Caulking Toward Dove Season

Dove season 2008 opens in 1 week and I am going to be in the field, somewhere, with my berretta. After an incredible six week “surge,” working almost every free hour of the day on the house, we are almost done with the major renovations to the house. The kitchen, dining room, living room, three bedrooms, family room, den, utility room, walk-in closet, utility closet, attic, siding, gutters, fireplace, hallway, and utility closet are all but done. Other projects await (including the bathrooms), but they will take place within the context of a normal life.

I cannot deny it, I am exhausted, fatigued down into the depths of my bones. But I have made it, accomplished something I would not have believed I could have. My wife and I showed a will and determination that went far beyond what I thought we were capable of. Mistakes were made, fights were had, breakdowns occurred, but in the end we made it.

It is now time for a rebirth, a new way. I am not the same person I was 14 months ago. I am older, grizzled even. But I have a new confidence in my maturity, and a new peace born out of having done something, whether it was good or bad. While I think the work was a first-rate second-rate job, I am more impressed with the tenacity and determination we showed. That was the real accomplishment. But it is time to move on, and to reclaim my life. And the first reclamation project will be dove season 2008.

Rooster

Beginning of the End (for now)

I haven't been out in the field in 7 months. The house renovation has been all consuming; its appetite for time, money and energy seemingly bottomless. The missing year is like a missing limb. But it is coming closer to ending. Today, the floors are being sanded in preparation for new stain. This will allow us to begin the final phase of renovation and start to live a normal (if there is such a thing) life again. I hope to be involved in a full hunting schedule in the fall.

Has it been worth it? Worth is a tough word to define. In a strict financial sense, probably would be about even. In a standard of living sense, again close to even. We will have a beautifully updated house, but it will not be the perfect house we stay in for the rest of our lives. In a learning sense, it will be worth it. We have become rather proficient in most areas of home repair and renovation. These skills will serve us well for the rest of our lives. In the end, beyond a quantitative analysis, I strangely would not want to erase the last year. I'm glad we did what we did even though we sacrificed a lot. This was a test; a test of endurance, of will, of a multitudinous amount of newly learned skills, of patience, of philosophy, and many more. And I think we passed the test, and I would not want to lose that experience.

However, I don't ever want to do it again. And I am ready to get back to the field. First up hopefully will be some summer bass fishing. Maybe in June.

Rooster

The Lost Year

It is a Friday in January, near the end of duck season 2007-2008. Where am I? I am monitoring the progress of contractors installing new windows into my home. Where am I not? In the field. Such is the reality of hunting season 2007-2008. It just was not possible for me to get out hunt while trying to renovate my new house. So I accepted that this season would be lost. The King and I made it out once to dove hunt and once to duck hunt, and that was all. But, if any good has come out of missing a hunting season, it has made me realize just how important getting out in the field has become to me. It will make future trips that much more instense and important. I will savor every moment, including every challenge and every dunk in the swamp. I will still curse over a missed shot or a dunk in the swamp, but I will revel in the pain and cold. Such is the lesson of loss. My goal is now to be ready to catch some trout in March or hit some bass after that first spring warm spell.

Rooster

Ticking Away the Moments in a Busy Day

The first week of duck season 2007 has come and gone without the K&R able to get out in the field. The problem? Time. Always time. Never enough of it. For me it is the new house, which is proving to be a time hog like no other commitment I have known. Time Time Time Time, such a a consistent theme so far in this blog. But is this not a fundamental issue we all face? How we balance our life maintenance (occupation, home, health, transportation, etc.) work, our professional obligations, and our leisure pursuits determines the quality of our life. For the K&R, it has come to the forefront this season more than any other. With an extremely hectic work schedule for the King, and a new house for me, the opportunities for getting out in the field have just not been there. But while short-term exigencies (new houses, work pressures, family obligations) must be given priority, in the long term an appropriate balance must be achieved. If one gives up all leisure pursuits and only spends time maintaining life, is life even worth maintaining? No, not in my view. We become animals; existing only to procreate, only to sustain life. No reflection, no understanding, no growth, no experience, no substance; i.e, no life.

Rooster

Can't Take it Away

It is often a curse of humanity that we can relive the past but cannot change it. But it can also be a blessing. Today was the perfect dove day; upper seventies, crisp blue sky, light breeze. In previous years, I would be walking through the buckwheat on a day like today enjoying the perfection of pre-fall. This year I spent the day wedged up under a sink fixing a leaky faucet. The house, it turns out, is a fixer-upper. But I knew that going in, and while the timing could have been better, I willingly accept the current chaos for a better quality of life tomorrow. However, today, when I heard the locusts buzzing and saw that blue sky and felt the pull of the field, I felt trapped; trapped again in maturity and responsibility. But it quickly passed, because my spirit only had to travel through the escape route of my memory. With a firing of a neuron, I was back. The King and I flushing, hunting and bringing down birds. Later, looking at the website, I again relived the past days afield. And no matter where I am, or what I may be doing, no one can take that away.

Rooster

Busy Times

I am closing on a house tomorrow, and while I am excited about the denouement to a 19 month ordeal, I am a little pissed it happened in the second week of dove season. The house is going to require a lot of work over the next couple of months and that is going to interfere with my freedom to hunt as often as I would like. This is, as I stated in an earlier post, a by-product of modernity and maturity. I will not, however, let this keep me from heading out into the field. My hunting career has so far survived employment, relationships, and marriage. Home ownership only represents the latest challenge. This too will pass; to be followed no doubt by more challenges. But I resolve to always find the time to go out into the field as much as I can. Because if I deny that, I will lose my nexus into a piece of the human experience that I know of no other way to reach. The righteous experience. The true hunter knows of what I speak.

Rooster

Opening Day

There is absolutely no feeling that compares to the first few minutes of dove season. First the sound of gunfire in the distance, then seeing the first birds crossing the horizon, and finally pulling the trigger on the first birds heading into gun range. It never fails to live up to expectations. And so it was yesterday. We went into an area that gets a lot of pressure on opening day and found a little corner to ourselves. It didn't take long for the first bird to fall and after a great mark and find, we had the first dove in the bag. Now, while over the next couple of weeks we will hopefully get out some more and shoot a lot of doves, and have an absolute spiritual blast, it will never quite feel the way it does that first ten minutes.

Rooster