H is for Husband talking Hunting and Hogs

My husband has a passion.  Every year around the first of September he starts to get this itch he can't scratch for a few weeks.  He is a hunter at heart and a outdoorsman by nature.  I decided to ask him a few questions about his favorite pastime and thus I am killing three H's in one, Husband, Hunting  and hogs.   Before I get to his answers, I want to say a few words. 

I was never fond of guns or hunting before I met the man.  My brother is a hunter and it would drive me crazy, the dead animal photos on Facebook.  Who wants to see that?  Then I started dating Mr. Hunter himself and he took me to his land in East Texas.  I fell in love with the land but not so much hunting.  I thought it was all about killing animals.  

My husband explained something my brother tried to tell me 100 times.   Hunting has very little to do with killing although there is apparently a big rush when you actually do get your buck.   Hunting is about being responsible to yourself, family, friends and the land.  Hunting is about getting back to nature and taking care of the land the way our ancestors have done since we lived in caves.  Hunting is about work.  More importantly he explained that many of the deer would die without the hunters feeding them.   We feed the animals about 9 months of the year even thought hunting is around 2 months.   Feeding a herd for the hope that you get one good shot in the fall.  Sometimes even that doesn't happen but you still take care of the animals.  Finally, hunting is controlled and it controls the population limiting the number of deer that end up bumper decorations.   One place on the east coast disallowed hunting in the area and now the auto accidents with deer have exploded.   The deer can get into neighborhoods and eat whatever you have in your front yard. My husband shared this story.   In Wyoming where he grew up, people would sit baskets of apples out at night to keep the deer from eating their front lawns.

Alright, here is my interview with the man himself.


What is your favorite part of hunting?

-I like observing nature and sitting and watching everything.  Sitting in the stand and watching the animals.  Spending time with my friends and sometimes my wife and daughter, around a campfire with s'mores and laughter.   (The sometimes is because I don't go down with him all the time. I have things that have to be done at home.)  You see cardinals, ducks, squirrels, doves, migrating birds, raccoons, wrens, armadillos, road runners,  fox, bobcats, coyotes, owls, and once even a cougar.


What do you think the biggest misconception of hunting is?

-That it is all about the kill.   It encompasses so much more, discipline, delayed gratification. It teaches a work ethic to children and adults about taking care of your land.  Sometimes you even get the truck stuck working on the land.  (This is a shot at me because I did get the truck stuck).  You find a way to achieve a goal even if it is getting the truck out.   The goal is feeding your family but there are so many steps to get to the goal.  Also, when you do feed your family with animals you hunt, you know exactly where it came from and how it was processed.  There is no mystery meat included.  

What is your off season like outside of fishing?

-There is no off season.  We are still spending time on our land taking care of the animals even if we aren't hunting.  We are feeding them, being a steward of the land.  We are still enjoying nature, watching the birds and bugs.  We still have to cut the grass, taking care of the tractor and 4 wheelers, maintaining the trailers and you still put food out for the deer.  You feed them all year long so that somewhere in the year, you get your one deer to feed your family. hopefully.  (We didn't get any last year.)  When a tree falls across the road, you have to clear the tree but you even get firewood for your home.  Mowing the roads and fields makes the land have higher value but it also promotes growth of tender foliage and benefits the animals in the forest especially the browsers, like deer and rabbits.   Cows are grazers, they sit in one spot and just eat and eat.   Browsers nibble and then move to another spot. 

What do your want people to know about wild hogs?

-They are totally destructive.  They are not native to the land.  They are invasive.    They eat quail eggs and turkey eggs.  Anything that nests on the ground.  Wild hogs take the food from the deer and squirrels and other wild animals who eat acorns and other nuts.  They root up plants (This is a shocking sight.  It looks like a bomb or rototiller went off.)   They are uncontrollable.  Normal hunting practices can't even hope to contain the feral hog population much less control it.  They are invading cities too.  It isn't just the country folks that have to worry about them.   (The city of Dallas actually just hired people to help control the Feral hog populations. That is Dallas, Texas folks!)


