I sit next to my daughter while she is rabbit shopping online, and I’m listening…“Look, Mom! Awwww, how cute. Can I have that one?” For as long as I can remember, Olivia has loved not only animals, but all things related to nature. She reminds me so much of her mother, so I can hardly say anything about her weekly requests for new “pets,” bringing a variety of “really cool” bugs and rodents into the house and pushing the laptop in my face to show me photos of her latest find. She’s a true outdoors-woman in the making. I’m confident that her natural compassion and instinct for working with animals in combination with a healthy respect for the animals’ purpose in our food supply will serve her and the animals she encounters very well.
At 11 years old, Liv has had experiences girls twice her age aren’t fortunate enough to have. She has always been my fearless child and is up for any adventure. When I learned to hunt, she was the first of my four children to say, “Take me with you! Can I go? I want to hunt!” And she did. I took her out to hunt white tail deer, she sat still and quiet beside me on a tree stump when it was so cold we were bundled up to our eyeballs…and she didn’t want to leave when it was finally the end of legal hunting time. We walked out of the woods near dark, and all she wanted to know was when we could go again. She’s been out with me a number of times since to hunt deer and partridge. One day, she’ll be tagging her very own, and I’ll be the proud mother who gets to say “I took my daughter on her first hunt. It was a day I’ll never forget!”
The first year after our move to Maine, we jumped right into the farm life. We started our garden and ordered our first batches of meat birds and layers. We raised chickens and turkeys with the intention of doing our own processing and providing our family with farm raised food. I started teaching the kids right away that these animals were meant to be eaten or to provide us eggs. No names allowed. Yeah, right! Tell young children not to name their “food” and they tend to get creative. Before I knew it, the discussion turned to our flock of meat birds, lovingly named…Roast Chicken, Chicken-n-Dumplings, Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken Stew…
Liv was awed by our first batch of laying hens.
When it came time for the first few harvests, Liv was right there! It took her a bit to get comfortable with the actual killing, but she did. The birds started coming to the processing table one by one, and she got right into the task and learned all about the inside of the animals, verging on an actual dissection to find out “what’s inside that pouch? Cool!! That’s the food crop.” No qualms about it! Her insatiable curiosity made it easy to overcome any discomfort she may have had about it, and soon she was cutting right into the birds like a seasoned farm girl and using her naturally scientific brain.
That same curiosity level drove Liv to be the first in our household to learn to clean and filet fish…yes, after she dissected the first one to see what was what.
Liv’s determination paid off with a nice yellow perch! I’m glad she made a good catch, because we’d have been there until she did, no matter how long it took.
Liv dissects and cleans our fish
Curiosity and strong-willed determination drive this girl of mine, and I can already see what an amazing woman she will become. She never backs down from even the toughest challenge, she pushes herself to do what to some grown women see as the unthinkable, and the best part of all…she loves it!
Her latest big adventure has been getting more time, experience and comfort in the saddle. She has always wanted her own horse…I think most little girls do, at some point…and finally has the opportunity to pursue this dream activity of hers more often. Last summer, the kids attended Living Waters Camp on East Grand Lake in Danforth, Maine (www.lwcamp.com) where she was able to take short trail rides during free time. Of course, as for any natural adventurer, the opportunity only served to whet her appetite even more!
Liv riding Cheyenne
Now, with deep snow banks surrounding us and frigid winter hanging in the air, Liv is asking if she can ride this weekend. If it’s at all possible, she’ll be on the horse all bundled up to withstand the cold, and a super proud mom will be right there with her, photographing her in her element…outdoors!
Maine Outdoors Woman 