The student becomes the teacher

Well after taking a long hiatus from writing I have finally decided to start sharing my life with everyone again. After losing Navarre in March I not only lost my desire to write I honestly couldn't bare clicking on the blog and being reminded by his pictures that he was no longer here.

The past 8 months have been very eventful and included two trips which I never dreamed I would ever take, daily life and everything in-between. It has been just over a year since my surgery and my back continues to heal and despite having occasional bad days I am grateful for how well I feel considering everything I went through. I have continued to dabble with photography and while I still have a lot to learn I have gotten better at taking pictures that capture life's moments to reflect on for eternity.

What finally bought me back here though is two of the loves of my life, hunting and my kids. Last year it pained me beyond words to miss hunting season especially because Alex was so excited to finally be able to participate as a licensed hunter. But as we all know life goes on and despite not being able to hunt with the help of my friends Jayson and Seth I was able to reduce my meat purchases last year with venison they both donated to my freezer.

After what seemed like an eternity November is finally here. I was able to get a few trips into the woods during archery season but what I was waiting for was the Youth Deer Season opener which happened to be this past Saturday. With much anticipation and very little sleep I woke the kids and watched them gear up in their camouflage long before the sun made its appearance to kiss our faces with warmth.

Upon arriving at the meadow Alex headed off for his first deer hunt with Seth and Ariel and I made our annual trek to the grand stand beneath the brightly shining full moon. It was a quite morning and despite the deer failing to show themselves the time spent nurturing the kids with the love of the woods was time time well spent.

Ariel and I participated in afternoon stand together and laughed when we spotted 8 deer in the middle of a moonlit field while driving home. I was able to share with her the story of my dad and I spending a week and who knows how much money on a hunting trip up north only to return and have Nonnie fill the freezer after hitting an 8 pointer with her car just a couple miles from our house the weekend we returned home.

Fast forward to this morning. I took a couple vacation days to relax in the woods with the kids in anticipation of them filling the freezer and taking the pressure off of me during the regular firearms season. We decided that Alex would take the morning stands and Ariel would take the afternoon stands - well with her being 16 its like morning stand for her as she is usually just rolling out of bed at the crack of noon!

Alex and I made our way into the woods and were settled into the buddy stand about thirty minutes before legal shooting time. It was an unusually quiet morning with nary a squirrel and very few birds other than the droves of geese flying overhead. With the ever present technology I took several "selfies" which kept our mind off of the cold nip in the air as we laughed at our expressions. I suggested that Alex settle in and if he wanted to take a nap as I wanted to sit for another hour or two. It was just after 08:00 when a sound captured my attention, I looked around but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Moments later I heard leaves and caught movement in my peripheral vision.

I slowly garnered Alex's attention to alert him of the deer that was walking along side of us. He was amazed at how quickly the creature had materialized out of the thick brush. He raised his gun and when I stopped the deer by grunting the shot rang out. I watched the deer bound into the thicket and eventually up the hill. I was perplexed that it was able to bound off with such ease.

I focused my attention to Alex who was still shaking like the birch tree leaves which danced in the wind each time it gently blew. He was excited yet worried, his thoughts were focused on praying the deer didn't suffer. We gathered our emotions and I descended to the forest floor where I made my way to the point of aim. I could see where the deer jumped in the soft swampy ground but there was no signs of hair or blood. I slowly made my way through the brush were I saw the animal go able to see it's tracks in the wet leaves.  I carefully searched for any sign of a hit and while making my way over the hill Alex watched from the stand as the deer doubled back and ran towards the hardwoods.

I worried about how he was going to react to the news that he missed. I made my way back to where the deer was when he shot and after looking closely it became clear the he had shot just under the deer. Despite me telling him the disappointing news he still had a smile on his face. He unloaded the gun and lowered it down to the ground and climbed down to meet me. I assured him that there was no need to worry about the animal being injured and I showed him where his shot impacted the ground between the legs and just behind where the deer had been standing. We replayed the moment he took the shot and determined that despite me warning him not to he had picked his head up as he pulled the trigger - something I have done on more than one occasion!

We made our way out of the woods and once we were in the field we started talking again. It was during this walk back to the truck that my son taught me a lesson without even realizing he was doing so. I have been in his shoes, I have missed deer that seemed liked they were destined for my freezer but every time its happened to me I have been miserable filled with emotions of displeasure in myself and disappointment. Here walking next to me was a young man who was just grateful for a day spent with his dad and amazed that he even saw a deer. Yes he was bummed that he missed but kept exclaiming to me how exciting it was.

