Family Hunting Trip

This month has been a typical September except for the end when we took the boys to join Weston and his family on a muzzle loader hunting trip. Me, being the overly sensitive toward animals type, would never be found holding a gun myself. But, I can appreciate the sport and reality of life and death. More on that later.



These kids had a great time together and our campsite had this giant rock that soon became base headquarters. They were able to create, mostly with their imaginations,  numerous "weapons" out of the plentiful sticks (it was like we camped on a used up logging site) and for the most part stay out of trouble.

The weather was beautiful for the first two days so we enjoyed the pretty fall color and peaceful location. Although we ended up camping higher than we'd planned, it was still quite mild until Friday evening when it started to rain and didn't stop. Luckily (no offense guys), Jared and Weston were able to get their 4 point deer on their first real hike Friday morning. They were also fortunate to hitch a ride back to camp with two very knowledgeable men who had a map and helped them figure out the best way to get back to their kill.  If you want to see photos of the deer, a good sized one, talk to Weston. In order to post them here I'd have to SEE them and I just couldn't do it.  Jared will tell you their success story below.

Overall it was a very enjoyable hunt.  Weston got the first shot of the hunt, but luckily he missed it and when I had a chance to shoot at it my action wasn't pulled back so the gun did not shoot. Weston then saw a 3 point but didn't get a shot at it. The next group of deer we came across had multiple bucks in it.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a shot at the largest one. My instinct was to run after the group of deer so I could get a shot, but I told myself to slow down and not chase them and maybe we would come across them again.  Moments later a 4 point emerged and I took my shot.  I hit him in the back leg.  I radioed to Weston telling him to go over the little ridge where the deer had just gone.  A minute later Weston made the shot of his life and killed the deer. Unfortunately it took us about 7 hours to get the deer back to camp between figuring out where we were and dragging time. Note to self....if you don't know the area very well, take a GPS with you!!!  We also saw a nice sized bull elk while trying to find our way out.    

Continuing on with the grim subject of death, our lambs have gotten about as big as they are going to get. They haven't been invited to stay for winter. So these lovely pictures show them sharing the field with a neighbor's horses while we were all out chatting about their demise.

If Bennett had realized how close this horse was I doubt he would have stayed standing there. Sometimes he's even afraid of the sheep but other days he jumps around and roars at them. He's pretty pleased with himself when they run away.

This is a snapshot of our garden, the tiny peppers are ornamental plants. There are shorter ones with darker leaves and peppers and I grew the tri-color variety from seeds. These were pretty slow to grow but finally turned out how I'd hoped. I have taught the boys how to collect some flower seeds and some of the ones they planted in various locations have started to grow. We've been gathering seeds to start some low water plants to beautify the front of the empty lot.

It's been a decent year for our vegetable garden except the previously mentioned tiny tomatoes. Currently we have way too many cucumbers and we have been giving away cantaloupe right and left.  Thanks to my Dad's very productive apple tree, we have been bottling some delicious applesauce and I've started on tomatoes from his patch. We had the usual blackberries, raspberries, and peaches. I tried a new variety of butternut squash and we have a dozen or so huge ones, like 20 lbs each. So we'll be handing out some of those next month.

Last, and least, Jared and I painted my art studio at the beginning of the month. It is now "dolphin fin" gray, a good neutral tone. So I used one wall to display artwork of previous professors, local artists, and some dead people like Edgar Degas. I have been invited to exhibit some of my pastel paintings with several other artists for a show at Dixie University so I'll be getting back to work.