Today we had a family outing and Girl asked if she could bring a friend along. Sure since the two of you are getting along at this moment in time. Girls...one week they are best friends and the next week they aren't speaking to each other!
I am fascinated by this little girl. The stories she tells! When I first met her I didn't pay much attention because it seemed like she was making this stuff up. A pig hunt one weekend. A bear hunt another. Fishing the next and deer the next weekend. Then I brought Girl over to this girl's house. The walls of the house are lined with trophy mounts of just about every type of game and bird imaginable.
Today she was telling us how she can't wait for June. She will turn 12 and will legally be allowed to hunt. She was explaining to Girl the different rifles she owns. Then she brought up the ammunition shortage. Wow, this is coming out of an 11 year old girl? She said that she's lucky because an aunt of hers is a Walmart manager and her parents get told when they get in a shipment of ammo. Nice.
I asked her how big of a freezer they have. She said they have two big freezers at her house plus most of their relatives have freezers too. She said she helps make jerky, sausage, ham, and her parents and grandparents also can some of the meat.
The friend was telling us about her last camping trip. She brought another school classmate with her. They went fishing and ate their catch for breakfast. They threw the bones into the fire. I want Girl to hang around this friend. Perhaps they can go fishing this summer at the pond across the road from our house. Girl doesn't mind catching fish but doesn't like cleaning them. That's not acceptable. I make her clean at least one of her fish when we going fishing! Perhaps her friend can convince her to like it.
I'm not a hunter. I shoot rabbits and squirrels in the yard. That's about all I hunt. I raise meat - lamb, goat, chicken, and when the kids were younger a steer. I've butchered our animals. I'd prefer someone else to butcher them but I will do it myself if I have to. I don't mind cutting the carcass up into steaks, roasts, and other cuts.
I have gone hunting before and am not adverse to it. I do not insist on "fair" hunting; I think this new California rule about not using dogs when you hunt bears in just dangerous and wrong. In fact, we are putting out a salt lick and also throwing out some grain near the bug-out place. Sure I'd like to keep a good fence around fruit trees but how about having some of the trees accessible to the larger critters? Keep the trash locked up? Sure that will deter bears, but if TSHTF, I'd be encouraging the bears to come and rummage through the trash and also to eat the apples off the trees. Let them come to me rather than me tracking them.
I never took a shot in all my hunting years. It was more about the experience and spending quality time with my Father.
ReplyDeleteNow I see the deer as cute and cuddly, but we have an understanding they would become steak if needed, no problem.
Girls friend seems great, it's life experience that can be recalled many years down the road. Well, hopefully many years and not a couple.
Girl, you know not what you say about bears. No need to invite them to your fruit trees, the bigger problem will be getting any fruit for yourself. A hungry bear will simply break all the branches down to get the fruit, leaving you with none and major repair pruning and three years to another crop for the bears. Avoid the heartache...kill 'em all and keep the pressure canner hot.
ReplyDeleteWinston
Thanks! Around my bug-out place one of the neighbors has a 6-foot high chain link fence to keep the critters out of the fruit trees. Between that and the dogs he usually gets his crop. Another of my friends has 20 acres of apples. They rarely get any. I agree, you have to protect your food supply and what grows is more reliable than what you can shoot.
DeleteAs if such a fence would even slow them down. Over the years I have tried about everything. Bears are nothing short of immensely powerful and can reduce tree or fence to scrap in a very short time.
DeleteIf the dogs are outside close enough to the trees, that will work. Most of the time. Neighbor has a commercial Asian pear orchard. When fruit starts to ripen bears come from 30 miles away to get theirs. A depredation permit, sleeping outside, toe traps, culvert traps, dogs, and enough guns to start a war could not keep them out.
They passed through my place like a winter storm enroute to the endless orchard. An hour with me kept me fruitless for the year.
BEST remedy I found was to keep a radio playing on the all night preachers. Bears did NOT want to convert and I got my crops those years. But radio dies for any length of time, kiss it off.
Best of luck with this.
Winston