As most of you know my younger sister, Suzanne passed away in October from liver cancer.
Well this story is of her oldest boy, Jake. Jake is 12 and is hunting for the first time. Jake had gone thru all the hunter safety classes earlier in the year and couldn’t wait to go gun hunting for deer. 
The area that Jake and his family hunt was designated as a T Zone this year. I made the 2 1/2 hour drive up to Sheldon, Wi. to take Jake and his youger brother Jesse deer hunting. We did not have a very productive weekend though. Never seen a deer! 
I made the trip up again last weekend for the Wisconsin deer opener. In the two days we all seen plenty of deer, but if we put a barn in the center of this 300 acre woods we wouldn’t have hit it! 
There was this one time when Jake’s Uncle Jerry (that would be me ) had a doe broadside at 15 yards and put the crosshairs behind her front shoulder… pulled the trigger and only heard a load “CLICK” sound. Apparently SOMEONE FORGOT TO PUT A SHELL IN THE CHAMBER! 
We had a GREAT time anyway and that’s what it’s all about in my opinion! 
My plans were to spend Thanksgiving with my other Chris’s family in Plymouth Mn. I had talked to Jake during the week and he told me that he hadn’t seen anything during the week, but Jesse his brother, Kim his Dad, John his Grandpa and himself were going to hunt Thanksgiving morning.
Thanksgiving day I was at my sister’s place in the cities getting my BUTT KICKED by Jake’s cousin, Justin in a game of SLAMFEST 2003 on X Box! 
The phone rang and my sister, Chris brought me the phone and said my nephew, Jake wanted to talk to me. Jake was so excited he was talkin a mile a minute. 
Jake told me that he had just got home and had shot a doe that morning. Apparently Jake’s brother and Dad drove a patch of woods to him that sent to does his way.
Now before I go on with this story I have to tell you about Jake and the weekend before. The night before the deer opener I told Jake that he might have to find a way to stop any deer that are running to him. I said a lot of guys whistle at them. I myself usually do a loud doe bleat. Jake told me he would whistle if he had to stop a deer. Well opening morning Jake was setup in a gun stand in a tree him and his grandpa put up before the season. I was about 150 yards away on a big boulder opening morning. It was now 10:30 a.m. and I decided to walk down and see how Jake was doing. I got down to about 70 yards from Jake when he told me that he talked to his Dad on the radio and said him and Jesse were gonna walk the creek down to Jake’s stand. I then decided to go back far enough in case anything came thru I wouldn’t be in Jake’s line of fire. Well a couple minutes went by and I could hear Jake and and I finally seen tails go thru a thicket on the opposite side. Jake never fired a shot. Jake said there was five deer, but couldn’t get them to stop. 
I just told Jake… That’s the way it goes sometimes!”
That night when we were have supper at Jake’s Grandparent’s, Jake brought up how he couldn’t get the deer to stop. As a joke… I told him that maybe he should whistle louder and just give up on whistling showtunes! Everyone git a chuckle out of that. Jake told me he was gonna go with the doe bleat next time.
The reason I brought up this whistling story was when Jake called me Thanksgiving day, I asked him if the doe was standing still or running when he shot??? Jake said that the doe was standing boadside out about 70 yards. I then asked him… Did yoiu whistle a showtune to get her to stop? Just then I heard this loud roar of laughing on the other end of the phone. I asked Jake what was so funny over there? Jake then told me that I was on his grandparent’s speakerphone and they were laugh about the showtune comment.
This is what’s so great about holidays. I was worried how Jake would hold up without Suzanne there. Instead I think Sis found her own way of helping Jake thru that day! Thanks again, Suz! 
Now for Jake I couldn’t be prouder! 
In fact, I might be headin up for the last T Zone season in the middle of December. This boy is a trooper. 
Last weekend Jake’s Grandpa told me if I wanted o get Jake setup with a bow for next year’s hunting season, he would pay for everything. I told John that I believe if you get a kid something nice to shoot he will stick with it. John just said… “Get him something good then! ( I did alot of walking for everyone last weekend to try and get deer moving, I also was scouting for next year’s bow season for both Jake and I! 
I have included a picture of Jake with his first deer. Does he look happy to you guys????
