On this last day of 2010, I'm feeling pretty good about what I've accomplished this year.
I finished my first book for Storey Publishing, which will be released around August of 2011. Then I left my comfortable day job and threw myself full-time into work on 'Eating Aliens.' I've traveled to Florida to hunt invasive lizards on Gasparilla Island and Big Pine Key; Georgia for wild pigs and armadillos; Eleuthera, Bahamas for lionfish; Canada geese and Asian grass carp here at home; and various other invasives that I'm not quite ready to announce yet.
Along the way I started working on the side as a hunting guide, filmed a TV pilot, personally taught over 100 people how to hunt deer for food, gave butchering demonstrations, taught a series of workshops on hunting and cooking with venison and wild goose for Slow Food NYC, put on an event at Glass House Winery with Slow Food Virginia on cooking with geese, and did more interviews than I can even recall.
'Eating Aliens' is about 22,000 words completed now. In about a week the sample chapters are going out to my agent and the book will be on the block.
Its been a pretty fruitful year, creatively speaking.
Today I am setting 3 goals for 2012:
1. Finish 'Eating Aliens.'
2. Create a market for lionfish in major US cities. I've already started talking to Slow Food NYC about putting on a lionfish event with them. My intent is to fly Mojo out from Eleuthera to co-present with me, and invite fishmongers, seafood wholesalers, food writers and chefs to this event so that we can prove how very good the lionfish is to eat. I want to bring together all of the parties necessary to create an organized market for invasive lionfish in the NYC area, so that spear fishermen in the Bahamas and Caribbean will have a financial incentive to remove them and thus help restore the reefs. I truly believe that this is the most effective means of getting lionfish out of the Atlantic.
3. Be a better fisherman. Any success that I have had at fishing has been largely a result of luck or finding myself fishing with someone who is much better at it than I am. This spring I promise to put the time and effort into it. If I can get a hold of a pickup truck to haul a canoe around in then that should make a big difference in 2011.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Hunting the Eleutheran Lionfish
For the last 10 days or so I have been incommunicado while hunting lionfish in the waters off of Eleuthera in the Atlantic ocean and then awkwardly making my way home.
In short, the stories are true. All of the places where I dove contained far fewer native fish then I had hoped to see in the Bahamas. There were thick schools of tiny baitfish and the occasional blue tang, but altogether the fish population did not look especially healthy. The first area I hunted along some cliffs, caves and rock ledges was an especially sobering example. I would say that about 40% of the fish that I saw in that area which were over 2 inches long were invasive lionfish.
The first sightings of lionfish around Eleuthera were only about 5 years ago and in that time they have come absolutely dominate certain types of rock and reef structure. Fully grown groupers will sometimes eat them, but it is apparently more common for lionfish to eat immature grouper.
As you can see in this video that I recorded with Maurice 'Mojo' White and Joey (I'm not sure which one of us was holding the camera for this clip), lionfish don't give ground to much of anything. Watch how it sits right there in front of its crevice even as a diver is right in front of it and thrusting a spear at it. The lionfish has venomous spikes sticking out all around the front of it. An array of hypodermic needles that will either kill or badly hurt almost anything that decides to pick a fight.
While that behavior illustrates one of the reasons why lionfish have been able to quickly dominate this habitat (lack of natural parasites in the Atlantic is probably another reason), it also comes in real handy when you are hunting them. They won't generally spook off unless you injure them with the spear.
The lionfish tasted really good. I've got loads of video of the whole trip and process of hunting, cooking and eating them and at some point soon it will be edited into a proper little documentary. I was surprised at how good they really are. Most any fish is going to be edible and most anything that moves can be turned into a serviceable meal. But lionfish really is, hands down, one of the best-tasting invasive species that I have pursued so far during this project. It ties with really well-handled Canada goose.
The texture is superior to Chilean sea bass and I think that lionfish represent a viable alternative to much of the ill-gotten Chilean sea bass that is on the market today.
