To Remember

After a fun-filled day of meetings yesterday...oh I'm not kidding...it was a day of: "how things are changing / how we should adapt / we appreciate all your hard work / feel fortunate to have a job."  I love those kinds of meetings.  Also, in order to try and save money, they're asking us how we can save money on paper.  And ink.  And PENS for chrissake!  Ugh.

I went home and noticed the mini-fridge wasn't closed completely due to an abnormally large chunk of ice that's accumulated over the past year or so in the cooling element.  Well, I was already pretty frustrated so I thought (and actually said this out loud), "This is the one thing today I can actually FIX!"  No kidding...cue the "Jaws" music.

So there I was, banging on this abnormally large chunk of ice with a hammer.  Felt good, but wasn't getting me very far and was just spraying minute particles of ice all over the place.  Solution?  Get a screwdriver and "carve" the ice out.  Things started out really well and I was making progress; already I had visions of a nice clean mini-fridge without having to wait for it to just thaw over the course of a day!  Smallish chunks of ice were still what I was getting so I took a bigger bite with the screwdriver.  Pounding, pounding, pounding..."boy this ice is hard".... pounding, poundi  shpreeeeeeeeeee!!!  Yup.  I had the screwdriver lodged against the freon "coil" so to speak and put a dandy hole in it.  All I could think of doing was to shove that screwdriver HARD against the hole to keep it under relative control until the spraying died down.

You can imagine I was pretty happy by that point. 

But then I noticed my hands had a strange oil / gas / petroleum smell from whatever the hell was spraying out.  Being me, I went to the garage and got the kiddy pool we got for Lucca this past summer (that she doesn't use) and used that outside as my "containment" device.  When Sarah got home, she helped me get the whole shebang into the bed of the truck, where it currently resides, and slides around the bed at every opportunity. 

Overall, I guess I did "fix" it since a.) the ice is probably melted out of the broken machine by now and b.) No fridge = no ice!  Jeeez.  I remember a quote from the Foreign Legion:  "When things are bad, try not to make them worse because they're probably bad enough already."  (or something like that)

Okay, that done, it turned into another morning of being up at 0300 and thinking about work.  Once I got my day straightened out, I was able to fall back asleep.  Then I found out that my alarm clock will only spend so much time trying to wake me up...I only remember hitting the snooze four times, then I slept soundly until light flooded in the window...come on, it was only 0645.  Sh*t.  Late for work.  But I forced myself to lay there so I could remember this really peculiar dream I had, which is really why I'm writing this.

Remember in grade school watching the video of mitosis?  The two little cells start doing weird things, then stretch and separate?  The dream started like that, then went to this: 

So imagine that as yourself.  Every time you make a decision, you create a twin.  You take the path of your life right now, and your "twin" takes the other path.  This happens over and over and over, and you create more and more twins...and your twin creates more and more twins.  Very quickly there are an uncountable number of "yous" living very different lives.  It looks like a dichotomous key in a sense...and some "yous" terminate....but others keep going.  But none every pass YOU...you all move together on the same moving timeline, in a parallel line...moving up.  (I don't know why I visualized up, but this "model" started as a single entity at the bottom...so that's what it is.)  Now you can only live ONE life, but when dreaming, you can live the other paths through your "twin."  That was basically the extent of the dream.

Think about it, it's kinda interesting.



Now think, "this is the kind of sh*t that Tom dreams about." 

Welcome to my world.

Hunting Karma

Saturday morning found Jason and I up and at 'em at 0330, meeting at 0430, and heading down the lake to another one of our duck hunting spots.  The boat ramp that we usually utilize to get the canoe into the water is under construction; it cuts down on the other guys in there, but makes launching a pain in the butt.  Well, we're standing there at five in the morning and see a boat out on the lake, motoring toward "our" bay...there really is no where else to go in there.  And...there is one primo spot that were were confident he would set up in.  After about 30 minutes of paddling on our 2-mile trip in, we saw headlamps in the good spot, so decided to pick our way up the creek a little ways and set up on a deep bend.  Once it got to be shooting light, we realized we were actually fairly close to them...probably within 400 yards, and felt a little bad about it.  But these guys had two of those "robo ducks" that utilizes a little motor to turn the wings of a decoy on a stick; the flash of those wings brings birds in in droves!  (Neither one of us is really a fan of mechanical decoys, but watching this thing work is tempting.) 

