Permanent Visitors?

Sometimes I wonder when things come into our lives if they are a test or just a part of life-maybe both.  The other night I was woken up by barking outside of my window-my dogs were in the house so this was not normal.  I looked out my window and thanks to a full moon, I was able to clearly see 2 LARGE white dogs who were very happy to see me.  Now, it is 2 in the morning, my bed is warm and cozy but there are 2 very big dogs that I have never seen outside my window-what do I do?  Of course, I get up, put my boots, coat and hat on, grab a flashlight and head out to go say 'hi'-after all, I have lots of critters that could make wonderful snacks for such large dogs and I didn't want any of that!  They were very friendly and happy to see me so I thought that I would just show them the gate and send them on their way-I always have a hard time with this because I would hate to see them hurt but do I try to call the Sheriffs Office to have someone pick them up-I hate seeing them go to the pound too, or do i let them stay not knowing how they are going to behave with all of the other critters here?  Anyhow, one of them wouldn't follow me to the gate-he seemed set in staying so I thought I would put them in the kennel and deal with them come morning-this didn't agree with both of them either. So, after strict instructions that they were not to kill anything, I left them and went back to bed(I didn't sleep well knowing they were out there) but to my surprise they curled up and went to sleep right out the window and were happy to see me again come morning. 

The next morning, since they were still here, presented another 'problem'-my dogs. How is everyone gonna get along?  I decided that on opposite sides of the fence was the way to do introductions.  Thankfully, everyone had tails waggin and didn't seem to mind and so the gate was open and the 'visitors' came on in to the yard. Now what?  We find the owners!

I went and woke the girls up so they could come see them and hang out with them while I fed everybody else-by this time they all thought they were starving.  The girl's were immediately 'in love' with these dogs, which by the way are puppies-90+ pounds of puppy!!

It didn't take long to discover that these were truely gentle giants who loved all the affection they were getting and before long, names were thought of just in case the owners are not found.

 It was very obvious that these pups had never been in a house before as they took a little persuasion, pushing and pulling to get them in but they have now discovered that inside is a cool place to be.

                                                             Gentle giants!!                
                              



                                                       House dogs?  They seem to think so!!

So let me introduce you to Stuart and Grant. Yes, they've been named after Civil War officers.

This Year, Its a Girl Thing

October!!!  Hunting Season-one of my favorite fall activities and this year I was able to experience it with Jessie, but before I go on, let me go back to the events that lead up to this years hunting.

Jessie: Mom, I want to get my hunter's safety so I can go hunting.

Me: Ummm....okay(I'm shocked that she is asking me this and honestly think that she will change her mind)I'm thinkin', "Well, it would be good for her to go ahead and get it-good skills and things to know even if she never hunts.  She has such a tender heart that I dont' think that she could actually shoot a deer, she can't even watch the chickens get butchered."

Jessie: a couple weeks later, "Am I going to be doing hunter safety? I really want to hunt."

Me: "Yep, I'll get you signed up and go get your work book that you have to have done before the class."

So, I get her signed up, got her book and we went to work on getting it done-it was a group effort from all family members.  The book was a whole lot longer and more thorough then it was when I took it-not something to wait until the last minute to get it done. However, Jessie did very well with getting it done and before we knew it, it was time for the class.  The class was 8hrs long split over 2 evenings-it actually only lasted around 6hrs total-had lots of room for improvement is all I'm going to say.  What I am going to say is that Jessie past the test and received her Hunter's Safety card-she was stoked to say the least and so was I. The next part was to register her hunter's safety with NDOW and then start the application process for tags. We all applied for tags but only Jessie and myself were successful in drawing; we both got deer tags. Being that Jessie is a 'youth', she was able to apply for a 'junior or youth' tag that is only available for mule deer and if successful she can harvest either a buck or a doe; my tag was buck only.

Okay, so we find out that we are successful with tags in June but have to wait till October to hunt-no biggy, summer flew by!!

