I’m glad to hear it, keep it up. It is like redneck meditation, about the only time the locals around here do, lol. This is part of why I left the city, more honest opportunity out here for real reflection.
Nice post, William. I always like your stories and photos. Sorry if my doomerism is getting you down - I mean it more as expectation management than anything else. The endless hopium "Operation Trust" Q movement from 2017-2020 was a really horrific one, imo, and I know quite a few people who got sucked into it. It's much better (to me) to be pleasantly surprised to the upside than to the downside, and to hold "our side" accountable to principles than to cheerleader. But I understand others see it differently.
Thank you, and don't sweat it. I’m not thinking about you about that, more about the tendency of a few to then start treating people on the right with the same smug condescension they use toward liberals.
Like I say, I appreciate the black pill doomer because like you say, it is a check on inflation. Power corrupts, and we have to hold Trump and his admin accountable. It won't serve if they just bolster the censorship complex and then the right ignores it. Etc. I just want people to be inspired too, to have faith in something greater than themselves.
Nov 18·edited Nov 19Liked by William Hunter Duncan
This is a complicated subject for me and I live in deer hunting country.
1. The hunt is absolutely necessary as we are now the apex predator, without the hunt many millions of deer would slowly starve to death in the winter.
2. Venison is a rich source of protein for poor rural people.
3. I respect hunters who take the life and death of it all seriously like you do.
On the flip side.
4. A lot of tourists come up here to drink more than hunt. I saw literally 50 or 60 trucks out to overflow parking at the bar yesterday, and maybe 10 trucks in the woods. These drunken tourists create a lot of mischief. I had an ATV wreck at high speed in my front yard that came within 10 feet of taking out a travel trailer on my land. I didn't even go out to see if they were injured, fuck these drunk tourists.
5. I don't think I could personally shoot a deer unless it's a survival situation. And yes I am a hypocrite and eat meat, not being a shitlib PETA type here, but mainly eat chicken and fish. I have been a fishing fan on and off for decades. I like to be realistic about what I can and cannot actually kill.
6. The drunk tourists who are irresponsible with guns make me terrified to walk my dog in the woods during deer season. Yes I do wear orange, even still, I don't want me or my dog to get shot. A lot of these drunk SOBs know nothing about humane kills like you talked of eloquently, and a lot of them are weekend warriors office workers overcompensating for being urban faggots IMO. That level of irresponsibility makes them dangerous.
So in sum, yes to the hunt, especially for locals and old school NRA types who are respectful with guns. No to the rich tourists who come up mainly to drink and raise hell, who make me terrified to walk my dog in the woods during deer season.
Thanks for writing up a thoughtful piece on deer season, I was thinking of doing so, and now I don't have to.
Again I do support the hunt, I am pro 2nd Amendment, pro poor people having healthy clean food, and anti regulation in general. I just wish less weekend warrior urbanite faggots were part of the mix.
You care about the issue. It is all poor locals where I hunt, the city folk I have never seen around here. Do you have an orange vest for your dog? Even then, there are stray bullets. Best to walk between 11-2pm as few hunters are out then, or after dark.
Also, some of the locals are not particularly moral in their estimation of deer, so it's not just city folk. A lot of both like to drink at deer camp, but the locals don't make a scene of it.
Deer hunting of course is more than shooting a big mammal. Dressing it and then processing it is not for most. Processing it your self is the only way to make it economical.
I love the way you weave the zeitgeist, your thoughts, and other subs thoughts with the natural world. This is one of the reasons I open your stacks first.
I also love that you are always questioning, on a quest for truth, honesty and meaningful growth. Don't stop William.
I meant to say, your voice is unique, though this is obvious and maybe redundant, but no else on substack is analyzing, synthesizing and connecting the way you do.
I think when my dad used to pay someone to process it, neck meat got thrown into the trimmings. I guess it never occurred to me to eat it like a cut. Maybe I will still have an opportunity this year, muzzleloading.
I haven't used a firearm to hunt in 20 years. I bow hunt now and it's a very different experience. Then again I'm also stuck with public lands after a few bad experiences with hunting "clubs." You're fortunate to have such a beautiful place to hunt! Btw nothing wrong with cutting yourself some shooting lanes; sometimes you have to make the land work for you.
Thank you Sim1776. I am fortunate. I would bow hunt if I lived here full time, if I were not also so occupied with work and the garden in the fall. I will cut some lanes, and shift this stand ten feet north and east, and build two more, woodland edge and tall grass wetland.
One of my favorite memories is sitting in the woods reading Conrad while deer hunting, just the squirrels and chickadees to keep me company. I haven't been hunting in years but maybe I will again someday. Beautiful piece, thanks.
Thank you Sam. Conrad, as in Heart of Darkness? Heavy. His prose is very striking. Lots of squirrels this year, red, black and gray. But the last several years I have seen few chickadee or nuthatch. Which I chalk up to as another consequence of maximizing pesticide use.