Being the nice guys that we are, we would notice all the ducks and geese working that guy's spread, so when they'd come in range, turning over us, we'd let them go.  Now I'll tell ya right now, we're the kind of hunting neighbors you want.  I've had people shoot at birds that were working MY decoys and it gets extremely irritating.  We had a single teal come in and land in front of us.  Again, Jason stood up and she wouldn't fly.  When she finally did, he nailed her a foot off the water.  I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and simply said, "Jason.  That was RUDE."  That got us giggling, but we finally had a duck.  There were plenty of birds in the air, but either they were out of range or going to the other guys, so our morning was pretty slow.  We'd watch these birds and geese buzz him well within range, and he wouldn't shoot!  These guys would wait until the birds were on the water, every single time, before they'd shoot.  It was bizarre and kinda drove us nuts since we weren't getting any shooting in.  But...they were collecting ducks (and one goose) and we weren't, whatever works for you I guess.

Things finally slowed down and we decided to paddle up the creek to try jump shooting the pocket birds.  That yielded us no birds, but it's entertaining to just paddle up there.  We finally got to where we couldn't go any further and suddenly I found my RIFLE in my hands and us hiking up the hill to a good vantage point of the marsh / brush / hillside.  (Yes, this was a true combo trip.)  We'd seen a BIG doe earlier, but I was still in duck hunting mode and didn't feel like chasing her at that point.  Well, we sat up there for a while and saw nothing but a little yearling doe.  But after a while, we watched the other fellas through the binoculars (half a mile away) picking up their decoys!  They were heading out!  Then we saw Fish and Game motor up the creek and eyeball our decoys and stuff we left at our spot.  They then went up the creek and threw a white buoy....backed down the creek and threw another one.  What the heck? 

Coming back down the creek



The only photos I got since it's hard to paddle the boat from the front.  Looks nice up that creek doesn't it? 

It was about one o'clock and we decided we were going to move to that other guy's spot and make it a full day.  We were getting close to our decoys when I saw a big doe skylined on the hill above us.  Hunters education stuck with me and I decided not to shoot without having a backstop.  We moved further down the creek and another doe gave me an incredible shot, stopping in the open at a little over a hundred yards.  Something felt "off" so I didn't shoot, but that's when the yearling followed her out.  Very proud of my decision, we picked up our decoys when I looked up on another hill and saw a different doe run by!  Usually that's a sure sign of something chasing her, so I quickly got set up and Jason had the binoculars out.  Then he said, "There's orange boundary paint up there.  I don't remember that.  Hey Tom, that's some guy's orange hat!"  I quickly dropped the rifle off my shoulder, unloaded and said, "I'm done deer hunting.  Let's go get some ducks."  Now, this guy wasn't close to where I was pointing the rifle (75 yards away from that spot), but he popped out close enough to make me uncomfortable...and HE was what the doe was running from, with him on her trail.  No thank you.  Karma take one.

We found out the Fish and Game had thrown a gill net into the creek for a fish survey, which I've never seen before.  I've only seen them shocking.  Learn something new every day I guess.  But, we did know they were in the area...

So we're paddling the little ways out the creek and across the bay to this new spot when we see a boat in the distance motoring towards us!  It was going to be a race to our new spot!  (Jason has had people motor in front of him to where he was going.  No kidding.)  We frothed up the water and made it there just as these guys pulled up on the throttle and idled up the creek...it was the Fish and Game checking their net.  Again we got set up, and they left...never checking us.  I said, "they probably saw two dudes, two miles up the lake from the nearest access, in a canoe, and figured we were legit."  That'd be a lot of work to break the law.  Okay, in this guy's blind I sat on a nice rock, positioned just right, with a forked stick in front of it.  It was in the way and we both wondered why they needed a stick stuck in a cairn to lean their shotguns on.  I put my shotgun in the forked stick from where I sat and it was a perfect rest.  Finally we put it all together and figured out this other person was likely disabled!  (I've seen that done before at the trap range in Hauser.)  Thus the reason he was shooting them on the water!  We felt extremely grateful that we were good people and didn't spoil that guy's hunt...he darn near limited out on ducks and got a goose to boot!  Karma take two.

