By JD Salinas

January 24, 2022

This last year my oldest son turned 6 years old. My wife decided to ask our son what he’d like to do for his 6th birthday, party, friends over, etc., so she could start planning something for his birthday. To our surprise he replied to her “Mom, all I want to do for my birthday this year is go to the ranch with the boys and relax”. As a avid outdoorsman I couldn’t have been happier with his choice. Once school was let out for Christmas break my son and I headed to South Texas to our family ranch to meet up with my Father to spend the break hunting and relaxing at the ranch. The first morning of our trip my son wanted to go to the deer stand with Grandpa while I went to another stand. As the morning came about I heard a shot in the distance and sounded like a solid hit. My Father calls me a little while after to tell me my 6 year old JD shot and dropped his first deer all by himself. When the deer came out JD told my Father “Grandpa, I’m going to shoot it” my Father replied “ok go for it, come over here and let me help you”, JD then replied “stand back Grandpa, I’m doing this on my own!”. My Father sat back and watched JD get setup on his own then fired dropping the deer in its tracks. You talk about a boy smiling ear to ear after with excitement!! JD’s 6th birthday will be one to remember especially being that it was on our Family ranch which has been in the family for many generations.