HOW IT ALL STARTED

Hunting.

My husband lives and breathes for it. 

I had no idea. 

Right before we got married, it was the annual deer hunt.  We went with his family.  We stayed in a cabin.  We were engaged.  Our wedding was going to take place in just over a month.  How fun and romantic to go stay in a cabin together for the deer hunt.

Hmm.

I obviously did not know what hunting was like.

Spending the entire evening getting ready to go hunting the next morning.  Getting the warm, orange wardrobe all set up.  Packing the back packs and making sandwiches.  Going to bed early.

Going to bed  early?  While staying in a cabin?  What about sitting in front of the fire and snuggling while roasting marshmallows or something?

While I was asleep, I rolled over and thought I heard a horse whinny.  I knew that we had to get up early and when I heard the horse whinny in my very sleepy state of mind, I thought that someone else in the cabin  area must be getting their horses ready to take up on the mountain.  Then, I went back to sleep.

It felt like I only slept for about half an hour more before my Hunter Man woke me up.  Was he kidding me?  It was still dark.  It had to be just barely four o'clock in the morning!  I still needed at least 4 more hours of sleep!  I am  a little bit grouchy in the morning and I am even more grouchy when I get woken up to go deer hunting way too early. 

Then, after driving to the hunting area, we hiked and walked and stalked.  All day long.

And, my Hunter Man actually shot a deer, only to have it taken away from him by some other hunters.  We were tracking the deer, heard another shot, and then when we came upon his deer—two other hunters were there.  They were very threatening and since it was just my Hunter Man and I there at the time, he thought it would probably be better not to protest. 

But, he was very upset.  I felt bad for him.  I could not believe that hunters would actually steal a deer from another hunter.

We had a good story to tell his family when we got back to the cabin.

I thought that when the weekend was over, the hunt was over until the next October. 

After all, the next big thing was our wedding. 

But, he talked about the deer hunt for the next few weeks to anyone who hadn’t heard about it yet.

And then we got married.  All of that was very wonderful.  

We began our lives together.  And so began my realization that hunting was not just a weekend or two in October.

It was hunting magazines and hunting proclamations.  It was talking about hunting at family gatherings.  It was planning for next October’s deer hunt. 

It was duck hunting, goose hunting, pheasant hunting, dove hunting, fishing, elk hunting……..

He hunts and I have a crazy life.

(Oh, and the middle of the night whinnying sound?  My Hunter Man’s younger brother and sisters, blew up a whoopee cushion and placed it between my bed’s mattress and box spring.  When I rolled over just right—I deflated the whoopee cushion!  Nice.)