Through the Family Time

We went hunting this last weekend. It was interesting, but very cold. I decided to stay indoors and watch Kenre and Alex with Grandma Great all weekend. Except for on Saturday night when Grandma came through the door and said that Garrett had shot one. I decided I wanted to go and see my first deer. I bundled up and put on Christopher's boots (I had to re-lace and pull them tight because this kid doesn't do that.) We walked through the mud, through the orchard, and out onto one of the fields that had already been harvested for the year. It was muddy, snowy, windy, and cold. I probably should have stayed inside, but I have never been hunting like this before. When we got there Grandpa Great, Garrett, and Jon were already starting to gut the doe. Grandpa Great was angry. It was his doe tag that Garrett had used. In party hunting all of the tags are placed on the table and they're told how many bucks and does they can kill. Well, this year only Grandpa Great was able to receive a doe tag. I leaned down to the doe and thanked her. We are so extremely poor that we needed her meat to survive until we can get Jon's bonus at the end of the year. We also needed to still buy Kenre some winter clothing, and needed to sell her fur for it. I thanked her with all of my heart. I also thanked the God of the Hunt for bringing her into our land.

Grandpa Great was so angry that he told Garrett he can carry the 160LBS of deer up to the house. I remembered the trek out and wondered how he was going to do that!? They tied the deer to a rope and I even helped pull her. She was large, according to Grandma and Garrett. Christopher helped us by carrying the guns. We finally made it back to the shed where we strung her up to let the blood out. I'm surprised with myself, and I surprised all of Jon's family too. I didn't know how I would react to seeing a dead animal. Turns out I'm fine by it. I am the first female to marry into the family that hadn't started reacting horribly, like crying or something. One woman, my sister in law Rachele, is now a strict vegetarian because she witnessed deer hunting. I guess seeing a deer dead and gutted wasn't something her mind ever wanted to view again when she looked at her plate. I love meat way too much, and we needed that doe for food. I am more about necessity than civilization can ever gross out of me.

So, for the deer story this weekend:

Christopher is eleven years old. They made a new rule this year deer hunting that ten and eleven year old may hunt on their parent's license. So, Grandma took him out to the stand. Deer hunting is about being very quiet so that the deer don't spook and run away. They had been out there for a long while, when all of a sudden Christopher shouts, "A deer! Look!" Grandma turns her head to look down his pointing finger and says, "Christopher, that's a squirrel." They argued about it for a bit, but in the end Christopher did indeed admit that it was a squirrel. He now is saying it had to have been a four foot squirrel. Grandma keeps telling us it wasn't even the largest squirrel she's ever seen. We all laughed good on this one.

Alex was alright during the weekend, except he went backwards on potty training again. In the end I ran out of underwear to put him in, so Grandma Great had to put him in one of Kenre's cloth diapers. This happened when I was out getting the doe with Grandma and Garrett. Jon and I both agreed that he'd stay in the solid white diaper until he could be trusted to go on the toilet again. It was hard, but he was really embarrassed and I think it worked. He pulled his shirt really bad to try and cover the diaper, but we all knew he was in it. I know we were suppose to be patient, but I am getting sick of having to re-train him every other weekend when we have him again. I don't scream, and I am usually so patient, but he went through almost 24 underwear in a 24 hour period. That's like peeing and pooping constantly, especially when we just had him on the toilet or just changed him. It was getting ridiculous. I wondered what could have happened for the two weeks we didn't have him, besides the fact they leave him in pull ups all of the time and don't take him to the bathroom. His behavior was fine, though, except when the diaper was placed on him. He lay on the floor and covered his face hiding. Fine by me, though. Finally he asked to go potty and we took the diaper off of him and he went in the toilet. We put underwear on him again and told him if he went in his pants again we were going to put him in a diaper for a whole day. The next day was fine. He went in the toilet the whole time, except for right before we left to take him back to Baka's. He went poop again in his underwear, and struggled against getting dressed. He knew we had to return him to Baka's and again he fought us the whole way.

Friday night/Saturday morning we got woken up to a screaming Kenre at about 1:30AM. He was so scared and screamed for over an hour and half. We couldn't figure it out. We tried everything but nothing worked. Finally, we calmed him down with some books and reading to him. When we lay him down again he went right to sleep. We couldn't figure it out, until the next morning. Grandma and Miranda told us about Great Great Grandma who died in the same room we were sleeping in. That Grandma and Miranda has seen her walking about the old sections of the house and she's checked in on people before. She probably was checking on Kenre, and since Kenre is a light sleeper, woke him up on accident. It probably scared poor Kenre to be touched by an apparition. I know on Sunday morning, at 3AM, I was woken up by the same apparition. She was just curious as to who I was and where Kenre was (he was sleeping down stairs in the new part of the house since we didn't want a repeat of the night before.) I've seen ghosts before, so she didn't scare me as much as she probably thought she would. I whispered to her for almost an hour, talking about who I was, why I could see her, and who Kenre was. I asked her questions, but she didn't answer me. She just stood there giving me feelings and impressions, no actual voice. It was her house, and I could understand she was just protecting her family. The house has been in the family since the original homestead in the mid 1800's. The farm land all has been handed down as well. Great Great Grandma is nice, but she sure scared Kenre really bad. Jon's never seen her, but he believes us. I was hoping it had been my Grandmother who was with us, but I haven't seen her since I left my parent's home. She's probably still with my mother.

When we returned from the weekend I had 23 missed calls on my home phone. Who? Well, my sister Kier and my mother, of course. I thought Kier wasn't speaking with me, and my mother never calls me, so I didn't let them know I was hunting this weekend. Anyway, why would I have to pass anything by them? I'm 23 years old! Well, they left some messages on my machine, Kier called me some mean things, and my mother wanted to know why I was mad at them all. Jon and I laughed pretty hard. It was ridiculous. I did tell them about this coming weekend, though, because I don't want the cops called on our house for a missing person's report done on me!

On another note, I did miscarry over a week ago. I took another test and it came back negative this time. Jon and I are going to keep trying. It hurts inside to think about what could have been, but I know that we'll just have to receive our little one again at a different time. Kenre received two more shots yesterday and that completes his 12 month vaccinations. There's snow on the ground and fog filling the town. It seems like it's going to be an interesting walk this afternoon after Kenre's nap is over. We need quarters to clean laundry, so it's inevitable that we will go for our walk. Plus, I need to pay electric and phone.

Family Members:

Christopher- Grandma's adopted youngest child. He's 11.
Garrett- Grandma's youngest biological child. He's 19.
Miranda- Grandma's only biological daughter. She's 21.
Richele- Jon's sister-in-law. Married to Shaun, Jon's step-brother.
Grandma- Jon's mother, but Kenre's Grandma. My mother-in-law.
Grandma Great- Jon's Grandma, Grandma's mom, Kenre's Great Grandma.
Grandpa Great- Jon's Grandpa, Grandma's dad, Kenre's Great Grandpa.
Great Great Grandma- Died in the early 1900's. She is still haunting peacefully in her house where she died and was buried.
Kier- My sister. Age 21.

We will be hunting again this weekend. We still have tags to fill, and three families to feed on the meat. Hopefully Grandma Great will allow me to raid their freezer for some meat now. I'm also hoping she allows me to cook this weekend, since Jon's body didn't agree with her cooking.