Real Women Hunt

First, I want to be clear that this post has nothing to do with slavery. But I think that sometimes we tend to throw the baby out with the bath water when we examine that period in our history, so I am using one of my favorite films in this post. This is about other lessons I learned from a character in a work of fiction and the sequel, Scarlet. Our local movie theater shows a throwback movie once a week. Last week they had Gone With the Wind. It is no secret that I grew up in the South, and I have probably seen the movie a hundred times. I still have a worn out tattered copy of the book on my bookshelf. So, when I got the chance to see the classic movie on the big screen, I jumped at it.

So why do I love it so much? I must admit I love the colors and beautiful costumes and scenery. Scarlet liked her fancy clothes. But, there are lessons I learned from Scarlet that have served me well over the years. She was one tough woman. First, she was resilient. She went from very wealthy society girl with everything she could want, to wearing rags and digging up radishes from a garden to keep from starvation. She survived and used her scars to become even stronger and eventually a better person.

Second, Scarlet never gave up. She had no idea how to run a home, take care of people, grow food, cook, clean or really anything except act silly and look pretty. But when faced with starvation and ruin, she rolled up her sleeves and got to work. She used what she had to take care of herself and her family. She did it by sheer force of Will at a time when it would have been easy to just give up.

Scarlet always found a way. Sometimes her methods were harsh and not exactly ethical. Scarlet had a tendency to act rashly without fully appreciating the consequences. When she had to raise the money for the taxes on the plantation she stole her sister’s boyfriend and married him for his money. Her actions were harsh and wrong, but she willingly took on the burden and the blame to save her family’s home and keep them from being homeless. As she matured, she learned to make better decisions, but she always found a way to do what needed doing.

The last paragraph brings us to the next lesson. Scarlet loved the land. First her home on a Georgia plantation and later Ireland. She fought for her home and later bought more property. It made her feel safe. When asked why she was amassing so much property she quipped, “How can anyone have too much of something that has been here a thousand thousand years?” Scarlet drew strength from the land. She loved it and returned to her home in times of trouble to regain her strength and courage.

One of my favorite lessons came from the sequel. Scarlet very wisely said that always and never are word that a person best not be too attached to. Life tends to present us with situations that, if we are to survive, and especially if we are to thrive, we need to be less rigid and more able to adapt. Be careful with always and never.

The last lesson comes from Mammy, not Scarlet. As we have seen, good behavior wasn’t exactly Scarlet’s strong suit. She was a survivor. Mammy however, had strict standards of behavior. Certain things were not acceptable. Mammy said, “It ain’t fittin. If it ain’t fittin, it just ain’t fittin.” Well said.

So what does this have to do with hunting? Well, think about it. Hunting is putting yourself into an environment where you are the stranger. The animal is at home. It takes strength, resilience, brains and perseverance to be successful. If you give up you will never be a successful hunter. Sometimes you have to dig deep and find a way. You have to love the land and be respectful of it. And, you have to behave yourself and be an ethical hunter. Scarlet could have been a good hunter, albeit in only the fanciest of hunting attire.

And finally, when you are cold, wet, hungry and watching the elk run off into the sunset, remember….. is another day!

During bow season it is still pretty hot outside, so we usually go back to camp for lunch. One afternoon we were sitting outside in the only sliver of shade remaining and a friend stopped by. Soon we were sitting in the blazing sun with several friends. It was a lot of fun and we were mostly talking about what we had seen and what we had missed. Apparently none of us were winning any awards for marksmanship at that point. We watched a video of one friend who missed an elk at 20 yards. I’m not sure what was funnier. The video or the fact that his buddy took such delight in showing it to us.

As I sat there I was struck by the folks gathered there. We were friends. And even though we are all still friends in town, town puts labels on people and forces us to all play our roles. We had attorneys, law enforcement officers, a person or two who had been on the wrong side of the law and women. Women in hunting camp who hunted with the men and weren’t expected to stay in camp and be the cook. None of the roles we play and the ways we make our living mattered in camp. The labels go away and we can just be who we are, not who we are expected to be. I will remember that afternoon as one of the best times I had all year.

Oh, and the guy who we all laughed at for missing his elk sent us a picture a few days later of a bull elk just outside our camp while we were in town. I am sure he enjoyed taunting us.

It has been some time since I have posted to my blog, not because of a lack of interest but because it took me a while to mentally process this last season. Suffice it to say it wasn’t what I hoped for. I love bow hunting and this year we tried to share it with some people we love. Unfortunately some of them didn’t love it as much as my husband and I do. There were some spats and some hurt feelings and somewhere along the line we lost sight of why we like being there in the first place. For me it is the challenge of bow hunting and the quiet solitude of being in the woods. Harvesting an animal is secondary to the time spent contemplating life or maybe just contemplating the anthill you almost sat on. It is also time that my husband and I get to spend together doing something we enjoy, not to mention the joy of lousy cell service. So, instead of talking about things that made this a rough season, I want to focus on the bright spots from this season, and there were quite a few. Stay tuned.

