT's two youth turkey hutning days was this past Saturday and I awoke to rain, wind and even snow flakes - and they were sticking to the grass even. After checking in with the boys it was decided that we crawl back into the sack and see how it is a little later in the morning. Well about 8:30ish the rain lightened up enough to make a run to provate land, but my daughter and I had to back out as we had family coming in from out of state for the holiday and the wife needed our help. That's okay because Busch Pilot and Bubba took Bubba's son James - aka Little Bubba - out for a run at some birds and it is a good thing they did. Little bubba scored on a pair of soaking wet jakes that just couldn't resist checking out that crazy hen making all that noise in the rain. This was Little Bubba's first ever turkeys and he was excited and I think he forgot about how wet he was.
Busch Pilot & the victory sign after running down one of Little Bubba's Jakes
Little Bubba with his rain soaked Jakes
Busch Pilot has been at it since the opener where he had to contend with some other hunters with a not so nice attitude. It's a good thing I wasn't there because I am no where as nice and as patient as BP is. Anyway BP didn't get any shooting in but he did work a few birds. Busch Pilot does his homework and he has been on the look out for Chief - the tom with a missing tail feather that my daughter missed on youth day - and BP had him put to bed the other night and at just after 7am the next day Chief stepped out and gave BP a perfect shot and down he went. There was another tom with Chief and all he had to do was to walk away but he stayed around and BP gave him the same welcome he gave Chief. My daughter is a little unhappy that BP got Chief, but she says she will just shoot a bigger one. Gotta love that confidence.
Busch Pilots 2011 Toms
Bubba finally got out as well and during my 7:30am check in with him he had only seen one hen and it was quiet. For the piece of land he was hunting, this isn't a good sign and it wasn't looking very promising. It wasn't long after that Bubba started working a bird and a lone jake came running right in to the setup. With 3 private land turkey tags in his pocket and turkey poppers on his mind, Bubba never hesitated and down went the jake.
Bubba's 2011 Jake
Just a few Connecticut Turkeys showing off their 2011 birds
So let's take inventory here.
Kaleigh - 1
Little Bubba - 2
Busch Pilot - 2
Bubba - 1
ME - ZERO.
OUCH! I better get on the stick and get in the woods. Hopefully tomorrow will be my day, but with turkey hunting you just never know what is going to happen and that is one of the reasons we all love turkey hunting - Every outing brings hope, disappointment frustration and hopefully success. But no matter what the day holds for you as a turkey hunter it always serves to drive the passion.
As I break down the 20+ minutes of video that we took during my daughter's youth hunt I continue to be impressed with everything she got to see that day. We had action from 11am until quiting time and we just didn't know what would happen next.
This clip is of some young toms and jakes trying to impress the ladies. Hope you enjoy it.
This past Saturday was the first of 2 spring turkey youth training day's here in CT and my daughter had been promising me she was ready to accept the challenge. Not the challenge of the hunt but the challenge of going to bed at a decent time and getting up early which she is not very good at, as can be said for most teenagers, but she had promised and even practiced. Ofcourse the deal for some new camo clothing helped as well, but first she had to prove she can get up and hunt on a regular basis so Saturday's wake up was her first test which she passed with flying colors.
The field during last Sunday's scouting trip
We had been doing our scouting both on state land and private land and have been seeing and hearing birds on pretty much every scouting trip, so we knew we had a good chance of getting into some birds on her hunt but the events of the entire day where totally unexpected and filled with so many new experiences, trials, failures and success that it just made her first turkey hunt that much more memorable and has definitely fueled a new passion in her.
Another shot from the lower field
Our hunt started out on a small piece of state land near our house that up until Friday had looked like a lock. I went out Friday morning before work to listen for birds and there was not a turkey sound anywhere which made for a long day at work. My daughter, Busch Pilot and myself went out Friday night to roost the state land spot and the only birds we heard was a gobbler down in the road and a car honking at him - not a good sign. What seemed like a great game plan was turning into a not so good one fast, but we knew the birds were in the area and felt we could find them and if not no big deal we head over to private land where we know the birds will be. We worked the state land area from sunrise until about 9:30 with not a single peep but we did cut plenty of turkey sign so we just need to figure out when they will be back. We left State land and headed for private but first we need some sustenance because the pop tarts and Gatorade we had earlier was not cutting it.
