Walking in a winter hunters land

It is the end of December 2012 and the freezer is full of fresh venison thanks to Ariel's skill with her .243 and several well placed shots with .35 caliber. While Ariel loves deer hunting with her dear o'l dad,  Alex has not been bit by the deer hunting bug due to his dislike of sitting still and being quiet for extended periods of time. Earlier this year Alex inquired about getting his hunting license but made it clear he only wanted it in case he decided to try deer hunting in the future. I asked him why he wasn't interested in deer hunting and he explained his concerns with me. I then informed him that there were lots of other types of game that we could hunt together. While my schedule doesn't allow me to spend as much time pursuing smaller tasty critters as I use to I still love any time I get to spend in the woods.

Last night I was reflecting on how long it's been since I had a couple squirrels cooked up nice and tender in a crock pot. I decided to see if the kids wanted to go out in the morning and try out the new guns we got for Christmas while attempting to put more tasty meat in the freezer.

My alarm went off at 06:30 this morning and after waking both the kids from their peaceful slumber Ariel decided that she wanted to get some more sleep so Alex and I headed out together. We went to the farm Ariel and I do most of our deer hunting at which has plenty of hard woods and an abundance of squirrels and  rabbits.

Well when I'm deer hunting there is always an abundance of squirrels and rabbits, now that we were looking for them they were nowhere to be found. Alex and I spent over 3 hours working our way along the edges of the fields and eventually made our way through the hard woods. We would walk a short distance and sit down to observe the world around us. Eventually Alex saw one grey squirrel but it was on the adjacent property so we watched it from a distance as it disappeared into the woods. While we didn't see any other game we took advantage of the snow on the ground to figure out what kinds of critters were in the woods around us. Of course there were lots of deer tracks but we found lots of other animal tracks which made the morning exciting. We found coyote tracks, raccoon tracks, squirrel tracks, rabbit tracks and the most exciting find was bobcat tracks!

While we didn't end up harvesting anything the time I got to spend with my son was precious. We talked about the different types of trees surrounding us, I helped him identify the multiple animal tracks in the snow and speculated where the different animals were coming from and where they were going. We marveled at all the geese flying overhead and discussed how the ones in the back of the flock make lots of noise to encourage the lead goose and how they take turns leading the draft. I was able to spend time reinforcing the importance of safe gun handling and share my love of the great outdoors with him in a way that he enjoyed as well. Much to his surprise we spent time sitting quietly on snow covered logs observing the forest floor all the way to the tops of the mighty oak trees without making any sounds. I am proud to say that during the 2013 hunting season I will have a new partner for small game and hopefully some waterfowl hunting. Who knows by this time next year maybe he will have changed his mind about deer hunting but if not that's okay too. I'm blessed with two kids who enjoy the great outdoors in their own individual ways and I'm happy that together we make memories that last a life time much like we did today.

As we were leaving the farm the 4 young bulls took an interest in us as we were driving down the access road so I stopped the truck and Alex went to get a better look. Two of the bulls came right up to the fence and not only let Alex rub their snouts but one kept coming over and licking Alex's hand. This one time I decided there was nothing wrong with Alex playing with his food!

It's days like these that I am glad there are grocery stores to pick up dinner at on my way home so we don't go hungry but I wouldn't change a moment of the morning I got to spend with my son walking, sitting, talking and just plain enjoying a winter hunters land!