Almost everything in life that you want takes some effort to achieve or acquire. It’s the same for desires and wishes as in obligations.
Obligations would be a job or a …
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Almost everything in life that you want takes some effort to achieve or acquire. It’s the same for desires and wishes as in obligations.
Obligations would be a job or a responsibility you must do to get through life. As a kid, obligations would be doing the dishes and dumping the garbage or maybe mowing the lawn, possibly sweeping the garage or washing dad’s pickup. If you’re lucky enough to have pets, specifically a dog, you get to pick up the poop. When you’re older you graduate to sweeping the floor in the shop, dumping the garbage at the shop, maybe washing the shop truck… yup! Same stuff just different address. No matter how you slice it, it’s the grunt work or the dirty job that usually causes an extra shower and a brand-new bar of LAVA soap.
Now let’s look at dues for desired outcomes. In this case of course its hunting and fishing. The opportunities are endless for “dues,” selection. Let’s start with big game hunting. Deer, antelope, turkeys, grouse pheasants and partridge.
My dad was actually pretty good to me about the hunting stuff when I was very young. I got to pack my trusty Daisy BB gun during the upland bird hunting. Most of the time it was sharp-tail grouse in the broken prairie of southeastern Montana.
The BB gun was actually training. All the guys involved in the hunt would watch me to make sure I was practicing safe gun handling with a real gun. However, it was not a very dangerous gun. So, good education. In hindsight, the BB gun could have been a slight of hand trick to get me to be the bird dog. Yup, growing up we had no pets. Except for the occasional goldfish that lasted about a week on top the old Zenith black and white console cabinet TV. So, no dog. Why get a dog when you have a Ward. Just tell him he gets to shoot the bird on the ground with his BB gun when he finds it before he picks it up to bring back.
Just a little side note, southeast Montana draws are full of wild plumbs and buffalo berry bushes. It’s the northern tribute to Texas’s claim that everything out here is gonna stick you, stab you, grab you or bite you. Back then those scratches and stickers and thorns were a badge of courage and accomplishment.
So, by the end of the day there is a pile of grouse to turn into table fare. Now here are some more dues to pay. I actually remember being too little to take care of the birds. I’d sit back and “watch and learn,” it would be my turn soon enough.
After a couple years you get big enough to be trusted with a knife and cleaning birds. That’s when you get all the different styles of “How to clean the birds,” Everyone had a different way to teach you. Some were pretty slick and quick and when you perfected the technique it was literally a few seconds per bird. However, that actually takes man size strength to do that style. So, I learned how to clean fowl for table fare.
Now on to the big game dues payments… oh now the stakes are a bit higher. Of course, this one really only works once but it is a rite of passage and believe it or not it does have purpose. One of the first things you learn when beginning big game hunting is tracking. For the dedicated prankster in the hunting world, the first guy to take a young one into the woods to start tracking… this is the golden ring of pranking.
Picture this. Mentor and newbie head into the woods. Very quiet and slow methodical creeping through the brush. Looking for sign on the ground. You come across your first set of tracks. Your mentor says, “Buck track. Let’s follow.”
You sneak along 40 yards or so and you find the first pile of fresh-looking scat sign. Your mentor goes over close to it, kneels down, and says, “Yup it’s a buck alright a big one.”
“Check it, see if its fresh.” the mentor says.
Newbie whispers, “How?”
“Touch it with your finger, is it warm?”
Newbie says “Kinda, maybe a little. Warmer than the snow for sure.”
Mentor says, “OK squish it, see how moist it is, is it frozen, now taste it, is it sweet?”
Newbie looks and his mentor. Mentor is very serious looking and waiting for an answer. He tastes it.
Oh ya, the hunt is over. The prank has worked to perfection. At the expense of an eager newbie this prankster who now can no longer keep it together is roaring out a full-on belly laugh. He had gotten someone to touch poop with his bare hands and even tasted it. Disgusting as it may seem, as brutal of a prank as this is, it is a true rite of passage into the next level in the hunting brotherhood/sisterhood. Yup, the ladies are fair game for this one too.
Once you graduate past rookie and pay to “Poop dues,” then you have to learn what it takes to bag a deer or an antelope. While it can be a lot of hard work, the hunt is the fun and rewarding part. The dues paying part comes after the successful hunt.
This is where you must learn the ropes of table fare care. This is a category that is packed full of tasks that are an opportunity for paying dues. However, in this case the only real difference between what is necessary every time and early on, is when you must perform those tasks for Dad and it’s on his table fare care. When you’re 7 years old, it’s a heck of a chore to skin a deer or an antelope. Hey, that little of a guy isn’t even big enough to pull the rope to lift the carcass off the floor. So, you learn.
Paying dues…. Honestly…. It’s one of the most important and memorable parts of growing up in the outdoors. I believe by the time a guy becomes a grampa, the memories are much more fond in the scrapbook of his mind. I am certain every time an old hunter remembers the poop tasting, he smiles and shakes his head and wishes he could go back to those good old times, before iPhone.