Busch Pilot and Kaleigh taking a break during our State Land hunt
Busch Pilot trying his best to locate some birds on State Land
After Breakfast it was off to a piece of private land that we have been hutning for years and all our kids have taken their first birds off this piece of land so we had high hopes for our midday hunt. The game plan was to setup on the edge of the upper field and see if we couldn't call a few birds out from the woods. As we were heading up the field we caught movement across the field 6 birds stepped out of the woods and into the field. We dove for the ground and decided to watched them instead of work them as we were out in the wide open field. They worked up the field and into the woods and once out of sight we made a mad dash along the hedgerow and up to the upper field. We were standing there contemplating where to setup and had decided to setup on the far side of the field. Before heading across the field Busch Pilot decided to scan the lower field one more time and when he did he noticed 2 toms working up the field towards us, pretty much exactly where we just came from. It was a full out scramble to get the blind setup and ready for a shot and the 30mph wind gust made it that much more of a challenge as the blind ripped out of my hands and was headed to the open field when my daughter grabbed it for me. Good thing she has cat like reflexes like her father. Disaster avoided!
We were all tucked in the blind and in our haste forgot to put out the decoys. DANG! No decoy no problem right, well maybe not. We knew the birds would come right past us if they stayed on course but would they be close enough and if not how would we pull them in. When that longbeard cleared the hedgerow and gave us a good look we lost focus that my daughter was all new to this and started whispering orders to her like she was a seasoned veteran. To our surprise stayed composed and handle the request well and she already had a bead on him and was just waiting for the signal to shoot. Busch Pilot let out a few clucks and old Mr. Tom gobbled and it was enough to stop him and get him to stretch out tall looking across the field and has he did we told Kaleigh to shoot and shedid and missed completely. We barked the typical orders to eject and get back on him and when she did the gun jammed. She stayed calm and cleared the jam and had another round in the chamber ready to go but it wasn't to be as we just watched these two toms slowly work across the field out of range from the 20 gauge.
After they left the field I crawled out the blind and across the field to setup the decoys and then wormed my way back into the blind. It wasn't long until we had two toms pop out across the field and start working toward us but they were a little leery and taking their time and that was when I noticed 3 more birds pop out from the same spot about 75 yards behind these two and the chase was on. Those 3 jakes started running towards the two toms and they blew by us heading back down the field. Just as the 3 jakes cleared the wood line, 3 more jakes popped out and joined the chase. Now we had 6 Jakes and two toms running around the lower field that we couldn't see and with the wind blowing we even struggled to hear them. As Busch Pilot put it "Oh MY! We have a situation". Yes we did. Every now and then we would hear a gobble that let us know they were still down the field but we still can't see them. All of a sudden a 3 Jakes come running right by the blind and my daughter rushes a shot only to miss by a mile. It caught us off guard somewhat but she was on top of things for sure. We continued to be patient and wait for the other 5 birds and sure enough they come back into the upper field out of range and headed across the field and back into the woods from where they had just came. The count is now 0 for 2 on and we are working hard to get ourselves under control and to come up with a game plan. One thing for sure is we need more shells as we only had 5 with us so I made the call and had an Air Force C130 drop a box of shells into our location. Okay so it wasn't a C130 it was Bubba who ran a box up the field to us and thank goodness he did.
Things quieted down for about an hour, so Busch Pilot and Kaleigh took a nap while I kept vigil scanning the field and woods and calling every so often. I had to wake them up twice as birds popped out of the point and into the field only to head back in. Around 2pm we had a hen pop out of the woods and into the field and then another. We watched them for a bit nowing that the boys would show up soon. Sure enough like on command, two toms pop into the upper field and work down to these hens and you could see the beards swinging as they waddled in. One of those toms put on a great display trying to entice the hens and worked hard to keep the other tom from getting close. Busch Pilot did his best to pull the hens across the field but the wind was just not helping. We could barely hear the gobbles so I'm sure they had trouble hearing us.
