Jake's Outdoors

Tuesday’s Tracking: The Hunter’s Wife

This week, I am featuring Jody’s Blog, The Hunter’s Wife. Jody has a great blog. It is well laid out, easy to read, and very enjoyable. She can tell great stories. Jody keeps us informed about her husband’s successes, as well as important outdoor news and events. I really enjoyed reading about the outdoor show that she and her family recently attended (which her husband helps to organize). Jody has also recently started the trend of opening a Cafe Press store to sell branded merchandise. Be sure to check that out as well! I am sure that most of you already read this blog, but it is a great read, and I enjoy visiting it almost every day.

Jody’s writings also remind me of my own wife. When I married my wife, Cynthia, 13 yeas ago, she had no idea about hunting. In fact, I can remember when we were in college, while we were dating, and I spent a Thanksgiving week at her family’s farm, rather than getting to go home for opening week of hunting season. I moped the whole week, and she just couldn’t understand. She thought I didn’t want to be with her, when in fact I just wanted to be home hunting. I had not missed a whole deer season since I had started hunting at the age of 12! But, she stuck with me, and we were married about a year and a half after that. Now, she understands. In fact, she sees that hunting is just a part of our life. Now, she jumps in and helps me to butcher deer. She is waiting there in the camp when I come back, ready to get the kids coats on and bring them out to see another dead deer. Even though she would never have imagined such a life 15 years ago, she has made it a part of her life. Now, if I could only convince her to take up a rifle, and put a couple more deer in the freezer! On a good note, that farm in Alabama that we visited some 15 years ago, now has a pretty good deer population on it. I have a life time hunting license for Alabama, so I get to hunt down there at least a few days per year. I have been able to put some deer in my in-laws’ freezer over the past few years. They too have accepted a son-in-law that is a bit different, but I think they do enjoy the venison!

It is really amazing to see how all of the women who have married into this family have gone through the same kind of transition. I don’t think any of my sisters-in-law had much exposure to hunting, and certainly not to game processing. But, on the Saturday of Thanksgiving week, we usually end up butchering several deer. I think our record so far is 11 on one day. We are a well oiled machine, with very specific jobs assigned. Everyone has to jump in and help. Of course, my mom is the one who has taught all of the women folk the jobs that they need to do, as she is the most experienced. She has been helping my dad butcher deer since before I can remember. I guess I say all of that to say that good women will do some pretty weird things for the men they love!

So, thanks Jody for the great blog, and I will look forward to getting to read it in the future!