Back from the Disability Deer Hunt, NWTF Wheelin' Sportsmen

If you measure the success of a disability deer hunt by the number of happy faces that came back to the deer camp at dark, then this year's hunt was an overwhelming success. If you measure a successful hunt by the number of deer twenty-six guys in wheelchairs were able to put on the brag pole then you'd have to say the deer won yesterday. Only two were harvested. The spouses of other hunters and I was at the deer camp waiting for our guys to come back with their guides and a seasoned hunter/volunteer told us that it was just too warm and windy for the deer to be cooperative.

Unfavorable weather or not, Don and his two guides saw a total of twenty deer and Don had the opportunity to draw on five but he didn't take the shots. Knowing Don as well as I do, he wouldn't shoot if he didn't think he had a clean and accurate shot which, of course, is true of all serious sportsmen.

From the stories Don's guides came back with you could tell they all had a genuinely good time. At one point, one of the guides said, they were laughing so hard he nearly pee his pants and they were laughing all day long. Our great-nephew was one of the guides and he said Don had them working every minute: jacket on, jacket off, snacks, water, urinal bottle, coffee, more snacks, gloves on, gloves off and then the constant game of twenty-one questions you need to play with someone who has a language disorder. "Aunt Jean," he said, "I don't know how you do this every day." They took lots of digital photos so I'm hoping to share some later when he sends me copies. The one posted with this entry was taken as we were waiting for Don's ride to pick him up before the hunt. Now there is a Christmas morning kind of face, don't you think?

The deer camp, this year, actually had the feel of a real deer camp---duh, it was real. What I mean is last year it was inside the sportsmen club but it was wall-to-wall wheelchairs and quite a comical thing to hear and watch when one of the guys near the back wall needed to go to the bathroom which was at the other end of the building. This year the Chapter of the Wild Turkey Federation who sponsored this event had pitched two large, old Army surplus tents. Nothing smells like old canvas. When I was a kid we spent summers on a lake and we kept a surplus tent pitched near a stream by the woods where all the lake kids played cowboy and Indians. Walking through those tents yesterday sure put me in a great mood. But it was such a warm night for Michigan that very few people hung out inside the canvas.

The deer camp also had a bonfire big enough for 12-14 people to sit around with others standing or sitting in a second tier behind them. The grills that they cooked dinner on were not far away. The local VFW and another organization, whose name escapes me, cooked for the hunters and the volunteers this year---one at lunch time and the other at dinner. I missed the to-die-for wild turkey chili this year; it was on the menu for lunchtime. It must have been quite a project to cook for the continuous stream of hungry people that wandered in and out of camp all day and evening.

'Michigan Out-of-Doors' came to film again this year. But I'm not sure it will be as all-encompassing the way last year's hunt was film. Last year was Michigan's first disability deer hunt. This year, I was told, they focused on filming the building of a disability hunting cart---kind of like a golf cart---and they wanted to follow it from the start of the building process through an actual hunt with a disabled hunter. The camera crew includes a woman who is the cutest little thing all decked out in her camouflage. We women have come a long way since my day when a college counselor once told me that the only career paths open to me, as a woman, were in nursing or teaching.

Oh, in case anyone is wondering how I spent my rare caregiver-free day. I did my normal Saturday errands but without Don in tow. Even though I love the guy dearly, it sure felt good to be alone for such a long stretch of time even if I was only picking up the weekly groceries, getting gas and recycling the papers. To mark this rare occasion, I bought myself a dozen roses and polished my finger nails. It just seemed like a woman should do something girlie on hunting day.

Now we can look forward to the community fund raiser coming up that helps pay for this event. (The disabled hunters don't pay a dime for their hunt.) A local church stepped forward to offer to do this and they raised $2,000 last year holding a dinner that included a silent auction and selling tickets on tons of great door prizes. The sheer number of volunteers who put their hearts and souls into making the disability deer hunt successful is a wonderful statement about society, don't you think?

Jean Riva ©

NOTE: On the second day of the hunt another two deer were brought in making it a total of four for the twenty-six disabled guys.

Update From the Disability Deer Hunting Event

QUICK UPDATE: Don is out in the woods taking part in the disability deer hunt as I type and I just got a call from his guide---don't you love this modern age of communication? They were on their way to the deer camp to get some lunch after being in the blind since dawn. He said Don saw ten deer but every time they'd get Don and his wheelchair set up to shoot out one window of the blind, the deer would wander to the other side. So they'd move Don over to the other window and the deer would move again. They were having fun.

I really like the volunteers that he's hunting with. This morning when one of them picked Don up---he's actually a great-nephew, the son of his last year's guide/volunteer---Don wanted to give him the tour of his garage. I told Don he could do it later because they had to get moving. Then our great-nephew joked, "This isn't old time hunting, we have a schedule to keep." And they did. They had to meet a bunch of other the hunters and guides in a parking lot for coffee and donuts.

The photo is of all the stuff I packed and had ready for Don's day trip. There were 37 things on my check list to pack! Wheelchair bound hunters don't travel light.

