Wow!

Well howdy there everyone!  I seem to be noticing a trend on blogger lately...a lot of folks just aren't posting as much as they used to.  Perhaps it's the economy forcing us all to work unreasonable hours (or not at all) and we just find more "important?" things to do?  Perhaps everyone is feeling slightly overwhelmed and depressed and writing just seems to bring it all to the forefront of their minds...best to not write and do that to themselves.  There are some lyrics of a song I like that say, "Better not to breath than to breath a lie."  Okay, it's just KINDA similar.

Me?  Yup...kinda all of that.  But then you factor in the daily tedious monotony / stress of work, illness, hunting season, and...wait for it....laziness, and that is more my reasoning.

But like I always say when I don't write for a while, I haven't just been idle since Labor day.  I went on a solo camping trip to the Northfork of the Clearwater in the pouring rain.  Fishing was just okay as the water was rising relatively quickly and getting murky, but it was a good trip overall.  I had a long absence from work that coincided exactly with our elk season.  Butch and I went back to the camp we were in a couple years ago and walked the hills flat.  We didn't see a SINGLE elk.  There was a lot of wolf sign and our nearest neighbor came over to show us his first wolf.  After a couple days of wearing ourselves out, I was just cresting a ridge when the first legal critter that I saw the entire time fell in my scope.  One thing led to another and I had a whitetail doe to get out of the woods.

I drug it down to the flats (down a cliff basically) then Butch and I hoisted it on a stick on our shoulders (yes, I felt very mountain-manly...but no photos!  Darnit!) to pack out to the creek.  Once at the creek, we got a long rope and drug her across.  Back on the stick and we hauled her to a nearby four-wheeler trail and got her to camp.  I'll tell ya, that doe ended up weighing about 600 lbs by the time we were back in camp!  It was a long ways back in there...and we were getting tired of lugging that critter around.  Things went smoothly and once home, got it all cut up and now I have the hide tanning!  Yep, my first attempt at actual tanning.  The cold weather is making it tough so I keep taking it back and forth from my cruddy shed to Butch's heated shop.  I THINK it's going alright....but it's an experiment.

And, we just got back from a steelhead trip on the Snake.  I was finally able to give Ray his rod (which he likes) and he caught a 7 lb steelhead on it that we were able to keep.  The next day Butch got into a bigger steelhead that we had to throw back.  George and I never got one hooked...I never even had a nibble!  But, we saw big mule deer, a lot of bighorn sheep, salmon spawning in the shallows, and even a quad-rotor drone checked us out.  (THAT my friends, is creepy.  I hid in the cabin and Ray stood on the deck and flipped it off.  It ended up flying a mile, over a ridge, and was gone.  It made absolutely NO sound.)

Of course, for the steelhead trip, I forgot my backback which had my cameras in it...so I have to wait on some photos.

BUT, here's a smattering of the various trips!  Happy Thursday!

Camp on the Northfork

Guess what's inside?  First dinner at hunting camp

 

I can't get this rotated correctly (blogger) so here it is!  Pizza on the grill!

 

Ooh, I found a dandy shed one day

That's a big boy!  It was a pain hauling that thing out on my fanny pack!

2013 deer

Pretty deer

Back at camp

Tenderloins for dinner!

It got pretty frosty up there at night

The hide tacked out to dry

Salting (I trimmed it down to make it easier to work with)

Tanning paste applied (basically alum and flour)

And covered with plastic to keep it from drying out

Right now I've got the paste off the hide and the oil applied.  Now it just needs to dry and and then I'll "stake" it to make it soft.  I sure hope it turns out okay, it's a really pretty hide.  This would be quite a skill to have if I get it right!  The next one will be to make buckskin...using the brain tanning method!

Well, there you go.  A quick and dirty recap of the last two months!

Oh no, wait!  I forgot Ray sent me a photo from our last night on the river:

We had an awesome storm move through that afternoon, then it started to clear up as the sun was going down.  It was gorgeous!  (Don't worry, I HAVE shaved since then.)