HUNTING TRADITION

                              Grandson Skyler Young, ready to go hunt to provide food for his family.
                                Article printed in Intermountain Farm and Ranch, October 14, 2011

Hunting has been a part of my life forever. I can remember, as a young girl, working in the potato fields and the goal was to get the potato harvest finished in time for the men to go deer or elk hunting. The men talked about it all of the time. And it seems like we always accomplished that goal. I never went hunting; it was a “man” thing to do back then. 

When Boyd and I were first married, a productive hunting season helped feed our family through many winters. I learned to flavor the meat of even the oldest deer so it was edible. Maybe not delicious, maybe not tender, but edible.

The day before opening day of deer or elk season, I would load the car with groceries, get the kids off to school, and drive to the ranch. I’d light a fire in the wood cook stove upon arrival and shut the doors to the rooms next to the kitchen so as to centralize the heat in the room I would be occupying. Then – I’d mix bread, start a big stew on the stove, and make pie dough. While the bread was rising and the pies baking and the soup simmered, I would sweep and mop the floor – even venturing into the colder rooms to straighten the beds and sweep and mop those floors. While the bread baked, I’d wash and dry the dishes, so as to leave everything neat and clean.

After a day of cleaning and cooking, I would be able to get back to our valley home by the time the kids got home from school. And the hunters would be going to a warm house with food waiting for them, the smell of freshly baked bread greeting them as they opened the kitchen door. It seemed so much easier to get that job done at the ranch rather than baking at our valley home and sending the food with Boyd as he left to hunt.

I know that sounds like a lot of work, but I loved being at the ranch then as much as I love it now. There was and is a peacefulness there that I love to bask in. Having no electricity, a battery operated radio is used to give us any news that we think we might need. Most of the time I don’t even turn on the radio; just enjoy the solitude.

There have been many years of hunting, many stories told involving our family and the hunts they have been on.  Last year, as our youngest son, Jon, and one of our grandsons, Skyler, prepared to go hunting on opening day, I fixed sandwiches to send with them. As they walked out the door, Skyler looked at me with a big grin on his face, grunted like a cave man and said, “Me man!”

Were they able to get their prey? No. In fact they didn’t see much game that morning, but did see lots of hunters. However, they participated in the tradition of hunting on opening day. A big event in the lives of both, young men who come from a family of hunters! They were going out to provide food for their family. And though they didn’t see anything to shoot at, they went through the motions expected of a hunting family – they went.