Hunting with the people most "Dear"

On Sunday we celebrated Denae's birthday with a yummy dinner and of course, ice cream and cake for dessert. During dinner, John started talking about this great restaurant he ate at in Chicago and then he posed the question to the group, "Have you ever had duck?" This led to a discussion about the many wild animals that I had been served for dinner over the years and the crazy hunting escapades I went on with my brothers. A quick disclaimer here.. I know I have mentioned in a previous blog that when I tell stories I am often accused of embellishing but when it comes to these stories, I couldn't make the stuff up. I look back and wonder...what was I thinking? For example, there was the time two of my brothers convinced me to go Sage Hen hunting with them. It didn't take much convincing because I just loved hanging out with my brothers so off I went to find some Sage Hens, even though I had no idea what a Sage Hen was... Oh, and just to make it clear, I wasn't ever very fond of the animals actually getting killed, but I still tagged along on many-a-hunting adventure. On this particular adventure, my brothers thought I should get a chance to learn how to shoot since I was now in college, so they set up a target for me to shoot at and proceeded to coach me...."it will be easy", they said, "this gun has no kick at all"..just hold it close to your shoulder and pull the trigger". So I did what they said and pulled the trigger and the next thing I knew I was on my butt, 3 feet back from where I had started and my shoulder had a nice big bruise for about a week. They were both laughing so hard, they couldn't speak. Needless to say, I didn't take any more shooting lessons from my brothers. Deer hunting was another great event. We would wake up at 4:00 in the morning.. eat breakfast..which is not an easy thing to do at 4:00 in the morning, and then proceed to hike up a mountain...in the dark. Once we reached our destination, we would split into groups and I was always sitting with my Dad. We would then proceed to sit motionless and silently in the freezing cold October air, waiting for a poor defenseless deer to wander out into the open so we could shoot it. What about this sceanario was enjoyable? I was not cut out for any of it. I didn't like being cold, or silent, or patient....and I really couldn't handle it when a deer actually got shot. So, as soon as it was light enough and safe enough, I would head down the mountain back to our nice warm cabin where the rest of the family was just waking up for breakfast. You are probably wondering why I kept going on these hunting trips and I have often asked myself that same question.. but in looking back at all the things we did, the answer is very simple...I kept going because I liked the company.