Unforgiven

Somewhere west of Sherwood North Dakota…..

Katie: “I have a confession……. that was the first one.”

Skeet: “First one what?”

Katie: “That was the first pop bottle I ever killed.”

Skeet: “Yeah, well you sure killed the hell out of that one today.”


For the record, I haven't pushed or prodded Katie to start hunting and shooting. She told me that she wanted to learn how to hunt. I told her it's not something you learn how to do, you're born with the knowledge and ability - they eye's forward in predator mode, canine teeth for tearing meat, etc. It's just that most people suppress it since they can go to the store and buy a steak. I could tell Katie had ice water running through her veins though when she successfully got her first confirmed kill on a charging gopher - she stared him down as he was coming at us and put him on the ground just feet away from us. Ok, so he stood there 40 feet away and let her adjust her aim 3 times before she put him down, but still, not bad for a first time with a rifle.

She actually went 3 for 5 on gophers for the day, but needed to learn the finer points of shooting and I'm not really the best one to teach. It's like, how does Picasso paint so well? How does Shakespeare write so well? They don't know, they just do. And so it is with me. Generally speaking, if something is on the business end of my gun it's gonna go in the freezer. But we took the time to stop along a prairie road and shoot up a bottle. She does really well with open sites, but has some work to do with the scoped rifles. She got really good towards the end, but just to let her know where she needs to be someday I called my shot and took the cap off the bottle at about 70 yards. She'll learn that someday - always call your shots. If you make it, you look good, if you miss you blame it on the wind.

That night we celebrated the hunt with some nice store bought steaks and chicken on the grill. I've come to a conclusion as well - theres two types of families that now live in Sherwood. The ones that have been there for years and keep up their houses and lawns and then the rest that have moved in and have 10 vehicles that don’t work, 1 that might and at least 3 chained up dogs. In fact, in a 1 block radius of mom and dads are 17 dogs - no lying, 17 dogs!!! (The blocks in Sherwood are about a quarter of the size of larger city blocks for reference.) Dogs that bark non stop when you’re outside, dogs that bark early in the morning, dogs that bark late at night. There’s even a few dogs that bark because no other dogs are barking so they figure they better bark. I don’t blame the dogs really – I blame the idiot owners that leave them chained up and instead of giving them a toy to play with, they give them an old chair in their kennel to chew on until it’s completely ripped apart and then throw another chair in.

They’re well trained dogs too. As long as ‘heel’ means run to the other end of the yard, ‘sit’ means to bark and ‘lie down’ means to crap in your neighbors driveway. Then yes, they’re perfectly trained.

Just an observation for these people that may help them become more productive of society. Here's a quick guideline of what NOT to do every day.

1.) Wake up
2.) Drink yourself silly
3.) Spend the entire day shooting pellets guns at a paper target
4.) Pass out

I should live back in Sherwood, a person could write an entire blog on bad neighbors if they wanted to.

It was a good weekend though, Ashtyn enjoyed the garden and the grass and meeting new people like Earl and MaryLynn and Jared and Reede. She liked visiting with Grandma and Grandpa and in about a year is going to love riding on the electric tractor and 4-Wheeler with her cousins.