Wow, all I could think was Wow! I was transported back to the days as a kid when my dad would let me skip school to spend the first week of archery season in the tree with him. I realized that those mornings are part of who I am, part of the reason I love hunting and in essence the reason I want my kids to hunt with me. Sure the goal is to harvest a deer but enjoying the time together is what really matters. Thanks to my son's enthusiasm I found myself renewed with joy and the self made burden of pre-harvest pressure has been lifted.

So now here I am writing this reflecting on the past couple mornings realizing that what really mattered was the moments spent one on one with my kids, the time spent cuddling together to stay warm in the buddy stand, the silly jokes and never ending innuendos we fabricate out of nothing, the blessing of a front row seat watching nature prepare for winter and seeing animals behave in their natural habitat that so many people will never experience except though a television documentary.

Thank you Ariel for sharing my love of the hunt and if I have ever made a single moment of  our time spent in the woods un-enjoyable please accept my apology and call me out on it if I ever do!

Thank you Alexander for opening my eyes and renewing my spirit. Today was fun, it was exciting and thanks to your positive attitude I will cherish every moment of it forever. You see you taught me that I am never too old to learn something and today you proved that you are never too young to be the teacher. I look forward to the day when I get to watch you harvest your first deer, It may take some time or it may be tomorrow but whenever that day comes I will cherish the moment spent together and am thankful that you share my love of the woods and hunting as does your sister.

Ariel, I know that hunting was "our thing" to do together so I thank you for not discouraging your brother from participating. I have been blessed that you have helped fill the freezer the past couple years and will always smile and laugh thinking about our "Don't tell Mom" moments and conversations!

Here is to many more hunts, countless memories and positive lessons learned - no matter who is teaching and who is learning!

Don't try to make children grow up to be like you, or they may do it!

Of course as my mother will attest, I was a perfect child so I know my kids will turn out just fine! The scary part is that my children are growing up and there is nothing that I can do to stop it. It seems like only yesterday that I was rushing Rebecca to the hospital for a night of long labor which would result in us being blessed with the most amazing little girl I could ever have hoped for. Yet here I sit 15 years later reflecting on all the memories we have already made together in a rather short period of time.

Ariel ,you are my one and only daughter and are more than I could have ever hoped for. Being my first born I can honestly say we have learned (a lot) together over the past 15 years. I have watched you grow from my cute little girl into a beautiful woman.

With that said be sure not to leave your youth behind too soon. Enjoy this time in your life and remember that you have a family that loves and cares about you. Resist the push from society for you to rush into adulthood, these are the years that you will hone your skills and master responsibilities but that doesn't mean that you can't have fun and enjoy your teenage years while doing so! I pray that no matter what you encounter in life during the next several years that you know you can lean on me and your mother - while it may be hard to believe it wasn't that long ago we were your age and understand life's challenges! I will continue to pray for you every day and while we may not always see eye-to-eye I hope you know I will always have your best interests in mind. I love you and am very grateful that we share so many likes and interests and the memories of your first trout, your first deer and everything in between bring a smile to my face more often than you could ever imagine. While you may be growing up I hope you know that you will always be my little girl!
Happy Birthday
XOXOXOXOX
Daddy

 Never too old to be silly!

 15 Candles! 

Fun in the sun with Lexi and Alex

Steak and Chicken and Shrimp - Oh My!

Grammy's homemade Ice Cream Cake - Yummy!

A Fathers Dream Come True

I grew up with a father who loved to spend time with with his kids. While my brother and sister grew up enjoying some of our fathers hobbies and outdoor activities I cherished every moment spend in the woods learning the in's and out's of hunting with him which is one of the reasons I love to hunt to this day. On March  7, 2010 Ariel began her own journey of becoming an accomplished hunter and I posted here that she was "The Apple of My Eye"

Fast forward to today and I have the pleasure to tell you that one of my greatest dreams has come true. Today my son Alex completed his Connecticut Conservation Education and Firearms Safety Program. He spent two days in a classroom interacting with 5 separate instructors learning about firearm safety, ethics, local game species, hunting, trapping and much, much more. I was proud to sit at the back of the room watching him ask questions, be the first to raise his hand to answer questions directed to the class and the thing that made me happiest was when he was called upon to demonstrate safe gun handling and knew before being told by the instructors how to properly handle the weapon which resulted in him being the demonstrator at the front of the class for the remainder of the lesson.