Kaleigh taking a nap in the blind
As we watched this wonderful display of courtship I noticed some more birds pop out in the same spot the two toms had come from and they turned out to be those 6 Jakes again. They stayed on top of the field and had a good scrap going on as they jumped up in the air sparing with each other for a few minutes and when they stopped they were headed down the field towards the two toms and those lone hens. It looked like a scene from a roller derby movie as they headed down the field bumping each other as they ran. We were enjoying every minute of this, but definitely getting frustrated and my daughter was cold and tired and probably ready to go home but we stayed with it. All the birds finally headed back up the field and into the woods but would pop back out every once and while to scan the field but we just could not get them to come to our setup. It could have been the wind as it was definitely making our blind rock.
We decided it was time to leave our setup and head for an open landing near where all the birds had come and gone for the past 2 hours. The problem is that we had to get through the open field and into the brush without being seen. We scanned the field over good and with no sign of birds we made a mad dash across the field to the wood line. We scrambled over rocks and through the prickers and set up on the hedgerow that these birds kept walking down. We had two hens out across the field just feeding but I just didn't like the setup. We were limited in our shot area and would never see the birds coming until they were right on us making any adjustment out of the question and I was tired of the unexpected and wanted more control of the situation. So it was back into the woods and through the prickers to get to the open landing that was just inside the woods off the field. We got there with a few minor scratches and cuts and started looking around for our next setup but had to move fast as those birds were in and out of this area so much we didn't want to be standing there in the open next time they popped out. There wasn't much at all for good setups but we made do with some old logs leftover from the logging they had done. It wasn't ideal but this would work.
I was laying on a log with the video camera shooting through some brush as I was trying to make myself as small as possible which is not an easy task. BP hit the call and we had a gobble instantly. Holy heck, here we go again. It wasn't long before a hen walked right across the landing and headed to the field. BP called some more and we had multiple gobbles this time which meant those crazy jakes where on the way again. They came into the landing and then popped into the woods, we called they popped back out but stayed on the far side. BP gave Kaliegh the green light to shoot and she did and once again another clean miss. For the life of me I had no idea what was going wrong because Kaleigh can shoot and the gun patterns very well but with my head buried in the video I had no idea what she was doing. BP gave them some more calls and they stayed on the far edge of the landing, some strutting, some looking around but clueless that they had just been shot at...Again!
Busch Pilot then broke out with a round of kee kee calls and they spun around and starting heading across the landing. As those 6 birds started across, two more jakes came around the brush from the field and into the landing and they were close. I could hear BP telling Kaliegh to shoot and her telling BP that there were to many birds behind them and she didn't want to take the shot, especially the way she had been shooting. It was a comical exchange between the two but it was the right thing to do. The birds separated just enough where Kaleigh was comfortable and not a word needed to be said to her because neither BP or I called for the shot but it went off and we just watched as Kaleigh's first bird hit the dirt. I was stunned and lost for a momentum and BP was about to jump up and go get her bird but the other jakes wouldn't leave so I told her to shoot again seeing the limit is 3 and she thought I wanted her o shoot her bird again so the rest of the jakes got a free pass when she aimed for her bird instead of one of them. We still had one jake decide to come back in and stomp her bird but she was out of shells and I had them in my vest so we just enjoyed show instead.
It was now 4:13pm almost 12 hours after wake up and after putting on almost 4 miles on state land that morning plus all the craziness around us on private land including a couple of misses, but success had finally come and the smile on my daughters face said it all. Both Busch Pilot and I were so proud of the way she hung in there and fought through it all. It was definitely the most beautiful jake that we had ever seen. I didn't think her smile could get any bigger but it did when I showed her where he brother shot his first bird, just 75 yards down the logging road from where she got her first bird. We took lots of pictures and sent one out over the cell and her big brother called back immediately and he was yelling and so excited for her which made for a perfect finishing touch on this hunt.
