~ Whittling ~

Critter begged for the duration of our trip in Montana for a pocket knife. He wanted to learn to Whittle.

Before we made our decision to support this, we had to consider the following:

1) Critter is the human version of Tigger, only smarter, thank God.

2) Critter is 9.  9 Year Old boys are not known for their discerning judgement no matter how smart they are.

3) We have some nice wooden furniture at home that we’d like to keep nice.

On the other hand:

1) The sooner Critter trains with a knife, the sooner he’ll become proficient at it, the sooner he’ll be less likely to lose a finger or two.

2) We have a small, constantly shrinking window of time where Critter will come to us with these sweet curiosities.  Soon his curiosities’ subject matter will surpass our ability to teach him.  Opportunity is knocking now.

3) Wooden furniture, though nice, is just inanimate, and is fully replaceable.

So we relented.  He now owns several Montana-made pocket knives.  And the lessons began on the trip.

Critter listened.

He worked carefully.

He made some mistakes.

But most importantly,

Critter learned.

And My Captain…

… loved.

(PS, Varmint learned to whittle on this trip too, but that is for another post altogether….)