The Game Camera Game...

When I lived up on the mountain in East Tennessee, I used to enjoy mounting a game camera at various places on my property, and seeing what wandered by. I lived on 56 acres, surrounded by National Forest, and my driveway was over a mile long, mostly straight up. So the wildlife used the driveway as a sort of interstate - easy to get lots of good pictures:

You'll notice that these pictures are taken at lots of different locations. I was moving the camera around a lot. You might think that would be because I was afraid the wildlife would find the camera. You would be wrong.

My kids grew up wandering all over the mountains, looking for stuff to get into. And once they found my game camera, I would start getting lots and lots of pictures like this:

So I'd get 2 pictures of bobcats, and 50 pictures of goofballs goofing off.

So I'd move the camera.

And the search would be on - they were relentless.

It seems juvenile. But we had a great time, trying to outsmart one another. We could have been doing something productive. But no, we were playing hide and go seek all over the mountainsides.

A bit silly, perhaps. But it beats video games, right?

We had a great time.

I wish more kids could have more time to just wander around the woods. Throwing rocks at trees. Catching crawdads in the stream. Trying to annoy their Dad by messing with his game camera.

Most of our kids today grow up in a virtual world. Keeps them occupied, I guess. And they're not annoying their Dad as much, I suppose. But geez.

We're only just now beginning to understand how that turns out...