Shack Etiquette...

I'm up North this weekend for the hunting opener. No I don't hunt, but my dad, brother, and uncle Curt hunt. I came up with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Eli stayed home to get some more work done on the house since he doesn't hunt. My mom is a board member for the United Way and each year on the first day of hunting season, they have an event called the Power of the Purse. It is a women's only fundraiser. Basically they do a raffle, silent auction, and a live auction for lots of cool things that are donated by local businesses. Mom always likes me to go and donate a free will and health care directive. Since I haven't really lived in I Falls since high school, I am always amazed at how people will recognize me, and I will know that I know them, but cannot remember exactly how I know them, or whose parents they may be. Its kind of an interesting experience. It was a great event for the United Way, I won some cool stuff for my mom with the raffles too. I had my mom, my aunt and I all wear some of the jewelry that I had made, and we all got some really nice compliments on my creations. That made me feel good.

Usually we go out to the hunting shack on Saturday night to bring the hunters a nice meal. This weekend was no exception. My mom made a ham and we loaded up the grandparents and went out to the shack. The hunting shack is really just that a shack. It is powered by a gas generator and has an outhouse. It near Loman and is probably a 30 to 45 minute drive from my parents house. The shack has a wood burning stove and it is nice and warm and cozy inside. Dad and Curt were the only ones hunting today and they didn't get any deer today. We had a nice meal and we were all sitting around the wood stove. My mom, my aunt, my cousin and I were working on some knitting projects, and we were watching Wheel of Fortune on the little TV, when all of a sudden there was this obnoxious knocking on the door. For a moment I thought it was my dad's friend Butch who is an owner of the shack, or my brother's friend B.J. who had been hunting near Ray. My dad went and opened the door and in comes these REALLY DRUNK guys. There were three of them, one I recognized as a kid that was a couple of years younger than me from high school. Well it turns out these guys have a shack that is nearby. They were a little concerned because they had moved their hunting stands and they thought they might be a little close to where my dad has a few of his stands. Basically, their purpose for being there was to let Dad know to be careful if he shoots in their direction. But wow, did they have an interesting way of communicating it, especially because they were drunk. They each came in with their blaze orange on, each holding a can of beer. This made me wonder how the heck they had gotten to our shack, yes they drove...scary. We could barely understand what they were talking about because the words were so slurred. Kid from high school goes on about how he just goes hunting for the recreation and to get away from the girlfriend. Then proceeds to tell everyone he knows me from high school, but he didn't ask out the pretty girls because he was too chicken back then. Then he says he doesn't understand why people knit, and asks Grandpa if he's been knitting doilies. After about 15 minutes of being there they then say oh here we are drinking beer in front of you, we've got lots (in the truck I presume..) would you guys like some. Yeah, no thanks guys. Then they again explain that they aren't there to cause trouble but just to make sure that someone doesn't shoot them in the gut, the arm, or the leg. Yes guy from high school actually says this, I don't want to get shot in the gut, he would pause, then say I don't want to get shot in the arm, longer pause then leg. He went on to explain that sometimes when you shoot a deer the bullet will go right through the deer and it could land in someones gut. He apparently was very concerned about getting shot in the gut. I began to wonder, why he hadn't considered the possibility of getting shot in the head...hmm. I think that these guys probably stayed for about half an hour just going on and on about nothing. Luckily the lights in the shack kept dimming because of the generator, so Curt finally says, well guys I think that we should probably go and check on that generator, make sure it has enough fuel, thanks for coming by. Like dude get the hint, go away. After another few minutes they finally realized that it was time to go and walked out the door. However, for some reason they didn't drive away at first. They continued to malinger in their truck before driving away. My speculation was that they needed to finish their beers first. Wouldn't want to get pulled over with an open bottle of course!