The Thrill of the Hunt

Once again, lagging behind in posts. His hunt and these pics are now over a month old but are still just as worthy of note and entirely impressive. I'm desperately working on carving time into my day just to write awhile. It seems that when the most life changing things are taking place and words float across the heart and mind all throughout the day there is so little time to capture them.

One of the many blessings of Grayson's apprenticeship with the taxidermist are the opportunities he has been given in so many other areas of life. Due to the lack of participating in a deer lease we have been unable to hunt, as of yet, or to get any of the children out hunting. Henry, Grayson's taxidermy mentor, has fallen absolutely in love with Grayson and throughout the months has grown to be quite in awe of him and the ability Grayson possesses to accomplish pretty much anything he puts his mind to. There is still absolutely nothing in the world like people recognizing and seeing what we as parents have worked so desperately hard to instill within the children and it being appreciated. Henry greatly loves each of our children and has a deep admiration and appreciation for traditional family values. So, he takes the time to go above and beyond just instructing Grayson and uses their time together to teach so much more than just taxidermy....such as recognizing good business opportunities, how to successfully run a business, coin collecting, hunting, repair and wood work. And because Henry and all of the guys at the shop are avid hunters it has given Grayson the amazing opportunity to hunt with them. These pics are of his 1st two deer. Larger one was a young doe, the other a young buck. He field dressed and skinned them, harvested the meat and tanned the hides for two new rugs for the house. They filled the freezer with venison from those two and another that one of the other guys shot. And Grayson has kept it stocked with meat every since. I hope that once we get all 7 boys hunting that we have the ability and honor of filling many freezers with the abundance and overflow that many hunting sons bring home.

And, being deer season, he has already learned well how to field dress, gut and harvest deer meat..along with skinning and tanning the hides. He's working twice a week most weeks through the season and is currently working on head mounts and stitching them on. Pretty impressive for a 12 year old. My heart swells with pride as we watch him grow and see the man he is becoming.....the direction he already has and his passion to learn the trade that he loves.

Proud Hunter

Henry and Grayson

the young buck

the doe

The 5 ft 5in egg robbing rat snake that shotgun loving husband shot after its escape from the coop. It broke the record for the largest rat snake the guys had seen come through the taxidermy shop.

The snake 2 weeks later. Grayson had to cut off his head since gun husband did such an awesome job of blowing it off....which resulted in the actual mount being a little shorter than the 5'5 that the snake originally measured from head to tail. Grayson's 1st official taxidermy project. His passion in life. He's currently working on posing a raccoon sculpture.