Muskoka Outdoors

I get excited when I am about to hit the publish button on one of my blog posts because I enjoy sharing my outdoor experiences with my visitors. Today’s blog post is particularly special because it highlights recent hunting memories of a father and two of his daughters.

Virginia, Dad, Josie (middle knees) and family

Virginia and Josie are two siblings, of a larger family, that I know and have learned to appreciate through my current job at a local public school. When I found out that they had recently been turkey hunting with their father, I could not wait to pull them aside and hear all about their hunting adventures. I quickly found out that the two girls not only loved the outdoors as much as I do, but they can’t wait for the next opportunity for their father to take them out hunting!

The hunters were kind enough to answer a set of interview questions that I submitted to them. Here is what they said:

Q1. (For Dad) I was excited to find out that Virginia’s and Josie’s dad took them hunting. How have your hunting trips impacted your family and relationships with your daughters?
I believe our hunting trips together allow us to spend some quality time together at a slower pace. It lets us break away from the hectic and busy grind and spend some father daughter time together one on one enjoying the simple things like watching the sun come up – I believe it brings us closer together and it is important the girls spend time participating in something their father enjoys and expanding there own interests. Hopefully one, if not all, will want to take up the sport of hunting so we can continue to enjoy our time together a field.

Q2. (For Daughters) What is cool about hunting with your dad?
(Virginia says) Hunting with my dad is cool because we just get to hang out and have some bonding time. We get a lot of good opportunities to learn good skills which will be with us forever. When I go hunting, I love the adrenaline rush that comes with it and it is fun to track the animals!
(Josie says) I like seeing all the deer and turkey with my dad. I just like sitting quiet and looking at my dad – like this is so cool! I also really enjoy eating the meat after all the hard work!

Q3. (For Dad) What ‘life lessons’ do you think your daughters learn from hunting with you?
I think the girls start to learn the importance of teamwork, respect for the great outdoors and hard work. Virginia has experienced the moose camp and learned to four-wheel and scout at the camp. She has seen that hunting is a lot of hard work. I think she will learn that the rewards of the hunt are worth all the hard work and preparation. I hope they will learn that when you work hard you will be rewarded in all aspects of life.

Josie (left) and Virginia (right) inspect dad's deer

Q4. (For Daughters) Please tell me about your favourite hunting trip with your dad.
(Virginia’s Story) One of my dad’s and my favourite hunting trips was one morning when we were hunting turkeys before school. We were sitting in our little hunting tent and there were probably around three or four hens in front of us. They were eating and two big toms were just out of range. Well, there was one bearded hen that was legal to shoot. My dad has his gun up and I started whispering, “Dad shoot, shoot! Come on dad. It’s right there. Shoot it. Shoot it! He never did shoot it, I think he should have since he still had one tag left at the end of the season!

(Josie’s Story) One hunting story was when me and my dad were out and we were going into the forest. We were just entering the forest, when a deer jumped in front of us. We had spooked it and it ran away. Anyway, after that, we just kept on walking to our tree stand. When we got there my dad told me to just stay at the tree while he went out to place scent markers. As he was putting out the scent markers, I started walking towards him.  He saw me and he waved at me to go back, but i just kept walking toward him. When I finally got to him, he asked me,  ”Josie what is it?”. In a hushed voice I replied, “Dad, Dad the deer came back! I just thought I should let you know.” The deer was standing about fifteen yards away!    -End of Interview-

I would like to thank Virginia, Josie and their father for taking a moment to answer my questions. It is encouraging to know that outdoor skills like hunting and fishing are still be shared with future generations. Kudos to you (Josie’s and Virginia’s), dad. Would love to hear your buck story sometime.

I can’t wait to introduce my daughters to hunting when they get older! It will be time well spent.

“The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home (or boat as added by Muskoka Outdoors) are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering-galleries, they are clearly heard at the end and by posterity. ” ~Jean Paul Richter

Happy Father’s Day everyone!

Here is a blog post I wrote last year about one of the joys about being a father. It’s called Sweet Spots.

I am selfish. It’s something I hate to admit. Let me tell you about it.