I’m not a huge fan of plastering my beliefs on a bumper sticker so I can show them to everyone. I generally believe that my religion and my politics are my business, but one of our friends has a great bumper sticker that really struck a chord with me. It says, “Don’t hunt your kids. Hunt with your kids.”

We have kids in our camp ranging from 32 to 3. Yes, they are still kids to us even in their thirties. With the exception of my son-in-law, they are all girls. Needless to say it can be a circus at times. 8 – 10 people in camp is about normal.

The teenage girls would sometimes rather be somewhere, anywhere, other than in camp. Boys, cell phones, school, friends, sports and plenty of other things pull them in all directions. Sometimes we let them stay with a friend or grandparent, but we usually make them come with us. We believe they benefit from time with family of all ages.

My daughter is a 31 year-old Army vet. She is a wife, mom and a law student. She is an all-around bad ass. Just being around a powerful woman has taught them they can. Not can do this or that, but just that they can.

The three-year-old teaches that there is wonder and joy everywhere and almost anything can be made better with a cookie.

Grandpa teaches us all what matters and what doesn’t. He has forgotten more about being in the mountains and hunting than I will ever know. He and my husband and my son-in-law teach them what good men are so hopefully they don’t end up with men who aren’t so good.

They teach us that sometimes a new way might work just fine or even better. Me, I just watch it all and appreciate that our children are right with us and wonderfully under foot.

I promised a few posts about survival and I can think of few things more important than being able to build a fire. We spend a lot of time working with our girls on their fire building skills.

Almost every night we have one of the teenagers build the campfire. This is for two reasons. As teenagers, they prefer to spend time making sure their phones are charged. We make sure they unplug and participate with the family. Secondly, they have no choice but to learn to build a fire. It is a perishable skill and we want them to practice in case they are ever in a survival situation.

We have taught them they must have three methods of building a fire in their packs. We monitor them to make sure they practice with all three. We don’t want them to be learning in a tough situation. Much better to become proficient in the safety of camp.

While they sometimes get frustrated, we won’t let them just grab the lighter out of the camper. This teaches the girls more than just lighting a good fire. We don’t let them give up no matter how frustrated they get. What they also learn in the process is perseverance and patience. And a little bit of performance under pressure. A little, or sometimes a lot to teasing contributes to the lesson. We can’t create the pressure of performing this task in a survival situation, but performance under the pressure of everyone watching isn’t a bad substitute.

It has been a while since I posted to my blog, but with hunting season just around then corner I wanted the next several posts to be about survival. We generally hunt within about five miles of camp, but we teach our girls survival skills as though we are many miles from civilization. I think the most important lesson is that it makes no difference whether they are boys or girls. Survival skills are the same.

I had some decent skills from Army training, but I have learned a lot more since hunting with my husband. He likes to say, “The mountain doesn’t care.” He’s right. The mountain will kill without regard to whether a person is a prince or pauper, man or woman. The only thing that matters is whether the person has enough knowledge and skill to survive. Of course a little luck helps, but it is knowledge that will save your life.

When my children were learning to swim in the ocean, I used to tell them that panic kills. I taught them to relax and assess the situation and then act. The same is true in a survival situation. It is also true in avoiding being in a survival situation. Take a deep breath, assess the situation, take stock of what you have and think through what you need to do. Think about immediate needs like water, shelter and food. Panic is a waste of time, energy and resources. The best time to think about survival is while still in camp. Be mindful of what is in your pack. Could you live a couple days on what is in your pack? If not, rethink what you are carrying around. More about ideas for the pack later, but keep in mind that everything you are toting around should have a purpose. And remember, it’s great if your buddy has things that you need, but if you are separated you need to be able to rely of your own skills and what you have on hand.

Between us we have two campers, so two kitchens. We could easily cook meals every day, but we have found that after hunting all day, the last thing anyone really wants to do is cook a big meal for people. We have found that doing as much ahead of time as possible really makes a difference. Here are a few ideas for freezer meals that have worked well for us:

Meatballs: We use half game meat and half Italian sausage and brown the meatballs in a skillet then finish in the oven. Using a Food Saver we put 4-5 meatballs in a bag. They are easy to thaw and make great meatball subs. Sliced Swiss cheese and pizza sauce on a hoagie roll is a filling meal. The teenagers love it.

Stuffed Peppers: using whatever recipe you like, use your game burger and package these individually. They freeze well and are satisfying after a long day. They do take a long time to thaw, so make sure you get them out of the freezer early.

Hamburgers: also packaged individually and cooked ahead, these work well when you make a pocket in the middle of the burger and fill it with cheese before cooking. Pull out all the fixings while the burgers warm and you have a quick meal.

Breakfast Burritos: my favorite last year was the precooked burrito filling. The last thing I want to do at 4:30 a.m. is cook breakfast for a bunch of sleepy people. We made the filling ahead of time by scrambling eggs with onions, peppers and cheese then packaging the filling in portions for one or two burritos. In the morning all that is necessary is heating up the filling and warming the tortillas.

