Evan here to fill you in on some of the recent occurrences in the Willard community at large. The writer of this blog has long been a lover of the natural world and of the sports, and thus, engages in various outdoors activities including but not limited to hunting and fishing. Naturally, the writer wished for his college experience to include these said activities, and fortunately for the writer (and as the reader will soon learn, the Willard community as a whole), Mike Powell, Willard Landlord, has graciously welcomed us onto his land outside of Blacksburg to hunt and to fish.
Over the past couple of months, the writer, and various other members of the Willard community have been making trips out to Mike's property to, of course, engage in fishing, camping, and firing weaponry, but also with the hopes of seeing and perhaps harvesting game. Alex Norton and the writer have spent the last few months making two trips a week, usually early in the morning, with hopes of making deer and or turkey harvests. The season started off a bit slow for us, we were seeing mostly squirrels and happened to see a fox, but the deer and turkey of the land managed to allude our sights. It was not till the second Saturday of muzzle-loading season (the first two weeks before regular riffle season opens) that the we were able to claim our first deer. Alex Norton calls the writer at approximately 815 on that morning, after the reader heard Alex shoot 4 times, claiming that he thinks he hit a buck! After some stressful tracking, the group did indeed come to learn that Alex Norton had taken down a 7 point buck. The writer feels it necessary to mention that this was only Alex's 2nd time hunting in his life, and to harvest a nice buck this soon in ones hunting career is kind of a big deal. Congratulations Norton.
However, the season was, and still is, far from over. A few more hunting trips were made, all the while wildlife being seen, but no additional harvests were able to be made. Leland Pearson, John Leonard, and Josh Moehrle made it out to the property to enjoy the outdoors, fire weaponry and to catch trout. And eventually, we were able to claim victory once again. The final day of riffle season was upon us, and Adam Underwood and Kyle Lamers traveled out to the property with us. The morning was terribly windy and the wildlife did not seem to be moving, so Norton and the writer chose to try and move deer around by walking through the woods. It was decided that Norton would try and walk through an area know to be holding deer, in hopes of pushing the deer out for the writer to perhaps get a shot at. However, in the process of doing so, Norton, once again calling the writer on his radio soon after shots fired, claimed to have shot another deer. Alex Norton would now be the happy harvester of 2 deer in his premier season.
Unfortunately, and with regret, the reader has not yet been able to make a harvest on the season. However, the writer must say that he has been extremely thankful for the opportunity to be out in the woods with good friends sharing good times that are certainly irreplaceable. There is something to be said about being able to be out there where everything else seems to stop and nature takes over. There is something to be said about waking up with the animals and being out there, free and alive.
May we all come to see what is around us with new eyes and hear with new ears. May we enjoy the simplicity of watching and listening to all that is. May we appreciate life and the beauty of a cold Saturday morning in a tree-stand.
Peace,
Evan
These are pictures of Norton's harvests (perhaps he should be giving the writer lessons?)
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