There is a small rock face in Tim Lake. I call it my fishing sweet spot. It has earned this designation from the simple fact that I can anchor off the rocky crag and catch a mess of Lake Trout at 40 feet.

Always.

It’s the kind of place where you can take off your lifejacket and carefully slip into the depths of your canoe and watch the sun drift across the horizon. As you lie back against your seat (with your life jacket as a back rest) you quickly find that life’s issues and problems are held back by the gunwales, the fishing and an impending nap.

A spot where life is good and only I know about it.

I am sure you have your sweet spots for fishing. The spots that you keep to yourself. The spots where the fishing is great and consistent. I think they are sweet spots because of the way that life can stand still in them and not necessarily because the fishing is good. As much as it would be good for the sport of fishing to expand if we were less secretive about where these spots were – I understand why some things need to be kept secret.

I felt that way until recently. I found another sweet spot. It’s two, actually. This time I don’t mind telling you where they are. When I hold my 6 month old daughter close, I have found a sweet spot on both cheeks (just ahead of her ears). If life’s problems and trials threaten to distort my hold on reality, I simply pick her up and hold her close. Then, I sit down and put my cheek against hers and watch the sun drift across the horizon through her bedroom window.

A spot where life is good and I don’t mind admitting it.

Happy mother’s day – but can daddy have a break yet?

Our daughter at 15 months and we are doing the best we can mom.

Hang in there dads. Life will return back to normal soon…

For those of us fly fisherman who think we don’t need to wear glasses while lauching our flies into the currents, this graphic video is for YOU. I was directed to the British Journal of Ophthalmology website where I saw this video of the surgeon removing a hook from an anglers eyeball. In the interest of public safety Muskoka Outdoors recommends you wear glasses whenever you fly fish. Get the message out people! (Quicktime is required to view the video)

Happiness is not always the first fish in the boat. It can also be playing in a pool with round circular objects. Our daughter demonstrates this in the photo below:

It only took the silent sound of a falling glass and, suddenly, I found myself remembering a large rut in the forest floor – not to far from an old, rotten stump on Spier’s line. It was one of the first times dad had taken me deer hunting. To this day, I am surprised it was not my last time.

I had promised that I would be quiet for the entire time we were on the deer stand. To keep my profile down, Dad pointed out the large depression in the trail and gestured that it would be my temporary hiding place for the next couple of hours. I did admirably well for about 3 minutes.

What was a kid to do? After all, dad had let me carry his old single shot pellet gun. Included with my new ‘piece’ was a tin full of funnel shaped pellets. It was not long before I tried to silently break open the barrel of my pellet gun and load it with the small silvery ordinance. Then, between dad’s ever panning eyes and glances, I picked a spot on the freshly cut stump and launched a small projectile at it.

“Thunk!”

That was the sound of compressed air pushing the pellet out of the chamber towards my rooted target. It momentarily grabbed dad’s attention and each time I held my new firearm as if I had no idea what was going on. Dad would roll his eyes and continue to scan the surrounding forest for the unlikely visit of a deer.

Somewhere between dropping the metal tin of pellets (for the second time) and my frequent position changes on crunchy leaves, Dad reacted. He sternly said something like,

“If you are ever going to be a good hunter you are going to have to learn to stay still and BE QUIET!”

He stormed off the watch in frustration and indicated we were going to go back to camp for coffee. As the rest of the crew returned back from their watches and looked at dad and I already in the cabin, one of them asked why were back early.

Dad looked at me in mild frustration and sighed. I don’t exactly remember his words, but he said something humorous about his new hunting partner that liked to stump hunt.

He made us all laugh. I could tell he was disappointed, but at the same time I could tell he was glad I was there. He understood that the whole learning process of his restless student was something he was looking forward to. Stumps and all.

The sound of shattering glass pulls me away from the memory.

Lara (our 11 month old daughter), has managed to knock her first glass off the table and on to the waiting hardwood floor. It happened somewhere between flinging peas and spraying cracker bits. It had been a long day and I was slightly irritable as I scanned the large mass of glass shards now covering the floor. I looked in her eyes and she could tell I was disappointed. She was waiting for my response…

I laughed. She laughed. We all laughed.

I now understood that the whole learning process of our new, restless student is something I am looking forward to.

Broken glass shards and all.