It was late evening well after dark and we were headed home exhausted but still on an adrenaline high

My son William who hosts the Backcountry Apprentice segment on the podcast, said to me,

I'm not going to lie about two things that happened tonight.

The first is, when you you said there's a buck, I nearly peed my pants. And the

second is, when you left to go get the four-wheeler and left me there with my first bike. I cried a lot of

happy tears. Man that just says it all right there for me. That's a big part of

why I do this. My son William and my

daughter Audrey both took their first deer here in Idaho. My girl shot a buck that's a solid 3 by 3 and some will call them a 3 by 4.

Her first deer killed cleanly with one shot at 448 yards, Long bulk but the hunting was hard and it was the first

legitimate opportunity we had. And lest you judge and say that shouldn't be an attempted by a first time. you know,

tempted by a first-time hunter, let me just point out that she put her bullet

exactly on the axe and killed that deer perfectly cleanly.

My son shot his at 370 yards and then just this

morning we got word that his little pal who's also 10 shot a really nice bike up north of here somewhere. I don't know where exactly.

He and his dad went in for three or four days. They saw one deer the entire time and it was a beautiful 4 by 4 with cheaters on each side,

so 5 by 5.

And we're going to tell their stories here soon and in an upcoming episode.

Meanwhile, man, I have been busy.

Aside from the kids shooting their first bucks,

we, of course, are building our house here in southeastern Idaho. Holy smokes talk about

stress and then on top of that keeping up with writing assignments and podcasts and

so forth it's just been challenging.

...