“Dada, can I say it? I wanna say it! Please Dada!” pled my five year old. To my left the dog sat rigid as a stump, staring at the distant spot where the lake swallowed her bumper. She was taut as a bowstring, but only the slightest tremble betrayed her growing impatience. Click here, Read More
Kids are born hunters. “Can I go catch a grasshopper?” asks my son at dawn. “Sure” we tell him, and off he goes through the dog-door, clad in cape and undies, to creep around the dewy lawn with his jar. The jar rarely comes home empty. “You have to be quiet.” he tells me, Read More
If I’d had a pipe and an Irish setter, we could have been in a Norman Rockwell painting. Puffy white clouds floated in a bluebird sky above vibrant green sage and the rolling red-dirt prairie. A man, at ease with the world and confident in his forthcoming conquest, strides forth, a shotgun cradled across, Read More
The more I learn about hunting and fishing, the more I recognize how much I don’t know. Adding a kid to the mix has really driven that humbling realization home for me. Not only do I have the perpetual need to refine my approach in the field, but now I also need to develop, Read More
“Is it still spring break Dada?” asks the four year old at my bedside. “Yes it is son,” I answer into the pre-dawn gloom, then add without hope of success, “so you should go back to bed and rest up.” “Ohhhh yeaaaaaah!” he cheers, then launches into a pajama-clad spring break dance. The choreography, Read More
“Dada, um when we get home… I’m gonna tell Mama that um… I’m gonna tell her we didn’t catch ANY fish,” said the voice in my head. Or near my head anyway. With the squirt slung over my shoulder it can be hard to tell the difference. Regardless of its origin, I wasn’t, Read More
We stared at each other for two minutes in the crisp morning air as the sun peaked over nearby hills. The adolescent moose made the first move, circling around knobby knees, nose to the ground, like a dog setting its bed, once, twice… Then it charged. With a two year old on my back, Read More
The girls decided to stay in the truck. Hand in hand we walked up the shallow ridge going over our game plan. We needed to be quiet. It was important to follow directions. Plugging your ears was ok. Being sneaky was our goal. Peeking over the ridge we spotted them, right where we anticipated, Read More
“Oooo, cool Dada! Look it!” declared my four year old as we organized fishing gear on the tailgate. “Oh yeah?” I asked, half listening. “Yeah. Do you keep your Hot Wheels in here?” It was a non-sequiter even by his standards. I looked up from my streamer box and found him wrist deep in the, Read More
Being cooped up inside during the long winter months can begin to wear on the whole family. There are a host of tried and true winter activities but it’s not always easy to get outside. Fishing, other than through ice, is not on most folks radar this time of year. Take this one step further and, Read More