All in the camo family

Columbia Falls native Remi Berube is now famous, well, at least among other hunting enthusiasts.

His fame comes from his wife and her recent book “Confessions of a Camo Queen: Living with an Outdoorsman.”

Kristen Berube shares humorous stories about her husband’s misadventures in the woods, his life dressed in camouflage and how he pulls her along for the bumpy ride. Sometimes this means going down a dirt road in a stinky truck for a “date” or surviving a camping trip with only four squares of toilet paper, she said.

They met while going to classes at Montana State University. Remi was majoring in fish and wildlife, although half of his time was spent fishing, not on homework.

Kristen grew up in Florence around other outdoorsmen, but dating and marrying one was something different altogether. She didn’t know that the separate hobbies of hunting and fishing were actually part of a daily lifestyle, an obsession. Remi comes from a long line of crazy hunters, mainly his dad, Nino Berube. Remi claims he should get credit for being the original “squirrel-eater.”

“I love fishing, but I’m not nearly as obsessed as he is,” Kristen said. She thinks it would be great to have as much passion for an activity as he does for the outdoors. “I can’t even imagine.”

They now own a business in Missoula, Big Sky Denture Group, which they opened in 2006.

“I think he is kind of embarrassed,” she said.

Her husband was first taken aback by his wife’s book.

“I can’t believe that’s how you think of me,” Remi said when he read the stories.

But at the same time, he enjoys the stories because they are from a female perspective, she said.

His family and friends think the book is hilarious.

“How she sees it is pretty enlightening to most folks,” Remi said. His parents Nino and Sue Berube and sister Dulcie reside in Columbia Falls.

The book hasn’t changed his relationship with Kristen much, he said. Their marriage has been filled with laughter and teasing since the beginning.

Remi has a bit of caution.

“I’m more careful about what I say and do around her,” he said. He doesn’t want to give her more material for her next book, because the stories are “about as accurate as you can get.”

They are normal experiences to him.

“The way she writes it down, it sounds less normal,” Remi said.

Kristen wrote the book mostly at night over six months while their oldest, Brody, was an infant. Now they have two other children, 2-year-old Della and 7-month-old Lettie.

“It’s such an easy thing to write because it’s true,” she said. She explained that people do funny things all the time, when “you can’t help laughing at yourself because its so hilarious.”

Despite all the joking, “I support him 100 percent,” Kristen said.

Remi took 4-year-old Brody duck hunting recently. He carried one of their trophy ducks around all day, then asked to have it mounted.

Kristen said the boy would rather be duck hunting than in preschool.

Della is the typical girl, she loves dresses and tutus. Yet her father’s outdoor obsessions have rubbed off on her, because she loves camo, too.

The family has dubbed her the “camo princess.”

She loves the outdoors as much as Remi. She’ll look at her fish pictures from the summer fishing trip over and over again, Kristen said.

A book about raising her camo-clad children may be in the future, Kristen said. She has a sequel and a venison cookbook in the works for next year.

Berube will have book signings in Kalispell Nov. 7 at Sportsman & Ski Haus from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at The Bookshelf 2-4 p.m.