I have already started taking steps to organize an event in NYC to introduce the ingredient to chefs, fish mongers and food writers. There is already a large wholesale fish distribution system stretching from the Bahamas up to the east coast of the US. If spiny lobsters and conch can be moved through this system, then lionfish can be moved to market as well. If we give those local fishermen an economic incentive to take lionfish then we can literally eat our way out of this ecological disaster.
In spite of the idyllic location, this trip was not an easy one and was probably my most challenging trip for this book so far. I spent a full day laying dizzy on the floor of Mojo's surf shack, alone in the dark with no electricity, dry-heaving with some type of poisoning from bad water. A Jeep that I was riding in broke down on the highway. Friends and I spent the rest of that day getting the Wrangler towed out by a mid-sized SUV with a hemp rope. The other car steered while we worked the brakes in the Jeep. During prolonged dives I threw out my right knee, which occasionally pops out of place and sent me collapsing to the ground a few times in airports during my epic journey home after being abandoned by Delta in a foreign country with no money or transportation. Somehow I ended up spending an afternoon washing dishes at a bar, which actually wasn't such a bad time since they kept bringing me rum and Cokes.
On the other hand, I had help whenever I asked for it from the extraordinarily kind Bahamian locals and American ex-pats. Both the good and bad were everything that a travel writer could hope for, in terms of good fodder for this new book.
In short, the stories are true. All of the places where I dove contained far fewer native fish then I had hoped to see in the Bahamas. There were thick schools of tiny baitfish and the occasional blue tang, but altogether the fish population did not look especially healthy. The first area I hunted along some cliffs, caves and rock ledges was an especially sobering example. I would say that about 40% of the fish that I saw in that area which were over 2 inches long were invasive lionfish.
The first sightings of lionfish around Eleuthera were only about 5 years ago and in that time they have come absolutely dominate certain types of rock and reef structure. Fully grown groupers will sometimes eat them, but it is apparently more common for lionfish to eat immature grouper.
As you can see in this video that I recorded with Maurice 'Mojo' White and Joey (I'm not sure which one of us was holding the camera for this clip), lionfish don't give ground to much of anything. Watch how it sits right there in front of its crevice even as a diver is right in front of it and thrusting a spear at it. The lionfish has venomous spikes sticking out all around the front of it. An array of hypodermic needles that will either kill or badly hurt almost anything that decides to pick a fight.
While that behavior illustrates one of the reasons why lionfish have been able to quickly dominate this habitat (lack of natural parasites in the Atlantic is probably another reason), it also comes in real handy when you are hunting them. They won't generally spook off unless you injure them with the spear.
The lionfish tasted really good. I've got loads of video of the whole trip and process of hunting, cooking and eating them and at some point soon it will be edited into a proper little documentary. I was surprised at how good they really are. Most any fish is going to be edible and most anything that moves can be turned into a serviceable meal. But lionfish really is, hands down, one of the best-tasting invasive species that I have pursued so far during this project. It ties with really well-handled Canada goose.
The texture is superior to Chilean sea bass and I think that lionfish represent a viable alternative to much of the ill-gotten Chilean sea bass that is on the market today.
I have already started taking steps to organize an event in NYC to introduce the ingredient to chefs, fish mongers and food writers. There is already a large wholesale fish distribution system stretching from the Bahamas up to the east coast of the US. If spiny lobsters and conch can be moved through this system, then lionfish can be moved to market as well. If we give those local fishermen an economic incentive to take lionfish then we can literally eat our way out of this ecological disaster.
In spite of the idyllic location, this trip was not an easy one and was probably my most challenging trip for this book so far. I spent a full day laying dizzy on the floor of Mojo's surf shack, alone in the dark with no electricity, dry-heaving with some type of poisoning from bad water. A Jeep that I was riding in broke down on the highway. Friends and I spent the rest of that day getting the Wrangler towed out by a mid-sized SUV with a hemp rope. The other car steered while we worked the brakes in the Jeep. During prolonged dives I threw out my right knee, which occasionally pops out of place and sent me collapsing to the ground a few times in airports during my epic journey home after being abandoned by Delta in a foreign country with no money or transportation. Somehow I ended up spending an afternoon washing dishes at a bar, which actually wasn't such a bad time since they kept bringing me rum and Cokes.
