Why men go hunting and why it should still be a holiday.

This might get me and a lot of men in trouble, but it just might give some information to a woman into why men are like they are. 

Have you ever wondered why a man goes and sits in a tree for a week in freezing cold weather?  Sometimes it even rains and freezes ice on the man while sitting in a tree.  Now there are men who just have more sophistication (that really means more money to burn) and sit in one of those nice boxes on top of a tower with a heater and windows to block the cold wind.   There are also those with less sophistication (money) who sit in a 55-gallon metal drum sitting on top of a tripod about 15 feet in the air.  Now I will have to tell you that barrel is cold, but it does stop the wind.  The other bad thing is you have to stick your head out of the barrel where it is windy and cold to shoot.  Of course, there is a seat in the barrel so you can at least relax a little but there is NO leg room in there and it is not made for tall or fat folks like ME. 

Now there are men who actually hire/pay someone to take them up into the mountains on horseback where it is cold and windy and miserable by most folk's standards to hunt deer or elk. If you are more sophisticated (more money) moose.  There on that mountain, you have paid more money to be more miserable and more sophisticated.   

Well with all this said let’s examine the why of this sport. 

1. Men are not like women – does that resonate with anyone?   

1. Men dip, chew and scratch and women don’t like any of it normally.

2. Men pass gas (fart), tell off color jokes. 

2. Believe it or not it is fun and refreshing to be outdoors. 

3. I personally would rather take the pictures, but it is a thrill to hunt and kill just like our ancestors did years ago.  Just to make it clear it is not that I don’t want to shoot the animal, but I don’t want to clean it and carry it and I really don’t like to eat it unless you are like Larry Travis or Rich Kanaly or Rich Jefferies who have the meat made into sausage or jerky. 

4. Now there is one reason which is the motivation for this article and that is men need to get away from the women. 

Let me explain why men need to get away from the women.  First, if you stay home, they are going to tell you to do something.  Second, if they don’t tell you to do something, they are going to make you feel guilty for not doing something.  Third, if you don’t feel guilty and they are DOING while you are sitting you should feel guilty and therefore you are guilty.  So, the number 1 reason for sitting in the cold and freezing weather is to get away from the women. 

 So, what do you learn in the Osage? 

1. Men like to relax and not get in trouble for it. 

2. Hunting allows men to do what men do best, sit, spit, tell stories, pass gas etc. 

3. Not 100%, but women don’t hunt. 

Thanks for your time, 

Gary

gary.olson@finaciti.com

 

Are we getting over protective or what?

 Growing up in the Osage, I remember Larry and I would take off to go fishing or hunting and basically Mom would assume we would come home when we were hungry.  Of course, things are different now, but are they really?  

When we went fishing, we would take our fishing seine and catch minnows and crawdads to fish with and sometimes we would go around the barns looking for worms hidden under old boards or around the sewer system.  We also went catching grasshoppers and crickets to fish with.  Now if we were going only after catfish, we would steal some liver from the freezer (actually we did not have to steal it because no one except mom liked cooked liver).  The next step in fishing was taking our bait and head for the creek, Beaver Creek.  Now there were two great places we focused on, and one was pretty close to the house where there was a bend in the creek and thus making a deep hole where there were plenty of fish.  The other place was Soup's fishing hole.  It was named after Soup Wade, but that is another story.  Typically, Larry would take one side of the creek and I would take the other.  I never knew why but Larry would almost always get more fish than me.  It was probably because I had a little more ADHD, and he was patient.  

Now hunting was a little different and it depended on what we were hunting for, quail or squirrel.  Larry typically carried a 410 and I carried a single shot 22.  Again, Larry outperformed me, but I think he liked the fact that I could spot quail and squirrels faster than anyone.  For some reason my dad (Cliff) and I had the ability to see with clarity great distances and we both had a very wide field of vision making it easier to catch things moving and a long way off.

So, what is the point?  We were allowed to be independent and make decisions including consequences for making bad ones.  Luckily, we did not drown or kill anyone, especially each other, but we had lots of fun and adventures.

So, what did we learn in the Osage?

• getting exercise was fun when you had a good purpose, we walked for miles and miles.
• we learned to play and work together, but most of all we learned about each other.
• you learn a lot by doing and living rather than sitting and watching.

thanks for listening,

gary.olson@finaciti.com