I just wanted to change that long blog. We have since been to Missouri and back deer hunting. My hands are so sore from butchering that I'm glad we didn't get an elk. Ha! Next week Steve and I will travel to Amber's to spend Thanksgiving with them and Carry. Hope you all have a very nice Thanksgiving!
Hi, Sis! Glad to hear you got some deer. I really wondered how you'd get an elk home anyway! Ha ha! It had to have been a great experience to be in those mountains. Glad you're going to Amber's again. Love you!
Steve, Ben,Rudy, Mike Norris and I got home safe and sound from Colo. on Sat. None of us got an elk, but it was a great experience. We got to take in the landscape of God's up close and personal. We saw some elk on our first day out, but they were too far away. All we could do was watch from a distance. Distance is the key word out there. Everything is on a vast scale. Our camp was located at the top a mountain overlooking drop offs and other mountains. So beautiful and so much to take in. My knees went weak and my stomach flopped to look over the edge. We had a group of 10 men camping next to us. They were from Mississippi and they had been coming there for 20 years. After about four days of hunting and not seeing anything else, they told us that this was one of the worst years they had seen. The elk had not moved into the area yet. They shot a few, but they had horses and mule where they could ride probably where no man had gone before. The landscape is also brutal! We would get up at 4:00 a.m. and slowly work our way down the mountain in the dark. Sometimes it got so steep that it felt like my toe nails were peeling backwards in my boots. Day after day we climbed up and down those mountains. And day after day I would tell myself " I can't take another step!" The altitude took our breath away. I was so glad when the guys would stop to take a break. I said out loud once, "Next to child birth, this is the hardest thing I have done in my life!" We saw plenty of mule deer. One morning I was sitting by myself and three came walking by close enough to hit with a rock. I just watched them and they moved on. A little later another one came out and saw me. I must have been sitting near their trail. She froze and stared at me for the longest time. I froze too and after awhile I couldn't stand it anymore and moved a little and she trotted off. It snowed on us two days. That dropped the temps into the teens. I was warm everywhere but my toes. One night coming back to camp, I realized I couldn't feel my toes anymore. When I got to the camper and took off my boots, they were dark red and swollen. It took a long time to warm them up and boy does that hurt. The next morning I crammed hand warmers into my boots. AHHH! On the next to the last day, Mike spotted over 125 elk off in the distance on another mountain. They were finally migrating down. When we all met back together, the guys decided to hike farther and figure out how to get to them. I couldn't go on and decided to stay behind. I sat by a mountain lake that was partially frozen and surrounded by snow. It was about 1:00 p.m. and the sun was blinding off the snow and water. I leaned back against a tree and stayed warm by the sun waiting for them to come back. It didn't take me long to realize I was getting sunburned. That lake was over 11,000 feet above see level. I had some chap stick in my pocket and started putting that all over my face. The guys came back a few hours later and hadn't found a way to get to the elk. (Glad I didn't go) We hunted one more day after that and still no elk. I guess that's how hunting goes.
One nice benefit we had was getting to worship with the Thetford's. It was about a two hour drive to the town where the church is. They meet in a nice room in a strip mall. They are a group of 7. The last time I had seen them, their oldest daughter was 17. Now she is 23. Their son Caleb is 12 and has was baptized
back in June. The youngest is 10. I remember her being this little red head girl in your Bible class, Aleta there in Indiana.
They asked me all about you, Aleta, Jacob and Katie. They have a very nice family. What an encouragement to take time out of our week and worship with them. Our trip back was beautiful. We saw so many types of mountains. Steep craggy ones, chunky rocky ones, rounded treeless ones, snow covered ones. And the lakes and streams that were around them were so blue. In one stream we followed along the highway, I could picture Gene out there fly fishing. We went through big horn sheep country but didn't see any. Then we got closer to Kansas and they were gone. The mountains were behind us and flat nothing was ahead. Now the people in the mountains say, "I love Kansas and the way you can see forever and the flat straight roads." And here we were sad to leave those beautiful mountains behind. That just gose to show that there is beauty in ALL God's creation!
Hi Carol. What an expierence that was. Sorry you didn't get any elk. That country is so beautiful, but can be brutal, as you found out. Glad y'all are home safe and hope the toes are okay. Love you.
I am doing okay, but I do miss my neighbors. You asked how did Daddy do it. Well he was probably younger than you are and they rode horses from the camp up into the mountains. Those horses were mountain horses and were very surefooted. He also spent a lot of time getting ready for the trip by running the stairs at work and you may remember, he would "ride" horizontal tank to get use to being in a saddle. Otherwise he would have been too sore to walk after the first day. You were very brave to do what you did. I remember when we went to Idaho, we stopped on top of a very high summet, I could not breathe very well. I did not like that feeling. Oh, Daddy was not elk hunting. They were mule deer hunting and he was the only one who got one. Too bad you were not hunting mule deer.
