It was today, the opener, in Wellington, CO. He is 11 so it is really big news.

We were hunting with a good buddy of mine, walking a tree line at quitting time. My buddy and my boy were on the south side of the tree line, and I was on the north. He was with me all day until that decision to stay on the one side, while I went to the other. I thought I saw a dove in the top of a dead olive tree, but it never moved. So, I walked up to it with my side by side shouldered, hoping it would move and show that it was a dove. I wasn't sure if it was an illusion of branches.

As I got close I finally saw it's eye and decided to shoot. As I am squeezing the trigger I hear another shot and watch the dove tumble down. The I hear my boy yell "YES!!!" and run up to the tree. It was so cool to see the bird drop and know he did it.

Our practice in our hunting group is to give all the dressed meat to my buddy who was with my son at the time, since he has the big freezer and smoker. He hosts all of our wild game BBQs when we get enough of whatever we have hunted. This time, however, my boy insisted that we eat it ourselves at our house. Right now, his dove breast, one other mourning dove breast and one Eurasian Dove breast are marinating is a mixture of garlic, terriaki sauce and white wine. Tomorrow they get wrapped in bacon and BBQ'd here.

Life is SO good today!!