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Here is my culture:

I am 49 years old and have carried a gun since I was 16. I likely would have been a "greeny" had I not discovered that hunting takes oneself to a greater intimacy with nature as it removed the limits of the trail, fair weather and nylon tents. By hunting, I became a participant and not just an observer. I haven't taken many deer as until lately they weren't so many of them. I did manage to get one a year except the year I got two. These deer were very helpful during the late '70s economy when my divorced mother was trying to feed three children on a nurse's salary. Deer are more plentiful now days so I give the excess (don't freak, I'll explain later) to the Hunters Helping the Hungry program.

I take care of 275 acres that is the fallow farm on which I used to work as a teen. I plant, to varying degrees of success, 14 acres of deer food and have planted two orchards and treed one ridge with oaks. In some ways, the deer get more out of me than I do them as I don't shoot many bucks (none last year) but have to shoot does to keep them in check (the explanation for excess). I pass on more bucks in a year now than I saw in my first twenty years of hunting. Lately, I find myself sensing a slight distaste for killing. Its not like I don't like to hunt or, um... harvest, but I find myself thinking about the animal and wondering of it's thoughts, feelings and perceptions and whether it felt as horrible for it as it would have been for me. Mostly, I just like to be out and watching. I like to see all the animals and woods. As a steward for the land, I care about them all. My success is measured by what I see, what I discover and what I learn. My latest success was seeing a new owl cast on top of the tractor added to the one previously there. I more go to the farm to see that all is well than to shoot a deer. I am a member of QDMA, ***, and a Benefactor member of the NRA. I drink a little more than never (by the way, there are two Alaskan Whites in the cabin at Big John Bay that are left over from the six pack I brought). I have a wife and two daughters. I live in a brick house. I have a graduate degree. I've saved some lives but have seen more death and suffering than most. Times have been tough for me but they are good now. I'd like nothing more than to be outside. This is my culture and I'm sticking with it.