On the other hand, I had help whenever I asked for it from the extraordinarily kind Bahamian locals and American ex-pats. Both the good and bad were everything that a travel writer could hope for, in terms of good fodder for this new book.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Five Sharp, Pointy Christmas Presents for Deer Hunters
1. Aside from a rifle or bow, the most basic thing that every deer hunter needs is a good knife. Once the hunter has that good knife, he or she can certainly use another one. I suggest something generally along the lines of this knife ($130) or this other one by Trekker ($15).The features to look for in a general purpose knife for a new deer hunter are simple. First, choose a knife with a short overall length. Huge 'Crocodile Dundee' blades are a bad idea. Keep the blade length between about 3 and 4 inches. Longer blades increase the risk of slicing your hand open while working up inside of the body cavity of a deer. Extra length is not helpful, as whitetails and mule deer are not all that big.
Please do choose a fixed blade rather than a folding knife. After gutting or quartering a deer, the knife will usually be covered with a mixture of blood, fat and other odd bits of deer flesh. Cleaning that stuff out of the mechanical workings of a folding knife is difficult. It is also a good idea to have a knife on your hip that can be drawn and used with one hand in case of emergency.
2. The utility of a pair of basic pruning shears cannot be overstated. I always bring mine with me when I am either scouting or hunting. These ones by Felco (for around $40) are great. They even make a smaller version for people with smaller hands. You have to pay about $12 extra to get a sheath, but I do recommend it.
Why carry pruning shears while hunting? Three reasons. First, sometimes you find that you need to get through a maze of thorns for one reason or another and quick use of the pruners makes this less painful. Second, they can be good for clearing out an ambush position to sit in. Third, often a hunter will find a really good spot to hunt from but realize that there is brush or branches blocking a clear shot in a direction where a deer is likely to appear. Use the pruners to clip that stuff out of the way, assuming that you are permitted to do this on the land where you are hunting.
3. I have come to swear by a belt hatchet. This one made by Fiskar (but with Gerber's name stamped on it) is the one that I use. It is $38 from Cabelas, but I am pretty sure I've seen it priced lower elsewhere. Cabelas also has a sale running on a Gerber 'Ultimate Field Dressing Kit' that includes that hatchet. It looks like a good deal at $50, but most of the other items are gadgets that will rarely, if ever, be used. One of the knives that it comes with isn't bad, has a gut hook and a sensible blade length, but it also happens to be a folder. Personally, I would be more likely to pick up the hatchet on its own and get exactly the right knife in a separate purchase.
A hatchet can be handy while field dressing, especially when gutting an older animal with a fully-ossified pelvis. I've also used mine to dispatch and butcher very large lizards. A hatchet also speeds along the construction of a quick and simple ground blind to hunt from. Cutting stakes goes very quickly, as does pounding them into the ground using the back of the hatchet as a hammer.
4. Every hunter ought to have a meat grinder. All of those little scraps of meat that are too small to be steaks in their own right can be gathered together and run through the grinder to make burger. Ground venison is very flexible stuff in the kitchen and you will probably get more varied use of it than you would from dicing the same material into stew meat. I have this one, which costs $45 and attaches easily to any KitchenAid mixer. It works well for occasional butchering duty. If you are grinding lots and lots of meat all the time then you might want a dedicated, higher-capacity unit like this one by Waring for around $200. The old-fashioned hand-powered grinders can be had for as little as $20, but many of them tend to get horrible reviews and I suggest looking closely before you buy.
5. With all of these sharp things to maintain, it is important to be able to keep a good edge on them. A sharpening stone is essential, and a butcher's steel is a good idea as well. A set of high-quality stones like this ($55) is a good thing to have around the house. But that is a bit much to carry around in a pack (and often a hunter needs to sharpen up a knife halfway through quartering a deer). Personally, I have something similar to this little stone that I slip into a pocket when I'm going hunting. Yes, it is smaller than is really ideal. But something big enough to be perfect is probably going to be left at home.
Disclaimer: I am not getting paid by Amazon, Cabelas, any of the manufacturers, or any affiliate program to promote or link to any of these products. These are all things that I personally use and recommend.