We packaged and froze everything individually because we had different people at camp at different times. Individual portions allowed us to feed extra people easily. We spent one full weekend in the summer cooking these meals and it worked great. The possibilities are endless and we used the rest of our game meat just before hunting season.

I would love to hear your ideas for other freezer meals to take to camp.

I, like all new Soldiers, was taught to trust my equipment. This lesson is taught in the context of land navigation training which teaches Soldiers to use a map and compass. It is common for Soldiers who are struggling to convince themselves they have a defective compass. The compass is seldom defective, but the land navigation skills probably need work. So the lesson is to trust your equipment.

A couple years ago we were hunting elk just a few miles south of town. The good part of this was that I could leave work at 4:30 in the afternoon, change clothes, grab my bow and make it to my favorite spot in time for an evening elk hunt. If I didn’t see any elk, I got to see an amazing sunset.

One evening I managed to get away from work and steal away for an evening hunt. I had a new cow elk call. Being a new hunter, I wasn’t exactly skilled in using the call. As I was walking to my spot I pulled out the call and wondered if it would really work. I hit the call a couple times as I was walking in.

Suddenly I heard something walking around in the trees. Thinking it was a deer, I kept walking, completely unprepared. Then, there he was. A nice bull elk came crashing through the trees and ran straight toward me. As I was out in the open, the elk saw me about the same time I saw him. He stopped about 40 yards from me and stood broadside watching me. It was a perfect shot. I crouched down in the sage and we just stared at each other. I tried and failed miserably to get my bow loaded. After a time he snorted at me and ran back into the trees. He was magnificent standing there right in front of me with the sun shining on him. But alas, I was unprepared. Why? Because I didn’t trust that my call would actually call in an elk, so I used it before I was set up, while still walking to my spot. The lesson?

Trust your equipment.

Most of us live very busy lives. I read an article a couple of years ago that said Americans often don’t take vacations or if they do, they work during their vacation time. I know that is true for our family. There are a lot of reasons why it is hard for us to get away, but I’m not convinced any of them are good ones. Of all the things we have, time is the only thing we can’t get back once it is lost.

Hunting season is the one time of year we really try to take time off work and spend time as a family. Some years that works better than others. Last year I was able to spend nine days camping. Granted, I had to check my e-mail once each day, but luckily the phone signal was so poor that phone calls were tough. That was not the case for my husband. He spent the whole hunting season trying to steal away for a day here and there. It was very stressful. This year we are determined to do better. Time tends to slow down around a campfire. We need that time to connect as a family. Work will wait.

My husband and I are both attorneys. For the last couple of years I have been a government attorney with vacation time. I try to use every bit of it. My husband is a private practice attorney. That is a very different thing. As any small business owner knows, time away is time with no income.

When I was in private practice I represented a client who taught me a very important lesson. As I was getting to know him he and I talked about fishing. He was retired and fished a lot. During the course of representing him I spent a couple of weeks trying to reach him so he could sign some documents. Eventually he returned my calls and came to the office. When I expressed my frustration at not being able to reach him, he turned to me and asked how many times that year I had been fishing. When I told him I hadn’t had time to go fishing that summer he chastised me and said neither his case or anyone else’s was more important than finding time to go fishing. I will never forget him. He was absolutely right.

Needless to say, we eat differently when we are hunting than we do at home. We are getting more exercise so we tend to consume a lot more calories. Part of getting the camper ready for the season is stocking it with plenty of snacks. Probably more candy is purchased for hunting than for Halloween at our house. We look for things that can be easily packed into wherever we happen to be hiking that day. Who has the best snacks is a source of fun and ribbing of the hapless hunter who forgot to restock his or her pack from the day before. One morning I ended up with my husband’s pack instead of my own. After I hiked to my spot alone, I discovered not only the error, but that my snacks were far better than the ones in his pack. I haven’t made that mistake again.

But by far the best part of the day is the evening when everyone gathers back at camp for dinner. Dinner is a BIG deal. Getting dinner prepared when everyone is tired requires a good plan and division of labor. We have found that a couple of weekends in the summer preparing freezer meals to take hunting is time well spent. We always hope that someone will be busy with an animal after a successful hunt, but even if that isn’t the case, it is still a lot of fun. Everyone, including the three year old, has a job. Last year she helped gather fire wood. Someone builds a fire. We try to have one of the teenagers do this, because they get practice with survival skills in the safety of camp. Someone starts getting food ready. Everyone else gets their gear ready for the next day. Finally we have hot food and either gather around the fire or around the table and regale each other with stories of our day.

The elk or deer is always bigger when described from the campfire, but what really matters is that everyone participates. Everyone saw something or did something worth talking about. We try to use our phones for pictures, not texting. Sometimes we have a signal and can’t help ourselves, but we do try. One of the things I am most looking forward to this year is my granddaughter being old enough to stay up just a little later and join us by the campfire.