Teach your children well

Note: This is a recreation of the entry that I accidentally deleted a few weeks ago. These events actually took place on October 4.

Despite not having caught "buck fever" yet this year, I went out bow hunting at the old farm in Thorndike last weekend. I still haven't seen anything on the scout cam that has gotten me excited. It's actually having the exact opposite effect on me that I had expected when I purchased it! Oh well, you can never be too realistic.

The morning got off to a good start. The kids weren't awoken by the clock radio blasting Jackson Browne's "The Loadout" at 5am. Somehow, my mother managed to hear it through her closed door, but she sleeps like a mouse. I had slept on the couch fully dressed so I'd be able to get moving quickly and quietly.

I got to the farm at around 5:30 and parked behind the barn so as not to wake anyone or start the dog barking. Grabbing my bow, I started out slowly and quietly into the cool and still dark morning. I was going to try out a tree stand that I had put several friends in, but had never used myself. It turned out to be a fantastic seat for a right-hander with a rifle, as you could see a long way down a powerline that is criss-crossed with deer trails. Unfortunately, I shoot lefty and had only my compound bow.

I wasn't in my seat 5 minutes before I saw a flash of white at around 6am. It was still pretty dark, but I could clearly make out the outline of a whitetail's ears.  As the sun rose, I was able to see that it was a small doe. She crossed the powerline and circled around me. At one point she was directly down-wind and just 10 yards away, but never spooked a bit. I could hear her nibbling on the ground foliage as she mosied on by and eventually out of sight.

At around 7am, a doe and a couple of that spring's fawns moved quickly up the far edge of the power line before darting into the woods. That was likely the same bunch that I had spooked the evening before when I went to check on my scout cam in the field across the street.

By 8am, I was starting to feel a little sleepy and under-dressed for the cold. This seat is not a great one to take a nap in. It's basically a big long bench, and it seems to pitch forward just a smidge. I opted to get down and go for a walk around the muddy edges of the nearby corn field. Unfortunately, I saw some tracks, but nothing comparable to the monster hoof-prints that I had chased so hard last year. It was a rough winter, and it can be especially rough on a big buck after spending so much energy and fat reserves chasing does in the fall.

Later that afternoon, after spending much of the day snoozing on the couch while the kids played and watched TV, I decided that I'd try taking my oldest out with me that evening. By the time my parents got back from golfing, I had less than two hours of daylight, but I wasn't sure that she'd be able to last more than a few minutes anyway. She was very enthusiastic about going, but didn't have much in the way of weather-appropriate clothing! She slipped on her pink suede shoes, zipped up her flowery-purple fleece jacket and we headed back to the farm.

After walking a couple hundred yards through the mushy field, we got to the tree stand, and our first obstacle. She did fine getting up the ladder, but extending herself to get on to the platform was pretty scary for her. She managed to pull it together as I calmly (and quietly) coached her, and eventually we were both sitting side-by-side on the bench. She was a little shivery, so I held her close.

She did a really good job of whispering VERY quietly, and once I pointed out that a deer would easily spot her pink shoes as she swung her lacks back and forth, so sat very still. I instructed her that if a deer came out that I wanted to shoot at, unlikely as that was, that she should scoot down to the far end of the bench and snuggle up against the supporting tree trunk. Being a great seat to SEE deer, but not a great seat to SHOOT deer with a bow, I wasn't too concerned about that scenario becoming reality.

We didn't end up seeing any deer, but I did teach her some things about the various signs that certain animals can give you as to when there's a deer or another human nearby. Crows will caw at almost anything, and they are usually so high up that they cover too big of an area to be of much use. Squirrels are much closer to the ground and provide a more precise location, but they will yell at just about anything. You should look in the direction of an angry squirrel chatter, but don't place too much faith in them. They're most likely agitated about another squirrel. Blue jays are my favorite sentinels. They're not usually too high off the ground and they squawk much less often than the other two. If you hear a blue jay yelling, pay it serious mind.

After almost an hour, she said that she was ready to go. Climbing up the tree was a little rough, but not compared to the climb down. She wanted me to carry her, but I advised that would probably end up getting both of us hurt. Eventually, I was able to reassure that as long as she kept three of her hands/feet securely in place and only moved one at a time, that there was almost no way that she could fall. I stayed on the ladder below, ready to catch her, but coached her down by tapping the foot/hand that I wanted her to move and showing her where to put it. Eventually, we were safely on the ground and heading back to the van through the field.

As we walked through the darkening hay field, I asked her if she wanted to go with me again sometime.  "Yes!", she said, "but... can we use your hunting blind next time?" 

It's easy to teach such a smart kid.

Comments

[March]

would she have freaked if you shot something? Just curious as to how she might react to that.

[Jason Raven]

I can't be sure, but I don't think so. She's seen it on TV with me, and she certainly understands that the chicken/beef/pork that she eats was once a living animal. I've also told her that it's important to only shoot an animal when you are in position to make a clean, humane kill and that we don't shoot anything that we're not going to eat. You can't get more "organic" than wild venison! The kids had seconds and thirds last night even though I had over-cooked it a little and it wasn't as tender as it should have been.