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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A New Season

We are 24 hours from the start of the 2007 dove season, and the excitement is building. The weather has been very dovey lately and that has got me in the mood. The oppressive heat, the heavy humidity, and the drone of locusts have all triggered my building desire to get out in the field. A week ago I couldn't stand it any longer and reconned two of the popular first day dove hunting sites. Stepping into the dusty heat of grasslands and farm fields filled me with almost ecstasy at what I knew was only a week away. On a technical side, the setups of these state managed areas were average at best and due to the oppressive afternoon heat (over 100 degrees), I saw few birds. The ones I did see were led in mind's eye with the barrel of my imaginary shotgun.

As excited as I am about the new season, I can't help but feel a tinge of melancholy. The first few years I hunted I (and the King) did so with a freedom that we can no longer recreate. Natural changes in our lives have made the former almost daily treks to the field impossible. Responsibilities mean that hunting can not always be a priority and while I wouldn't change my circumstances, I will always look back on those days with a smile and be glad I had that opportunity. A positive is that now every hunt is treated like a bubble of freedom and valued regardless of the outcome. Truly, "just being there," has surpassed the success or failure of the hunt. Such is the nature of modernity and being a man.

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