I was raised in a hunting family. My Dad always hunted deer in the Fall. If the weather was warm he would take my baby brother and I along on Sunday during hunting season. We used to walk with him through the woods and then sit someplace quietly and watch. My Dad can walk through the woods silently..he was a soldier..small children learn to walk quietly..avoiding twigs that snap, following in his footprints. His stride was long..I really had to work at following exactly where he stepped.
There was no horsing around. When we got old enough my Dad taught us how to use a rifle safely. I shot at a deer once..I think I probably just scared it..I tracked it..it ran off..apparently alive and well. My deer stand was in a clearing at the fire, my uncles would come by and throw their sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil into the fire to warm up and to sit a spell and tell me stories.
I used to hunt with Far Guy. His family is nuts takes hunting very seriously. They go out even when it is 20 below zero at O dark thirty and sit you next to a tree until daylight..then you get to sit there all morning..quietly watching and waiting. No warm fire..and no warm sandwiches either.
We no longer hunt. Well that is not quite true..I like to hunt with my camera. We both hunted because we enjoyed being in the woods..now we live in the woods.
I have an old photo today of my cousins and my Aunt taken in 1959 or 1960. My Uncle George must have gotten a deer and he was home from the hunt:)
Great story!
ReplyDeleteI was taught to hunt like Far Guy's Family. Dark, dress warm, go to the woods, wait for daylight and for the game to come to you.
Dad always gave me a box of matches in case I got really cold but he always reminded me, the fire would scare the game. I clutched that box of matches like a life line but never gave in and built a fire.
I love the reminder of walking in daddy's footsteps.
ReplyDeleteAwesome story. Just the same as my dad and I back in the day. We hunted deer,duck, rabbit and pheasant. My dad to was a soldier a sniper and it was hard being as quiet as one of them in the woods and he taught me how fire and handle a gun ! I remember those days of freezing my butt off even with all the warm clothes on and coming home with ice cold toes lol Now I am the same as you I hunt with my camera as well. Have a wonderful day.
ReplyDeleteIn the woods is a good place to grow up...I never hunted...didn't like the killing...although I liked to eat and my family lived on what my father killed...so killing can be necessary, I guess...
ReplyDeleteI think the fire and warm sandwiches is the better way to go...Pa was one to walk through the woods to find game...I have a friend who always goes out at 'O dark 30' and sits in a blind...he's not hunting anymore due to a stroke...and Pa's not hunting anymore due to dementia...
Everything changes...deep sigh...
You have reminded me of our neighbor who brought home a deer and by the time I visited it was in pieces. It was very traumatic to me. I know this is where meat comes from, but it doesn't make it any easier. I avoid the meat sections in the grocery store, too. No wonder I'm a vegetarian! :-)
ReplyDeleteLove the post and mental pictures. My family hunted as well. My brothers often took me along and took me to the shooting range as well. My one brother was the envy of all, an incredible shot. Me? Not so much. But I was as tough as nails, no whining about being cold and wet or hungry or tired. Unfortunately other girl types had already ruined it for my dad. He was a men only type of hunter. Luckily he didn't feel the same about hiking, huckleberry picking and fir cone hunting, or stream fishing. Being out with family and dads in that way... priceless. Hot sandwiches around the campfire... oh heavens I'm hungry and I haven't even had breakfast.
ReplyDeleteOh and I love the frosty header.
ReplyDeleteHubs used to hunt 'till the best deer stand in the country became our front deck. There was truly no 'sport' when it became too easy.
ReplyDeleteThese days we hunt with the camera. We didn't 'cotton' to dear meat anyway. 'Gave 'em away.
Love that pic...that's one big deer!
Have a splendidly blessed and beautiful day sweetie!!! :o)
I love the idea of hunting with your camera now.
ReplyDeleteI like to hunt....I think! I've never really been on a hunt farther than the backyard, I have shot a few raccoons and things.
ReplyDeleteI love the imagery -
ReplyDeleteMy husband's cousin shot an elk the other day - using a sniper rifle. He got the elk at a distance of 900 yards.
I thought that seemed a little extreme - kind of a disadvantage to the elk. His cousin didn't have to be quiet or try and sneak up on it. Times have certainly changed.
Which one are you in the lineup?
ReplyDeleteGreat picture. I was not brought up in a hunting or gun family but I married into one and I sure am glad because I love guns(sorry you anti gun people)but I do beleive in the right to bare arms! I still have to take the gun safety course for hunting. I have a hand gun permit but no hunting license, isn't that weird can carry and conceal but not hunt with a rifle.
ReplyDeleteI used to hunt partridge in my younger years. I'm like you though, just shooting with the camera. And there is nothing like a walk in the woods in the fall.
ReplyDeleteMy dad bow hunted with a friend and there are old home movies of me as a toddler with a dead deer. It gives me the willies to watch that now.
ReplyDeleteI'm another city girl who never thought much about where the meat comes from. Became a vegetarian since facing it a year and a half ago. I know that's just life and it's been like this since the beginning of time, but I am still glad I quit. Just love being out in the woods, but I'm glad you hunt with your camera now. :)
Are you sitting on a dead deer. Oh, my. Great memories, great description, great place to live.
ReplyDeleteI didn't grow up in a hunting family but Terry did. His Mom would then can the venison for winter. That just sounds awful to me, but I'm not a venison fan unless it's in chili or made into jerky. I guess that would be any way that does not taste like venison. :)
ReplyDeleteI know he grew up eating a lot of it.
I may have told you this already. When I was a kid (3rd-4th grade), I remember the hunters coming up from downstate NY to hunt on my grandfather's farm which was 40 minutes from Albany. Getting off the school bus, we would see the deer hanging from trees. I think they were there to drain while the hunters ate and got ready to take them to the butcher.
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