ME Out of Doors

Get it? Out of Doors as in the magazine? No? Maybe I am the only one that reads that on the can....well other than Dad.

So as the title implies I have been out of doors, like when I was a kid not too much recently. I have a great many memories of childhood spent fishing, hunting, and camping. This was jogged by one of the activity day girls last night talking about how a turkey was killed and used for meat (when did that become a problem????). Anyways childhood was awesome, the best, no one had better than me. I can remember fishing on the docks all day on vacation, Mamaz teaching us to hook a worm so we no longer interrupted her sunbathing, swims in the lake and at times bathing in it. For the first few years of my life I can remember spending 2 weeks summer vacation up north fishing, 1 week at Harry's Place on Baptiste Lake and the other week at Rice Lake. Fishing is fishing not much to say, caught lots of fish off the dock and ate pickerel every night at the fire. I didn't often fish from the boat as Dad and Uncle Dave would be out all day and that is too much for young children. But when I did get on the boat I would drive it! So cool!
The winter has always been a time of hunting in my family. Deer opens in the fall and Dad would always get at least 1 and would teach JPotty and I about anatomy as he gutted it and cut it up. I can even remember when he let us touch the guts, and quickly told us to wash our hands. I can remember raising rabbits in Grandma's back yard and killing them in months that had an r (if it doesn't have an r then the rabbits will have worms!). Dad would hold the rabbit and pet it then bam break its neck and skin it (a useful talent if there were ever an emergency and we went back to hunter gatherer). I can remember once Dad was killing some Pigeons (never my pet one, he died when he fell in the pool, more on that another time), anyways he ripped the pigeons head off and feed sprayed everywhere, it was totally awesome to a child, still is now and I am an adult. I can remember going to the Gun Club with my parents and shooting target practice. We really only ever shot targets, though once Dad let us shot a bull frog. When we would go to the old hunt camp near Bracebridge I can remember that we would shot our pop cans when we finished, JPotty and I had a slew of shot cans all over our rooms growing up (a type of trophy for us).

The Old Hunt Camp, you can tell the size of it by the fact the 4 adults are about the size of the entrance. Yes that is Kyle on the end, I had to break him in to see if he was a keeper, only 1 month of dating before I got down to brass tax and made him "One of us, one of us".Oh lets talk about that hunt camp, shame it had to be sold. It was 1 room. Yep you heard me 1 room. We would stay there as a family, aunts/uncles/cousins, and all stay in 1 room. It had 4 sets of bunk beds along the back walls and a small kitchen space with a table, wood stove, and gas stove. Yes that's another thing, no power and no water. I can remember that's when I learned to hold it in at night because no way you are walking through the woods in January in your pjs to the outhouse with a metal seat to pee (it was a guys camp which explains the metal toilet seat). During the day though the men would sit around the fire, the women would play cards inside, and us kids would be free to roam the woods.

Anyways that's ME Out of Doors. It was an amazing childhood, one that I hope I will be able to show my children. I want my kids to see the way I did, animals are food and you can see the process yourself. Yes I have eaten things that some would call gross, I have eaten pigeon and it was great you are missing out if you don't try it. Up next for me? Squirrel. Yes I said it and yes you did just squeal like a small girl pig but Dad has told me it is wonderful. Also a lesson the more fussier family members have learned while eating at our house, only eat the packaged meats that say what they are. If you eat the unmarked you could be getting ANYTHING (bear, moose, deer, fish, partridge, rabbit, sometimes an odd cut of beef).