Now serving grilled venison!

Steve has never hunted before.  He is anticipating learning sometime in the future.  However, this was not exactly the way we had envisioned him taking down his first deer.

This time of year they just run right out in front of the vehicles and you have to be careful.  Usually Steve can brake in time to not hit them.  This one he never saw until it was too late.  Thankfully, Steve was not hurt at all by the impact.

He noticed the power steering went out right away and made it down the road enough to pull into the graveyard because he was afraid it would not be able to get him home any time soon.

It's a beautiful old cemetery.  Steve and I took a date here once to wander amongst the graves and think morbid thoughts.  I believe it's good and healthy to contemplate our mortality every so often. 

 It is so peaceful there.  So many quaint inscriptions.  Some too old to read.  One we saw on several gravestones was,

"Remember, friend, as you walk by, as you are now so once was I.
As I am now you will surely be, prepare thyself for eternity."

I was able to drive our other van out to pick Steve up and bring him home but it was too dark to see well so Steve and Ethan went back first thing in the morning the next day.

Steve took pics on his cell phone and hitched a ride with a neighbor into town to get a mechanic's opinion on it.  Our other van was having a transmission problem and wouldn't shift making it so that we couldn't go over 40 mph.  The mechanic thought by the pictures that it would not be worth fixing, and if we did it would be several thousands.

Oh dear.  

Or maybe I should say, Oh, deer!

Steve left the van at the graveyard to contemplate her own morbid thoughts.

The mechanic's boss came back into town on Monday and drove out to look at the van so that he could have a better look and the news that he gave us was good to hear.  He is able to replace all the damaged parts in the front.   We will need to replace the a/c condenser, the radiator, the fan and the fan assembly behind the radiator and the main support beam running across the front of the van.

He is able to pound the body back in most places so that she is functional again.  She won't look pretty but she will do her job and get Steve to and from work again.

We can't say the same for the young buck.  By the time we were able to go back for him he had bloated and someone had cut his antlers off.  But we brought him home just the same and he made a fine dinner for the dogs.

God has so graciously provided for us to be able to pay to get the van repaired.  After having spent  so much money on repairing the kitchen it was not good timing for us to take on such a costly repair right now.  I had been saving my earnings from selling online so that we could buy hay for the animals for the winter and that wasn't even half what we needed for the repair.  We borrowed the money from my father who said that had we asked just a few days later he wouldn't had the money to lend us as he was just about to pay off a vehicle purchase of his own.  As it was he sent along extra money just in case it ended up being more than we were quoted and wouldn't you know it...it was exactly how much he sent.  God is so good!  We can trust Him to provide a way for us to earn the means to pay my generous father back quickly.

Maybe next time we can hunt on purpose and use a proper weapon!