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Five Seconds of Tarpon
Quit your job and buy a pop-up trailer and drive down to Florida and go fishing. In that order. That’s what I did this past summer and I still have no regrets. Drive down I-95 but take the little roads when you can. Drive past barbeque joints and honky tonks and gas stations with hand-lettered signs hawking unusual seafood. Watch the seasons move backwards through time with every hour that passes by as you move deeper and deeper south. Try to count every Waffle house franchise in Georgia. Eat only at places with names you don’t recognize where they don’t take credit cards and you feel that you ought to pick a table where you can keep an eye on the truck in the parking lot.
Pass by the motels and the hotels and the resorts and find a cheap little campground to park your trailer where you can walk down to the water with a fishing pole in one hand and a beer in the other. Get drunk and go fishing. Fall asleep on the ridiculously precarious double bed of your pop-up trailer listening to the argument between waves pounding against the coral and rocks and the wind howling in from off of the ocean. Eat beef jerky and black coffee for breakfast. Go iguana hunting. Write half a chapter of a book and then find some more beer and go fishing again but this time you had better stumble onto some tarpon.
I hooked a tarpon in the Florida Keys and it was about the finest 5 seconds of my life.
We got onto the fish when I saw them feeding on hundreds of thousands of bait fish in an empty marina by the campground. Great, dark, prehistoric-looking fins suddenly cut the water. I could scarcely believe what I was seeing. I tried a few casts before running back to the trailer to get Bob and a tackle box.
Now and then they would breach out of the water and land suddenly with an almighty flop. I grilled Bob on what the hell these things out of Jurassic Park wanted to eat. “Fish”, he said. “Bait fish and minnows and that kind of thing.”
I reached for my favorite fresh-water bass lure, a little popper that looked like a minnow with a pair of trebel hooks. I clipped it to the cheap surf rod I’d bought for $30 on our way down to the Keys.
The fish gradually moved out to the mouth of the marina and off about 40 yards into the ocean. They would breach suddenly and I would see nearly the whole arc of their massive, glittering forms in the sunset. Bob was still back in the marina, I think. I cast farther and farther out with the following wind carrying my lure to outrageous distances. And then suddenly something was on it.
A tarpon. An almighty tug that I thought would pull me clear off the rocks and into the water. It felt like having a velociraptor on the end of the line. It fought like no largemouth bass or crappie has ever fought me back home in Virginia. And the great fish jumped and I saw its huge shape outlined over the water. Was it 3 feet or 4 feet long? I don’t know and I don’t care. It was the biggest damn fish I ever had on a line. And it threw the hook in mid-air and swam away.
Five seconds, no more. Five seconds of a tarpon on my line and those five seconds were worth the whole two day drive down there. Five seconds that I’ll go back for this winter and then again and again and again.
[Photo courtesy of Wade Brooks under Creative Commons license]
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Operation Lionfish
I am very pleased to announce another trip for the Eating Aliens project. Next week I’m leaving for Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas to hunt down and eat three different invasive species.
The reason why I chose Eleuthera for my next stop has everything to do with this guy, Maurice ‘Mojo’ White. I was originally going to try to get lionfish in Florida. During the course of my research this past spring and summer into the problem of lionfish in the Caribbean, I ran across Mojo’s blog and quickly decided that this guy is hands down the most dedicated and knowledgeable lionfish hunter out there.
At first I asked him who he knew in Florida who I could work with, but after a long phone conversation it became clear that nobody was going to equal Mojo on the lionfish front. I was just going to have to get myself out to Eleuthera to work with him, no matter what the cost. I cashed in my IRA to finance this trip (the rest of my savings have long since been spent on previous trips for this book). Publicizing and solving the lionfish problem is important enough that I have literally gambled everything I have left on it.
Since Eleuthera has some other problematic invasive species as well, we’re going to take a stab at others while I’m there. Raccoons and goats, in particular.
The lionfish will be taken by spear-fishing for them while skin-diving. I have obtained a handheld underwater camera as well as a special mask with a built-in video camera to get the best possible video that we can of the hunt.
