Photo safari in Barr

Surprise!

This common crane probably got the scare of its life when my grandson's wildlife camera "captured" it on our lake in Barr.

That's my kind of hunting!  Photographic hunting—like those Photographer's Safaris in Africa.  You get to look at the wildlife, take beautiful pictures and everyone goes home happy, especially the animals.

I didn't grow up in a hunting family, but I married into one.  Not long after we got married I came home and opened the freezer, and there staring me in the face was a skinned squirrel!  I almost lost it.  Thought I might have made a mistake.

But over the years, I've gotten used to it, but still don't like it.  Used to the dirt on the kitchen floor, used to the you-should-have-seen-the-one-that-got-away talk, used to men leaving to go hunt in the dark. Thank goodness this is just a bird-hunting household instead of a deer hunting one like Garrett's, where they can't wash hunting clothes and even add stinky stuff to make them stink more.

The first weekend or two Garrett's camera captured deer—at night and during the day.
Finally, I thought. He will be happy getting these cool pictures and forget about real hunting.  Wrong. This weekend he got his first trophy deer...at a deer camp at a undisclosed location.

But just look at the smile on his face.  That's the biggest smile I've seen in a long time. Something tells me we will see that deer on the wall in his house.