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 After
about eight months of preaching, every night and many, many
days, someone suggested I go out to the barn and “cuss”
awhile — just to level things out. Instead, a fellow —
preacher (Dan Shipley) and I drove a pickup into the south Texas
brush country, made camp, and hunted quail.
Birds
were plentiful, but wild, wild. We bucked tassajilla, catclaw,
prickly-pear and divers chaparral to flush them out and collect
our limits of birds, scratches and ticks. And in sheer
exuberance, when we found an old bottle, I asked Dan to toss it
up so I could break it with my pistol. Dan tossed, and I missed
Early
one morning while studying a coyote playground, ( they serenaded
us early and late) we came upon huge cougar tracks. A shotgun
butt would fit into the depression. either way; and with
allowance for the spread in soft earth. that is some cat. Then
we found another bottle which Dan tossed — and I missed.
On
the second day out I was crawling through a tangle of cactus,
half hung-up, when a number of fleeting, scurrying black objects
began tearing up the brush around me, and I heard a familiar “Humph!
! “— the danger signal of javelina (wild pig). I
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untangled fast enough to pour two shots
into a young boar. Then Dan helped me field-dress and skin it,
and we hung the meat in the shade to be retrieved later. And we
found another brown bottle — which I missed.
We
didn’t hunt deer, but I wanted to limber up my 7 Magnum, so
spent some time walking an open meadow looking for jack rabbits.
Hit two — both running — one at 70 yards, and one at 160.
Would like to brag a little more about my shooting — except
— I missed another bottle, three times straight.
All
in all, what with the stink of javelina, cleaning two days
limits of quail, no shaving, no bathing, sorry cooking, etc.,
— it was a wonderful, wonderful trip. No telephone, no
problems with brethren, no schedules, no nothing but wide
Marlboro country without the cough and cancer. I am resigned to
the fact that a few (?) readers will see absolutely nothing in
this to get excited about.
But
maybe all will enjoy my point. Ready?? One may have a great time
without hitting the bottle!!
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