BigGameHoundsmen.com

There are lots of good answeres on here! Each person has his own that are unique to his situation!

Each persons situation is different but Pegleg pretty much nailed it for us. It is priorities!

Again like Pegleg says if you truly love something enough, you will find a way to do it. The Tenacity that it take to do this, is usually found all the way through the dedicated hunters life, and is why their Hounds tend to be far and away the best, no matter the Game or Breed of Hound hunted!

Figure out what do you want to do the most, then figure out a way to get it done! If you want to do it BAD enough you WILL figure out a way to "Get er done"! Not a bad Creed to live by?

With Dad, he has been an Entreprenour all his life. Fortunate to have put very good partners in place to run his buisnesses. This allowed him to live his life, which was family first, with the Hounds a very close second!

Dad is now 80 and fighting Prostate Cancer, he nor the Dr.s know how many more Races he has ahead of him. Therefor, and we are very fortunate to have the reasorces to allow this, my wife and I are tryng to make sure that Dad has the opportunity to Hunt as much as possible.

We too use older fuel efficient trucks, eat out very little, watch movies at home with dollar store microwave popcorn, drink home brewed iced tea not Soda Pop, wear Atwoods jeans not Wranglers, plant a big garden, butcher our own meat(including deer, squirels, and loin of Bobcat) and generally live frugally! Is it a sacrefice, not really it is just priorities and WANT TO!

A Lifestyle that maybe is not politcally correct in todays world, but has Family, the Lord, and the Outtdoors first!

Just My thoughts!

C. John Clay

I would never, ever be with a women who complained about my hunting. That being said I am very lucky to have the greatest girlfriend in the world. Just this past year I left my higher paying job of quite a few years to take a job that would allow me to work when I did or did not want to work. On top of this I spend every extra penny that I earn, literally, on hunting and hunting equipment. This means not a lot of money in the bank and a whole lot of sacrifice.

I'm back in school and have a part time job... That gives me 3 days in the woods.. I generally try and get out a couple times at night also.. Even when I was working 6 days a week I still got out and hunted at night along with my one day off... Thank goodnesss for caffiene

As stated repeatedly, it comes down to priorities. When I got married way back in the day, I had hounds. I told my future wife that I had seen lots of guys give up their dogs for their wives, just to end up in divorce court 6 months to a year later. They ended up without a wife, or hounds. I told her that the dogs would never give me that ultimatum, no matter how I treated them, and that if it came to that, realistically the dogs were not the problem. I pointed out that I could be in a bar somewhere or out in the streets, but I was instead in the hills with my dogs. Early on, there was a LOT of sacrifices. Raising kids and doing hounds the hard way as most do, is costly. I have been self employed more than not, and that has helped at times. When I moved to New Mexico I brought my 3 best dogs and didn't have time to hunt them. I gave them away and had a broken heart for 10 years. I started with 2 pups and sent them to be trained in Az- no more hard way. Today I have a welding company in the oil field. With things in the tank, I have more time but less money. So here we are, back to priorities. I also need to state that I have lived by my motto that I'm not living to work, but working to live!

I read alot of these posts. I guess I am real lucky the reason I got into hounds is because I needed something to do during the winter. I own a weed spraying business that keeps me real busy in the summer time and leaves me nothing to do but a little paper work and some meetings in the winter. The wife and kids love to hunt and the oldest daughter will turn 12 (legal hunting age) and wants to get a lion her first year. We figuered that hounds would be a great way to spend family time walking the river bottoms or chasing kitty cats in the rock.
PRW

I am single, live in a 5th wheel on a half acre lot I am buying for $150 a month, and work a job that pays good, gives me a 4 on 4 off schedule, and gives me the time to get "all the crap" done around the house on the days I work. I have bills like everyone else, but am living the way I am so I can pay it off, hunt the dogs, and not have to worry about a 30 year mortgage. I can walk away from the lot with no problem, and the 5th wheel tows nicely behind the truck!

Later,

Marcial