Oh Deer!: Shedding Light On What It's Like Being Married To An Addict

It's amazing to think that just three short years ago I was a naive Californian who arrived in the" middle of nowhere" in Montana and now I'm married to a Montana man and happily living in this amazing place. I was too embarrassed to admit it then, but for my first semester at Montana Wilderness School of The Bible I had no idea what a shed was. After a shy Google search and some explanation from a native Montanan, I felt a lot less naive.

Now, I am obsessed with them. Not as much as James, though. He is motivated by elk and sheds. He really is addicted to shed hunting (and that's not a bad thing). When we go hiking, no matter how vigorous the terrain or how exhausted I am, he is determined to find elk sign or a shed on the ground. I might be inclined to feel neglected while I'm whimpering as we spend 8 hours climbing straight up hills, straight down hills, side stepping across mountainsides, or walking over hundreds of dead fallen trees, but his determination and fascination with finding these hidden treasures in the woods brings me great joy. 

I only know of one person who is more obsessed with shed hunting than James, and he has hundreds of sheds to prove it. For those of you in California, male deer, elk, and moose grow antlers each year that fall off in the late winter/early spring, and the cycle continues. Each year they grow larger antlers and so their shed can be quite impressive. They are actually worth some money, but we search for them for the excitement of the treasure hunt, the joy that comes when finding one, and to grow our collection. 

I love looking for them too. I can't really describe the excitement that comes when on this shed treasure hunt. Though I haven't found too many, I know there are many more to be found in my future. I already know what I'll say if I find an elk shed. When I finally do find one though, my remark probably won't seem as clever as it does now.

(My First Shed)

 

(My second shed. Not too impressive, but at least I found something)

James was bow hunting on Saturday (the first day of bow season) and though he didn't see or kill an elk, he came back with a great find, a moose shed. It gave him great joy and when he showed me, I was ecstatic as well. So ecstatic that I actually put a dent in a piece of our furniture because I set it down too hard. Whoops!

 

("Moose are....wherever you find them" - Aubrey) 

And yes, the more impressive sheds James finds, the more Montanan our decor becomes. But with the proper placement, they make our apartment look like a million "bucks"!