Kaleigh with BP for a hero shot - The logs was their hiding spot just minutes before
That smile is proof that hunting is good for the soul
For myself and the guys I hunt with we enjoy sharing the passion with others, especially kids and the days events made for incredible memories and the smile on my daughters face proves that we are doing things the right way. I know she is hooked because we were out scouting again last night and she was arguing with Busch Pilot about who is going to tag "The Chief". As my daughter put it, "I missed him Saturday but I won't miss him next time". The bad news for Busch Pilot is that we have another youth training day coming up so she gets another chance at him before the regular season opens up but she is the back up shooter as we will have Bubba's son James out trying to bag his first bird.
I don't even what to guess at what next Saturday will bring but as Busch Pilot always likes to say "It's going to be an adventure." and I'm sure it most certainly will.
A while back OBN had a writing prompt suggestion about a blog post from a kids perspective and I have asked both my son and daughter to write a blog post for me so below is the first ever guest blog post, actually it's more like a short story, as written by my Son Brendan who currently is a Sophomore in College.
My First Buck
When my father asked me write about a hunting experience, my mind ran wild with the memories that I’ve acquired in the past 8 years of being able to hunt. Should I talk about the turkey hunts in Connecticut (two doubles) or the harvest of my first ever deer while my father and his best friend watched. It is tough to pick one specific hunt because they all have so much meaning. The one I decided to write about was the 8 pointer I took in the Delaware Water Gap, New Jersey. For those who don’t know much about this area, it’s something you need to go explore. A place in New Jersey that is full of wildlife is hard to come by, but this place doesn’t lack excitement. My grandfather, uncle, father, and I have grown up hunting the mountains of “the Gap” and chasing big whitetails.
My big buck was taken during the muzzleloader trip in 2007 that our hunting group goes on after Thanksgiving every year for the first two days of the NJ muzzleloader season. We travel down the Sunday after Thanksgiving to hunt Monday and Tuesday. We head down on Sunday to unpack and do some scouting before the two fun filled days ahead of us. The food and company never seizes to disappoint and the atmosphere of a good camp is present. As we sit down and eat we discuss where we are all going to sit in the morning. I wasn’t able to hunt the archery season so I was depending on my father and others who were there to give me advice on where to sit for muzzleloader. They decided to give me a spot overlooking a laurel area near the power lines we normally hunt. I would sit behind a big tree that had fallen the previous year and watch out towards the pines that surround the power lines.
As I lay in bed that night, deer fever got to me as it was hard to fall asleep. The excitement of the hunt kept my mind racing all night. As all hunters know waking up in the morning for a hunt isn’t hard at all and that’s what happened. I jumped out of bed and got packed, ate breakfast, and we were off for a cold day in the woods. My father dropped me off at my spot as he continued on his way to reach his spot down towards the power lines before sunrise. It was a slow morning as the sun came up over the mountain and began to warm the air slightly. I have to say one of the most amazing views is watching a sunrise light up the woods slowly. There is nothing better than to sit and watch nature at its finest moments such as that. The morning showed no activity so we decided to all meet up for lunch and discusses our plan for the afternoon. I couldn’t walk away from my spot just yet; so I decided to go there again in the afternoon and wait it out for some deer to pass by my spot.
As the afternoon rolled on, my hopes for anything coming by were diminishing. Suddenly, a nice 8 pointer comes walking through the pine trees a little over 100 yards away. My heart instantly started racing as my moment to take down a trophy buck has come. I pull up my Thompson Center Muzzleloader and fire a shot. After the smoke clears I lose sight of the buck. I get a call on the radio about the shot and the situation. My uncle Steve was the closest to me so he came and helped calm me down and prepare to look for a blood trail. As we were talking about our approach of tracking this deer, the big buck appears on the hill about 75 yards away. He seemed very much alive so my shot clearly missed. Now it was my uncle’s turn as he slowly walked around the tree that I sat next to and set up for a shot. Again smoke fills the air from my uncle’s muzzleloader. The deer runs off and seems untouched as we sit in disbelief that this trophy has escaped two shots in the matter of 20 minutes.
