April 21
5C O/C
Opening day at the bowls club. A game in the am, then a lunch with the Mayor's delegate, whoop te do!
Got the new pump motor into the hot tub, but still a wiring question.

. At least I’m a bit closer than I would have been.”

It was now fairly late in the day but still too early to go to bed and he reasoned that if the deer watered at night it was still a bit early. He had noticed a long stretch of pebbly beach on the other side of the rock out crop so decided to do some exploring.

He was back in an hour or so, happily clutching another oar with a ring oarlock attached.

He sat down behind the hunting blind, pried open a couple of the oysters and ate them with the leftovers from his lunch.

He laid out his arrows and made sure that he had a clear opening through the branches of the blind; as dusk came on Bob loosely notched an arrow and knelt to watch out through the opening. After a few minutes he started to stiffen up and realized that if he needed to do something different.

He arranged another hole at rock level on the corner that looked back in the direction of the raft then lying on his belly he started his vigil.

The first few minutes were easy but then he found he was fighting to stay awake. It had been a long tiring day and although he longed to give in to his body’s demands he forced himself to stay awake by shifting and alternating between one peek hole and the other.

Finally full darkness descended and he unrolled his bedroll and sliding under the blankets, fell instantly asleep.

Bob awoke with a start, for a moment he didn’t know where he was then remembering he rolled over. Something had awakened him, he started to rise then quickly moved so that he could look out through the lower hole. At first he could see nothing but the rippled waters of the inlet, some beach boulders and the rock stretching out before him. Then he heard a faint noise. A wheeze, a sigh? He didn’t know but he did know that it wasn’t part of the usual night sounds.

As he stared out he saw a motion, what he had thought was a rock was moving slowly up onto the rock outcrop. “A deer!” He breathed. As he watched there was movement from a second smaller shape behind the first.

He carefully rose to his knees and felt for the bow. The arrow had rolled to one side but he drew another from the pile and notched it into the steel wire.

Slowly he raised himself and as slowly poked the arrow tip through the upper peek hole and hardly breathing waited for the deer to arrive at the water.

Twice they stopped and looked around, the second time he thought the lead animal looked right at him and he quickly closed his eyes.

Finally with a low snorting noise the bigger one, the doe, moved right up to one of the small water holes and lowered her head to drink. The smaller deer moved to another and followed suit.

As Bob started to aim and pull the notched arrow back he caught more motion out of the corner of his eye. Another one. Another doe and she was alone. She raised her nose, sniffed the air then moved to a third hole and started to drink.