As Sandy Hough Shepard and Tom Hough write in Skinnin' and Grinnin': Buck Tales from Mount Eddy, every fall on the slopes of Mount Eddy in California's Siskiyou County, something changes.
Hunters shift their attention towards blacktail deer in the same way our ancestors did in the distant past when survival depended on their working together to feed their families. Hunting
season arrives, and the ancient camaraderie between hunters, their sons, daughters, and families reemerge. And as the interviews Sandy collected from the people who hunted on Mount Eddy show,
this camaraderie is still important in this remote area of Northern California.The conversations in Skinnin' and Grinnin' are what drive the story of hunting on Mount Eddy forward. The men,
women and children talk about ��he Eddys,��the animals, the roads, vehicles, cooking, camping, the guns, and the hunt itself. But most of all they talk in a way that reveals their affection for
each other, the outdoors in general, and Mount Eddy in particular. This is the case whether they talk about getting lost, first kills, the one that got away, first day of the season, or legends
of the mythical ��enchleg Buck.��Skinnin' and Grinnin' is about much more than just hunting, deer, and Mount Eddy. It is about the people who come to the mountain in pursuit of the deer, and
more importantly to recreate the ties between families, and generations. It is about how on Opening Weekend on Siskiyou's Mount Eddy these are all tied together as a past, present, and future.
--Tony Waters, Professor of Sociology, California State University, Chico
