Hunting, Fishing and the Love of the Outdoors and Animals

As anyone knows, grandchildren are a gift for getting old. It's a whole other different type of love compared to that of your children. You're older, wiser and think you know what to expect. Notice I wrote think.

I have six grandchildren but my two grandsons Collin, seven and Lucas, six live the closest and get the most time with me. I am an avid hunter and fisher person but I just enjoy the outdoors and I love animals and nature.

Many people question that but there is a balance there to deal with. This is also something I have always tried to teach my son and daughter plus the grandchildren. With our populations growing and taking up more property and the habitat of nature the balance has to be contained.

So one of my goals in life is to make my grandchildren appreciate and love nature as they grow up. To understand why we hunt animals and eat them. I want them to enjoy nature and see the beauty of why it is there and must be carefully maintained as for we are crowding them out. What we do can highly affect us and nature.

They are learning everything from what a deer track looks like to understanding the metamorphsis of the Monarch caterpillar. I have taken Collin out before daylight to hear the gobbling of the Spring gobbler to find he enjoyed the sunrise more which made my day. His patience did not last as far as sitting still to see the approaching birds come in but that takes time.

Lucas tends to enjoy the fishing and bugs more. When hiking Collin and I discover different signs of animals and piles of deer, turkey or bear poop. Lucas just cannot understand how we can get so excited over poop. He is more a baseball and soccer player.

At seven he is reading books about birds, insects, plants and animals. They both are great little fisherman. We catch and release most of our fish to catch them another day. They see the Canadian geese with their goslings. We have even found some amazing spiders.

I photograph everything we find and see which we later research them on the internet.

There are so many memories we have created and so much we have learned. They have taught me to see a lot of things differently from a child's prospective. If they decide to hunt later in life I know they will see it more than just killing something. There is more to hunting. There is learning, understanding and just enjoying our time together.