If toast is life, always add jelly
- Bob Hanna: Someday
- October 20, 2021
- 649
Anyone who’s stayed with us knows that when it comes to breakfast, I’m the chef. I love starting out the morning with a good meal to start the day — the hash browns, scrambled eggs, country gravy with sausage, and of course the peppers.
So, as I was getting ready for work (yes, I work part-time at Lowe’s to pay for these excursions) I was putting butter on my toast and remembered Taryn had some awesome blackberry jelly that she had recently made. It was great.
One thing this column is intended to do is make you think about how special each day is, and looking for the many ways to make yours or someone else’s day better, even as simple as spreading jelly on toast.
It’s still plenty warm here for deer hunting, although we’ve been out and have seen a few, we’ve not taken any yet.
I was helping Taryn sight in her crossbow and she missed the block target skipping the bolt (arrow) off the ground and into the woods. Luckily we use the lighted nocks so we waited until after dark to look for it. Unbelievably, we found it sticking in the ground 150 yards away, having veered slightly to the right, over a small field, and 30 yards into the next patch of trees. Lighted nocks help find plenty of lost deer when tracking them in the dark.
So, as our story continues, even though it seems like we’ve been in Africa for months, we’re nearing the end of our two-week safari.
On that Sunday afternoon, May 2, after shooting an Impala ram, we rested at camp and enjoyed some quiet time.
At 4, Hannes, our guide, came to take me back to the shooting range. Andre, the owner of Kuvhima, was giving me the chance of going after the trophy eland that I’d been dreaming about ever since I saw his pedestal mount in his office.
He told Hannes to take his .375 WinMag (short barrel) for me to use with 300 grain Barnes bullets, so I would have enough firepower to take the animal down. I own a .416 WinMag and have shot it a few times, so I was prepared for the recoil.
The Livingston eland is one of the largest of the antelope family tipping the scales for a mature bull at about 2,000 pounds and standing nearly 6 feet tall at the shoulder.
We headed to the shooting range, where I made 2 perfect shots at 100 yards, 2 inches high, allowing my zero to be at 200 yards.
We went back to camp for dinner, where we had some of my wife Taryn’s gemsbok. As many people ask me, we aren’t allowed to bring any of the meat back to the United States. Some of it is used at the camp and the rest is donated to needy families in the area.
After dark, once again we went night hunting for Taryn’s bushbuck. It seemed like everything was out roaming the woods that night as we saw reedbuck, a big nyala, mongoose, and a few more species. But we still were not able to find that mature, elusive bushbuck we were after, and I had a hard time getting some quality sleep that night in anticipation of the next day’s hunt.
The next day was 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit). We ate a great breakfast and headed for a specific area where 2 extremely large and old bulls had been spotted with the herd. We stopped along the way to pick up Sully, also another tracker who was familiar with the area.
We’ll leave it right there for now and let you feel the anticipation also.
Just remember this — God has placed you on this earth with a purpose. Continue each day to make life better for you and those around you.
Grab that toast. Spread on plenty of butter. But don’t forget the jelly.
Love y’all.