This is the year, I decided.

This is the year that I take the kids with me hunting. Seamus has wanted to go for a few years, but I was worried about hunting alone with him, and having to track something in deep, with a little kid in tow. John wasn’t much interested in going, but Seamus was.

Well, now he’s big enough, and I hunt a little differently these days. Bear hunting isn’t about silent stalks through the woods, and we’re not alone either. It’s a noisy, crowded, truck-racing sort of thing, surrounded by men and dogs. If a bear trees too far in, I don’t have to go. But if one trees relatively close to a road, I can bring my kid. There are lots of kids at our bear trees, some of whom have been coming since they were practically riding in backpacks to get there. I thought my boy would fit in just fine, and he did.

 

He’s been so excited about getting to hunt this year that he signed up for hunting, shooting, and wildlife in his 4-H classes. I’m excited about that too, and wonder if the leader maybe needs some help.

I considered bringing both boys for about a minute. It’s good for them each to get some one-on-one time with me though, and this way I don’t have to listen to the bickering. Seamus had major dibs on getting to go first, but his enthusiasm got John interested too, and the next full weekend I go, he’ll be the one with me.

He had a great time too. Jeff’s son Tyler was there too, although that brought back the whole bickering thing I was trying to avoid. The boys seemed to understand that a lot of bear hunting is driving around, but it wasn’t too boring for them. We did some serious four-wheeling, at one point getting all four wheels off the ground (oops) and Seamus was quite impressed with Mama’s driving. They didn’t really like the listening part, where they had to hold still so we could hear dogs in the distance, but there wasn’t too much of that this time. They did like the snow.

On Saturday night, another family rolled into camp, one with three boys all younger than Seamus. He gleefully walked away from Tyler, who was fully coming on the big brother, and got to be the big kid himself, with three little urchins all in a row very seriously listening to him holding court. I didn’t burst his bubble and tell him that those particular boys had been bear hunting a whole lot more often than he had, and they all hit it off well. There was a bear being skinned to inspect, sticks to poke in the fire, and a creek to go in when they’d been told not to, after all.