As the day came to an end, we head back to camp for a big dinner and start swapping stories about our day in the woods. Of course, I get a little heckling from the guys about missing a big buck, but it’s just part of being the young guy in the group. I decided that I would go back to that same spot tomorrow regardless of the previous day’s events. I had a feeling that my spot was in a prime location of the big buck’s path.
The second and last day of muzzleloader camp came all too quickly as we all got up bright and early and headed out to our spots. I was determined to sit in the same spot and hope for just one more chance at this beautiful buck. Soon after we all settled down we get a heads up on the radio from Jimmy K about him spooking a couple deer as he was walking into his spot by the power lines and they were heading our way. Thoughts raced through my mind about the buck coming by again. My father sat with me on this day which made this hunt even more exciting. He made the decision to walk to the bottom of the deadfall to get a better look at the deer that could be approaching from the hill below us.
Sure enough, the big buck starts walking the same path he did before just 50 yards closer this time. My father started using the grunt call to bring him to a closer range for a nice shot. The buck decided to give me another chance as he walked 60 yards away and stood broadside. Everything slowed down and got quiet as I looked into the scope and fired a shot at this buck once again. As the smoke cleared, I could see the buck running directly away from me. The difference between this shot and the other one was that the deer was running differently than before. With the tail up this time, I was sure I had to of made contact, but was a little skeptical after the previous day. My father came back up to meet up with me and had me retell what happened from the shot to where I last saw him. After a couple minutes we decided to go to the spot of the shot and start to look for a blood trail. Our first sign of blood trail was 50 yards after the shot and we knew we had a good chance of harvesting this deer. As we were tracking the sign, we hear another shot that came from Ernie, one of our CT hunting buddies that was with us. We hear from him that he put a second shot in my deer that was on a death run at this point. As we were tracking our shot, Ernie and Bobby were tracking Ernie’s shot.
Finally, my father and I get the call on the radio that the big buck is down and I have harvested my first buck. As soon as we heard that, my father and I yelled with joy and hugged each other. That moment we had is something I will always remember and cherish. To have my father with me to witness the harvesting of my first buck made me feel proud and I felt that I made him proud. He taught me everything I know about hunting and that moment made it all come full circle for me. He always says that he gets more enjoyment from watching me hunt than him hunting by himself. For me to see the smile on his face was all I could ask for because I knew that I was becoming the hunter he wanted me to be. Once we finally got to the trophy, I sat back with awe at the beautiful creature.
After taking pictures and gutting it (thanks Ernie), the mile long drag was left. I’m thankful the road was an old logging trail that was flat because the deer got heavier and heavier with every step. As we made it back to the cars, I was congratulated by everyone on my kill. I was the king of the woods that day and nobody could have brought me down.
I want to thank my father for giving me the opportunity to write this story. I always want to thank him for being a great teacher, role model, friend, hunting partner, but most importantly, being a Dad that has been there for me with the ups and downs. Being at college, I have little time to get out in the woods due to my stacks of homework and extracurricular activities. Having been away from hunting for a couple years, it has made me cherish the moments I had with my friends and family out in the woods. Like my father and grandfather have told me though, “Get an education, have your fun, because hunting will always be waiting for you when you return.” I think that is something that not many people realize is that the woods are accepting of hunters that care about it. It’s a place to get away from everything and enjoy the beauty that is Mother Nature.
"It’s time to write about the outdoor kid in you or the kid(s) you have exposed to the Outdoors."
OBN suggested writing about a memory from your childhood of being exposed to the outdoors or from an experience where I introduced a child to the outdoors. Seeing I have already written about my first deer camp, which is definitely the one outdoor experience responsible for fueling my passion for the outdoors, I decided to write about introducing others to the outdoors seeing my blog tag line is "Sharing the Passion".