At the end of the class today he took his final exam which he passed with a great score then moved out to the shooting range. While the range part was more to show good safety practices he also out shot most of the class which was made up of adults with the exception of Alex and one teenager. Needless to say, much like the day Ariel completed her class I have been walking on cloud nine!

Alex's main request has been to learn how to turkey hunt, something which I have been successful at in the past but by no means am an expert on teaching. I decided that while I would like to get him a shotgun of his own for turkey hunting much like Ariel I wanted him to have a rifle that one day he could call his own. I was blessed to have a family rifle passed down to me by Rebecca's Grandfather so in keeping with tradition I decided that I would pass down the Winchester .30-30 that I got from my father many years ago. It has been a good gun and I have taken many deer with it over the past 20 years and I look forward to watching him take many more with it too!

Over the years I have enjoyed the time spent in the woods, not only the thrill of a hunt but also the peaceful times observing God's amazing creation. While the time I had to spend with my dad in the woods was cut short I now have the joy of spending time with my own children in the woods teaching them all the knowledge I have learned over the years and continue to learn each and every time I go out. The is no doubt that I have been blessed in life and knowing that a cherished tradition is being passed on to another generation is a beautiful reminder. 

I love both my children and look forward to spending time with each of them one on one and together as a group at the range practicing with our firearms, in the woods observing nature, harvesting game for our food and every moment in-between! 

Congratulations Alex on a job well done. I love you and your sister very much and I am very proud of you both. 

As you can all imagine I can't wait for hunting season to open later this year!

Family Time

The new year has been busy for me, especially the past 2 months. While I have had a moment here and there to blog my daddy taught me;  "If you didn't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Between the people I deal with day in and day out and the lack of appreciation at work I have remained silent while enjoying every precious moment I could with my family! Last week Ariel finished her qualification for the shooting sports award she has been working towards achiving. When she was done we spent the remainder of the day at the range shooting together as a family, despite my initial desire to hoard all the ammunition till  the stores start maintaining their inventories!

Today we went on a field trip with a few of the members from Venture Crew .22 to the Springfield Armory. Alex and I really enjoyed the afternoon walking around the museum learning and admiring all the beautiful firearms on display. 

As a young man his journey begins...

It seems like only yesterday that I was laying in bed watching Rebecca sleeping and counting the seconds between her contractions that she didn't even realize she was having. I can hardly believe that 12 years have passed already and that my baby boy has entered into the next chapter of his life as a young man.

As do all parents, I remember the days my children were born with much detail. I have been truly blessed with both my kids and while they know they are loved each and every day of the year it is on their birthdays that I take the time to let the whole world know how proud I am of them. Today happens to be that day for a young man named Alexander Aquilino Wearne. His name was chosen long before he ever existed but I never could have imagined the boy he is now. I am proud of my son and look forward to watching him grow into a man and starting a family of his own some day. I pray for him every day that he will follow the straight and narrow path while nourishing his own relationship with God. I hope that I am always the best dad in the world through his eyes and that he learns from my mistakes so he doesn't have to repeat them. I love you Alexander - Happy 12th Birthday!

Twelve years have flown by since that picture was taken and Alex has grown strong and tall and along with that he requires more nourishment then he has in years past. As we always do the Birthday Boy (or Girl) gets to choose their birthday meal and Alex requested his favorite "Man Meal" for our family celebration. I specify family celebration because his actual party is Sunday and he chose his other favorite meal for that one which I will post next week. As for tonight's meal it was a meal fit for a king.

Beef Loin grilled medium rare with homemade mashed potatoes and steamed sugar snap peas! And for dinner was his birthday cake and much like his father Alex has a great love of cheesecake which his darling mother whipped up at  moments notice.

It's a good thing that Alex has been playing SkyRim because he almost needed to use a Dragonborn shout to blow out all those candles in one breath!

Of course before the cake I let him open the gifts from me and Rebecca because I was almost as excited to watch him open as he was to get them. The first gift was a set of BrickArms  which as you can see are accessories for his Lego collection.

