The great hunter!

I don’t find a lot of stuff about hunting cool.  I just do not like to idea of sitting in a tree so that you can shoot Bambi.  Yes yes I understand that you have to cull the deer population to avoid sickness and over population…yadayada…
While married to my ex-husband I discovered that in the south this is a sacred topic. Many hours are spent planning the purchase of your first rifle, camouflage coveralls are allowed in church, stories are made around the fire at the “hunting land”…and families plan holidays around the deer season schedule.
My favorite joke about hunters is …“One of my favorite clothing patterns is camouflage. Because when you're in the woods it makes you blend in. But when you're not it does just the opposite. It's like "hey, there's an a**hole."”
All joking aside I did learn some valuable lessons during this time watching my ex-laws.  There are all sorts of “smarts”. Many people have book smarts, vast knowledge learned sitting in college classes, studying text books and manuals.  There is a kind of smart that is often over looked in this modern society of ours…good old street smarts…or in this case “outside” smarts.  Cassie will grow up with a love of the outdoors, an appreciation of the natural world and how it works, geology, plants, trees and animal behaviors…not a bad thing to know if you ask me. She certainly would never get it from me…I don’t know a thing about the great outdoors.
I guess because we had a daughter I thought she would not want to hang out in the woods…no such luck…she LOVES hunting with her Dad. They bond while sitting up in the tree stand, they spend hours walking the trails…and he can get her outside in 30 degree temperatures at 5am…quite remarkable if you ask me.
You can imagine my reaction when Cassie sent me the picture below. Apparently she saw her first deer this season…got her youth rifle ready…and fired.  Apparently she also held it a little to close to her eye and it had some kickback :).
To have been a fly on the wall for this one… I might have braved the weather and the early morning sunrise.
What I have to come to realize is that while I like a deer sausage biscuit after all these years…I would much rather buy a package of Jimmy Dean at the WalMart …my little Cassie has been blessed with a variety of genes, some of the red neck variety…and she is very lucky to have quality and quantity time with her father.
It may never be easy but it will always be worth it.
Babs