"SHHHH...I'm hunting Wabbits"....

One of the things I am enjoying the MOST about being married is learning new hobbies of Wes’s, and doing those things together. I think so many people don’t try hard enough to at least TRY the hobbies of their spouse. Yes, it is still good to have our individual time doing things we love, but Wes and I have really been working at doing things....together. For example, just a few weeks ago, on a lazy Sunday afternoon Wes and I went to the indoor shooting range and shot handguns...afterwards, we went window shopping in Williams and Sonoma and then downtown to get coffee. What a fun date!

So, this past weekend, after having Thanksgiving at his Dad’s house in GA, Wes took me on my very first hunting trip....now, I have defiantly taken Wes “hunting” before, but my kind of hunting always involves malls, sales, and a plastic card...and let me just brag, and say for the record, Wes has turned into QUITE the retail sportsman! But THIS time, decked out in my cammo, I went hunting Wes’s way...and took to the woods.

The man that took us hunting is a long time friend of Wes’s family. To describe Mike and Jenny fully would take pages and pages on my blog. So to put it simply, Mike and Jenny are probably some of the nicest people I have EVER met in my life!! Down home, laid back, give you the shirt off their back if you needed it more than them, live off the land, truly organic type people.

Mike is QUITE the sportsman. Actually, Jenny his wife is too. Mike has a “gift” of hunting which I had heard Wes talk about before but never really understood until now. Seriously, they should do a reality show about him. He truly is blessed with an amazing gift and he uses that to not just provide for his family but to also bless others around him.

He doesn’t hunt for sport. He hunts for food. He will hunt to fill up his freezer and then once he has enough to last his family for a good year, he will hunt to fill up other people’s freezers.

So Sat morning after working a 24 hour shift at the fire dept., he met us at around 6am and took us hunting. He asked Wes if it would be ok with him if I went on foot with him first thing so he could teach me some things. Wes said yes. The more spread out we were, the better the chances of SOMEONE getting something. Mike set Wes up in a blind most of the morning, then sent his dad another way on foot, and I was left to follow in Mike’s footsteps for miles. Literally.

Let’s just say I took a course in hunting 101,102, AND 103. I learned the ways of the woods. Reading animal tracks and other signs to look for to see if anything was through a certain area. We were basically trying to track something down. There were times we were deep in mud, then in the thick woods, and at times we were crawling on the ground.

My heart was pounding most of the time; anticipating the kill. We saw hogs and deer within the first few hours but no one ever really had a clean shot. So we kept on, and on, and on, and on. I felt a bit like GI Jane on an episode of Lost as we trudged through the deep thick GA woods and swamp slowly and methodically for hours upon hours.

Neither Wes nor I had eaten anything when we got up at 5 that morning so by 10:30ish, after trudging along for so long, I was feeling a bit....ravenous and weak. When we all finally met back at the truck to “re-group”, Mike pulled out packs of crackers and Vienna sausages for all of us to snack on before going back in. Now normally, I loathe the sight of those little wienies in cans packed in an unknown jelly substance. However, when he handed me that little can, that morning, you would have thought I won the lottery. I dug into those things like it was a thanksgiving feast all over again. I was praising God for whatever meat I was eating. Hey, when you’re desperate, you really will eat ANYTHING!

So after our mini feast, we all went back in for a few hours only to come right back out with nothing. We decided to head back to the house for lunch and go back out around 3. Mike was pretty determined and actually a bit disturbed...he is the type of hunter that usually ALWAYS comes out with something. Part of the reason he took me with him was because I REALLY wanted to see something...watch the process...and he was certain that I would defiantly see some blood if I was with him.

But, after a LONG day’s work in the woods, we all came up empty handed. All Mike could figure was that it was simply to warm and nothing was moving. We sat on the tailgate of his muddy truck at the end of the day as he cracked open a cold one, raised it towards the woods and toasted the deer. They had beaten us. They won.

Someone asked me today, “So, did you shoot anything or did you just shoot time?” You know, you have to really GO to understand that whether you get something or not, it isn’t a waste of time. It is a nice break from the world. To really still yourself and just be quiet. Needless to say I THOUROUGHLY enjoyed myself. I look foward to going again.

So as I sit here by the fire, sipping on my hot chocolate I raise my cup to Mike and Jenny and those dang deer we didn't get....Here's to my new redneck hobby!