Thanksgiving 2013 {the hunt}

A few months ago Thomas's brother Trevor text him and asked if he wanted to go bow hunting on the reservation some time in November. To my surprise and without any hesitation Thomas replied- Yes!

I was mostly surprised because neither Thomas nor his brother know how to hunt, let a lone with a bow. Yes, Thomas did get his archery merit badge at age 14 but I don't know if that really counts. Nevertheless, it seemed like an exciting thing for the brothers to do together.

Upon arriving in Flagstaff for Thanksgiving Trevor presented his brand new, shiny bow:

Ooooh, aaaah!

The boys went out practicing on Monday and I could tell Thomas was hooked. He ended up buying a bunch of arrow tips and toting an archery target all the way home to Boston.

The tribe has been needing antlers and other materials for some of their dances and traditional ceremonies so I think Trevor and Thomas wanted to show that they were willing to work for the tribe. Thomas's clan within the tribe is also Coyote so it seems fitting that they were going on a hunt. I was a little worried that if they actually shot a deer they wouldn't know what to do with it. I just kept imagining that scene from Tommy Boy where the "dead" deer destroys the car.

They have no idea what they're in for

Tuesday afternoon Thomas, Trevor and their dad Harlan set off for the Hopi Reservation. Before they got to the actual hunting part of the day they stopped to help identify the location of a peach orchard that once belonged to Harlan's uncle. It sits below one of the mesas and is mostly decayed. There is a group on the res trying to preserve and restore it and they needed some verification as to the location. Can you believe that peaches, corn, melons and squash can be raised here in the high desert with less than 10 inches of rain a year! It's amazing!

I can't say it's always been a dream of mine to live on a reservation in the middle of the desert but I really look forward to when it's our time to move here. I mean, look at this place- it's amazing!

No, that's the Dr., that is his brother (who will soon be a Dr. too), see the family resemblance?

Harlan & Trevor look over the orchard

At dusk the hunting began. They found a lot of signs of deer, tracks and droppings etc. but didn't see any animals.

 

 They hiked around for a while, practiced with the bow and then found a place to camp for the night. Did I mention that the temperature was in the low teens that night? They built a fire, cooked chili and hot dogs, read from the Book of Mormon and talked. Thomas said the stars were the brightest he's ever seen, not one bit of light pollution to dilute them.

Harlan was not very happy about having to stay on the res overnight

 Harlan slept in the car, turning it on many times during the night to warm up. The Dr and his brother roughed it in a small tent with a wool blanket over their faces to keep warm. I think they liked being manly, carrying around the bow and generally being tough guys.

Hunting continued early the next morning but they still didn't have any luck finding a deer to shoot. Frozen, dirty and tired, they headed home. We were all so excited to have them back! They were only gone for a little over 24 hours but I sure did miss my man!