Meanwhile, as I count down the days until I leave for the Bahamas (oh yeah, that's rough in December...) I'm keeping pretty busy by conducting guided deer hunts for the next few days. My guided hunts are not like most -- this is not about putting a trophy animal on the wall. This is one-on-one tutoring for new hunters who want to learn how to find and take deer and would like someone to personally help them to gut, skin, and butcher the animal. There will be no clubhouse to retire to for a martini while the staff does these things for you. Then this Saturday I've got Terra Madre day to look forward to with Slow Food Virginia. I'm trying to get some more resident Canada geese to cook for this important event.
On Sarah Palin's Caribou Hunt
I cannot ignore this clip being passed around that shows Sarah Palin on a caribou hunt. Enough people have asked me about it that apparently I'm going to have to give it my two cents.
It is disappointing to see that she needs to have the rifle loaded for her. But I'm willing to chalk that up to her father simply enjoying the act of doing things for her and she is accustomed to it. However, she keeps pulling the trigger and has no idea how to work the bolt. Her father keeps having to reach around and cycle the action for her. An experienced hunter knows that the first thing you should automatically do after taking a shot on an animal is to ready another. Don't think about it or try to judge whether the first one did the job. You should put another round in the chamber no matter what.
Palin does not flinch when shooting either rifle. Her overall shooting habits suggest to me someone who has spent a lot of time plinking with a semi-automatic .22 rifle. Good form and follow-through, but she didn't have that instinct to instantly work the bolt. This makes me think that maybe she is used to having the next round pop in there by its self.
She fails to use the sling to get tight and steady. Again, that is something that I expect to see from someone who has spent a fair bit of time shooting off of a bench at a range but not so much in the field on wild animals.
Yes, she shot again and again with the first rifle without connecting. It is entirely possible that this scope was set up properly when it left the house, but maybe the rifle was dropped or took a hard knock along the way. That sort of thing can happen to anyone. In fact, it has happened to me although I have since learned to assume that the scope is out of zero after it takes a whacking and in those cases I will either re-check the zero with a few shots or switch to a back-up gun if one is available. Anyway, I wouldn't give her too much grief about having missed repeatedly with that rifle. I think this was a hardware problem rather than her aim.
Once she connects and hits the caribou, it was bad practice to immediately stand up and start with the high-fives. It is possible that video editing compressed the time line, but in real life you should never instantly assume that a big quadruped like that is down for the count. Especially when it drops to the shot instantly like that. While everything clearly worked out in this case, an animal that buckles instantly like that is often the victim of a spine shot.
There is a funny thing about slightly botched spine shots that any hunter should be aware of. I'm a big fan of the spine or 'high shoulder' shot myself, but its use needs to be tempered with an awareness that an animal hit in the dorsal projections on the tops of the vertebrae will receive a mighty shock to the nervous system and go down instantly in the same manner as a solid shot through the spinal cord. But that animal will probably leap to its feet within a minute or so and run off. Because of this danger, you should always work the bolt and keep the crosshairs on the animal for at least a full minute after observing a reaction like that to a shot. Be ready to get off a quick shot before it gets to its feet. Standing up and lowering the rifle is not conducive to that.
My greater concerns are with her poor examples of hunter safety. While Alaska does not legally mandate blaze orange, the state still strongly encourages its use during firearms hunting seasons and everyone on that hunt should have had some blaze orange on.
An even greater sin was the fact that Palin was shooting at a sky-lined animal. Everyone who has ever taken a basic hunter's safety course knows that you must never do this. One of the NRA's basic rules is "know your target and what is beyond." Whatever you happen to think about the NRA's politics or attitude, they are absolutely the best authority that there is on firearm safety. They invented the whole idea of hunter's safety education and in fact setting standards for this sort of thing has always been a major part of what they do.
