My story is a bit different than the others here. To start off, no one in my family hunts. My dad shot squirrels, etc. when he was a kid during the Great Depression, but that was it. The second way my story is different is that I didn’t hunt anything with any weapon until I was 38, and I’ve never hunted with a gun and don’t plan to (except maybe for coyotes and other pesky varmits).

When I was a kid in Massachusetts, I spent a lot of time in the woods behind our house and loved it, but never hunted anything, aside from shooting squirrels with a BB gun to keep them off our birdfeeder. Then, when I started high school, I moved to the Texas Panhandle, which was a completely different scenario. I loved the woods and didn’t care much for the terrain, although it did have a kind of stark beauty. So I kind of lost touch with nature somewhat, although I always longed to go back and spend time in the woods. Not to hunt, just to spend time amongst the beauty of nature.

Then, in the early ‘90’s, I moved to the Washington DC area and worked with a guy from South Africa who bow hunted…even wrote some articles about bow hunting wild boar in South Africa. He also did some research on the deer population here in VA. He also wrote poetry, windsurfed and was in general was a pretty cool guy. When I saw the research he did on the deer population in VA (which they think is about twice what it was when Jamestown was settled in 1607!), and he explained the problems this caused with cars, farmers and the ecology in general, it kind of took away from the bad feelings I had about killing a beautiful animal. I was never against hunting, it was just that I had no desire to be involved directly in it. My South African friend moved away some years ago, before we ever hunted together, and I think is now teaching windsurfing in NC.

But several years ago, I had the good fortune of making another very good friend, who is now my best friend and hunting buddy. He and his wife live in a 200+ year old farm house on the Shenandoah River here in VA, where we stay when we go to the mountains. I met them through my wife, who is from the Altai Mountains in Siberia and who loves the outdoors, who used to work with his wife. He has been hunting here in VA for about 30 years and bow hunting for 25 years. Some of the land we hunt is the same land he hunted 25 years ago, when he was a teenager. He is a good and ethical hunter, a wise man, and a good and patient teacher. I am very fortunate. Because of him and his approach, and my love for the outdoors, and the beauty of Virginia, I have become a very passionate bowhunter. I live in Arlington, which is right across the river from Wahsington, DC. It’s a two hour drive for me to reach our land in the mountains, but I go out there every chance I get, whether bowhunting or just to be out in nature. And my appreciation for nature has grown amazingly since I took up bowhunting 2 years ago.

My wife and I plan on building a house on some very remote land in the mountains we bought last year, and to make that our primary home.I'm not sure any of this would have happened if I hadn't taken up bowhunting.

This year I discovered what a resource HNI is. Because of HNI, I think this year will be a very good hunting year for me, on many different levels.

Thank you all!

(and sorry for the long post…I know I can be along-winded cuss!)