By the time I packed the antlers in the car, Sharon and my grandma returned with my birthday dinner. Courtney had a few jalapeno elk bratwursts, but they wouldn't be enough to feed us, so grandma and Sharon returned with a couple packs of hot dogs and a platter of sushi. 

As we cooked bratwursts and hot dogs over the fire, uncle Courtney and I started talking about wild game cooking techniques, which eventually led to us talking about the wildlife in my neighborhood. In the last month, I have not heard a coyote yip. Before, they would yip and howl at all hours of the night on our back deck, but they also posed a major threat to pets and children. Someone's dog got attacked nearly every week in the neighborhood, and I guess the city finally had enough of it. Whatever the city did, the coyotes seem to be completely gone.

But now that there are no coyotes, my neighborhood is starting to become overrun by cottontail rabbits. Just the other day, while I was doing dishes, I looked up and saw three rabbits viciously fighting over my lawn. Rabbits fight by jumping on each other while kicking their back legs, in hopes of injuring the others with their sizable claws. I've been attacked by domestic rabbits like that before, and it sucks. When I went outside to scare them off, they dove down under the deck. I quickly got a hose to spray them out through the cracks, but as soon as I dropped the hose and went back inside, the soaking wet rabbits went right back under the deck. 

Courtney perked up and informed me that cottontail rabbits are not a protected species in many parts of Colorado, meaning there is no limit as to how many a person can kill, just as long as the rabbits are on their property. While I couldn't use a firearm to take them out, and my pellet gun wouldn't be enough to do the job quickly and efficiently, a recurve bow would certainly do the trick. Uncle Courtney excitedly told me how much he loved rabbit stew, and pretty much asked me to go rabbit hunting literally in my own backyard for him. After all, the flight of an arrow is very quiet. While I'm on board, I still have to respect my mom, who would probably not like me hanging out on the porch roof until 3 am shooting cottontails with a bow. However, something must be done, because these rabbits are breeding like, well, rabbits, and my precious bluebells are at risk of being eaten.

But more seriously, if the rabbit population is allowed to get too big, they could cause serious damage to lawns and gardens. They will likely chew through open wires and become hazards on the roads. And finally, they will become diseased. Diseases found in dead cottontails can and do spread to other living things very quickly and easily. I forget what it's actually called, but there's a disease that starts in the rabbit's liver than can be contracted just by getting near a dead rabbit that's infected by it. This disease can hospitalize and even kill people! So, if the rabbit population isn't taken care of now while the rabbits are still healthy, things will likely go downhill faster than a jackrabbit on caffeine. 

With this in mind, I told uncle Courtney I'd think about hunting backyard rabbits, just as long as I can get past my mom. I've never eaten rabbit before, nor have I really had much of a desire to, but if uncle Courtney wants some suburban cottontail rabbit for his freezer, I'll get him some suburban cottontail rabbit. 

While we were talking, we almost forgot about the food. Uncle Courtney was especially excited to try the sushi. He never tried sushi before, and wanted to know what raw fish was like. I was the only one in the family who knew how to eat with chopsticks, so my grandparents and uncle Courtney ended up stabbing the sushi with forks, which didn't exactly work out too well. My grandma got a platter containing both raw and cooked sushi. My aunt wasn't so sure about the raw stuff, so she just ate the cooked stuff, while uncle Courtney and I devoured the raw stuff in just a couple minutes. Courtney loved it just as much as I did!

I never had jalapeno elk bratwursts before. Sure, I've eaten plenty of elk bratwursts in my life, but I never had it mixed with jalapenos. I'm very sensitive to spicy stuff, so I've honestly been too afraid to try it before. Courtney said the bratwursts weren't spicy at all, but he also said that about my aunt Donnell's late raw radishes back in North Dakota last year, and I ended up chugging almost a whole gallon of milk while he laughed at me. However, because the jalapenos were surrounded by delicious elk meat, I tried the bratwursts anyway, and loved them! Sure, they had a kick to them, but they weren't anywhere spicy enough to make me uncomfortable. 

To end the evening, we roasted marshmallows over the fire and told more stories about life. My great uncle told us stories about his years as a game warden. I've heard most of them before, but he also told us a few more I don't remember hearing about, such as the time he confiscated a black bear hide from a drug dealer and was allowed to keep it, so he wore it when my mom and aunt were little girls to scare them. I would do the same thing to my little brother if I had a black bear hide, and that's why my great uncle hasn't given the bear hide to me yet. He said he'd give it to me once my brother became a teenager, which is still a few years away. 

My grandpa shared stories about when he was my age. He wasn't the most rebellious teenager or young adult out there, although he did get himself in trouble a few times. He was present at a party in Zap, North Dakota, which very quickly turned into a riot that summoned the National Guard. I think he left once things really started going downhill, though he did say he watched as a group of kids built a bonfire in the middle of the street, before he finally got in his car and got out of there. Not long after, he witnessed another riot at a college in Texas, though instead of it being caused by a bunch of drunk college students, the riot in Texas was over the Vietnam war.

My grandpa had to sign up for the draft when he turned 18, but nerve damage in his foot saved him from going to Vietnam. He, and uncle Courtney, both had friends who did go to war, and those friends came back completely changed. A couple committed suicide shortly after returning home, and the rest isolated themselves from everyone else for the most part. 

My grandpa told me I should be glad that I don't have to sign up for the draft, and nothing too crazy is going on politically right now. But he did say I ought to exercise my right to vote now that I'm 18, regardless of what I think of the government. I hate every politician equally, so I'm not sure where I'll put my votes when the next elections roll around. I'm a libertarian with more conservative views than liberal views, but in the eyes of the average conservative, I'm basically a progressive, and in the the eyes of the average liberal, I'm basically a member of the alt-right. This is why I stay out of politics for the most part. 

My great uncle Courtney pushed me to purchase a rifle in my name. I'm pretty much broke, and on top of that, I don't know what I want as far as a rifle or a shotgun. I like my .243, and I'm too broke to afford a .308 for bigger game such as elk and moose. My .243 can easily take down bigger game if I make a perfect shot, but if I screw up the shot, things won't go so well for anyone. Maybe next year I'll have enough extra cash laying around to afford a .308 for bigger game. 

By the time we stopped telling stories and talking about life at 18 years old, it was dark outside, and our fire was almost completely out. Uncle Courtney put out the last of the fire and we followed him inside for one last thing. He stuffed a large box full of various cuts of wild game meat he found in his deep freezer, and gave it to me to take home. I didn't bother to look what was inside of it, and once I got home I just turned the box upside down and dumped the contents into my freezer. But since then, I've taken the time to dig through it. I don't know how to cook half of the stuff he gave me, such as deer liver and Canadian goose breasts, but I'll figure it out. Courtney just told me to look up some recipes online, and if I'm still lost, he wouldn't be offended if I gave that stuff to someone else who will eat it. But I've been eating very well since my birthday, and hopefully that box of game will last me until the fall when I can hunt that cow elk.