I had to bring the ladder inside to change some light bulbs so I thought I would take a couple of pictures while I was up there.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to photograph ‘up there’ so here are some pictures of the deer heads that grace our walls.
I’m sorry – it’s been a long winter and we’re rednecks.
Surprisingly, each deer has a pretty good story.
This is a mule deer. He was eating hay in our stack yard on the opening day of hunting season – not a wise decision on his part.
You probably remember this guy from a previous post.
My husband shot this one while he was standing on the front porch in his underwear (my husband – not the deer). I have a video of this. You will never see stuff like this on a TV hunting show even though it was pretty darn funny.
But the best story of all belongs to the little set of horns in the center. They came from a 4 point White-tailed buck…
and our dog, Barney got that set.
Now before you get all up in arms (pun intended), let me explain.
Barney the Border Collie was a lover, not a fighter. His greatest joy in life was baby chicks. Barney LOVED baby chicks! He never hurt one – in fact Barney was the best mother hen we had.
If you’ve ever been around Border Collies you know they have to have a job. They are working dogs. They will herd cows, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, children, cats, balls and all manners of fowl. Barney’s life revolved around baby chicks. Every spring when our hens hatched out their babies, Barney was a nervous wreck. He would go from one batch of chicks to the next, round and round till he was exhausted.
He loved baby chicks so much that when our hens weren’t setting I would buy chicks just for him. I would come home with a box of little cheepers and as soon as he heard them he would get so excited he could hardly contain himself. He would sleep beside their pen and never leave them till they were about half-grown.
Barney was a great dog.
But I’ve gotten sidetracked – the deer horns.
One year both our boys had hunting licenses. We lived near Custer, SD at that time right up against Custer State Park. The park fence ran for about 3/4 of a mile along the edge of our property and both boys knew the rules of hunting – anything on the other side of the fence was off-limits. There was no hunting in the state park!
But that was OK. There were usually enough deer on our property that there was no reason to even look across the fence – except for that one white-tailed buck.
He was beautiful. Not a big rack but well-formed and both boys set their sights (so to speak) on getting him.
But it wasn’t as easy as you’d think. He was smart!
There was a spot in the park fence where it crossed the creek that the wire didn’t quite reach the ground leaving just enough space for the deer to duck under the fence and come onto our land and the big meadow full of tall grass.
All season the boys tried to catch the buck on our land but no matter how quietly they snuck out of the house, gun in hand, he heard them and would scoot back under the fence to the park where he knew he was safe.
After a couple of weeks of failure, the boys put a tree stand up in a pine tree then spent hours waiting for the buck but not once did he pass under the fence while they were outside.
He was really smart.
So hunting season passed by and both boys finally gave up and harvested other deer to fill our freezer. Winter turned into spring. The snow melted and the grass turned green. One nice spring day our oldest son, Dalton decided it was time to climb the tree and take down the tree stand. Barney followed him out, excited to go on a walk with one of his beloved boys. As they crossed the pasture something in the grass caught Dalton’s eye and he bent down and picked up the cutest little deer antler you ever saw. It was just a couple small points, only about 6″ long and it had been well polished by the young buck that had shed it at the end of the mating season. Dalton held it down for Barney to sniff and said,
“Look what I found!”
Barney was just as excited as Dalton and he wagged his tail in delight before disappearing into the tall grass, his nose to the ground.
Dalton climbed the tree, unstrapped his tree stand and lowered it to the ground. He turned around to whistle for Barney only to find the dog standing right behind him, his tail wagging in delight and a deer skull clenched in his teeth – the antlers coming up on either side of his face.
It just about scared the beejeebers out of Dalton. He was half way up the tree again before he realized it was only Barney and not some blood-crazed devil-like forest creature never before seen by human eyes.
Dalton followed Barney under the fence and back into the trees to the spot where the remains of the buck lay – obviously the site of a mountain lion kill.
The boys couldn’t catch him but the big kitty did.
Needless to say Barney won the ‘Big Buck’ contest that year and if dogs could talk you could bet Barney would have had one thing to say.
“Tee Hee – see what I found!”
Miss you Barney.
RanchDaze 