She had no idea where any of her bullets were going to come to a stop. The second rifle she was shooting looked to me like a Remington Model 700 in (I'm guessing) 7mm Remington Magnum. Certainly the cartridges looked to be belted magnums and the barrel length looked to be about 26 inches, which is all consistent with the 7-mag. At about 100 yards, those bullets are going to punch right through the caribou and keep on going. Was there someone down on the other side of that ridge? Hikers? Other hunters? A whole herd of caribou half a mile away with one about to be hit in the paunch by her errant bullet? Who knows. Certainly not her. Shooting at a sky-lined animal was utterly irresponsible.
Not that I want to make Sarah Palin out to be some kind of willfully reckless slob hunter. I don't think that is the case at all. I think that she just has no idea what the hell she is doing. She is just following along with her father, putting her faith in a family member whom she trusts. I have read accounts from her former brother-in-law of hunts that he had been on with Palin's father, which were not especially flattering to either the brother-in-law or the father. I suggest that its her father who is the slob hunter, not Sarah Palin. He likes to take his daughter along on hunts every now and then and she likes to spend the time with him. She has said that she almost always hunts with him, which would pretty well explain the problem. We can see that he does every little thing for her on the hunt and only expects her to squeeze the trigger. The result is that she has no idea what she is doing and probably has no basis of comparison.
My suggestion to both father and daughter is that they attend and complete a free hunter's education course before hunting again. They both have some very bad habits to rid themselves of.
As a side-note, I would like to point out that taking someone on a hunt where all they do is squeeze the trigger doesn't really do anyone any good. A good hunting mentor should be concerned with teaching the new hunter the how and why of what is happening. Otherwise you aren't really creating a new hunter -- just a surrogate trigger finger. As a hunting tutor and mentor, I know how easy it is to get wrapped up in worry over making this person's day successful. You want to do everything for them and ensure that they go home feeling successful. But it is better to actually teach them and give them the skills to hunt on their own, possibly failing to make a kill at first but gaining the sense of independence necessary to become hunters in their own right.
It is disappointing to see that she needs to have the rifle loaded for her. But I'm willing to chalk that up to her father simply enjoying the act of doing things for her and she is accustomed to it. However, she keeps pulling the trigger and has no idea how to work the bolt. Her father keeps having to reach around and cycle the action for her. An experienced hunter knows that the first thing you should automatically do after taking a shot on an animal is to ready another. Don't think about it or try to judge whether the first one did the job. You should put another round in the chamber no matter what.
Palin does not flinch when shooting either rifle. Her overall shooting habits suggest to me someone who has spent a lot of time plinking with a semi-automatic .22 rifle. Good form and follow-through, but she didn't have that instinct to instantly work the bolt. This makes me think that maybe she is used to having the next round pop in there by its self.
She fails to use the sling to get tight and steady. Again, that is something that I expect to see from someone who has spent a fair bit of time shooting off of a bench at a range but not so much in the field on wild animals.
Yes, she shot again and again with the first rifle without connecting. It is entirely possible that this scope was set up properly when it left the house, but maybe the rifle was dropped or took a hard knock along the way. That sort of thing can happen to anyone. In fact, it has happened to me although I have since learned to assume that the scope is out of zero after it takes a whacking and in those cases I will either re-check the zero with a few shots or switch to a back-up gun if one is available. Anyway, I wouldn't give her too much grief about having missed repeatedly with that rifle. I think this was a hardware problem rather than her aim.
Once she connects and hits the caribou, it was bad practice to immediately stand up and start with the high-fives. It is possible that video editing compressed the time line, but in real life you should never instantly assume that a big quadruped like that is down for the count. Especially when it drops to the shot instantly like that. While everything clearly worked out in this case, an animal that buckles instantly like that is often the victim of a spine shot.
There is a funny thing about slightly botched spine shots that any hunter should be aware of. I'm a big fan of the spine or 'high shoulder' shot myself, but its use needs to be tempered with an awareness that an animal hit in the dorsal projections on the tops of the vertebrae will receive a mighty shock to the nervous system and go down instantly in the same manner as a solid shot through the spinal cord. But that animal will probably leap to its feet within a minute or so and run off. Because of this danger, you should always work the bolt and keep the crosshairs on the animal for at least a full minute after observing a reaction like that to a shot. Be ready to get off a quick shot before it gets to its feet. Standing up and lowering the rifle is not conducive to that.
