By Tabitha Reigel (Roll Up Your Sleeve Kinda Momma)
My mommy works long hours to provide for my brother, my two sisters and me. She tries to be everything to us even when tired, sad, mad, and happy. She makes me feel better when I am sad or mad. She helps me understand things that I cannot understand at the moment. Most of all I love hunting with my mommy.
When we go hunting, she shows me all kinds of things from what a deer print looks like and
what a Big Daddy Buck scrap looks like. After seeing that Big Daddy Rack Buck scrap I get overly excited and think every crack of a stick is that monster.
While we are hunting I do get bored and when I get bored I start moving around and playing with sticks on the ground. Mommy is so patient with me and reminds me not to pick up sticks because there could be a snake beside it.
As I continue to sit with Mommy she asks me about how my week has been so far and what is my favorite part of my day. I tell her it’s the SNACKS!!! and the lunch you bring me because this is when I get the best snacks.
Mommy sometimes tells me to SHHH…because she sees a deer. I don’t know what it is and jump up and scare it away, but Mommy doesn’t get upset with me. However, I get sad with myself, but Mommy tells me it’s okay because it wasn’t your Big Rack Daddy Buck. It makes me feel a little better, but not all the way better.
Then out of nowhere here he comes and mommy shoots! I never realized Mommy’s gun was so loud!!! It scares me a little, but when Mommy says we have to move a little quicker my heart starts pounding like I ran a race. As we get closer, I see blood on the ground and start getting scared again and excited at the same time because I have never seen this before.
Now we are right on the Big Rack Daddy. I want to run up, but Mommy says “No! Just wait”, in a stern voice that scares me a little. When I ask Mommy why, she gets down to my level and says just because the Big Rack Daddy looks like he’s asleep he might not be. Mommy, has me stand by this big tree so she can see if he’s asleep and I can still see her and I am safe. As I am waiting for Mommy, I am getting so excited and scared again that I start shaking. As I am shaking if feel like Mommy is taking forever and a day.
Finally, she says it’s okay to come to her I am now so excited I am shaking to the point Mommy has to
come get me and carry me down to the Big Rack Daddy Buck. When we get down to Mommy’s deer she
asks if I am okay and I tell her I am shaking like I’m cold but I’m not cold. She smiles at me and says you have what hunters call Buck Fever, but Mommy I am not sick. Mommy giggles at me because she says I
know you’re not sick you’re just so excited that you are shaking so much. Then Mommy said I have a
secret to tell you I looked at her with a confused look, then Mommy says she gets like that too! I never thought Mommy would feel the same way as I do right now.
As our day is done in the woods I tell Mommy I am tired and ready to go home. We got my Big Rack Daddy Buck. As we are walking out I keep telling my mommy it’s my buck. I am also telling mommy that this is the best part of my day along with having mommy all to myself, and not going to school.
The End
“As a mom, I sometimes forget that my little ones are still little. I want to make sure they understand what is happening also with not push hunting so hard on them that they don’t want to hunt. Also, nurture whatever feelings they have about hunting and their interest they have.” ~ Tabatha Reigel