Long story longer, the birds came back with a vengeance!  But NOTHING would try to set down or pass within range of us.  It got comical after the first hour of this and we were running out of light quickly.  I jokingly said, "I'll get them to come in" which usually happens when you're in the water messing around with the decoys.  The commotion on the water actually seemed to get some attention, so there we were (both of us) standing out in the lake, wiggling our legs around to make ripples.  The sun was setting off to our left and we saw a sunset rainbow on the right!  It was simply a red rainbow...never seen that before either.  It got dark and no ducks or geese had come in range, so we unloaded and started packing up at the time we figured shooting light was over.  Of course.  OF COURSE that's when a huge flock of geese, countless widgeon, and a bunch of mallards flew within range.  We laughed; and cursed.  Jason sat there with a shell still palmed in his hand, poised to drop into the barrel and he summed it up when he put it in his pocket and said, "No.  I can't do it." 

Right then, a boat on the other side of the bay, a boat we didn't know was there, fired up and took off up the lake.  It wasn't, but it could have EASILY been Fish and Game keeping an eye on us.  One shot and we'd have been done for.  Karma take three.

Well, it was pitch dark by then but calm so the paddle out was nice, easy, and quiet.  Every once in awhile we'd both stop paddling and just drift there, smelling the tangy woodsmoke from fireplaces being started up and listening to the coyotes howl their welcome to the night.  I didn't pull the trigger the entire day, but I've got to tell you, I felt extremely pleased and comfortable with how everything played out.  We had a total of 7.5 miles of paddling, we got up at 3:30 a.m., finally got home at 7:00 p.m., and had been sitting in the rain for about half the day.  Sleep came easily for me that night.

But wait!  Then Sunday rolled around and I went on an evening deer hunt.  I saw absolutely no deer and no sign, but right before dark heard something moving in on me.  I blew on my grunt tube and got ready for something that never showed itself, time to move in on IT!  I crept up over the top of a hill and saw the culprits, a veritable herd of turkeys!  One big one with a bunch of big small ones (Make sense?  They were the early clutch from this spring, still with mama.)  At ten yards I pulled up on them and had one dead to rights with a perfect head shot.  My finger started to squeeze....Tom, you aren't supposed to shoot them with a rifle....finger relaxed....screw it....finger tightened, tightened....what do I do....

buzzz!!! buzzzzz!!! buzzz!!!

My phone, in my pocket, was buzzing.  I put the safety back on and dug it out...guess who?  It was Butch!  I simply told him he'd make a GREAT game warden because his timing just kept me from breaking the law.  Karma take four.

Overall, a DARN good weekend for learning, listening to my gut, and following my instincts. 

Duck Season in North Idaho

After my first "outing" concerning ducks, I decided to give it another go in earnest.  Shake off the skeletons of the potentially wounded duck and move on.  This time I was determined to TAKE MY TIME and plant my cheek on the stock.  So, there we were, paddling up the river at o'dark thirty to get to our secluded rice field (that airboats can't access.)  We got set up in plenty of time to make a makeshift blind and have a cup of coffee.  The first thing moving were teal and one came dodging and zooming into our pond before we could even blink.  Jason and I looked at each other like, "what should we do?"  Well, I couldn't see it, so he decided to jump up and try to get it taking off the water.  It didn't get up.  So now wha....BOOOM! 

Following that, no other ducks decided to fully make a landing.  But they'd come in and cup their wings and buzz us, then circle around and buzz us again, each time getting lower and lower.  I'll tell you, it was hard not to look up at them...I kept telling myself, "let THEM come into YOUR field of view Tom."  The first group was a bunch of mallards and I was able to pull my first duck of the year out of the sky!  Unfortunately, he was down but not out, so I had to run through thigh deep mud and catch up to him...talk about a workout!  I eventually tackled him and took care of it, simply dripping sweat.  But I was pretty excited, I hadn't held my own duck in a long time.  After slogging back to the blind, we both were able to do some shooting, and that led us back out to where I had just been, chasing after Jason's pintail.  Luckily he had the honors that time. 

