The Fever!!!!! is there hope for a cure???

well got my order in.... yes, over 300 bucks in shipping alone for 8lbs of shotgun powder for duck hunting is nutz. no airmail shipping for powder so it has to be put on a boat to my island in SE Alaska. Borderline insanity! . not to mention the cost for the special wads I use and saturn steel shot. then lets talk about the walk to get to my duck hunting area... its a 5 mile plus walk round trip to get here... my blind is in the middle of a remote marsh.





and then here is the fact that I dont even like the taste of geese. Mallard is really the only thing i really kinda like, and I dont go out of my way to cook that either... and there is only so much you can do with Ketchup....

so, why do i put myself through it? with my screwed/pinned together spine and the amount of pain i go through when I get home for the evening?



Not to mention when I misjudge the ocean tide change and find myself standing on the top of my blind for 4-5 hours waiting for the tide to go out enough for me to be able to start the long trek home??? why do I do it???

i guesss its like what one of my friends says.. I have the fever. i have always had the fever, and i see no cure in sight. every year I hear the ducks and geese fly over long before I see them, and I just know where they are going to stop over... i just cant help myself.. i tried curing it with clay birds and a thrower, but its just not the same "High"... what is it about flying ducks and geese that fouls all sense of reason, causing me to endure much pain, do without financially, and basically turn ga ga???

is this a sin??? an obsession??? please tell me, is there any Hope for me?

AlaskanGuy

No, it definitely is not a sin, the big black book with plenty of thin pages, has a lot to say about hunting, and providing for your family (defending your family too, but that is another topic entirely).

My "cure" for hunting came from a 9 month stint at Ground-Zero. Maybe it is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or maybe I am just a sissy, but I saw enough death and killing during those months. I am a farmer now, and can pull the trigger if I need too, but I prefer corralling my food, and then hauling it to the slaughterhouse. I can butcher, and will, and think that is a great skill-set to have, but I do not mind paying $75 for someone else to kill, skin, cut, and package a sheep instead.

More cowbell?

Mark,

Years ago, I knew a guy in the service and all he talked about was duck hunting.  I mean he carried a duck call around and practiced.  There are more of you out there :).  

In my area it is dove hunting. Starts in a couple of weeks.  I dont participate. 6 shotgun shells to get 2 tablespoons of meat never made much sense to me. Plenty of people have that fever though.

I worked with a young man just out of highschool.
Great kid,  farm raised, smart, and a hard worker.
He hunted,  quite a bit.
What I didn't get,  is all the tender meat he let walk on by as he waited for a trophy buck!
It seems that the process was as enjoyable as the outcome.
He loved being there in the woods, like others like being on a lake,  rod in hand.

I don't hunt,  but if I did I think meat would be my goal,  followed by hide, sinew, bone and antlers.
On the other hand,  I grow food plants almost exclusively, but I am NOT careful about harvesting the bounty, so maybe I am not so different.

I love digging beds,  and planting, as much as harvesting.
I spend hours looking at my yard,  thinking about my next tree,  bush,  or compost pile.

If there is a cure for these fevers,  I don't think I want it.
Let us die, not of our feverish obsessions, but with them still intact, uncured and  raging till the end.

"If there is a cure for these fevers,  I don't think I want it.
Let us die, not of our feverish obsessions, but with them still intact, uncured and raging till the end."

Amen William!!!