Category Archives: hunting

Fighting For Your Life, Man-eater Bears by Tom Hron

Dear Cousin Johnny,

Thank you for giving me this book to read.  I now know that if things really go poorly I should attempt to punch a black bear that is trying to eat me (or my friend/family member) in the nose.  Since I’m hoping it won’t come to that I’m now considering getting a larger dog, baseball bat, machete and stun gun to bring with me in the woods – just in case- oh and I promise not to forget my binoculars. Also after learning that grizzly bears enjoy flattening and shredding nylon tents I may never go camping much less hiking in certain areas again. My Dad painted a vivid enough picture of polar bears for me that I wasn’t planning on spending my vacation with one anytime soon but just in case his stories were fading in memory I now have some new ones to reinforce them with.

Thank you as well for the nightmare this book gave me. I had accidentally fallen asleep in Clara’s bed and that got me right back up and into my own bed. You know, the one with my husband who has a longer reach than me and would be better at beating a bear with a bat or punching it in the nose than I would.  And I certainly can’t forget to thank you for introducing me to a huge amount of graphic, horrific, descriptions of people who were eaten alive by bears. I shall never forget what a bear can do, ever… even if I want to.

Finally thank you for giving me a book to read that made me laugh. Because if I’m going to read about graphic bear deaths I do truly prefer it to be with a good dose of sarcasm and contempt for those who ignore “traditional knowledge and wisdom”…  “for the sake of computer modeling by a bunch of pinheads who have never set foot on the pack ice.”

In Gratitude,

Jessie

Would I recommend it? Bears: They don’t just eat nuts and berries, sometimes they eat people.  There was quite a lot of useful and interesting information but it is certainly not for the faint of heart!

Girl Hunter by Georgia Pellegrini (and Chukar Hunting)

This book was fine.

Woman chef becomes hunter in order to truly participate in her omnivorous life.

Pretty good stories, good looking recipes but one thing really bothered me.

The chukar.

Georgia shoots her chukar at a Texas game ranch where “…an olive brown figure rises from the left, only 10 yards in front and, crosses my path in a diagonal leap skyward.”

She who has never tasted a chukar gets her bird, and life is good. I bet she even remembers how it tastes.

I have also been chukar hunting.

It was a bit different than that.

My Dad, brother and cousin Johnny all went chukar hunting in Nevada a few years ago. After lots and lots of driving we arrived and it was beautiful.

We parked the truck down along the river.

Until I realized that I had to hike up all that beauty.

See here is the thing, the locals don’t call them “Dirty Rotten Bastards” without due cause. Chukars hang out on the side of the mountain until they see you coming, then they run – straight – up – the – mountain. When they reach the top they no doubt do a few chukar high fives before the Dirty Rotten Bastards laugh and fly down the other side of the mountain. 

I don’t run up mountains as fast as a chukar, my game vest stayed empty.

After a few days of hunting we got smarter and learned what the birds ( I mean Dirty Rotten Bastards) were flying to and we were able to set up hunts so that they flew down our side of the mountain. That sounds like it should be much better, and it was. All you had to do was stop upward movement on a 45 degree, rocky, snow covered slope, pivot outward to be facing the flying birds and then attempt to stop gasping for oxygen in the thin mountain air so as to steady your gun and get a shot off.

My game vest still stayed empty.

Then I’d watch and watch as the unscathed bastards would fly off, mark where they went down, hike back down my mountain and get ready to chase them up the next one. It was fantastic in a masochistic sort of way.

Fortunately not everyone was as bad a shot as I was and we were able to eat chukar for dinner at night.

Unlike Georgia I do not remember how it tastes.

I was so tired by the end of the day it’s possible I would have thought cardboard a delicious dinner.

Tyler (who can kill a chuckar) and dogs along ridge.

As the local mountain lion hunter told us, you go Dirty Rotten Bastard hunting the first time for fun, the next times are all revenge.

And now that I have my own bird dog and know that I have to pretend I’m training for a marathon before I leave, I can’t wait until I have an opportunity to get my revenge.

Hopefully I’ll even remember how it tastes.

Would I recommend the book? I go bird hunting because I like the hunting. Figuring out what the birds are eating, where they will be and when, watching the dogs work the field (or mountain) and maybe if I’m lucky being able to fill my game vest with something tasty for dinner. I’d rather hike up and down mountains while puzzling out how it all works with friends or family than be certain of finding game on a managed property with a guide.

The author is a hunter to find out where her food came from, participate in the harvest and cook great food. I think what she does is admirable, I think her stories are good and I’m glad she wrote a book about it, I just can’t broadly recommend it as a hunting book. It’s not my kind of hunting.

Diana Gabaldon

Start with Outlander and then keep going.

I’ve been re-reading them in between other books since Jane has been born and I’m on my 6th book of hers in a month.

I haven’t yet had the words “dinna fash” or “you’ll ken” come out of my mouth yet but it’s a good thing I’ve only got one book left or I’d be yelling “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ” next time I burn dinner.

Would I recommend them? Having just stared blankly at the computer screen for a many minitues I have no tidy way to sum up the books nor why exactly I’d recommend them.

I think I’m in a Jamie and Claire induced stuper… and now I have to go read what happens next – even though I’ve read this one twice before.

Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

Usually  I like to snap a photo of the book I read because personally if I’m browsing at a book store a cover I have seen is far more likely to catch my eye than a title. I can’t remember authors to save my life (that was never my job in the Battle of the Books) and I’m iffy on names, but I can usually spot a familiar cover. Hopefully it’ll help someone else out one day as well.

But today I’m refusing to share.

I think I’ve mentioned this before so forgive me - but seriously. Do the cover artists even READ the books?

Would I recommend it? Yes, but with the same spiel (which I thought you spelled schpeil until tonight, who knew?) as last time, so I won’t get into it again!

P.S. Usually when I read before bed I get sleepy after a few chapters and go to sleep. All of Robin Hobbs books have had the opposite effect on me. This has resulted in much less sleep than planned on. It’s dangerous, just thought I should warn you!

Death In A Lonely Land by Peter Hathaway Capstick

I’d just like to say right now that I have absolutely no desire to go hunting for anything that has earned it’s reputation as a man eater or even anything that could possibly do so in the future. I do not want to go hunting animals that may attempt to eat me before I eat them. I do not want to hunt animals that don’t want to eat me but would be satisfied with stomping me into a pulp. I really don’t want to go hunting for something that would like to pound me into a pulp and then eat me afterward with nothing but a few dogs and a really big knife.  Yet, for some reason I love reading about people who do.

Maybe I’m nuts, or maybe it is that Capstick is an especially engaging author, pick up something of his and let me know!

Would I recommend it? Yes.  This book of his is not all big game hunting, it also has fishing, some discussions on firearms and ammo, (now I want a fully automatic BB gun, and that’s not something I ever expected to say) and bit of bird hunting.  While the variety of topics is nice the benefits of using a tube fly for salmon just don’t have the same memorable qualities as a “Midnight Date With A Black Jaguar!”

Truck by Michael Perry

I can’t decide if it’s odd that I enjoyed a book named Truck or if it makes perfect sense. When he goes and fixes up his old truck throughout the book and starts talking technical he loses me sometime after “impact wrench” and “headlights” and before “diamond plate” and “carburetor bowl”. But then there is the whole loving an old rusty pickup truck thing and since this lives at my house. I could relate.

The book also includes such essentials as fried chicken, spirea, gardening,  deer hunting,  and of course a girl.

Would I recommend it? Yes. I didn’t love all the parts but it was funny and so very Wisconsin I couldn’t help but like the whole.