Then came a 4 pack of magazines for his Crosman M4-177  that he received this past year for Christmas

 What good is a magazine if there is no ammo to put in it? Squirrels beware this is the real deal!

Now that he is fully outfitted for some plinking he opened the next package which will not only provide hours of entertainment it will hone his skill as a marksmen. Plus I can't wait to throw some lead at it too, as they say practice makes perfect!

This last gift was the biggest surprise because he never expected to get one despite looking at them while debating if it was worth spending his own hard earned money on.

If your unable to read the box it's a Red Dot sight for his gun. Below are some pictures of it once we mounted it.

Please notice that despite me not saying a word my 12 year old son is handling his firearm safer than some adults I have witnessed and I am very, very proud of him!

Of course when we were all done cleaning up we lit up the back yard so we could start sighting in the new scope and it didn't take long before the spinners where whirling!

Aiming for the 10 ring

Everyone knows how lucky that I am to have a family who shares my love of all things shooting sports. Today I felt like the proudest daddy in the world as I watched my daughter Ariel working on her qualifications for the Venturing shooting sports award.  She was attentive to the instructions, handled each weapon safely and showed her determination to eventually become an expert marksman or should I say woman. She fired a multitude of different weapons ranging from handguns, long rifles and the oh so popular in the news AR style rifle. When she was done we spent some time shooting the M&P that I got for Christmas along with her Marlin XT that she received as a Christmas present as well. Her safety and skill caught the attention of another group at the range and they invited her to punch some paper with their AR's as well. It was a great morning spent together honing our shooting skills and just hanging out as a father and daughter. It ended up being about 20 degrees colder than originally predicted so her hand warmers that Aunt Jackie made her for Christmas came in very handy as you can see in the pictures!

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!

Preparing for a long cold winter

Today I decided that I would work on splitting some more of the wood I had in the side yard. Ariel had the day off from school to go to an all day event with some friends so I decided that Alex could have the day off too. I would rather look at it as he was out of the class room and learning one of life's important lessons - how to put in a hard day's work and embrace the challenges of becoming a man. Well maybe splitting wood doesn't really make you a man but it can teach you a life skill that will be used to keep your family warm in the future and it can always be used as part of obtaining the required credit in PE!

When I was a kid I can remember my father getting a big tri-axle of logs dropped off at the house every year for my brother and I to split. And we did it the hard way with an maul no gas powered machines to aid in our chores. I admit I was younger and didn't really do a lot of the splitting I did most of the moving and stacking of the logs. I of course was also the one who was responsible to get the wood down stairs and stacked on the far wall so there was never a shortage to be fed into our stove.

Now as much as I love splitting wood by hand there was way too much for me to do in one week without cutting into my hunting time so Uncle Tony made it easier on my by letting me borrow his log splitter again.

At first Alex was less than thrilled to be spending his morning performing physical labor but once we got going he cheered right up and we got into a steady rhythm taking turns running the machine and placing the logs. Before I knew it the pile of split wood was growing and the whole log pile was shrinking at a steady pace.

I realize that this next part may cause some controversy but I can remember getting a forbidden treat once in a while growing up such as nip of blackberry brandy at breakfast after a cold morning spent in the woods bow hunting or one of Aunt Concetta's flammable rum balls at Christmas. While I may not have benefited me in any way it sure didn't cause me any harm. This is the same reasoning that I used today when I let Alex have an ice cold Monster Energy drink. As you can imagine he ran up the back stairs to get us each one and partook of it throughout the morning and early afternoon, savoring each tasty sip!

I must admit Alex surprised me today. He really stepped up to the plate and showed me that he is willing to work hard and actually requested that we keep going until all the wood was split. He worked hard loading the truck when we picked up and moved the wood and like a champ assisted with stacking the first cord and a half several weeks ago and proved to me again today that he wasn't afraid of a little hard work. I am proud of my children but today was special in that I watched my son act like an adult and was rewarded with a sense of accomplishment when all the wood was done.

Thankfully we have 4 cord of split wood for the winter ahead, hopefully Gabriel will allow us to use it considering he claimed it as his own before we could finish!

Next week I just might give the kids another day off from the classroom to teach them about stacking wood which of course can be turned into a math lesson about how much wood is in a cord, or the science of proper stacking and defeating the powers of gravity! Plus stacking wood and drinking Monsters beats running laps around the soccer field any day!