Posted on 09/17/2005 9:08:12 PM PDT by neverdem
GREEN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST, Vt. - Chomping wad after wad of Bubblicious Strawberry Splash gum and giggling as she tickled people's necks with a piece of grass she pretended was a spider, Samantha Marley could have been any 9-year-old girl.
A couple of things set her apart, though. She was cloaked in camouflage from boots to baseball cap. And propped next to her on the seat of a truck was her very own 20-gauge shotgun.
Samantha, a freckle-faced, pony-tailed fourth grader, was on a bear hunt. Not the pretend kind memorialized in picture books and summer-camp chants, but a real one for black bears that live in the woods of southwestern Vermont and can weigh 150 pounds or more.
She had won a "dream hunt" given away by a Vermont man whose goal is to get more children to hunt, and she had traveled about 200 miles from her home in Bellingham, Mass., and was missing three days of school to take him up on his offer.
"Almost everything you hunt is pretty fun," said Samantha, grinning and perfectly at home with a group of five men, the youngest of whom was nearly three times her age.
At one point, as the group crossed a wooden bridge, Samantha's father, Scott, who had accompanied her - and had filled out her application for the hunting contest - teased her that trolls lived under the bridge.
"Dad," Samantha said with bravado, "I got a gun."
The dream hunt - all expenses paid, including taxidermy - was the brainchild of Kevin Hoyt, a 35-year-old hunting instructor who quit a job as a structural steel draftsman a few years ago and decided to dedicate himself to getting children across the country interested in hunting.
His efforts reflect...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I still use milk in my coffee. I eat goat cheese sometimes. A vegan eats no animal products nor uses them on or in their bodies, leather, gelatin capsules,etc. I take a liquid iron plus b12 supplement and eat seaweeds and various cholorphylls.
Maybe. There are lots of deer on Long Island but out east in Suffolk county. The only meat hunting that I know of is the fish market in Freeport where the ladies go to find bargains.
Good for you! You can have a lot of fun with it and at the same time learn something that may save your life some day.
I think what some of the folks here need to understand is that when you grow up in an urban area, chances are that you're not going to be learning how to hunt, so your attitude towards it is obviously going to be different. If you're living in the sticks (and I use the term with affection, people, so don't go getting all bent out of shape about it - LOL) hunting is more commonplace because it's almost a necessity. I'm in NJ, and never really understood it either until I started shooting and got to meet some hunters. Maybe someday I'll try it.
LOL
Maybe it is.
I didn't catch the condescending tone in it that you seem to imply. I thought it made the teachers sound like fools. But then again, maybe I'm immune to them, hence my name. Whatever, I've read their rag over 3 decades, living amongst the Sodomites when I wasn't in the Army. I was born here.
I also believe it is far safer to learn how to navigate through a dangerous environment, regardless if it's on a hunting trip or through a 'gangsta' neighborhood without spooking the herd before you get a chance to pull the trigger.
Stop and Shop is quality stuff though my mother thinks they're expensive.
>> Watch out for iron deficiency anemia. You may want to consider iron supplements.
Put a chip of beef bone in vinegar and take a tablespoon a week.
I recall tremendous good times hunting with my dad, grandfathers, and a host of other friends and relatives, many of whom are dead now. SOme times we added meat to the larder, some times we didn't, but the companionship, the mentoring, the opportunities to understand nature, (not just see it on TV!) were worth far more than the meat in all but the leanest of times.
When times got tough, and we were all dirt poor, we had a rifle we nicknamed "food stamps"--that rifle fed four families through the hardest winter I have ever seen, and I'm grandfather to 12...
You do what you feel is right, but I'd reccommend 'Hunter' safety classes, for the practical safe firearm handling know-how if nothing else.
Elk fajitas recipe is yours for the asking.....:o)
seaweed YUCK. I have no problem with being vegatarian if that's what you wish, but I don't know if I could get past the seaweed. We drink goat milk because of cow milk allergy and usually get the same reaction from people about the goat milk. I couldn't do the vegatarian thing because of food allergies to some fruits and vegatables. I wouldn't be able to eat a varied enough diet.
By all means, teach them.
Back in the late 60s/early 70s, the prison system wasn't the "touchy feely" mess it is now and guards made enemies who later were released.
The family of guards were always in danger of retribution, especially if a guard had testified at the trial of a prisoner who'd broke further laws while in jail.
My mom is a city gal and wouldn't pick up a gun if her life depended on it.
Every night my dad would leave for his second-shift guard job and instruct me to 'take care of your mother' and I took it to heart.
One night, some strange man showed up beating on the front door like a maniac and true to form, my mom just squealed and cried and tried to call the police.
I stood with the .22 leveled at where the guy's heart would be if he got through the door.
He must've seen that through the window because he gave up and left.
She managed to get through to my Dad who got home 30 minutes later which would've been 30 minutes too late.
The same scenario played out a few years after that when a former family friend smoked a little too much PCP and went berserk.
He was definitely going to come through the door so I took it a step further and let him see me pulling back the hammer.
Somewhere in his drug-fogged brain, 2 sane synapses must've bumped together because his eyes got wide and he took off, screaming obscenities as he careened down the road.
I was taught to -never- point a gun at anything I wasn't prepared to kill.
Thankfully, I didn't have to pull the trigger that night.
So yes, teach your children how to protect themselves and *you*, if need be.
The world isn't 'Ozzie & Harriet' anymore.
Food is one thing. Definately understand that. You have my eternal respect as a man grandfather to 12. Wow.
nori seaweed wraps are good, except I use carrot pulp instead of sushi.
I have always thought that the problem with so many people is the lack of an outlet for that instinctual hunt for food. Going to the grocery store just doesn't do it.
LOL! I have taught most of the grandkids to "sneak"--and a couple are naturals! Being stealthy is a worthwhile skill.
I doubt that there are not a few others that agree with you, but it's a bit naive.
If you really believe that a couple folks with 12 guages and 30.06's are gonna stop a rampaging government that has tear gasses and automatic weapons (if it was ever intent on taking you out) then you are pretty unrealistically optimistic.
The grocery store is okay for some stuff but I started growing my own vegetables. I don't even like to buy them in a big box grocery store. When I move, I'm not liking the idea of shopping in Walmart's grocery store *lol*
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