Glad you're home safely! Sorry no elk, but glad y'all had a great time! I'm sure y'all were quite an encouragement to the Thetfords and the group there!
don't forget the dog box next week! thank you for getting it! JB is going to take Molly home with him at xmas now since he will have a box to put her in at night. can't wait to see you next week! love you
Steve, Ben and I are leaving today for our Colorado elk hunt.
Steve has already checked ahead on the weather and it's suppose to snow next week where we are going. We will be up 10,000 feet above sea level. Hope I can breath, let alone walk the mountains and look for elk. I'm sure we will have some beautiful senery.
We found the church out there. It is where Ritchie Thedford is preaching. They are looking forward to us coming, for they are a small group. I feel like I have been packing for a major move. Sound familiar, Mama? I went and bought more thermal underware just in case. Keep us in your prayers. This will probably be a once in our life time hunt.
After this, deer hunting will be a breeze.
I just hope you don't have to use your ziploc bag of vaseline cottonballs...although I would be very interested to know if it worked!! I bet you will shoot the first elk of the hunt...and the biggest!
I did it. I went out into the wood this weekend and I fired my one shot. Fortunately it hit what I was aiming at through those little sites. Not exactly where I was aiming. It was almost dark and I was hunting by a little pond with steep sides and a deer ran over the edge to get a drink. I pulled back the little hammer thing, (CLICK) then froze. Then I pulled back the little trigger to set the hammer, (CLICK) the deer couldn't see me. This is a left handers gun. I don't know what makes it that except when I was trying to get the deer in the sites, the hammer was on the wrong side for me in my line of vision so I had to lean around it. Anyway, I pulled the trigger and a bright orange flash rolled out the end of the gun. It sounded like a little cannon. The deer flopped into the pond and splashed and splashed like a big fish. I sat there frozen until it stopped. Then I could breath again. It seemed like forever before Steve and Cade (he sat with Steve) came over to see. Steve had to tie a rope around it's neck and drag it through the water until we had a good place to pull it out. Cade was so excited. It was a doe.
Wow, I got excited just reading this. I could really picture it as I read your words. Good for you. I know what you mean about Daddy, he would have loved the story and been very proud of you. (Even though you got it with a muzzle loader, left handed no less. Ha Ha).
We met a friend of yours tonight, Ross Berry. He came up to us and asked if we knew a Carol Allen. I don't even know how he knew to ask us that....random. But he explained who he was and I made the connection that he was Julie's grandpa. Congratulations on your doe and with a "civil war" gun....wow!
Where the stumps sat heavy, it killed the grass, but otherwise, the grass was really green underneath areas where mainly branches laid. There's lots of places matted with leaves. It'll all bounce back in time. The streets are covered with fine debris now. Mama's yard is about the same, maybe some better. I think they decided it wasn't cinch bugs, but don't know what it is.
You know me, I am always ready to try a new adventure, even at my age. I went muzzle-loading (deer) hunting last evening with Steve. As far as I can remember, I think that was the first time I had ridden out to a deer stand with the air conditioner going.
It was warm windy and there were plenty of mosquitos. No deer.
This gun is a one shot Sally. Steve loaded it for me with that little steel ball and powder and what ever else and said "Are you ready? Here you are." HA! I've only shot a muzzle loader once, in hunter safety course. I felt as prepared for this new adventure as when I gave birth for the first time. I was almost relieved that I didn't see a deer. Neither did Steve. My gun di didn't have a scope (his did)and there were three things you had to do before you shot and only one chance. How did the men in the Civil war feel confident with that kind of weapon on a battle field?? I guess that's why so many died. I guess that's why they have improved weapons and battle tactics. So why are we out in the woods in 2008 with a muzzle-loader? This is one of those things only men understand. I will try again this weekend.
I've never even tried a shot gun (wimpy me). A muzzle loader seems more like a cannon. I guess the idea of one-to-load-and-one-to-shoot in the frontier days makes a lot of sense.
Well as far as the debris goes, all that turned out to be was 2 or 3 bulldozers and some men with brooms. They swept up some of the leaves in the street and in ten minutes were gone. The trees are still there. Mom and I think they did all that backward because when they pick up ALLLLLL the trees that came down in our neighbor, our street is going to need a major hose job!
Some men may understand. But I'm with you. why did gun inventors work so hard to improve on firearms? So they would stand a better chance of hitting what they were aiming at.
The last time I talked to Catherine I forgot to ask her if she had heard from Kim. But, I had asked her before I moved and had not heard from her in a while. She said the last time she talked to her she was going to go back to school in New Mexico. I will try and remember and ask Catherine the next time I talk to her.