Now that you mention it, there are far fewer chickadees and nuthatches than I remember. In so many ways the landscape of my youth is gone. And yes, that Conrad. But I'm sure it wasn't Heart of Darkness, never my favorite book of his. I used to love his dense prose, that high price of admission. But I wonder if I could muster the concentration to read him now? Another thing lost to time and decay.
Nov 18·edited Nov 18Liked by William Hunter Duncan
Beautiful piece of property, you are blessed. I feel lighter and better after the election, but I remain guarded and still full steam ahead with plans that I had prior to election - a move towards a simpler life. Need not be wholesale, but as much as I can manage.
Thank you, and I am blessed. Like a friend and I agreed recently too, hope with one hand and prepare with the other. Trumps election is a repudiation of woke everything, but America still has some very serious structural problems neither party is really addressing. I’m pretty sure too, for a lot of people a simpler life would be a healthier, happier one. I certainly do not miss city life.
"Need not be wholesale, but as much as I can manage."
This is so key, so many people think they immediately need to be fully off the grid, with a giant garden, living on rain water and game as soon as they leave the city, which sounds intimidating so they never actually leave.
The key is actually leaving and seeing the off the grid as a slow gradual process. I have the land and the cottage, but TBH I am still pretty on the grid, grid electricity, propane heat, a remote work job, etc. BUT if shit gets real I can live off the land in my area, big difference from being stuck in a city.
Good luck William fnding a new viewpoint. I like the title of your blog. I like the photos and discussion of your garden. I have never hunted any animal with a rifle, but I was married to two men who did. If they cultivated an existential POV in their hunting, they kept it to themselves. Although the second one did begn to question why ducks needed to die by gunshot. I was able to keep my distance from the reaity and the doubt.
BTW the best tasting turkey I ever ate was wild. It almost did not fit in the oven.
Hunting is awesome. We’re blessed to live smack dab in the middle of some top shelf elk and mule deer country and getting out for either is therapeutic and can be very physically demanding if you hike in/out. But damn, that’s living.
I just started hunting a few years ago, and a friend who is showing me the ropes calls it ‘redneck meditation’.
This piece tracks with my experience so far. It’s hard not to think about life, death, and the rhythms of nature when you take up hunting.
I’m glad to hear it, keep it up. It is like redneck meditation, about the only time the locals around here do, lol. This is part of why I left the city, more honest opportunity out here for real reflection.
Nice post, William. I always like your stories and photos. Sorry if my doomerism is getting you down - I mean it more as expectation management than anything else. The endless hopium "Operation Trust" Q movement from 2017-2020 was a really horrific one, imo, and I know quite a few people who got sucked into it. It's much better (to me) to be pleasantly surprised to the upside than to the downside, and to hold "our side" accountable to principles than to cheerleader. But I understand others see it differently.
Thank you, and don't sweat it. I’m not thinking about you about that, more about the tendency of a few to then start treating people on the right with the same smug condescension they use toward liberals.
Like I say, I appreciate the black pill doomer because like you say, it is a check on inflation. Power corrupts, and we have to hold Trump and his admin accountable. It won't serve if they just bolster the censorship complex and then the right ignores it. Etc. I just want people to be inspired too, to have faith in something greater than themselves.
This is a complicated subject for me and I live in deer hunting country.
1. The hunt is absolutely necessary as we are now the apex predator, without the hunt many millions of deer would slowly starve to death in the winter.
2. Venison is a rich source of protein for poor rural people.
3. I respect hunters who take the life and death of it all seriously like you do.
On the flip side.
4. A lot of tourists come up here to drink more than hunt. I saw literally 50 or 60 trucks out to overflow parking at the bar yesterday, and maybe 10 trucks in the woods. These drunken tourists create a lot of mischief. I had an ATV wreck at high speed in my front yard that came within 10 feet of taking out a travel trailer on my land. I didn't even go out to see if they were injured, fuck these drunk tourists.
5. I don't think I could personally shoot a deer unless it's a survival situation. And yes I am a hypocrite and eat meat, not being a shitlib PETA type here, but mainly eat chicken and fish. I have been a fishing fan on and off for decades. I like to be realistic about what I can and cannot actually kill.
6. The drunk tourists who are irresponsible with guns make me terrified to walk my dog in the woods during deer season. Yes I do wear orange, even still, I don't want me or my dog to get shot. A lot of these drunk SOBs know nothing about humane kills like you talked of eloquently, and a lot of them are weekend warriors office workers overcompensating for being urban faggots IMO. That level of irresponsibility makes them dangerous.
So in sum, yes to the hunt, especially for locals and old school NRA types who are respectful with guns. No to the rich tourists who come up mainly to drink and raise hell, who make me terrified to walk my dog in the woods during deer season.
Thanks for writing up a thoughtful piece on deer season, I was thinking of doing so, and now I don't have to.
