Not for the Faint of Heart

So last night Danny went to pick up the missionaries for dinner at our house and on the way back as they were driving over a small bridge near our house one of the missionaries asked the other one if he thought the dead buck was still there. Of course this made Danny's ears perk up and he had to know more. They told him there was a buck frozen in the creek under the bridge and they had wanted to get it out for a long time but didn't know how to do it and now it was frozen in the water. Danny said he didn't care and that he would go get it after dinner. They thought he was crazy but they wanted to see him do it so Danny, the missionaries, and Josh went down there after dinner.
When they got there you could only see a small portion of the back as the rest was frozen under the ice. You couldn't tell whether it was a buck or a doe but the missionaries promised that it was a buck so Danny said he was willing to get it out. The ice was frozen pretty solid but Danny slowly chopped a path out to the buck with an axe checking to see how deep the water was as he went out. The limb that you can see by the buck Danny chopped up and had it straddling the ice so that if he fell in he had something to grab ahold of. Well it took him a while but he finally was able to pull the buck out of the water and then he chopped the head off and brought home his prize that he worked so hard for. Now keep in mind it was only in the twenty's as far as the temperature and of course Danny who loves the cold did all this work without even wearing a coat. I will let the pics tell the rest of the story. WARNING: Some of the pics are not for the faint of heart. Enjoy!
Just so you know it is legal in Missouri to take the antlers if they are attached to a dead deer as long as you report it to a conservation officer within 24 hours. Danny got up early on Saturday to cut the antlers off and clean the skull and called a conservation officer too. He met with the officer around 2p.m. on Saturday and now has the official paperwork to possess the antlers.



You can see the path that he chopped in the ice and how far out the body was.

This is what it looked like from down in the creek.

The boys with the prize.

That's my muscle man!!

The rest of the deer minus the head.

Here is the missing head.

All the boys with the cleaned up antlers.

Danny

Nate

Josh

Colton

Even baby Audrey had to get in on the action.