Folks its hunting season. I'm going to come right out and say it I am a hunter. I really hesitate telling people that unfortunately, but its something I love to do. I’m in love with nature. I can’t ever get enough of the outdoors and I know more about the woods, animals, plants and outdoors in general then most people In general.
I have found my love for nature from hunting. Ever since I was a little kid about the age of 5 or 6 I began hunting (not actually hunting but going along for the experience) with my father and both my grandfathers. The more time in the woods, the happier I was. I kill deer for one reason, the meat. I love venison but I also hunt to control the population and donate deer to family and the poor. Aside from the taste of venison and giving free meat to people who need it, I enjoy being in the outdoors the most. This past weekend I was sitting in my treestand, which if you don’t know what one is it is basically a platform to stand on high up in a tree with a seat attached to it. So I was sitting in the tree really early in the morning when its still pitch black out waiting for the sun to come up so I could begin to watch for deer. As it began to get lighter the silence of the woods began to break with the ruffling of fall leaves from squirrels waking up. Honestly, being out in the woods when the sun is coming up is probably the most peaceful experience I will ever come across (that is till I kick the bucket). In the fall it gets really cold at nights as you all know and a hard frost attaches itself to everything, leaves, branches, grass, and dirt.
To me, it’s so interesting to see nature wake up in the morning. The squirrels aside from the deer are the first ones awake. They climb down from their tree and begin their travels looking for nuts they have buried and eating nuts and seeds still exposed. The chipmunks are also zipping around in and out of rotted logs but they are mostly chasing each other and playing around. The birds start to come airborne when every branch and twig is now visible with the sun. The chickadee’s start to work up and down every tree looking for bugs and spiders trying to hide and blend into the bark. Before the sun comes up on a really calm morning with crunchy leaves you can even hear mice traveling underneath the leaves. Nature truly is beautiful and when you sit in the woods for hours and hours in the same spot you being to have such a close connection with it.
Animals are so curious, I have had numerous squirrels climb up a tree next to me only about a foot away at eye level look at me and try to figure out what I was. Now, I hunt in the southern tier of New York on my farm and out there most squirrels have no idea what I am or have never even seen a person before. So to me it’s interesting when they spot me in a tree and investigate. I have also had a number of birds land right on my knee before when sitting and not even realize I was a human. Well, to be honest when your sitting in the woods for hours and all the sudden a bird lands on your leg you jump pretty quick not understand what that sudden feeling was.
Aside from the nature and the love for all natural pure meat, I love spending time with my father and grandfathers. Hunting has been a sport (if that’s what you want to call it) in my family for generations. My ancestors were actually Native American so my grandfather says “you have that blood in you that likes to hunt because your Native American” I wont disagree with him. To complete three generations and spend time doing it in the woods and bond with my father and grandfather makes me love hunting all that much more. I see them every weekend and we share stories about different deer we have shot and different tactics and places to sit in order to see more deer. After all the woods time we share meals together and just strike up general conversation about our general lives. After a successful hunt sometimes we will cook up a nice meal of deer liver and onions along with deer heart, a true family tradition.
p.s. I will try and share pictures of me in a treestand if I figure out how to upload a picture.
It needs some editing, but all in all there's a lot of content here; VERY descriptive. All the while, I had thoughts like, "what? Squirrels aren't afraid of him? Lucky ass!," "oh man I love sunrises, especially in fall, so evocative," and ended with, "oh god deer heart I think I am going to throw up." I'm no hunter, but you laid a convincing argument for why I should be if you made that many different thoughts flow through my head.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a hunter myself (in no way should I ever be trusted with a gun) and have no real interest in hunting, but this made me interested. The descriptions of nature were beautiful and intriguing. I especially loved the part about the squirrel checking you out. They're curious little bastards.
ReplyDeleteAlso, on a humanitarian note, I'm glad that you donate parts of your collection. I'm curious, because you mention Native American ancestry. Does your family use the skins for anything?
This piece seemed more about your love of nature than the sport of hunting. If hunting is something you love to do, and can describe that with respect for the animals and environment, I don't think you should be afraid of getting into the nitty-gritty details of it. I've never been hunting before but I admire the people who're good at it and do it for the right reasons.
ReplyDeleteWhere is your revision piece?
ReplyDeleteI love hunting, although I rarely get the chance. My father and I are almost never in the same place at the same time during deer season. And I've been to the southern tier a few years ago to go deer hunting. It really is pretty peaceful, except in the spring. During the spring the mosquitoes seem to come alive first and ruin the whole experience.
ReplyDeleteI wish you had used this as a workshop piece. It's really good. I love the way you include the details of what happens when you sit in the tree stand and how you linked it to your relationship with your father. It would have been fun to talk about this in class.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Well written and descriptive without being overbearing. Your style and ease comes out with the comfort and serenity in the woods.
ReplyDeleteI remember my first hunting trip to the mountains past Old Forge. It was a week in an old broken down cabin made of logs. There was a garbage pile outside with rusted tin cans. A bear rattled around at night. My Dad had his 30-30 along with his 30-06...a customized and cut down Springfield WWII rifle. He did a lot of gunsmithing. I was 9 or 10 and carried the 30-30 for him. He shot a red squirrel with the 30-30. All that floated down were little tufts of fur. "Too much gun," was all he said.
Hunting has become a sport, a way for westerners to proclaim superiority over the animal kingdom. Killing a life force is a spiritual and powerful concept and should be treated as such. Native people, the ones who have inhabited and successfully survived here for 15 or 20 thousand years (by contrast, westerners have lived here for a few hundred and look at us now), hold animals in the highest regard since they are giving their lives to give life. We have become so far removed from our food sources, so distant, that we have fallen prey to powerful food conglomerates that feed us crap in favor of profits.
While I not saying people should go out and start killing for food (this is evidenced by the "poor kid" who blew his own head off because the safety was off...Darwin award winner). We do however need to become more in tune with what we are putting in our mouths. (Rant over...sorry about the blog highjacking!) :)
So, I haven't hunted in years and I am sure that when I do hunt, my perceptions will be that of my past lives living in the plains of the Lakota, or the woods of the Seneca, and be reverent to Nature and Mother Earth.
I don't think you should be hesitant about telling people you're a hunter. We're a species of omni-vores, where do people think meat comes from? I think as long as you're not just outright killing animals and leaving the carcasses, what's the big deal? My family has a lot of hunters, I personally don't like hunting because it's usually too early for me to be up.
ReplyDelete