As I sit and think about all those people I have introduced to some of my outdoor passions and places I find it difficult to pick just one. I could get into one of the many times my wife was thrust into an new outdoor adventure, usually reluctantly, like the time I took her steelhead fishing for an 8 hour drift boat trip in a blizzard or the first time I handed her a warm pair of venison tenderloins just removed from a deer. I could write about one of my brothers first deer hunts or fishing trips as well. All of which have some funny and interesting moments in them but I have to be careful not to get the wife or family mad at me so maybe I'll save those for another time.
There is no doubt that I get the most enjoyment out of introducing kids to the outdoors especially my own kids, but any youngster will do and they have. I have had the pleasure to introduce a few of my kids friends to fishing, turkey and deer hunting and every single outing was special.
One hunting trip that really stands out is the time I took my son Brendan and his friend Michael and Josh out on a youth turkey hunt in the spring of 2005 when they were just 13 & 14 years old. Both Brendan and Michael had taken their first turkeys in the years before this trip so they were, in their minds, seasoned turkey hunters. We also had another of their friends along for the trip, Josh, who never hunted but was at the time experimenting with photography and videos and he wanted to video tape the hunt for me. What made this trip special was the events of that morning hunt which are documented below.
Brendan, Josh and Michael - 2005 Turkey hunt
The trip started out with my son Brendan and his friends Michael and Josh all sleeping over at my house. I'm not sure Sleeping over is the right way to explain this, maybe just staying over because they didn't sleep much and neither did I as I kept waking up to the sound of their excited little voices talking about previous hunts and their expectations for their hunt in the morning. Surely anyone that has every had to wake a youngster early for a hunting trip knows that it usually doesn't take more than one or two shakes before they jump up and say they are ready to go and this trio was no different. Tying to keep them quiet so they didn't wake Momma and my daughter was a challenge. It was as if they were continuing their excited conversations from the night before and I found myself overloaded before getting a full cup of mornign starter fluid. I don't remember being that amused at the time, but I can surely close my eyes today and see myself doing the same thing on many a morning when I was young.
We loaded up the gear under a dark sky with a light drizzle of rain coming down but no worries, we had the pop-up blind in the truck because without it there was no way I was going to keep 3 teenagers still and quiet in this weather or any weather for that matter. We were hutning a piece of private land that had a large pasture that went from the road uphill to a flat where the woods started and that flat just happens to be a common place for turkeys to cross as they work the woods around us. We've taken a few turkeys from this same pasture and I harvested my biggest bird every just inside the wood line the previous year hunting with Brendan and Michael so I knew the birds would be around but would they cooperate is the question.
So we had four of us crammed into my Ameristep Doghouse blind with only two folding chairs and both of them were taken up by Brendan and Micheal as they were the shooters. The game plan was to let Micheal have the first shot at a bird and for the life of me I can't remember why, but that was the plan. we put out two hen decoys just 15 yards from the blind and waited for the birds to start talking. It wasn't long until we heard the first sounds of birds still on their roost and in all that turkey talk was a couple of gobblers that just gave away their position. It sure sounded as if they were roosted right where they should be and I knew that if they did what I had seen them do in the weeks prior I knew they would come off the adjoining property and head up to the pasture.
We were still dealing with some drizzling rain and the birds were not as vocal once on the ground but I was able to get just enough gobbles to keep tabs on their positions and I knew the birds were working just inside the wood line across from our setup and heading to the pasture. It wasn't long before we saw the first bird step out of the woods and into the pasture. The grass was a little high but not bad, but we did have a hump in between us and the birds so we would lose them in the pasture on occasion but they did put on a show for the boys. using the binos we could see we had 5 jakes with a couple of hens and one larger bird that looked bigger but still not a mature tom, ten birds in all. I was working my box call and slate and did my best, which believe me isn't that good, to call them birds across but all we could do was watch as they continued to cross the upper portion of the pasture only to enter the woods. I watched those boys fill with excitement and anticipation at every gobble, cluck and movement of the birds, only to see all that excitement come crashing down as they hit the woods. But as I was explaining to them that it is very difficult to call Toms away from hens, I caught a little movement back over to where the birds came of out the woods and sure enough it was a turkey and it looked like a Tom.
