It's been awhile since my last blog, but I have a good excuse...I was hunting.

I had the opportunity to hunt with Troy Popplewell who is the IT Manager and development lead here at BowCast. Every piece of content on this site is made available through Troy's web development genius. He keeps the information posted frequently and up to date. In addition , my next door neighbor joined us for his first ever turkey hunt.

Well, the Colorado climate, terrain, and the Merriam turkeys dealt us a tough hand to play. South Central Colorado hasn't benefited much from the enormous snow pack we have right now across the state. In addition, high winds prevented us from hearing turkeys most of the time... but that really is no excuse...the real excuse was the toms just weren't talking after a couple of months of hunting pressure :-)

Well that is enough about Aneal going hunting...how about Billy? Who is Billy?

Well, Billy is actually a semi-fictitious character. He is a character in a story that was written by Matt Butler. I can't remember how I came across the site www.billygoeshunting.com , but once I did, I ordered up 3 of these books to share with some friends who have young kids. I have included a quote from the website that describes what the book is about:

The children of avid hunters routinely face questions and criticism about the hunting lifestyle they cherish. Billy Goes Hunting is the story of a young boy whose hunting beliefs have been challenged by his peers. In response to those challenges, on a trip to visit Grandfather's farm, Billy asks the question - "Why do we hunt?" - and his Grandfather explains the many reasons behind the heritage, sport and tradition of the hunting lifestyle. Reading this book to your children will allow you as a parent to explain all of these reasons in detail and provide a great platform to discuss any other questions your children might have.

If you have small kids, cousins, nieces/nephews, kids who live down the street, or even adults who don't understand why you hunt or maybe understand but don't know how to articulate the message, this book is a great resource to share with them.

So, I leave this blog entry with 2 questions for all of you:

1) How do you explain why we hunt to children (or adults who act like children)?

2) What have you done in the past to illustrate the conservation and environmental "goodness' we provide as hunters? Doesn't this book seem like a great way to hit that mark?

Back to 3D shoots and off season practice...more soon.

PS - We have a pretty cool video coming of some footage from the BowCast team out in the Turkey woods this past spring...keep an eye out!

Aneal

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written by dbowhunter, May 14, 2008

THe book is a great idea. Anything that helps fight back against the global warming pop up book rated for 5-8 yr olds I saw at Target last year. The best way to show children is to share it with them. It'd be great to work with a youth hunting program that was multi-faceted. That started as day-care for hunting kids and could grow to field trips, hunt, shoot, etc.

Adults that act like children are hopeless. Children do not have pre-concieved negative notions, and aren't so stubborn they can't think right. The best way to combat them is through your example of ethics and professionalism in the field and surrounding the sport and your everyday life.

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