Tradition

As most all of us wrap up one tradition, overstuffing ourselves with turkey and pie, I decided to show some pics from the vault of another tradition that is, perhaps, not as widespread, more localized,  and is almost as important to Wisconsinites as Thanksgiving.  And I'm not talking about Black Friday.  It is the annual 9 day deer hunting season that started last Saturday and runs through this coming Sunday.  I won't get into the pros and cons of the event except to say for those partaking it is the biggest event of the year. It is 9 days of family and friends spending lots and lots of time together.  9 days of telling stories around a campfire.  9 days of fathers and sons, and sometimes daughters and wives and mothers, connecting differently than they would at any other time.  9 days of eating some of the best food ever cooked over a campfire.  9 days of remembering anecdotes of years past hunts.  9 days of breathing clean fresh air.  At least, that's what the hunting season means to me.  My father and I have been part of the same hunting group going on 25 years now.  Cousins and uncles that we didn't know well when we first joined up are now our closest friends.  Many of us were pretty young when we first started hunting with our fathers.  Now, many of us are fathers ourselves and teaching our young ones how to be good, responsible stewards of nature.  This was the first year my daughter and my son both said they want to go hunting next year.  This was, unfortunately, brought up in front of their mother, so we decided to leave the discussion for another time.  And for those of you worried about the deer, don't worry.  They were pretty safe around us this year.  Here's a few pics of camp life: