Let me start of first for thanking everyone who organized the Predator Masters hunt in Globe Arizona this year and for Lance (Crapshoot) for convincing me to come. I had no idea something like this existed and to this extent. It was a great break form the winter with temperatures of -40 (without the windchill) when we got home.
For those of you who don't know the story of how Dakotah and I ended up there, I will give you a bit of background. As you all know, kids cannot hunt anything but gophers, crows and rabbits until 12. IMO, that is getting too old as they need to be hooked younger these days.
I had promised Dakotah some time ago that I would take him to Texas before he turned 10. I missed the chance last fall because I was too busy. With the deadline approaching, I set up a fallow deer hunt for the summer. He was to turn 10 on July 19th, this past year. On June 11th, 2006, I crashed a motorcycle (Suzuki GSX-R750) on the highway and when I woke up in the hospital, I had a broken shoulder, broken ribs, concussion, and many other injuries. I couldn't walk for nearly two weeks and had trouble dong just about anything for some time afterwards. I lost the whole summer and he soon turned 10 promise broken. Dakotah understood and was just happy to have his Papa around instead of the alternative that could have easily happened.
By the end of the summer I was feeling pretty good. I planned a management buck hunt in Texas for the fall. In early September, my father had surgery for his carotid artery. He never made it out of the hospital. He spent the next couple of month in intensive care, and since he was 4 hours away, we spent a lot of time traveling to see him. On October 27th, he was airlifted from Yorkton to Regina and I got a call that I had to get down there right away. I took off with my boys and got there just in time for us to be there when he passed. It was a very difficult thing for the kids to witness and even though I was told they should be in the room, I will always wonder if I made the right call. Something happened in that room that I can't explain. Dakotah has told me he has felt different ever since, but he can't explain what. I know exactly what he means.
My father did not have a will, and I ended up being consumed with with his affairs for the next couple of months. Needless to say we had to cancel the management buck hunt. It was very hard but Dakotah understood again and told me not to worry about it. He was sad too and just happy once again to have his Papa around.
When Lance suggested we come, I thought that although it wasn't a deer or something he could hang on his wall with antlers, this might be the very thing to fullfill my promise. Better late than never. I asked him about it and he said he would love to go. I booked the flights and the rest is history.
Since my ex-wife and I divorced a couple of years back, and share custody every other week, I also have not really had time to spend alone with my boys separately, as I am a single dad every second week, and a lonely one the next. This also gave me a chance to hang out with Dakotah one on one. I learned a lot about him I had missed, and I am even more proud of him now that we are home. I always knew he was a good boy, but he is also turning out to be a fine young man.
Now to the hunting story:
I brought Dakotah out two weekends in a row here in the frozen north to practice setting up and sitting still, even though it was REALLY cold. He posed for the following shots, because he couldn't legally shoot anything. We didn't even call anything in. It was so cold and windy that our eyelids would tear up and freeze shut, forcing us to use one eye and then finally have to reach up and pull ice balls off our eyelashes so we could see again. It was so cold, that we experienced a phenomenon that occurs with the sun that some call “3 suns.” It causes a rainbow effect around the sun in a large circle with flares at both sides. Personally, I call it the eye of God.
These were all taken the Sunday before we left:
Here you can see how desolate it is on the prairies. The wind was so strong and cold, that when Dakotah had to smile his teeth froze like when you bite into ice cream! He screamed and fell to the ground shortly after I took this and laughed his you know what off!
He definitely earned his coyotes by bearing this weather!
Dakotah flew on a plane for the first time and was pretty excited. I urge you all with kids to save up and bring them next year. You won’t regret it.
Satellite TV on the plane!
Wow! Rocky Mountains from 40,000 feet!
Getting ready to land in Phoenix
We arrived in Globe on Wednesday afternoon. The airline lost our largest piece of luggage with all of our clothes and most of our camo. I took Dakotah to Sportsman's warehouse and got geared up. We had hoped our luggage would be by morning, so we didn't buy long underwear to replace the "just-in-case" stuff we had in our bag, as it would likely be warm anyway. Yeah right. Our luggage didn't get there until the third day so we were soon to be a little chilly….