This went on for awhile until I flight of three teal came buzzing through.  Now, it was amazing and I impressed myself, because I was able to hit one of those pretty little rockets and drop it at about 40 yards.  Then the trouble began.  I waded out there to get it, but after a lot of walking around and searching I turned up nada.  Jason came out to help look and our commotion on the water kept attracting more and more flights.  SO, whilst looking for the teal Jason said, "Tom, now!"  I was slightly confused but tracked his barrel at some nice mallards right above us.  Again, amazingly, I hit one heading out and it also fell like a sack...and boy, it was one of those big northern drakes.  Brilliant colors on those critters.  But I still needed to find the teal!  After about an hour, I was going to call it quits because I was getting plain worn out.  But we had found a little high spot in the marsh and took a break to pull our socks up off our toes, all the while talking about how THAT would be a good spot to set up.  Fortunately, on the way back, Jason was able to find a single feather on the water that led him to my teal...perfectly concealed in the flooded rice.  I could have hugged him when I finally sweated my way back into the blind, but contented myself with praise and admiring my first-ever teal.  Shortly after, Jason added another big drake to the bag and the flights slowed considerably, so we called it a day.  Seven ducks total in a couple hours!  I never realized what a pleasant feeling it is to haul a decoy bag out with a bunch of ducks on top, but from what Jason said, it was a nice feeling.  (See how that worked?  I pulled the bag without the birds.)

I forgot, Jason had a great shot at another drake

It's a nice spot before it freezes

Following that, we had a wonderful forecast of winter storm warnings, 20 mph north winds, and generally just nasty weather.  Unfortunately, it was AFTER the blasted time change, so rising at 0300 was in order.  Luckily it was Jason's turn to drive, so I was able to focus on coffee on the 45 minute drive down there.  This time we were going to set up on that little rise in the swamp and just hunker with minimal decoys...trusting the birds to just want to be there.  Well, while we were mucking our way through the thigh deep swamp and rice at four thirty in the morning we jumped HUNDREDS of birds off our spot!!  I don't even know how to describe the sound of flapping wings, quacking, feather-on-feather noise, and the rush of wind as the invisible birds came off the water.  Excited, we set up and watched the piles burning on the far hill in front of us.  Then the forecast proved to be false and the sky opened up into a relative blue, the fog dissipated, and all the birds that went by were high.  But boy the birds!  Flocks of hundreds, separated in little groups of ten or more came over in droves.  We had a couple come in low, but for some reason neither one of us could shoot worth a darn...I think we were in awe of the numbers we were seeing.  Our saving grace came in with three widgeon (wigeon....they are both technically correct, but I'm thinking I like it with a "d" better.)  We each got one coming in and Jason tracked the third on the way out and changed her plans for her.  Three birds in five seconds, now that's the way to do it! 


Our "limit" for the day and my first widgeon!

Nothing much happened after that and we were getting downright cold.  Heck, I was walking through the swamp just to keep warm...doing pushups and squats on the high spot....and not gaining much warmth.  Since everything was flying high, we went on a walk to check out a slough we knew of.  That eventually led us about a mile from our decoys, but we got to explore some country and see what it all looked like, oh...and get warm! 

Our tiny island in the rice

 

That pile was GOING in the morning...it was the size of a house.  No kidding.  That hill was where I got my first-ever turkey last year.  Proving to be a swamp of firsts for me!




Kind of a classic photo

 

I like that time of morning in a swamp

  

Getting creative?


Sure enough, as soon as we got back to town around two, the weather moved in.  It started snowing, the clouds dropped, and it became perfectly ducky.  But, we had made a promise to be out by a certain time and we had already been late...so, it is what it is.

All in all, I've had better luck this season than I really ever have in all my weird years of duck hunting.  (Duck "educating" as I've come to call it.)

And we finally got our snow, so this weekend I focused on deer hunting.  I got into absolutely nothing, but Jason took a long paddle to another one of our duck spots, and sent me this!


We both love the idea of coming back in with a buck in the canoe.  (And no, to answer your question, he had a rifle with him too.) 


We're going back out there this weekend to see what we can get into...