Autumn is my favorite season!

The warm remnant days of summer, the boding cool nights and crisp mornings remind us that winter is on its’ way. Farmers and ranchers getting crops in, hay put up and pulling livestock out of the high country. Hunters digging out their gear, sighting in rifles, sharpening knives, and cleaning out freezers.

My wife especially likes the fall colors, the Aspens in particular and I’m partial to the Cottonwoods in the valleys. Daylight waning shorter, nighttime waxing longer, the Harvest Moon, the Hunter’s Moon, late rains, early snows. All these signs call us to prepare for what’s ahead…WINTER!!!

Here in Colorado we live in a prime agricultural biome where canning and preserving is one of the best ways to prolong those summer flavors we all love so much. Tomatoes, peaches, peppers, and pickles are just some of what we can for the winter.

When I was a young boy our only heat source was wood. We would cut firewood on the weekends before Antelope season in Wyoming, hopefully getting the bulk of it before the rains came. Foraging is a necessity as well. Chokecherry and serviceberry, the jams and jellies of which make breakfast much more enjoyable (the syrups and reductions are great accompaniments to wild game) and the poultices and teas made from hawthorn and rosehips help to ward off the flu, winter cough and colds.

When it comes to hunting we process our own game. We do it up into ground burger, stew meat, steaks, roasts, ribs, and our personal favorite, JERKY!!! There’s nothing quite like having your family around the supper table when your youngest belts out, “This tastes like my elk!” To which mom replies, “Well, considering your sister drew a deer tag, it probably is honey.”

These are just a few reasons Autumn is my favorite season. Some of my fondest memories take me back to a fall of yester-year when my dad and I would hit the woods.

So men, husbands, fathers, get your kids out there. Take it from me, your kids are never to young and they don’t have to be sons. My daughters were toting and stacking firewood, picking berries, wearing blaze orange, spottin’ game, reading game trails, wrappin’ meat, and eating jerky as soon as they started talking and walking.

Gentlemen, you’re not the “babysitter,” you’re not being “strapped with the kids,” you are their father and that’s what “manly men” do. Be an example to “the guys.” Don’t be an absentee, sideline parent. Get involved with your children and have your children get involved with you, start teaching the values of hard work, a job well done and being prepared; these will contribute more to their success in life than any afterschool activity taught by some stranger.