Me and all the men in my family revel in its coming.  The women in our family?  Well, let’s just say they don’t look forward to it as much.  However, just as sure as the sun rises, September 1^st came again and with it, the start of a new hunting season.  Like every year for as many years as I can remember, I went afield with my dad and my brother for a couple of days of dove shooting.

The time it takes me to get ready to go is testament to how much gear me and my kin carry afield.  Decoys, shotgun, shells (check that, LOTS of shells), stool, water, and a cooler - that’s just for starters.  I always add a couple of cameras, some lenses, a video camera, and a tripod to the copious cargo. 

While it does take a while to unpack and set up everything we carry, documenting the time with my 74-year old dad, my older brother, and my kids is always worth the effort.  For the past several years I’ve been documenting the opening day for posterities sake as I know my dad will say something funny and my kids, something cute and capturing them in digital images and on video will be a cherished part of my family for generations to come.

In the field and free of daily stresses, me, Daddy, and Bubba relax and talk.  I know my dad loves it when I tease my brother so I turn up the heat whenever I can.  Bubba is a retired Army veteran and spent twenty-one years as a fighting soldier in the United States Infantry - most of those years as a Rakkasan in the 101^st Airborne Division.  Therefore, I ease up on the teasing from time to time because I am well aware that his physicality trumps my verbal pugilistic skills any day.

While we down a few birds and my kids retrieve, we mainly talk about all the things that revolve around our world like work and wives and politics.   

Sure we eat what we harvest on this hunt but as I sit and think about it, that’s not the real reason we hunt.  Hunting, or more specifically dove hunting, is as much about the people I get to hunt with as it is the game.  On the opening weekend on different outings, I hunted with my dad, brother, a friend, my wife and my kids.  Each hunt was special in its own way and each hunt was as fun as the other although the players changed.

So why dove hunt?  Oh, I don’t know.  I think I speak for the other Graves men when I say that dove hunting is an activity that gives us an excuse to get together.  While admittedly it is part trash talk and part testosterone-laced braggadocio, the annual Graves hunting trip is more about honoring a man who gave us life and gave us all we needed growing up and about teaching my kids the family traditions. 

So how do Bubba and I repay a man who always put our needs ahead of his? 

We take him hunting.