For many years the young Cherry thought about his mountain man name and had a real hard time thinking  that “Cherry” was a MAN’s name.  Well when we named him that it was because the Gods had spoken.  Remember the fires embers and how they cast themselves toward the heavens when the name “Cherry” was said?  It was an awesome, inspiring time and the name seemed all to perfect at that moment.

Since then, however, he has proven beyond any shadow of any sort of doubt out there that he is a “Teacher”!  He can teach with the best of them.  Scholastically, maybe not so much, but teach he can do.

One day he and I were sharing a duck hunting blind.  It was a very good day to hunt ducks and they were migrating through at the peak of the migration.  Ducks were decoying from left to right, right to left, straight down at us and if they could have, straight up to us.   I have hunted ducks for many years and this hunt was as good as it gets.  Well, I had my limit and was encouraging Cherry to aim a little better and save some shells for next time.     But his aimin and shootin was far from done.  He ended up shooting ALL the shells both of us had brought and still was one bird short of his limit when all was said and done.  He ended up shooting 53 shots to get 5 birds.

On the ride home I laughed at the day’s fun and how he had such a time trying to fill his limit.  He grinned and said he was educating the birds.

Another time we were camping.  It could have been a rendezvous, a hunting trip or any other outing that we were planning on spending a few nights in the forest.  He had his trailer and was having quite the time trying to keep his electrical stuff going.  The fridge didn’t work, the lights had a tough time, sparks would fly on occasion and his water pump was apparently broken.  His whole family was at wits end because the trip was ruined.  What can we do?

I think it was “No Grimace” that discovered he had put the battery in backwards and had the positive post hooked up to the negative ground and vise versa.

We had a good laugh out of it and all he could say was he was “teaching us what not to do”.    We were all very well educated.

The thing about it all is that for many, many years this sort of thing just kept going on and on.  It did not seem to matter what we were attempting to do, he was showing us how NOT to do it.

On a muzzleloader elk hunt we were trying to fill several bull elk tags.  It had snowed and rained  on us for about 5 days straight.  We were all a bit sick of the weather, but we kept on trying to fill those tags.  One early morning Many Steps spots a herd of elk in a shallow bowl atop a distant ridge.  He and Cherry are going to ambush them and I would stay and observe the goins on from the distant.  We had radios and binoculars to keep us in touch.

I watched as the two of them showed up on the far hill.   Splitting up, Many Steps closer to me than is Cherry and they began their decent onto the herd below.  The herd did not know they were being stocked and the stock went quite well.  It was apparent to me from my position that Cherry would soon be within range of the herd.  The herd was laying down and trying to stay out of the wind.  Cherry had the wind in his face, which allowed him to get quite close to the herd.

At a later time, we heard him tell us this:  I was sneaking down the hillside trying to be as quiet as I could.  I knew the wind was in my face and the elk would not wind me.  I came up over a slight rise in the terrain and there was a bull.  I ducked back, checked to make sure I had a cap on the nipple of my rifle, cocked the hammer slowly and quietly and then snuck forward.  The bull was only 20 yards ahead and I could easily make a clean kill on him.  As I snuck forward I raised the rifle and placed my trigger finger into the trigger guard……..

From my position I could see him start to raise his gun and “BOOM” the gun goes off.  The smoke plume from the shot was angling up at about a 30 degree angle from the ground.  Was one of the elk flying?  I asked myself.

His story resumed:  into the trigger guard when my glove touched the trigger setting it off.

Oh my heck!!!  In a situation like that, NOBODY wears a glove!  TAKE THE GLOVE OFF!!!

LESSON LEARNED oh mighty teacher of things we all need (or should already)  to know.

And so it goes on for years and years.  The lessons kept on coming and coming.  We are all extremely knowledgeable in all things that we do, and some in things we don’t do.  In future times, I’m very certain that more lessons will be bestowed upon us, let’s hope and pray nobody gets hurt.

At a rondeevoo a few years past the council had met and pondered the man named “Cherry” and his desire to have a name more fitting to a MAN OF HIS FEATURES AND STATURE.  The council did decide to rename him for the good he had taught us and the beasts of nature.

And forever, wherever mountain men shall meet, “Cherry” shall be known as “EDJUKATEER”.

Bears Butt

May 24, 2011