Wild at Heart

A few years ago, I broke down and read the {first chapter} very popular book, Wild at Heart... I am not a book reader whatsoever... I know I should be, but that's beside the point. It only took reading the first chapter to totally alter my {girl} perspective on the way I understand Aaron's OBSESSION passion for hunting. I put two and two together, learning that God had created in him {and every guy} a need for adventure... a desire to "conquer"... to head off into the unknown and figure out how to survive... Some people call that the "caveman" instinct, but I realized that it is God-given and it's a good thing!

However, when he came to me with a plan of driving 17 hours to Nebraska, living out of his truck for a week {or however long it would take him to kill a buck with his bow}, eating only canned foods, taking showers with a bottle of water and cleansing wipes, and doing all of this ALONE... I started questioning my own husband's sanity.

I had my doubts about him going, but we have done a LOT of traveling the past couple years and I totally trusted his judgement.  Let me just tell you... if I was stranded on an island he's the first person I would want with me to keep me alive!

He is now home safe and sound and I am so thankful for that... and with a nice ten point buck too might I add! I told him to take our little digital camera and record his trip to the best of his ability so that I could show y'all. Here they go...

Last Sunday, he headed out for the open road.

He drove through lots of farmland and corn fields.

The first few days he was there, he scouted the land and hiked around ten miles each day... basically he hiked all day. Thankfully he had this river to follow so he didn't get lost... and a hand-held gps didn't hurt either!

He obviously lived out of his truck... the "lone" chair sitting there makes me laugh out loud. I'm actually giggling as I type this.

He ate a menu of Beanie Weanies, Vienna Sausage, canned corn, PB&J sandwiches, muffins, and you might throw up if I keep naming more... The thing is, he likes this stuff!

He parked his truck at a vacant campground with NO SHOWER so this is how he kept clean...

Thankfully he drives a Chevy Avalanche and the truck "bed" is covered and literally served as his bed! Do these pictures make you laugh too?

It got to be into the 20's at night so we packed him several sleeping bags and fleece blankets to make sure he would be bundled up at night.

After a week of scouting and hunting he finally got him a buck! He stuck this dude at about 40 yards with a 2 yard opening... if you bow hunt you will know that this is quite a feat. He skinned him clean and drug each quarter of his body out of the woods.

I really am so proud of him.

But I will say... Aaron is not the "loner" type... he is very extroverted, but because none of his buddies could go with him {you know, because they actually live normal lives} he was perfectly fine going alone... Yeah, he loves to hunt that much.

And for shock value, I will leave you with this picture...

Some of you will be disturbed, some of you are laughing... I am definitely a mixture of both.

There's nothing like a good "still life" of persimmons {a deer's favorite fruit to eat} and a sawed off animal head. Sorry, if you're into animal rights... Aaron seems to think PETA stands for "People Eating Tasty Animals"... My bad, did I just say that?

Anyways... just thought I'd try to bring some excitement to this post and your day... So long for now!

Oh, and if you love antiques or even collect them, stay tuned for the next post!