Opening day, Jessie and I go out and find some does right away but she wants to get a buck-she wants something on the wall.  So we pass the does and take off walking looking for a buck. After a couple hours with no bucks in sight we head back to the truck and now Jessie is thinking that maybe a doe is the way to go.  I told her that it was her choice, there is nothing wrong with harvesting a doe after all, my first deer was a doe but, this is her hunt and if she wants a buck, we'll try to find one.  As we get back to the truck, there are a bunch of doe's back where we saw the first ones earlier today. We watch them for a while hoping that if we look hard enough, long enough one of them will sprout antlers-that didn't happen and there was never a clear shot so we headed home for lunch.

I made a couple phone calls that afternoon to see if Jessie could hunt on a ranch that belongs to some friends-the manager said yes, so out we went that evening.  We walked in to the meadow and found a place to sit and watch. After about 20min, the deer started coming out of the willows, including a buck but they were on the far side-way to far away for a shot.  We tried to get closer but were unsuccessful that evening.

Day 2;  Jessie and I went out the next morning and she had decided that she was going to shoot the first doe or buck that gave her a shot to which I reminded her, that if really wanted a buck, we would find one and that she had all month-no hurry.  We went back to the first spot we had gone to the day before and didn't see anything so we took the long way back to the meadow by the ranch.  We parked the truck and took off walking. There was nothing obvious in the meadow when we first got here so we made out way to some trees to take a break and get a snack-that break was quickly shortened when the bulls that were in the trees too took off running into the meadow and into the willows which in turn scared up the same deer we had seen the night before.  We quickly grabbed our stuff and made our stalk.  The deer had gone back into the willows and the bulls had gone the other way. I knew that the deer would lay back down and that we would be sitting there for hours so I set Jessie up in a spot that she could see the whole meadow and I took off walking on the back side of the willows to see if I could get the deer out  into the meadow-this kind of worked for a second and then back in they went. As I came around out of the willows, I motioned to Jessie to move up to another spot and we would try again. She took a few steps and then motioned to me to wait, pointed to the hillside, crouched down, took aim and right before she shot, I found the deer with my binoculars and then BANG!!!

Jessie got her first deer with one shot at 100yds-dropped right in its tracks!!

I couldn't of been prouder- I was literally jumping up and down!!

I have to admit, I really didn't think she was going to be able to pull the trigger once she had one in her sights but boy did she prove me wrong and now she thinks she is ready to hunt antelope and elk-that' my 'little mini-me'!!   Not only did she do great hunting, she handled everything that goes with it like a pro-gutting, picking ticks off, dragging it a half a mile, etc.....it was a great day!!!

So now that the most important tag of the season had been filled, we took the next day off before I started to hunt for my deer. This year, we also had company hunting with us, our Uncle Bill. He had a tag for the same area as me and had been hunting but so far with no success.  My first day out, we did see a couple of small bucks but nothing that neither of us were willing to shoot or never gave me a shot however, like always, the time spent outdoors getting to see some amazing country is always worth the time spent whether I get my deer or not. 

In the mean time, in between hunting with Jessie and other things around the house we had been making some phone calls to see if we could hunt some private land on the river.  We were granted permission and so that evening we went out.  It was more of a scouting trip as we were not familiar with the area but we did see a really nice buck at about dark and figured that's where we would come back to the next morning. 

Morning came and out we went. Things were looking promising when all of a sudden we heard 3 gunshots, an ATV and some really noisy people.  Needless to say, our hunt was ruined by 4 kids on one ATV that tried to shoot the buck we saw the night before. After Bryan talked to the kids in a very professional but nice manner, they left(they were told to get permission as we were asked to 'run' anyone off that was down there without permission) we headed back to the truck and then home.  We decided that we would spend the rest of the day at home working on some projects and enjoying Bill's company since he was planning on leaving the next day. 

Well, if you know me even a little bit, you would know that I would jump at the first opportunity to go back out if it came and.......it did! Sara said that she would go with me for and evening hunt.  There wasn't really anything at the house for me to help with or that the guys couldn't handle so I got ready and when Sara got to the house, we loaded up and were gone.