As I pointed this bird out to the boys, their excitement grew and I had to keep reminding them to whisper and move very slowly as turkeys have incredible eye sight and hearing. Now as I was sitting there watching this bird I was hoping for one of those birds that come running right up to the decoy in a flash, but we had the opposite. I spent 30 minutes working this bird just get him to come about 75 yards across the pasture. Now put yourself into a 14 year old body and think about that 30 minute wait and you can appreciate what I had to deal with. Well this gobbler took his sweat time, but man did he put on a display for us and one I will never forget. We had about 20 minutes of video of this bird before he got to within about 15 yards of the decoy and hung up. Now when he was hung up he wasn't nervous instead he put on a display that was designed to pull those two hen decoys staked out in front of us right to him and they just kept ignoring him so we had a stand off. Needless to say I was getting impatient and extremely nervous so I told Mike to get a steady bead on him and when he comes out of his display to pick out that magical spot on his neck and let one rip. Well Mike lined him up and when he came out of his "come here girls dance" I heard the safety click off and my Remington 870 12guage bark and with that the turkey jumped up in the air, spun around and was headed out of dodge. I had Mike rack another shell and give him another shot but he just kept running away. I was depressed for just a minute until the boys started talking and I noticed their voices filled with excitement and not depression as they started laughing and teasing each other and recounting what had just happened. I got them all back on track and settled down and reminded them that there were more turkeys around so this isn't over, but in the back of my mind I thought we were done.
Well we got our laughs and ribbing out of the way while having a snack and letting things calm down and I would throw in a little calling as well. About 30 minutes after Mike's miss, Brendan says he sees two birds coming into the pasture just to our right and he is pumped because it is now his turn to shoot. Of course we have the side windows all zipped up so I unzip the side window just a little to get a look and sure enough hear come two jakes working straight into the decoys. Only Brendan and I can see them and of course Josh and Mike want to see them so Josh pushes up against me with and starts video taping out the side window while I am trying to get my son ready but Brendan was as way ahead of me and ready to roll. I made a few purrs and those two jakes came walking right into the decoys and as they got to within feet of the decoys they stretched out their necks to check the fake hen just standing there and then turned around and it looked like they were headed out. Brendan had a bead on them the whole time and was waiting for them to separate a little bit so he didn't shoot both of them. They separated just enough and Brendan let that Remington 20guage rip and down went his bird and out came a huge whoop of excitement and that is when Brendan took over and directed Micheal to shoot the other jake that had run away and stopped and was just standing there just close enough. I couldn't see the jake standing there so it was my Son Brendan calling the shots and Mike was listening and this time when the Remington went off Mike connected and the second jake dropped. We went from a miss to a double on youth day. It was just plain amazing. What made it extra special is Josh had everything on video. Yup that is right a 14 year old video taped the entire trip and did an incredible job to boot. So Josh got to see something that many turkey hunters never see or experience during the hunt but I think his favorite part was the up close inspection of the turkeys themselves.
It is a day I will never forget and I'm not sure any trip to come will ever top that day. I was blessed to share a turkey blind with my son and his two teenage friends and I got experience everything through their eyes and it was incredible. We experienced so many emotions that day that I can't possibly account for all of them and I was proud and impressed at the way the boys handled everything. From anticipation, excitement, failure and back to raw excitement. We had so many good things happen on that hunt but it was extra special listening to Josh recap the days events as he was showing off the video he took to everyone that stopped over that day.
What the boys and I experienced that day, many people can't understand and will never experience anything like it and a piece of me feels sorry for them. It was an experience of a lifetime for all of us and it is a bond we will always share.......Forever.
