My weekend outdoor adventures are quickly becoming a family
affair. Here are some examples of how my
family is becoming more involved.
They Sit
We spent Thanksgiving 2015 at the cabin with our family; my
clan, my mom and dad, and my nephew. I
was thrilled when both daughters wanted to go deer hunting with me. Now they are both young and didn’t last long,
but I didn’t really expect them to. The
fact that they thought enough of me to want to sit quietly in the woods with me
was enough. The sit with my younger
daughter was unsuccessful but my older daughter and I saw two deer and If we’d
had been just a half hour earlier going into the stand she might have gotten to see me shoot a
doe. If they want to go, take them.
They Sit Some More
Our winter was mild and the ice fishing season was short,
but on one of my expeditions to a local lake my older daughter wanted to go
fishing with me. So we hauled the
Shappell out to the lake and set it up.
We took along a couple of bottles of water and some granola bars and
spent the better part of four or five hours zipped up in the dark looking for
fish. Unfortunately I couldn’t coax a
bite out of the fish that day so it was pretty uneventful. She was a trooper though and hung until the
end. Back at the house my wife asked how
the fishing was and I commented that you really couldn’t call it fishing; it
was more like ice sitting. My daughter
said, “Dad, I really enjoyed ice sitting with you today”. She was being funny but the day meant a lot
to me.
 |
| Sitting on the dock and wishing he was fishing |
Farming
This year the kids will learn a little about farming. We are going to make the annual spring food
plot planting trip a family affair. They
can take rides on the big tractor, ride the ATV’s, play in the woods, and help
out with the plots. They will learn all
the steps involved in planting a good plot and see how hard we work at it. Inevitably, somebody will ask why we go to
the trouble and they will get an explanation about growing bigger and better
deer, helping the baby deer grow bigger and faster, and helping all sorts of
animals make it through the hard northern Michigan winter. There might even be a fishing trip to a local
lake if we can swing it. There will be
another food plot trip in the middle of the summer when we will plant the
turnips and radishes; they'll have two trips like this.
Speaking of Fishing
Last year I bought a Zebco push button, spincast reel and
put it on a five and a half foot fiberglass rod that was hanging out in the
garage for my son. We fished the pond in
the middle of our subdivision and caught some bass. It was really exciting. The girls have been asking for their own rigs
for a while now and a trip to the local Bass Pro Shops resulted in five dollar
graphite rods and the same Zebco spincast reels. Now when we go fishing I will arrive with my
own team. My wife has even mentioned
that she might buy a fishing license this year and search for an outfit of her
own. We will intimidate the fish into surrendering. It’s great to see them all taking an interest
into something that I enjoy so much.
Cooking and Eating
I’m blessed with a wife who doesn’t mind eating or cooking
the harvest. From venison, to birds, to
fish, she’s always been willing. She
said she draws the line at squirrel though and that’s OK because I don’t shoot
too many squirrels now days. If we’d
have met when I was younger we’d have been in trouble, I liked me some squirrel
hunting. At the close of last summer I
started dabbling in venison jerky and the kids loved it. I plan to continue my experiments this summer
and get them more involved with the preparation and cooking.
These are a few examples of how my family has gotten
involved in some of my outdoor pursuits and some of the things I plan to do
this spring and summer to get them even more involved. What are you going to do to make your Weekend
Outdoorsman activities more of a family affair?
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