This is the time of year for preparing…. Early archery season here doesn’t open until October 14.  Many, many things to do: get clothing washed and ready; practice pulling bow, making sure the sight is still aligned after storage, making sure I can still hit the target (!) or even drawback my bow because of shoulder pain; checking stands; deer runs; watching for signs that they have shifted pattern for one reason or another, getting permission to hunt on other property, though I had permission last year, etc.  You can add your own “to do” list to mine – I don’t mind! There probably aren’t enough hours in the day to complete both, but you have to at least have a plan!  I am a big one for lists. I like to see how much there is to do, then cross off each item. Then when I look back at the day or days, I feel a sense of accomplishment of things being done.…. However, there are some days or evenings that I just don’t feel like doing anything. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but sometimes I just kick back and flip through the channels, and repeat my frequent observation that there is not much on TV that is worth watching. (At least with the cable line-up that I have!)  But there are a number of reality TV shows on that I tend to gravitate toward when I’m not watching home fixer-upper shows.  There’s….Extreme Makeover Home Edition (where ABC comes in with a crew of hundreds, demolishes a house, rebuilds it better than any normal person could afford and pays off the mortgage, all in a week’s time - while the family is sent on an all-expense paid vacation! Vote me in!); Supernanny (which makes my kids look like angels on their worst day!), Honey we’re killing our kids (makes me look like a super health food nut when I see what junk these families are eating! And, what video/TV couch potatoes those people are! Some watch 40+ hours of TV a week! Although I am not very athletic, my kids and I do spend a great deal of time outdoors, biking, hiking, horseback riding, fishing, hunting, playing soccer, exploring etc.);  The Biggest Loser (what can I say? It takes a lot of guts and determination to go on national TV and be weighed! J); and one of my, I admit it, (gulp!) dare I say “favorites?”  Wife swap!   (Did I just tell the whole world I like a ridiculous reality TV show?  That’s almost as humiliating as being weighed on national TV!)  Well, I’ll try to get over it.

I am sure you are all wondering what on earth this has to do with hunting… well, I am not telling the shortened version, as you probably realized by now,  but it does have to do with hunting – you’ll see!

For those of you who don’t know (Come on, admit it, I know I am not their only viewer!) Wife swap takes a wife from one social and financial class/lifestyle and sends her to another home to be the wife/mother for a family in a different social/economic class for two weeks.  The first week, the wife has to follow the rules of the new house. The second week, the wife gets to make new rules to “help” the family be more like her!   So, as you can imagine, they’ll swap a millionaire’s wife who sits in the lap of luxury, in an immaculate 10,000 square foot mansion, eats bonbons all day, with no children, with no need for a job with a woman with ten kids, dirty one bedroom house, five jobs, unemployed husband and see if they can impose their lifestyles on each other either way.  Of course, I am exaggerating a bit, but the producers do try to swap very different ways of life for more drama. So, I only had to “endure” a few episodes before, you guessed it, they swap a hunting family in Kentucky with a PETA-loving family in Colorado. 

Here’s a little background before we get to the obvious difference:  The Kentuckian woman did not hunt herself, (which would have been even better), but she prepared and cooked the animals that her husband and boys brought home.  They hunted because they could not afford store-bought meats and reaped the health benefits of eating the lean wild game.  The Colorado woman was a total vegan, eating everything raw.  She had even gone so far as to get rid of the family’s stove! 

     As you can well imagine, once they switched families, the women were obviously out of their comfort zone!  The Kentucky home was filled with the taxidermist husband’s treasures from the field: numerous trophy deer, stuffed squirrels, and a freezer full of meat!  The Colorado home had only the bare necessities: a few pieces of furniture, no beds – just mattresses, and no TVs.

As the week progressed, the women tried to talk to their new families about why they do/don’t eat meat.  The Colorado woman made the hunter’s children watch a PETA video on animal cruelty and help her to make PETA protest signs.  The Kentucky woman threw away all the PETA posters and brochures in the Colorado home (but didn’t go far enough to take them hunting, which would have been even better!)

I watched, and then really started to think about the scenario that had just played out before me.  What would I, or any of my fellow hunters at WH do if put in a similar situation?  I know some hunt for food, some hunt for trophy, some are in the middle.  I fall in the middle. I hunt for the enjoyment of it, but we eat what I take. It saves me money.  Every animal is a prize to me - bowhunting is hard!  I do not foresee myself heading to Africa to hunt zebra or rhinos unless I win a hunt or the lottery, but I can imagine what a great experience it would be! (and I can live vicariously through the WH that write about their trips to Africa ! J)    But, as I thought about being put up against an anti-hunter, someone as far off the mark as the woman from Colorado, I began to question myself.  I had to re-examine, and really think about what I would or could say to someone like that; someone who is against even farm-raised meat for consumption.  

What would you say?  My own conclusion was not to my liking.  I concluded that I would avoid such a conflicting opinion to the best of my ability, which nearly makes me a coward in my eyes!  But think about it for yourself….could you describe your passion for hunting?  That connection that you have to feel, by doing…. Sitting silently with nature, up in a tree in the middle of the woods, in a stand that you hung yourself, with a bow in your lap that you can hit a small target with at 30 yards….even if nothing comes within range to make the attempt… 

I think it is a very difficult thing to explain, especially to someone so closed-minded.  I commend the woman from Kentucky for even attempting to defend hunting, when she hasn’t even hunted!  I have only one suggestion for her:  Get out there and hunt, woman.