I told you the other day that I can't talk baseball with my husband.  There are two things however that he could go on and on about, one is hunting and the other is fishing.   I want to thank my husband for letting me pick his brain.  Okay folks, we are off to the races, literally.  We have tickets to the Duck Commander 500 today where NASCAR meets camo and the beer flows freely. 

Have a Pinteresting Wednesday 3 plus 10 Things I learned from my Husband

Have a Pinteresting Wednesday!

Okay all, because I didn't write a blog on Tuesday, I am giving you 2 blogs for the price of 1.  Try not to get too excited.  I would do the 2nd tomorrow but I have a special reveal planned for my Favorite Things link up tomorrow so let's check out what I find Pinteresting!

Most of my 'pins' each week go to my DIY section and I have pinned a bunch of China Cabinets that look something like this.   I don't know, but that may just be a project I am planning and Ideas taking shape.  You make what you will of it.

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I have to admit, I have been on a bit of a preaching mission lately with my friends....and in discussion with many people on my painting sites about this same issue...

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You see, there is this mega-furniture store that opened up with mass produced, pre-fabricated, cheap furniture and of course, the mice are flocking to the cheese.   I won't say the name but the place reminds me of Peyton Manning "Omaha, Omaha!".

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I simply have a hard time understanding why you would pay $1000 or more for a mass produced piece of junk when you can find a great low boy dresser and a good furniture artist to turn a quality piece of solid wood into something like this for about half that.   (Dressers in my area unfinished go for about $200-$300 depending on the detail.  If you are a friend of mine, I have even offered to paint it for free to get word of mouth out there for my 'business' in the making.  You simply supply me the paint and sealer, furniture, and the look you want and I will do it for you.  Now, I clearly am not doing this for everyone, just a few select friends but it is a pretty good offer.   However, if you want to go the Omaha route, have at it.  I prefer custom furniture that I can paint or stain the way I want and know that if I change my mind in 10 years, I can redo it because, it is solid wood and quality. (Rant over)

Baseball:  

It's time Rangers fans!  It's baseball time in Texas!  Well almost, Friday is opening day at the ballpark.  I will see you there!

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There is a really good chance that I am going to make both of these signs for my backyard out of pallets.  Stay tuned!

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Food

I am not going to lie to you, I am a pretty good cook but when it comes to making dinner during the week, a lot of times my husband and I turn to 2 things that make us happy and make us full.  One is bacon, eggs and toast.  I could eat it 3 nights a week and never get tired of it.   

The other?  Grilled Cheese.  We do the simple, velveeta on white breat with a little butter in a pan but my husband and kid swear mine is better than anyone else on the earth and my nieces came over for lunch one day and they admitted, I make a pretty darn good grilled cheese.  Of course, these 4 girls are also the same ones that argue over who makes better toast, my husband or my mother.  :)

I have this fantasy about opening a little place on a lake when I retire and selling nothing but different kinds of grilled cheese.  

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Rumor has it there is a grilled cheese burger at the Captian Morgan's Club at the ballpark.  I already told my husband and friend Larry, we have a date for splitting one.

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Who's hungry?

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Okay for the 2nd half of my blog I thought I would share 10 things I have learned from my husband.  I don't want to give him too much credit.  I have probably forgotten 10 times this many things he tried to teach me.  However, since we met 20 months ago  I have had several new experiences and these are a few of the things I have learned.


1. How to drive a boat.   Never needed to do this before hubs.  He isn't the most calmand understanding teacher but he teaches. I may be terrified to make a mistake but I learn. LOL! I can now reverse and go forward and I know how to move the propeller thingy up and down.  He made me watch a video about that but I forget what it is called but the jist is that when you have it one way more of your boat touches water and you go slower but when it is the other way, you go fast and only a few feet of your boat touches water.   It's pretty cool BTW, being in a boat and owning one.  Well, he owns it but it is really nice to have one to go out whenever we want.

