Where the wild things are

Last weekend we went on a short getaway about 2 hours east of where we live. The area is home to quite a few state parks that have great hiking trails for families along with some really beautiful natural attractions like caves and waterfalls. We rented a cabin online a few weeks before and all of us, including my parents who were coming along, were excited for some family fun.





The cabin was really cute and managed to look better in person than it did on the internet . It was clean, well built and really cozy. The only thing that was a little startling was the amount of creatures that called the cabin home. None of them were still living, which I guess is a good thing. Honestly if I have to cohabitate in an enclosed space with animals like black bears and bobcats, I'd really rather they were dead than alive. But I guess I just wasn't really expecting to see quite so many dead things in such a small space.



When we entered the cabin the first thing I noticed were the 2 bear skins hanging over my head. Now truthfully, there was a picture of the bear skins on the internet, but I thought they were those cute fake rugs that you buy in stores that look like bear skins. For some reason it never occurred to me that they would be real.

Surprise! They were. They were really real. It became clear to all of us pretty quickly, that the owners of the cabin were AVID (some might even argue obsessive) hunters. There were deer heads everywhere.




There were also several stuffed birds and an animal that may have been a bobcat. Most of the animals had tags with names written on them. Whether they indicated who shot them or who stuffed them I really couldn't tell you.



The walls that weren't covered in actual animal hides, featured pictures of people posing with dead animals. Since neither I nor any of my family go hunting, it was an interesting and somewhat frightening glimpse into the family who had so graciously rented us their cabin for the weekend.

And just in case we were still curious about the owners of the cabin, there was also a photo album on one of the coffee tables that featured pictures of the family. There were photos of the construction of the cabin, as well as a lot more hunting pictures featuring many, many more dead deer. Let me just tell you that this family is doing more than their part to help control the deer overpopulation here in Ohio. They are certainly not resting on their laurels and wasting all of their outdoor time hiking and looking at waterfalls like a certain family I know.

But really, the most disturbing thing I saw in the photo album wasn't a dead animal. It was several photos of 2 boys just about a year older than C smoking cigars and holding shotguns.

Now every family has their own idea of what makes a fun leisure time activity. But seriously, arming my kids and then letting them light up cigars has really never occurred to me. I'm not saying that their choices are bad. I'm just saying that the idea of handing my own children a shotgun seems unwise. And the cigar smoking thing. Umm...just no.

It occurred to me several times over the weekend that these were people who you probably did not want to anger. It was a case of...I'm pretty positive that your family can shoot, kill and stuff beat up my family. And while our paths probably wouldn't cross too much in our everyday lives, I realized that these would be excellent people to befriend in the event of some kind of nation-wide crisis that would force people to live off the land and fend for themselves.

I'm thinking of a Red Dawn type of situation. You know where the Russians and Cubans team up to invade our country and cut-off all food supplies... And we are forced to rely on Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Grey to battle back the Communist forces that threaten our great nation. Since I'm not really liking our chances in that kind of scenario, I'm just saying that I want to live near this family 'cause I know I'm not going to go hungry.

Anyhoo...despite that abundance of animals inside the cabin, we didn't really get to see any living wildlife on any of our weekend hiking adventures (not even a bird). Of course we did hear quite a bit of gunfire in the distance. I think hunting season may have started, which means all of the smart animals are probably taking a mini-vacation somewhere else.

But even with the lack of wildlife, we saw a lot of beautiful things,

And went on some really fun hikes,


And most important of all had a lot of fun just hanging out together.

Especially (at least for Mr. Crackers and the Cracker children) while relaxing in the cabin's hot tub.

So, thank you AVID hunting family where ever you are. We had a lot of fun in your cabin. And don't worry we cleaned up after ourselves. We didn't want to do anything to anger you, after all chances are you would make much better friends than enemies. And, at least until Charlie Sheen gets his act together, we may need you and your fearsome hunting skills some day!