Gunshots popping on both sides of me, the boys raced around the corner yelling, “Man down!” They rolled across the floor and hid under the top bunkbed, in the alcove. Their mouths twisted and faces grimaced as they continued making gun sounds with their lips.

I rolled my eyes and continued laying the neatly folded clothes away in the boy’s bedroom. 

A sudden hush fell over the room as one boy stuck his head around the corner, making eye contact with me. “Was that what I thought it was?” he asked. 

“I don’t know. What did you think it was?” I teased him and placed the camouflaged shirts further back in the drawer. 

“We need those,” he demanded, holding his arms outstretched. “We are about to go huntin’.”

I balled up the shirt and threw it at his chest. “Ugh,” he grabbed at his chest and dramatically fell over. “I’ve been shot!”

Laughter escaped me and I threw another shirt at him. Both boys scrambled up, stuffing their arms into the shirts, and shimmied up the bunkbed ladder. All was quiet again as I hung up their dress shirts. Someone whispered. I stuck my head out of the closet and glanced up at them. 

They laid flat on their stomachs across the bed with just their heads sticking up over the safety rail, holding their toy wooden guns over the edge towards a lovingly worn blue bear propped up in the corner. 

I cringed, knowing the poor bear didn’t have many moments left. Boom! Psh! Bang! Kaw! Whoo-eee!

They cheered and congratulated each other as they pretended they shot their first big buck of the season. 

The biggest boy looked up and grinned, “That’s how ya do it! Ya shoot it. Ya skin it. Then, ya eat it!”

He clambered down the ladder, hollering, “It’s eatin’ time! Everybody to the kitchen!”

These boys. They are hysterical and I love their imaginations. The biggest boy has encountered more writing in language arts this year than he would like but when we came across the next lesson, “Writing Your First How-To Article,” it was a no-brainer. I encourage the kids to write about what they know and this little man knows about hunting. So he wrote:

       How to Find Your First Deer

“Ya shoot it. Ya skin it. Then, ya eat it!”

Not quite going to cut it, I thought. I smiled and encouraged him to think about a little more detail and he replied, “Well that’s all there really is to it!”

See there, folks, there’s nothing to it–feeding your family off the land. I hope this post cleared up any confusion about how to hunt, how to find your first deer, and how to feed your family wild game.