It seems like everyone is posting their resolutions for 2011, so I figured I would jump on the bandwagon. However, my resolution for this year is not your standard one-I've decided that I want to learn how to hunt.
This has actually been a goal of mine for quite a while, but for one reason or another I didn't actually take the jump to do it. Most people I know aren't the hunting type and so I have had to go out of the box to learn the basics. I took a coyote hunting class almost a year ago and kept making excuses that kept me from going out into the field-namely my cheapness to buy a hunting license halfway through the year and not make use of it.
For 2011, I made sure I had my license bought way in advance and back in December I decided that I was going to try and make it out New Year's Day to start my hunting adventures. Jill was good with it at first when it looked like I would have a companion out there with me, but when that didn't happen she decided that she didn't really want me to be out there by myself. After a lot of reassuring that nobody would mess with (or probably even see) the heavily camouflaged man with an AR-15, she relented.
Then came the biggest test of my will to go out-the weather. We had a major cold front come through right before the first, and it was a beast. The morning I was planning to go out was forecast to be 27 degrees (yes, below freezing in the desert). I stuck to my plans though and bought a bigger jacket.
So long story slightly shorter, I made it out on the first at the break of dawn to a beautiful sunrise over snow-capped mountains. I trudged through some thick brush in sub-freezing weather and saw frozen ponds in the desert. I saw tons of quail and a few coyotes (between myself and a road, no safe shot). In the end, I came home empty handed but loved every minute of it. I think I'm officially hooked.
I'll be heading out this weekend to try again and hopefully I will have some better luck. But even if I don't, I'll still be outside enjoying nature and learning a new skill I can pass on to my children someday.