Where we were going, wasn't very far from the house and shortly after we got through the gate and down the road a bit I saw the un-mistakable white butt and very large antlers of a buck!  I stopped the truck, turned it off, grabbed my gun, quietly opened the door, slipped out, chambered a round and started sneaking around the truck all the while, Sara is quietly getting out to to see this deer that she hadn't seen yet.  As I made my way around the truck to the fence, I honestly didn't think he would still be there since we were only about 50yds away; surely he would of took off into the willows after the truck stopped even though he couldn't see it. I was wrong.  He was still there nibbling away completely oblivious to us being there.  After getting to a spot that gave me a clear shot, I waited for him to turn honestly thinking that he would just mosey back into the willows; by now Sara is there with me, watching and thinking the same thing-he needs to turn.  Then, he did just that and without hesitation, I pulled the trigger and after a 20ft run, he dropped!  I had just shot one of the biggest deer I had ever seen(there is an exception but that's another story).  I was stoked!! 

While he doesn't have much for points, he makes up in sheer mass and a good spread of 26inches.

Yes, we were not far from the truck and he actually ran a bit closer before he fell but did I mention that we were on opposite sides of the river?

 Yea, were had the river to get across.  Thankfully, cell service worked where we were at and we got a hold of Bryan and Bill to come help us. Sara and I could of got him home, but why waste the energy when you have willing and able men to come help?  He he he he he. 

We actually couldn't go straight to the truck because of the steep bank and fence so Bryan found a way to get the truck through a gate and then we took him through the river and willows(that was a chore!!) and then eventually to the truck. 

This hunting season has definitely been a 'girl thing' as far as harvesting the deer go but was made a great success by the help of many people to which we are extremely grateful.

Tri-County Fair

 Well, we made it to fair time and it was not a smooth trip.  Athena did the great 'explode' one day and we thought for sure she was gone and this was going to be the end, however, Jessie stuck to it and continued to work with her and it payed off.  Athena still wasn't sure about new people being around her, especially men-they always made her quite nervous.  Thankfully, we got some 'manly' help with her and 'desensitized' her to these 'scarey manly' figures before fair and it helped.

The week before fair, Jessie decided to do Athena's hair with a yellow rose-it was quite complimentary on a black heifer.

 At he fairgrounds in the barn after and 'explosive' unloading from the trailer.  The ride over had her pretty shook-up and we had to get one of those 'scarey manly' figures to help unload-it was all he could do to hold on-she was not impressed!

 Athena's company for the weekend.

Saturday morning of the fair-bath time early in the morning-brrrrrrr.  By now she was calming down quite well and lead for Jessie perfectly out to the wash-racks.

Ta-da!!!  All bathed and brushed!! Now to keep her clean the rest of the day.  The kids all stayed quite busy with keeping the areas around the cattle clean-they did a great job.

 The first class that she showed in was 'Showmanship'.  She did very well for her first show and Athena did great; she thought once about maybe pulling the 'great escape' but then seemed to relax and stick with Jessie. They really had quite a close bond that I thought was very unique and special.

Standin' her up for the judge-Athena did this very well.

Second class-yearling heifer.  She showed in this class with 3 other competitors; 2 of which were friends that she got Athena from.

Time to line up for the judge

She was even more relaxed this go around then the first and did great!

  All done for the day and without any 'explosive' behavior-it was a very successful weekend.

Sunday afternoon, Athena was very comfortable with her surroundings now.  It was a bitter-sweet moment though as we had decided to have Athena go back to the ranch instead of bringing her home.  The cost of keeping her was more then we were going to be able to do.  However, Jessie came home with a lot of new knowledge to consider for future times if cattle is something that she wants to pursue-the door isn't closed but is definitely not wide open right now.  Athena went home back to the ranch that she came from and can look forward to years there were Jessie can go visit.