My greater concerns are with her poor examples of hunter safety. While Alaska does not legally mandate blaze orange, the state still strongly encourages its use during firearms hunting seasons and everyone on that hunt should have had some blaze orange on.
An even greater sin was the fact that Palin was shooting at a sky-lined animal. Everyone who has ever taken a basic hunter's safety course knows that you must never do this. One of the NRA's basic rules is "know your target and what is beyond." Whatever you happen to think about the NRA's politics or attitude, they are absolutely the best authority that there is on firearm safety. They invented the whole idea of hunter's safety education and in fact setting standards for this sort of thing has always been a major part of what they do.
She had no idea where any of her bullets were going to come to a stop. The second rifle she was shooting looked to me like a Remington Model 700 in (I'm guessing) 7mm Remington Magnum. Certainly the cartridges looked to be belted magnums and the barrel length looked to be about 26 inches, which is all consistent with the 7-mag. At about 100 yards, those bullets are going to punch right through the caribou and keep on going. Was there someone down on the other side of that ridge? Hikers? Other hunters? A whole herd of caribou half a mile away with one about to be hit in the paunch by her errant bullet? Who knows. Certainly not her. Shooting at a sky-lined animal was utterly irresponsible.
Not that I want to make Sarah Palin out to be some kind of willfully reckless slob hunter. I don't think that is the case at all. I think that she just has no idea what the hell she is doing. She is just following along with her father, putting her faith in a family member whom she trusts. I have read accounts from her former brother-in-law of hunts that he had been on with Palin's father, which were not especially flattering to either the brother-in-law or the father. I suggest that its her father who is the slob hunter, not Sarah Palin. He likes to take his daughter along on hunts every now and then and she likes to spend the time with him. She has said that she almost always hunts with him, which would pretty well explain the problem. We can see that he does every little thing for her on the hunt and only expects her to squeeze the trigger. The result is that she has no idea what she is doing and probably has no basis of comparison.
My suggestion to both father and daughter is that they attend and complete a free hunter's education course before hunting again. They both have some very bad habits to rid themselves of.
As a side-note, I would like to point out that taking someone on a hunt where all they do is squeeze the trigger doesn't really do anyone any good. A good hunting mentor should be concerned with teaching the new hunter the how and why of what is happening. Otherwise you aren't really creating a new hunter -- just a surrogate trigger finger. As a hunting tutor and mentor, I know how easy it is to get wrapped up in worry over making this person's day successful. You want to do everything for them and ensure that they go home feeling successful. But it is better to actually teach them and give them the skills to hunt on their own, possibly failing to make a kill at first but gaining the sense of independence necessary to become hunters in their own right.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Slow Geese
In spite of my focus on deer and this major, year-long project with hunting invasive species, I just cannot seem to keep myself from working with Canada geese for the last few months. Today's Daily Progress has a nice article about an event that I did this evening for Slow Food Virginia at Glass House Winery with the geese that had been eating their grapes.
The 3 chefs that I worked with did a fantastic job of doing old and new things with the geese and we paired each course with wines made from the same grapes that the geese had been devouring to the tune of between 10-15% of the crop. Hopefully I'll have some pictures up in the next few days. I wasn't able to take any myself, since I was busy speaking and eating.
Incidentally, I really have fun putting these events on and I'm happy to travel pretty much anywhere to speak about locavore hunting of geese, deer, or invasive species. If you have a company or organization looking for someone to come out and speak for a special event, get in touch with me at jack.landers@gmail.com and we'll figure something out.
The 3 chefs that I worked with did a fantastic job of doing old and new things with the geese and we paired each course with wines made from the same grapes that the geese had been devouring to the tune of between 10-15% of the crop. Hopefully I'll have some pictures up in the next few days. I wasn't able to take any myself, since I was busy speaking and eating.
Incidentally, I really have fun putting these events on and I'm happy to travel pretty much anywhere to speak about locavore hunting of geese, deer, or invasive species. If you have a company or organization looking for someone to come out and speak for a special event, get in touch with me at jack.landers@gmail.com and we'll figure something out.
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