An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Something about Selina

Hello friends, Ever since Dec. 15, my life has pretty much been on the same track, and that is/was spending time with my daughter Selina before she moved to Missoula, Mont. First it was graduation; then it was Christmas, which was followed by a 10-day trip to Mississippi where we camped and hunted deer and hogs. Next it was moving her from Stevens Point, a simple going away party and this last week, loading up my truck and 12-foot trailer and moving her to Missoula, where she is now a biologist (as of Monday) for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

My run with Selina started back in 2000 and this week I am going to write about some of my incredible memories. When I realized I was going to be a father, I used to slow dance with Selina’s mother and talk to Selina. Sounds crazy, but I did this with regularity. When Selina was born, she was breached, which meant things became serious during her birth. As soon as she was born, she looked at me and smiled. That is how Selina got the name “Goof,” which I use almost daily.

I am an outdoor writer and live off the land as much as possible and this also includes hobby farming on a large scale. By the age of 3 months, I carried Selina everywhere I was working, such as planting trees, gardening, cattle and firewood work. I would set her down and have my golden retrievers stay with her. Without trying, I turned Selina into a person that loves to canoe. When she was 2 years and 4 months old, I took her on the Chippewa Flowage in early May. I had purchased a small kid’s paddle for her and tied her on a rope so that if she fell in, I could pull her back into the canoe. It was cold, Selina fell in the “Big Chip” while paddling and I pulled her back to the canoe. Selina started crying and I figured it was because she was cold. She then told me it was because she had lost her paddle and that was why she was crying. We retrieved the paddle, built a camp and dried her out.

I was extremely active as a single parent with Selina’s schooling. When she started kindergarten, I took her on her first day, introduced myself to her teacher and from then on for the next five years, volunteered in her class once a week teaching the kids outdoor stuff. When the kids were too old for my lessons, I started KAMO (Kids and Mentors Outdoors). Some of my favorite experiences were being her mentor for spelling bees and speeches, as well as DECA (formerly Distributive Education Clubs of America), which she went to nationals for as a junior and senior. I would cook supper; Selina would study in her room and then give her presentation to me. She could handle constructive criticism. Bear hunting: Selina hunted black bear in northern Juneau County at the age of 10, 13 and 15. When she was 10, we hunted 19 nights and on two occasions we had a huge sow come in with 1.5-year-old cubs, which are legal to harvest and do not go into the den with their mother at that age. The sow was huge and presented very easy shots, Selina passed on her and I agreed with her decision. When Selina was 15, after hundreds of hours running baits and sitting in stands, she harvested a beautiful bear and all was perfect in our world.

When Selina was just starting her freshmen year in high school, I set her up at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge as a volunteer and it soon became known that she could do both manual labor and brain work on the computer. That winter Selina told me she was going to become a biologist and someday be a refuge manager; the course of that plan started then and never deviated.

I have been “low income” my entire career as a writer but do just fine. I told Selina she needed to think of applying for scholarships, both local and national, as a part-time job and to do it right. The proudest night of my life was during her senior year at the Honors Banquet, when Selina was awarded $22,000 in local scholarships and the majority of the donors said it was because of her activities in clubs and volunteering.

Selina graduated from UWSP with no debt and two majors. This one was a tough pill for me to swallow but she was correct: Selina told me when she was 15 that if she was going to be ahead of the pack, she was going to have to intern every summer in college. That is exactly what she did, which meant she did not come home. Selina’s interning is what got her the job she now has. So, we move to the present. I put 3,000 miles on my truck, met Selina’s coworkers and the following day started the drive home, well aware that the best 22 years of my life had just passed.

As much as that is true, the young biologist can legally hunt as a Montana resident after 6 months. Her father loves to hunt elk and even if he does not get a tag, he can always camp and sit with his daughter in the Rocky Mountains this fall.

You did good, Goof! Love, Dad.

Mark Walters