I'll update again later, if I get another report, or on Sunday if I don't get another. I'm meeting them all at the deer camp at 7:00 for the dinner, camp fire and blue grass band.

Jean Riva ©

Deer Hunting Now and Then

Some of you might not know about the magazine, Wheelin' Sportsmen. It's the official bi-monthly publication of the Wheelin' Sportsmen, National Wild Turkey Federation, an organization that "is dedicated to providing people with disabilities opportunities to participate in outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing and target shooting." It's a chapter of the NWTF that is sponsoring the disability deer hunt that my husband, Don, is going on a week from today. There are chapters sponsoring outdoor disability activities all over the country. If you're interested in find out what might be available in your area, you can find the WS, NWTF by clicking here. If you know a wheelchair bound person who used to enjoy the outdoors, a Wheelin' Sportsman magazine subscription would be an inspiring Christmas gift. Their glossy pages number around eighty and are filled with articles like 'Access Alaska, Discovery the Barrier-free Frontier' and 'Sightless Fishing for Reds.'

Well, enough about them. The excitement is building here in our house. The hunting stuff is coming out of the closet, the deer scent has been purchased, Don's license and standing vehicle permit are sitting on the table, and today we took a little trip up to the sportsman club that will become the deer camp base next weekend. Last year it took us two trips to find the place which is tucked away in a blending of farmland, woods and state property. This year I drove right up to it. I will be going out to the place on the 20th about dark to join the hunters, volunteers and other hunters' spouses for the deer camp's wild game dinner and I wanted to refresh my memory for the landmarks along the way.

It was beautiful, sunny day today and it was nice being out in the country where the cornstalks were so close to the road that we could hear them talking with the wind. The farmers were busy cutting them down in the fields every where we looked and we saw three or four large fields full of plump pumpkins. Coming home we found a little town that was filled with little ghosts, goblins, pirates and ballerinas all trick-or-treating the merchants on Main Street. Thankfully I was able to get through the narrow, congested street without running over one of the costumed kids.


Little trips like this can't help but bring back memories of past vacations we've taken in the pre-stroke days---of times with alternating deep conversations and contented silences as farmland passed by the truck windows on our way out West each fall to go hunting. I can't image traveling long distances now like we used to do in the past with the silence of aphasia taking center stage. Now, a word here and there pointing out something of interest is the most I can hope for. Good conversation, sleeping in tents or in sleeping bags thrown in the back of truck, bumming around on the mountain roads are all things of the past. Memories like that can bring a twinge of sadness. But good things are coming our way so I try to stay focused on them. Things like the upcoming deer hunter where a bunch of great volunteers will make sure that Don has the best and safest hunt humanly possible for a wheelchair bound guy. Hey, I just had a thought: if aquatic and physical therapy keeps going as well as it is, maybe hunting season, 2008, I won't have to say I have a "wheelchair bound" husband any more. By the way, the photo of is Don on one of our first trips together.

Jean Riva ©

NOTE: I posted about the disability hunt on a stroke support site and I got some negative feedback. If you are offended by the practice of legal hunting, please read the replies I made there and have reposted here in the comment section.

Sight-in Day - Disability Deer Hunt

My husband, Don, went on Michigan's first disability deer hunt last year along with seventeen other wheelchair bound guys---oops, make that sixteen guys and one gal. Between them, they harvested 7-8 deer. My husband was not one of them, but it didn't matter. He had a wonderful time doing the male bonding thing out in the woods and at the 'base camp.' In the 7 ½ years since his stroke, it was the first time he'd spent more than an hour away from me.

This weekend was the sight-in day for the second annual disability deer hunt that is sponsored by one of the chapters of the Wheelin' Sportsmen, NWTF. This time they have twenty-eight wheelchair bound guys signed up. At theses sight-in days, the volunteers help the disabled hunters find just the right combination of gun, tripod and other disability friendly aids to make it possible to hunt from either a blind or an all-terrain vehicle, using a special 'standing vehicle' license. The volunteers who put this well organized hunt together really understand what it means to life-long hunters to return to the woods. I can't say enough good things about these men and women.

My husband will be using a blind on hunting day that will be set up and ready for him at day break. Along with the blind comes a volunteer guide who helps him handle the gun, get to and from the blind and whatever else he'll need during the day. The blinds even have special wood floors to make it easier for the wheelchairs. If a deer is brought down, the guide calls a tracking team who goes after the animal, field dresses it, and brings it back to a brag pole at base came. Eventually another set of volunteers gets all the animals to a processor. All of this is free of charge to the disabled hunter. Later on I'll post contact information for the sponsoring organization. They're nation wide with many state chapters.

Unfortunately, as good as the volunteers are, no one made sure that Don's ear plugs were properly put in and he came home with signification hearing loss from the two hours on the shooting range. Monday I have to call the audiologist to see what can be done. Hopefully, just turning up his brand new hearing aids will do the trick. In the caregiver world, it's always two steps forward and one step back. As caregivers we want and need to trust others with our care recipients but then something like this happens and you're reminded of why that is SO hard to do....

Jean Riva ©