On Saturday, I went turkey hunting on the farm with my friend Pin-Bo. We woke at the crack of dawn and stationed ourselves in a pre-selected spot, right where the pasture meets the forest. We set up decoy inflatable turkeys to enhance our odds of attracting real turkeys. Pin-Bo created an elaborate scene where the guy turkey was about to hump the lady turkey. Apparently, the wild turkeys are into that sort of thing.
We sat in the woods and waited. There wasn’t much to do. I carefully dissected and ate a granola bar, oat-by-oat, in order to pass the time. Pin-Bo would occasionally work a turkey call in a further attempt to attract some birds. Sitting there in our head-to-toe camouflage, making silly bird noises while we pointed guns at an inflatable turkey orgy, I’m sure we looked pretty re-goddamn-diculous. We didn’t end up seeing any turkeys that morning. In fact, I think the only turkeys on the farm that day were us. But we didn’t care. We were had a blast.
Because the house is in a rough state with all of the renovation work going on, I camped out in the pasture Saturday and Sunday night. I could hear the sounds of wildlife off in the distance as I fell asleep. And as silly as this may sound, it made me feel even more connected to the land. One of my favorite things about the farm is the abundance of wildlife that exists upon it. I post trail cameras all over the property to capture images of my fauna neighbors.
On Monday morning, the day I had to head back to DC, I woke up around five o’clock and broke down the tent. The orange sunrise light glowing over the mountains as it rose from the east was quite glorious. It was a great the day. As I walked back down the hill back to the house, I noticed a large black figure moving on four legs near the barn. At first, I couldn’t tell if it was a horse, bear or cow. But as a I walked a bit closer, it was clear who it was…MOOSE! He was a massive, lumbering creature. I whipped out my cellphone and took as many pictures as I possibly could. I then quickly tried to get closer to get a few more pictures, but he noticed me and lumbered off back into the woods.
I love this place.