WWJJD?

I like to tell people I married a Hunter-Gatherer.
This leads to interesting discussions about hunting, fishing, methods of hunting and fishing, and how "sportsmanly" these methods may or not be.
For example:
Fishing with live bait: not sportsmanly*
Fishing with plastic lures: sportsmanly

*unless you are tackle-challenged like yours truly and then I get to fish with fresh-dead bait

So now that it is hunting season (and when is it not???) we've had more conversations about things like hunter safety, the best-looking elk mount, and trapping on public grounds. My job is to imagine the absolutely worst-case scenario about how my husband, the father of my child and future children, the sole provider of our household could be killed, maimed, or just generally caught in a sticky situation.

My thoughts on that last topic, "trapping": Trapping? Like a bear trap? Like the big metal jaws that you step on and get your leg closed in on and you have to gnaw it off and/or use a dull penknife to free your trapped leg in the snow uphill both ways with a tsunami/avalanche/ice storm approaching 50 miles out from civilization? With wolves approaching?

My DH set me straight that the traps are, in fact, cages with no snapping, iron-toothed, moving parts. At least not that humans can get caught in.

But since my experience with hunting and trapping only encompasses watching "Jeremiah Johnson" maybe three times in my lifetime, what did he think I would imagine. (We OWN this movie, by the way.)

So that led to our new acronym for outdoorsmen's sportsmanlike evaluation: WWJJD?

And What Would Jeremiah Johnson Do?

Certainly wouldn't be sitting up in a deer stand that has been luring deer there with feeders all year.

Nope. JJ would traipse through the snow in clothing made from skins, tracking the animals in their element. Fighting that element. Fighting bears with his bare hands. Sleeping in the fresh-dead carcass of a moose for warmth. And fighing "the man" every step of the way. Need I go on?
Some might complain about being a hunter's wife. I don't. Mostly because we don't have the hassle of a lease and he doesn't go hunting but a few times a year. Personally, I like the tidbits of trivia I have learned.

For example: This week I discovered that the local taxidermist charges $30,000 for a shoulder mount of an elephant.

Thank goodness my DH is not interested in a safari.

Well, actually we discussed that. If given the choice between an all-expenses-paid safari shoot to Africa or one to Alaska, which would you choose?

Discuss amongst yourselves. . .

Oh, and PS: If you *do* hunt in a deer stand, mercilessly picking off the poor dumb bambis that flock to the feeders, that's cool, too. We just follow a different path.

And a final PS: We don't shoot for sport alone. Well, I don't shoot at all unless it's with my camera, but that's besides the point. We shoot for meat. Lots and lots of meat. It leaves less of a mark on the earth to kill, process, and eat your own meat from one animal for a year instead of buying meat that has been shipped all over the place and fed lots of hormones. But if you disagree, then I'm not going to change your mind, I'm sure. You can't read my blog and not know we love animals.