Not all trips to the lease are made the same

Went out last night for some filling feeders and hoping to get some hunting in....got all packed up and I let my wife talk me into taking the dogs at the last minute.

Get to the lease and first things I do is miss a coyote because I over judged how far away he was, shot right over his back. Turned out he was just a baby and was closer than he looked just because he was so small. See several trees split from ?weather? So I got worried about my blinds. Pull around to one of my blinds and sure enough it was on its side with the door hanging open. Go down to the feeder and open it up and find it is about half full still, fill it up and then test it with a spin...nothing. Try again, nothing. Motor is seized up. I then realize I forgot to put my lease tool box in the truck, so I have I tools and no chains. But I did have some cargo straps in the truck, so I go set the stand back up using the straps and get the carpet and chairs back right, after getting all the mud dauber nests off and spiders out, and then I realize my one dog hasn't been around for a long time. Totally unlike her as she is usually a very people clingy dog and will at least hang with her sister, but not tonight. I spend the next 90 minutes looking for her and walking/driving around while yelling her name, essentially ruining my hunting grounds, but I didn't care at that point. I needed to find that dog or else all hell would break loose at home. After parking again and walking some fence line with my thermal and having no luck I finally find her back at the truck. Dang dog, but happy she was back. It was well after dark at that point, have no idea where she was or how far she went. Then I make a decision to drive out to the nearest Walmart (the only thing open at this point and still 30 minutes away) to see if they have any feeders (they didn't) or at least some tools I could use to take apart another feeder because I had some good deer showing at this feeder as recent as two days ago, and I wanted something throwing some corn to keep them coming; my next trip to the lease wasn't going to be until late July. So I buy a tool set to take apart another unused feeder at I had sitting at the lease (remember no tool box, so this little set will stay in the truck console from now on) and I was able to switch the motor box between the two feeders (you all know it sounds much easier than that it actually is) and got the bigger one up and running. It was now lightning all around me, it was 1:30 am, and I was on the verge of getting rained on, so I called it a night. Got soaked as I was getting through the main gate on the way out, but that helped keep me awake while driving home. All in all, a very frustrating but very productive night at the lease.

Plenty of signs of overflowed water running, with plenty of standing water and tanks filled up for the first time in 4 years. Only saw the two trees split, I am guessing from the weather. The bucks on camera were growing well, I think this is going to be a good year in north Texas, sorry for no pics, it wasn't on the mind at the time I looked And never went back to the cameras because I was busy doing other jobs. With more raining looking to hit the area today, it looks like last night already dumped somewhere north of 3/4 inch rain, and next week is looking promising for more as well. Should be a fun deer hunting season!

Man I am stressed just reading all that Glad your pup found you back.

Been there with the dog missing. Two times my lab has decided to either go bck to the truck or back to the house. Have no idea why, but certainly frustrating.

When it rains it pours

Similar story with a dog. My six-month-old Pointer decided to take off on her own while I was setting pig snares. I saw a coyote Crest a small hill about 15 yards away. I heard a Yelp that sounded like my puppy.


I grabbed my rifle , ran over the hill, shot a coyote as he was running away. I hear more coyotes down in the Canyon and start looking for my puppies body. After 45 minutes of searching, I headed back to the truck on the four wheeler. I was almost in tears the whole way back. Lo and behold I find her underneath the camper wagging her tail asking where you been ?

Glad your dog is ok.

That was enough descriptions of work that it made me tired.

Good lord man. It just wasn't your day.

I did not know that some men do not carry "tools" in their truck at all times!!!

When I was younger hunting with my dad I used to gripe and moan about loading up the truck each time with this heavy "box" full of crap and odds & ends of random tools and hunting stuff. He always told me - Son, you never know when we might need something out of that box... Funny thing is, now I have a similiar box I pack every single time and hardly ever get into it - but when I do I typically can find something that I can use to fix or replace something at the lease.

I love work. I can read about it for hours.

I just got a new place and it's been wet and muddy for six months. I wore out a pair of rubber boots on the place. It had just dried up when it started raining again this week. I've given up waiting for dry weather and have just been slopping around in the mud, getting things fixed up.

Not all the trips to the lease are made the same?

I learned that the night I was parked for two hours on Hwy 19 a few miles north of Trinity and watching two medical helicopters transport the survivors of a head on. And when they finally did open the highway to a single lane, I passed by a van with a sheet covering the front passenger area. Let's just say that deer and hunting got a lot less important that night, and I'm reminded of it just about every time I pass that same spot, night or day.

Hey man I get it. Learned a good lesson while in Iraq after seeing countless dead guys come into the hospital that simply were being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When God stamps your passport home, He is going to figure out a way to bring you home, and there is nothing we can do to prevent that from happening.

It has taught me to live each day as if my last, and enjoy everything a little more. There's a reason that head on wasn't with your car man, try not to fixate on it too much and just enjoy what little time you have left on this rock.

N

Did not mean to distract from the intent of your post. I was drawn more to the "trip" aspect of your post title with thoughts not only of the account that I shared, but how others have told their own accounts of trips to their lease that did not go well.

....and a box in the RV just in case!

If something wasn't broke or missing.... it wouldn't seem right

I carry more dang tools than Ace Hardware, but I never have that exact size bolt or nut. Why is that?