See Part 2:
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134397
For those of you who don't know the story of how Dakotah and I ended up there, I will give you a bit of background. As you all know, kids cannot hunt anything but gophers, crows and rabbits until 12. IMO, that is getting too old as they need to be hooked younger these days.
I had promised Dakotah some time ago that I would take him to Texas before he turned 10. I missed the chance last fall because I was too busy. With the deadline approaching, I set up a fallow deer hunt for the summer. He was to turn 10 on July 19th, this past year. On June 11th, 2006, I crashed a motorcycle (Suzuki GSX-R750) on the highway and when I woke up in the hospital, I had a broken shoulder, broken ribs, concussion, and many other injuries. I couldn't walk for nearly two weeks and had trouble dong just about anything for some time afterwards. I lost the whole summer and he soon turned 10 promise broken. Dakotah understood and was just happy to have his Papa around instead of the alternative that could have easily happened.
By the end of the summer I was feeling pretty good. I planned a management buck hunt in Texas for the fall. In early September, my father had surgery for his carotid artery. He never made it out of the hospital. He spent the next couple of month in intensive care, and since he was 4 hours away, we spent a lot of time traveling to see him. On October 27th, he was airlifted from Yorkton to Regina and I got a call that I had to get down there right away. I took off with my boys and got there just in time for us to be there when he passed. It was a very difficult thing for the kids to witness and even though I was told they should be in the room, I will always wonder if I made the right call. Something happened in that room that I can't explain. Dakotah has told me he has felt different ever since, but he can't explain what. I know exactly what he means.
My father did not have a will, and I ended up being consumed with with his affairs for the next couple of months. Needless to say we had to cancel the management buck hunt. It was very hard but Dakotah understood again and told me not to worry about it. He was sad too and just happy once again to have his Papa around.
When Lance suggested we come, I thought that although it wasn't a deer or something he could hang on his wall with antlers, this might be the very thing to fullfill my promise. Better late than never. I asked him about it and he said he would love to go. I booked the flights and the rest is history.
Since my ex-wife and I divorced a couple of years back, and share custody every other week, I also have not really had time to spend alone with my boys separately, as I am a single dad every second week, and a lonely one the next. This also gave me a chance to hang out with Dakotah one on one. I learned a lot about him I had missed, and I am even more proud of him now that we are home. I always knew he was a good boy, but he is also turning out to be a fine young man.
Now to the hunting story:
I brought Dakotah out two weekends in a row here in the frozen north to practice setting up and sitting still, even though it was REALLY cold. He posed for the following shots, because he couldn't legally shoot anything. We didn't even call anything in. It was so cold and windy that our eyelids would tear up and freeze shut, forcing us to use one eye and then finally have to reach up and pull ice balls off our eyelashes so we could see again. It was so cold, that we experienced a phenomenon that occurs with the sun that some call “3 suns.” It causes a rainbow effect around the sun in a large circle with flares at both sides. Personally, I call it the eye of God.
These were all taken the Sunday before we left:
Here you can see how desolate it is on the prairies. The wind was so strong and cold, that when Dakotah had to smile his teeth froze like when you bite into ice cream! He screamed and fell to the ground shortly after I took this and laughed his you know what off!
He definitely earned his coyotes by bearing this weather!
Dakotah flew on a plane for the first time and was pretty excited. I urge you all with kids to save up and bring them next year. You won’t regret it.
Satellite TV on the plane!
Wow! Rocky Mountains from 40,000 feet!
Getting ready to land in Phoenix
We arrived in Globe on Wednesday afternoon. The airline lost our largest piece of luggage with all of our clothes and most of our camo. I took Dakotah to Sportsman's warehouse and got geared up. We had hoped our luggage would be by morning, so we didn't buy long underwear to replace the "just-in-case" stuff we had in our bag, as it would likely be warm anyway. Yeah right. Our luggage didn't get there until the third day so we were soon to be a little chilly….
See Part 2:
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134397
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