I finally got around to watching the news clip last night, I thought it was well done.
My father and grandfather also went out of their way to include me in the hunting, fishing and trapping heritage. I remember my grandfather telling me funny stories about how my dad fell through the spring ice trapping beaver or flipped his canoe chasing a moose down the lake.
In Ontario they had minimum quotas on beaver and some of them were pretty high. One line they owned had a minimum quota of 150 beaver per year and you were working hard to get that. I remember being a little kid and the old man throwing me up on top of beaver houses. I was too small to climb them myself so I must have only been a few years old. He figured it was the safest place for me to be and not fall through the ice on the runs. They would go from sun up until sun down every weekend to get that quota and as long as it wasn't too cold I got to go anytime I wanted, despite the fact it slowed them down.
Many of my best memories as a kid were out there with them. Years of questions and answers and they never seemed to get tired of it. lol
My old man is still going strong at 60 out on the line, him and his partner trap 3 different lines full time and it keeps them working hard.
We lost papa last year at 83, he hadn't been out to the line in a few years as his health was starting to slip but he always wanted to know how we were making out. The amount of knowledge that man had accumulated and passed on over the years is staggering.
Now I take my own boy out and will try and pass on all I can remember from those that taught me and everything I'm learning now. Even though some days my production is slowed down for snack breaks and runny noses I wouldn't change it for the world. That smile is worth more then anything you could ever buy