Again I do support the hunt, I am pro 2nd Amendment, pro poor people having healthy clean food, and anti regulation in general. I just wish less weekend warrior urbanite faggots were part of the mix.
You care about the issue. It is all poor locals where I hunt, the city folk I have never seen around here. Do you have an orange vest for your dog? Even then, there are stray bullets. Best to walk between 11-2pm as few hunters are out then, or after dark.
Also, some of the locals are not particularly moral in their estimation of deer, so it's not just city folk. A lot of both like to drink at deer camp, but the locals don't make a scene of it.
Deer hunting of course is more than shooting a big mammal. Dressing it and then processing it is not for most. Processing it your self is the only way to make it economical.
Yeah I actually processed a road kill deer in my sink a few years back with a housemate, it was pretty gory, but good eating.
I love the way you weave the zeitgeist, your thoughts, and other subs thoughts with the natural world. This is one of the reasons I open your stacks first.
I also love that you are always questioning, on a quest for truth, honesty and meaningful growth. Don't stop William.
Much appreciated, Amking. And point well taken.
I meant to say, your voice is unique, though this is obvious and maybe redundant, but no else on substack is analyzing, synthesizing and connecting the way you do.
The neck is one of my favorite meals, but I get it. Neck shot makes more sense but I can’t help but aim for heart.
I think when my dad used to pay someone to process it, neck meat got thrown into the trimmings. I guess it never occurred to me to eat it like a cut. Maybe I will still have an opportunity this year, muzzleloading.
The neck makes for the best stews. All that marrow makes a rich and meaty broth,
I stand corrected. I will try that with my next opportunity.
Hank Shaw has an excellent recipe in Buck, Buck, Moose. I can’t post an image here so I’ll drop it in my restack.
Quite a thoughtful, meditative article!
I haven't used a firearm to hunt in 20 years. I bow hunt now and it's a very different experience. Then again I'm also stuck with public lands after a few bad experiences with hunting "clubs." You're fortunate to have such a beautiful place to hunt! Btw nothing wrong with cutting yourself some shooting lanes; sometimes you have to make the land work for you.
Thank you Sim1776. I am fortunate. I would bow hunt if I lived here full time, if I were not also so occupied with work and the garden in the fall. I will cut some lanes, and shift this stand ten feet north and east, and build two more, woodland edge and tall grass wetland.
Yeah you do have a pretty extensive garden. Hope you had a great harvest this year!
I look forward to your posts about farming and hunting.
One of my favorite memories is sitting in the woods reading Conrad while deer hunting, just the squirrels and chickadees to keep me company. I haven't been hunting in years but maybe I will again someday. Beautiful piece, thanks.
Thank you Sam. Conrad, as in Heart of Darkness? Heavy. His prose is very striking. Lots of squirrels this year, red, black and gray. But the last several years I have seen few chickadee or nuthatch. Which I chalk up to as another consequence of maximizing pesticide use.
Now that you mention it, there are far fewer chickadees and nuthatches than I remember. In so many ways the landscape of my youth is gone. And yes, that Conrad. But I'm sure it wasn't Heart of Darkness, never my favorite book of his. I used to love his dense prose, that high price of admission. But I wonder if I could muster the concentration to read him now? Another thing lost to time and decay.
Beautiful piece of property, you are blessed. I feel lighter and better after the election, but I remain guarded and still full steam ahead with plans that I had prior to election - a move towards a simpler life. Need not be wholesale, but as much as I can manage.
Thank you, and I am blessed. Like a friend and I agreed recently too, hope with one hand and prepare with the other. Trumps election is a repudiation of woke everything, but America still has some very serious structural problems neither party is really addressing. I’m pretty sure too, for a lot of people a simpler life would be a healthier, happier one. I certainly do not miss city life.
"Need not be wholesale, but as much as I can manage."
This is so key, so many people think they immediately need to be fully off the grid, with a giant garden, living on rain water and game as soon as they leave the city, which sounds intimidating so they never actually leave.
The key is actually leaving and seeing the off the grid as a slow gradual process. I have the land and the cottage, but TBH I am still pretty on the grid, grid electricity, propane heat, a remote work job, etc. BUT if shit gets real I can live off the land in my area, big difference from being stuck in a city.
Good luck William fnding a new viewpoint. I like the title of your blog. I like the photos and discussion of your garden. I have never hunted any animal with a rifle, but I was married to two men who did. If they cultivated an existential POV in their hunting, they kept it to themselves. Although the second one did begn to question why ducks needed to die by gunshot. I was able to keep my distance from the reaity and the doubt.
BTW the best tasting turkey I ever ate was wild. It almost did not fit in the oven.
Hunting is awesome. We’re blessed to live smack dab in the middle of some top shelf elk and mule deer country and getting out for either is therapeutic and can be very physically demanding if you hike in/out. But damn, that’s living.
Heck ya. My dad long ago rode a mule in, elk hunting, in Idaho. Dolly. Loved that mule so much he offered to buy it. Not for sale.
Death takes us all. So true.