Living with the Land – A Mom’s Legacy to Her Daughter
I started hunting in high school after my parents divorced, mostly with friends and on my own. It was an escape from the town where I grew up in North Idaho. I have been blessed since then as a DIY hunter to harvest great whitetails, elk, and a moose, despite also being a busy hunting outfitter. I have so many great hunting stories of my own, but seeing my daughter shoot her first whitetail buck last year topped all of my own experiences.
She made a great shot, blood tracked it herself and got it out with some help. When she first got to it, deep in the brush at the bottom of a draw, she was so excited over the body size of her deer that she didn’t realize for a while that it was bigger than your average free-range whitetail. A 6×6 buck isn’t a bad place to start as a young hunter.
Once we got her deer back to our house, she skinned the entire thing on her own, and was able to do that well because she had been watching me skin deer as a little girl and then helped the last couple years. She meticulously cared for that buck from shot to processing and now takes a lot of pride sitting down at the lunch table with other 5th graders, pulling out venison bologna sandwiches or venison pepperoni sticks made from her own deer.
My Mom’s family homesteaded in Idaho in 1892. My Grandpa’s recurve archery bull elk hangs in my home with the 1950 metal band still on the main beam. I am a proud Idahoan who continued her family’s legacy of living with the land. Hunting is a big part of that. I took that passion and got a degree in wildlife resource management. I have worked in outfitting, managing for the Flying B Ranch since 2006. Hunting and fishing are not just my job, but my heritage, the legacy I am creating with my girls, and the true core of who I am. I have exhibited at the annual SCI convention for years, and our business has been an SCI member for nearly 30 years. SCI proves over and over that they will defend the rights of hunters, wildlife conservation and ethical harvest. I appreciate all SCI does to secure what is my life’s dedication.
By Karen Syron
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