2. How to back a trailer.   If you own a boat, you have to back a trailer.  If you want the trailer to go right, you turn it left.  See...I can do this.  I hate it, but I can do it.

3. Basic AC maintence like cleaning the outside unit and changing filters regularly.  Why?  It has nothing to do with your air quality.   It basically saves money.  Just do it.  Your AC runs more efficently, you have less chance of freezing over in the summer when a good AC guy is hard to come by (and my husband is out fishing on the weekend and not making house calls anyway because he does commercial)  and you are sitting in a miserable, hot house.

4. In that same thought, the lie about needing to change your thermostat to save energy.  Here is the thing coming from my AC guy hubs.  Your house, when you raise the thermostat when you are gone, gets hotter.  Makes sense right?  Well guess what, when you get home and turn it down it is now going to have to run twice as hard or more to get it cool again.  Now that seems logical but what it means in reality is this, your furniture, your counters, your appliances, your computers, your TVs, your floors and wall, all got hotter during the day so now to get them back down to a cooler temp, your AC is going on overload cooling.  If you had just left it at 72 or whatever all day, the house would have stayed 72 and cooled for the normal cycle and shut off but because you increased it to 80 when only Fluffy and Fido were home, your house is now going to be cooling half the night just to get it back to 72.

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5. Hunters get a bad rap by some bad hunters.  Much like bad cops give all cops a bad name and bad priests, well, you get my point.   Hunting is actually not only beneficial to the family it feeds but necessary to keep the animal population under control.  I know, I know, Bambi, but here is the thing, Bambi's mom, had she not gotten shot by a hunter, would have probably run out in front of a car and got hit by a driver during the rutt season and not only would the doe have died but also, possibly the occupants of the car.    The state of Texas strictly regulates how, when, where, and how many deer each year you can shoot You only have so many tags.   As for Ferel hogs, they are destructive, over populated, can't be controled no matter how many hunters eliminate each year, and moving into the city.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at what the Texas Parks and Wild Life Department has to say on them.  I was a tree hugging liberal most of my life and I hated hunting no matter what my brother the hunter said.   Joe showed me his land.  Then he showed me the way the hogs destroy and run rough shot over his land.   I saw how destructive and mean they are and I changed my mind.  Even though I don't like deer hunting because I think the animal is so amazing, I understand it.  People need to learn and stop speaking from ignorance.  I spoke from ignorance until my husband showed me the reality of nature.

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6. Fishing: I fished when I was a kid, but before Joe, there was no jigging for crappie in my life.  Before Joe, I had never caught a bass or heard catfish reels go off.  Before Joe, my fishing consisted of a bobber, a worm, and a lot of waiting.  I still like that kind of fishing, there is no pressure, but IF I have to pick which of the two I would rather spend time doing with my husband, it is fishing, hands down.  

7. How to use a chainsaw.  Never used one before hubs.  Never needed to use one before hubs.  Then we bought a house on an acre and a quarter with dead trees and I had to beg him to let me use his chainsaw.  If you missed it from all my furniture posts, I have a thing for the smell of wood so a sander, a saw, a ax, anything that gives me that amazing aroma of wood is something I am saying "I am in" for!

8. NASCAR:

I never watched a race before my husband.  I have since watched them (kind of) and now I am going to my first race this weekend, the Duck Commander 500.  I am so excited and only partly because I think Willie Roberston and clan will be there and I can't wait to see the Duck Dynasty guys. 

9.  Camo is cool.  No really, I took a look around the Racetrac in Princeton, Tx last weekend and I could not believe the number of guys that wear camo all the time.   Suddenly I realized, I like this kind of man.  He is strong, no nonsense, and when he makes his mind up (even when he is wrong and disagrees with his wife) he stands his ground.   That is what a real man is.  Real men wear camo and spit and make nasty sounds around a camp fire that they chuckle over.  

10.  The most important thing my husband has taught me is forgiveness isn't a one way street, saying "I am sorry" are not the hardest words to say, sometimes it is better to just not say anything so you don't have to apologize later and being right isn't as important as being loved.