marissastaxidermy:

On Sunday, his birthday, John went out hunting and got his first deer ever. He crept up to it, wind in his favor, and landed a shot with his compound bow at about 4pm. He almost fainted from adrenaline. He managed to call me and I sprinted up the normally hour long hike to the area in under 40 minutes.
We tracked it into a huge field of neck-high weeds and lost the trail. By then it was completely dark and frost was forming everywhere. The search carried on for another two hours with no trace. It was almost 8pm and we were exhausted. We almost gave up the search for the night when we stumbled into a small clearing 120 yards from where we were looking. The deer was laying there dead but peacefully.

It was beautiful, sad, and relieving all at once. We were glad he went quickly and found a comfy place to do so. We thanked him for his body and brought him all the way back home. He weighed in at around 130 pounds, a pretty big boy. We kept his skin, buried his head to dig up in the spring time, and butchered him ourselves the next morning. Our dogs will be having venison mixed into their foods the next couple weeks and we will also get to eat for a long time to come. Some of the meat already went to friends and about 14 pounds went to the butcher to make jerky and sausage. We kept most organs and I took enough fat to make some candles. Whatever was left went back to the earth for the coyotes and birds to pick from.

The last photo is not just most of the deer meat, but also a whole wild rabbit who was hit by a car (legs were mutilated, he had to be put down asap), and a piece of moose and elk from work. I am so thankful to these creatures and to feel so close to the ebb and flow of nature. I think most creatures have a very good concept of predator and prey, and while they do not want to die they understand as a prey animal that death is a constant. I don’t really know how to express it correctly, but I tried!