Three. Three is the number of deer I was able to harvest in the 12 years I hunted before I met my wife, and although I owe my uncle for getting me into hunting, it has been my wife who has helped sustain and expand my love of it. My wife did not grow up hunting. I hunted with my uncle from a very early age. He taught me what I needed to know to get started. My wife and I were married several years before she asked for her first bow. In the early years, we would spend our free time going to 3D archery shoots around our area, sitting on opposite sides of the field during archery season, or spending the opening day of deer rifle season in the woods hunting together instead of in our classrooms. It was easy to drop everything and go hunt. That all changed when we had our girls.

It soon became apparent that it wasn’t as easy to just drop everything and go out hunting or fishing. Filling the freezer was still a priority, but so was maintaining the school routine for our girls. After teaching and coaching, my wife would make sure dinner was ready in time for me to get out into the field as quickly as possible. She held down the household while I was responsible for filling the freezer. A balance that doesn’t work for everyone but works out perfectly for us. I have often tried to get her back out in the field to hunt, but at that point in our lives she was perfectly happy with the routine we had settled into, and if she does have some spare time without the girls, she was much happier in a river fishing than in a tree stand. The water is her therapy. The fields are mine. We have found our balance.

In the ten years that we have navigated the sometimes-rocky waters of parenthood, this balance has been what has ultimately shaped our daughter’s love of the outdoors. Our oldest, Tala, has become the perfect blend of us both. She lives to hunt during the fall and begs to go fishing whenever there is a free moment. During the fall, she gets very upset if I don’t include her in the field dressing process of a harvested deer. In fact, this fall she independently field dressed her first deer after years of helping me. She often explains to her little sister how to hold and maneuver the deer while daddy guts it and what to expect during the process. She was right on. This is the same kid that was super excited when she caught her first trout this past summer out in Colorado. She eventually caught the biggest one on our trip and has reminded my wife and I often of her accomplishment. Tala has become the perfect balance of my wife and me.

Our journey will continue to evolve as our girls grow, responsibilities change, and life changes. We have learned that our journey doesn’t look like the journey taken by anyone else. We are embracing the ups and downs, lessons learned, and moments shared because in the end our hunting journey is what shapes us, not the end result. But this journey is perfectly us.

-Todd Sellon, Fall Obsession Pro Staff