My Hunting Motto

I’ve always said hunting’s not a choice, but a heritage born within you. As I sit here, the night before the opening day of this 2012 season, I see this reflected in my night’s events once again. It’s clearly shown in all aspects of my life, from the person that taught me to hunt, the people I’ve taught to hunt, the hunters that lease our land, and the activities that encompass our hunting seasons and adventures. It’s a part of our lives, and affects every relationship we have.

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We have certain traditions in our lives that rely on hunting, and the relationships we’ve built because of hunting. When I first learned to hunt, and for the 20 years following, the tradition was to stay at my Oma’s and get up very early the next day to drive to the Crabapple area of Gillespie County, near Enchanted Rock, where we would hunt opening morning. We hunted at Oma’s 95 acres of inheritance we called “The Country.” This was our tradition since my first harvested doe with Oma when I was very young. It continued until my husband and I met and began to hunt together at the ranch in Doss, and my Uncle and his family began to live and hunt on Oma’s land. My Oma still occasionally goes out to The Country to hunt as she can, but her age and physical capabilities are a factor now.

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The next tradition we have inherited from my husband’s family is that we totally process our own deer, from harvesting, cleaning, butchering, and producing ground meat, sausage, jerky, and salami. We usually buy our pork, and add our own “organic” deer meat to produce the delicious meats that will feed us for the next year, or most of it. My son has been helping with this since he was about 2 years old. He actually loves to wash out the casings, or guts, that we stuff the meat into. Being able to process our own meats has saved us drastically every year, and helps us feed our families safer and healthier.

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A newer, but favorite tradition we started a few years back is the Friday night before opening day our hunters cook a meal for them, and all of our family. We sit and talk and discuss everything from politics, to animals, sports, and even to a few of them not being able to hit anything. The conversations do get really deep and intense, as you can imagine ha-ha! It’s a tradition that has become very exciting and important to all of us, and we have always had such a great relationship with our season hunters because of the time we’ve spent with them.

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In closing on my motto and reflection of the hunting heritage, I think it’s very interesting that none of what I’ve discussed in my heritage had to do with the actual killing of the animal. It has to do with the time and relationships we’ve built and hang on to because of hunting. Hunting’s given us so much more than an animal, such as friends, relationships, and memories to last a lifetime.