Natural children...

Yup, it was about a decade and a half ago, if I recall correctly in the early spring, that I was last up around one of my favorite fishing spots, the quaint and sleepy little river hamlet of Burritt's Rapids on the gentle and scenic Rideau River. That trip was very special at the time because I had driven up there with my two children, Brooke and Lee on their first day long fishing and adventure trip of their little lives. Although she was only five at the time her and her brother had already caught and landed plenty of perch, bluegills, pumpkinseed, rock bass and even some big creek chub, suckers and catfish over the last two seasons, she caught her first Small Mouth Bass on this particulary wonderful spring day. Just to see how happy she was with the whole thing and how talented and co-ordinated she was turning out already, was one of the biggest thrills in my life, up to that point.

You see folks, Brooke was indeed, living, breathing, thinking and acting proof, that children can fall in LOVE with Nature at a very early age, if given the opportunity. I made sure they both had plenty of opportunities in the outdoorsy world, at a very young age. Anyway, this little dolly simply lipped this little "Bassy" as she called it, just like it was a perch or whatever else that she had been lippin since whenever. You'd have thought she was a grown-up all shrunk down in a tiny wee body, the way she performed the lippin' ritual, that dad had shown them both the year before. After me helping them for an hour or two, they had said they would like to try to land their own fish if that was o.k. with me and of course I jumped at the chance to get them to skip a grade or two in the fish handling world of their own futures! Seems like there's NO fear of fish lips what so ever on this little girl's part, at all. :-)

Little Fishin' Missy

If you are a parent, just know that your children can and will get smarter, about ANYTHING you take the time to guide them towards, on a personal level. In my case as you should all know by now, Outdoorsy stuff has always dominated my interests, so it's only natural that my little kiddies would really get into this Nature related stuff too. :-) All I had to do was simply show them, in real life episodes, some of the many, many reasons why I had always dug this outdoorsy stuff all my life. ;-) If this girl is not a Canadian fishing name in the future, it is not because I didn't instill the love of fishing in her and her cool baby brother Lee. They both passed MANY physical and mental tests all through their early years, by the way, which I started giving to them, from day one. Their eyesight was at that time exceptional, and their hearing was tuned much finer than any ten year olds out there at the time that I had compared them to. Their knowledge and accurate recall of pertinent facts about trees and birds and money handling things even, which I had shared with them at some point, was something that always made me burst with pride. To hear these very young children using my quotes to relay various info to others, is VERY enlightening to this parent to be sure. Thank GOD, I even still have some video tape segments of them in the early stages of fire-building 101, daddy style. Watching these videos, now years later, of these wee children, each gathering their own little bundle of fine kindling and talking about the dryness, thickness and brittleness of their choices, while they worked, is still totally thrilling to me to this day! So mature at such an early age they were and to know that it all got started with them and me and all this bush stuff which I so love, mixed together in a very productive and positive blend...

Folks, if you have kids, Don't limit your children's learning abilities by letting them stay in the house all the time, playing freakin' video games. Show them some outdoorsy stuff, build a little fire out in the bush with them sometime. Bring a few wieners or even some marsh-mellows and let them"cook" their own food over a small, well contained, "Indian" style natural fire with you there. Talk to them about how that all makes them feel etc etc. If I know ANYTHING about it, you won't get too much closer to your children ever again perhaps. Life has a way of grabbing them away from you and letting others become their instructors, teachers, lovers and friends. Their time with you now, is VERY, VERY precious. PLEASE do NOT waste these opportunities to educate your kiddies about Nature and the Great Outdoors and what it can do for them. Any problems, refer them to me and I'll hook them on Outdoor stuff before the day is out. Start to-day, there's not a minute to lose.

Oh ya, my outdoorsy beliefs and those which I have instilled deeply into my children also say, that NO studs, tats or other disfigurements, will adorn the body of any bright woods-raised child. One who knows all about how to go about making more important, even life threatening choices and of course, easily more intelligent decisions. This is all gained out of an ongoing sheer respect and love of our own precious bodies or temples. Woodsy kids do NOT operate out of fear of peer pressure nor do they worry about what others may or may not think of them. Bushy kids will in fact, be deservingly quite confident in everything they choose to do, because of their foundation and sincere relationship with the woods and rivers and all of the total realities out there. They've already been there and done that and seek cooler kids to hang with and share experiences with. You won't see a tattooed flock of them taking over a bus and being all rude and rowdy in the future. More like a week-end in the bush with their cool and loving parents eating wild foods and stuff... ;-)