Hunting Season

Brock has enjoyed the last 2 MONTHS of hunting. He spent the first several weeks hunting for his Elk, which he got so now he is hunting for bears and deer. The last couple weeks have been primarily bear hunting with a couple days of deer hunting. He is still trying to go out before work and then again after work on days that it works. He has definitely toned it down A LOT from what he was doing. I still have to hear him say "I miss hunting or I'm sad I haven't been able to go hunting" which I don't find all that sad for him because he's still going out at least 2 times a week! He's a funny guy who is spoiled to be able to live somewhere he CAN hunt as much as he already does. Also, if everything works out we will be spending a weekend this month on the Salmon River fishing in the cold. He lives a very "posh" man life:)

Here are a couple of his hunting pictures he has taken in the wild:

Archery Hunt + Luck = Brock's First Bull!

(I grabbed this pic off of my buddy Mikelle's blog. Thanks Mik)

It's here...Hunting Season! Or like I like to think of it....Hunting Season/Scrapbook & Crafting Season! Brock participates in most of the hunts here so hunting starts the first part of September until the end of November at our house.

Brock has been nonstop with hunting since it started. He has been doing "two a days" for 4-5 days a week! He gets up early before work and then hits the mountain after work until dark. Needless to say I can totally wear the "hunting widow" label. Surprisingly enough, I don't mind it. I enjoy the time to myself to work on projects, clean, watch chick flicks and spend time with my friends. Maybe it would be different if we had kids to take care of but we don't so I am glad he gets this time to do what he loves.

This year Brock decided to chase elk instead of deer during the archery. With a lot of early mornings, late nights and scouting, he finally got his first bull. He went out with our friend Johnny B. who helped call in his bull. Brock said that everything went perfectly and that getting his bull with his bow was a total adrenaline rush. Brock got his bull at 15 feet broadside in the lung, which makes me happy because I know he died fast. It was starting to get dark so Brock and John quartered the bull and went back up the next day to retrieve the meat.

Brock butchered it in our garage and packaged the meat himself which saved us a lot of money. I'm not in love with the idea of having a dead thing in my garage or raw meat everywhere but I've trained Brock to keep things sanitized to keep me happy. He did an excellent job keeping things clean and Cloroxed! We have a FULL freezer of meat and he still wants to get a deer, who knows where we will put that?

I'm not really in love with hunting but I know the meat is cleaner, better and cheaper for us than most store bought meats, so I'm happy for Brock. Yay for Brock!

WARNING: DEAD PICS BELOW

 

Brock likes to do his own European Mounts and this time the whole neighborhood got to participate. Yeah...that's a turkey cooker that Brock is boiling the head in ...in our FRONT YARD! I was so embarrassed but then I realized that we live on a street full of elk hunters so they probably weren't judging. Seriously... how much more redneck can you get? We are totally there!

River Obsession

I'm totally amazed by water, I love watching it and hearing it. Lately I've been especially obsessed with the rivers near our home. The runoff this year was incredible and the high river waters were not typical. I got used to seeing the high waters for most of the summer but when it finally dropped I was equally amazed with how beautiful and clear the water is. I also was a little freaked out to see the "Mad Mile" of river that we floated revealed. I see now why the waves are so crazy through that stretch. Here are some before and afters....

House Rock Before....

 House Rock After....

 End of the Mad Mile Before...

 End of the Mad Mile After....

Just some random thoughts and pictures

Road Trip

Last weekend I made a quick trip to SLC to go through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple with my nephew who is leaving for his mission in October. It was really nice to spend a day in the Temple with him and my family.

Nick will be serving in Villa Hermosa, Mexico!!!

 I was in SLC over 9-11 and I spent that day remembering all the souls who perished on 9-11-01. I seriously can't believe it's been 10 years but I'm glad we are still healing and enjoying our freedoms. I'm grateful for this country and those who serve to protect us and our Freedoms.

Sandy City honors the 9-11 victims every year by flying a flag for each victim. When I drove by the memorial, I was overwhelmed by the site so I had to snap a picture.

Labor Day Weekend at Hebgen Lake!

Brock and I were stoked for a long weekend and definitely needed the mini vacation. We decided to stay somewhat local because Brock's parents were in the area and we planned on spending some time with them too.
We rented a Forest Service Cabin by Hebgen Lake for a night. We fell in love with this cool cabin and wished we had more than one night in it. That is ....until the lights went out and we were falling asleep, that's when our experience got a little tainted. Mice! All night long we could hear mice running and scratching in the walls and in the ceiling. We swear that there was a rat of some sort in the kitchen chewing through the cupboard. It was absolutely disgusting, and neither of us slept a wink... that is until the sun came up and the rodents went to sleep. Verdict= forest service cabin rocked during the daylight and I was glad to be in my tent the next night!

Puppies loved the fireplace

The weather was perfect at the lake and the water was glass almost the entire day! The boat ran about the same as the week before which was frustrating because Brock had put a lot of time and money into trying to fix it's problem. However, it ran well enough cruise all day but we couldn't take it over 35mph because it would pop and struggle. Poor Brock has been working on it all summer and now it's time to winterize it and he never got it running perfect.

The dogs really liked the boat this time

We fished on the Madison River and Beaver Creek on Sunday. It was beautiful weather but we didn't have a bite! I told Brock that we could fish all day and we still wouldn't get a bite because it was Sunday and we shouldn't have been fishing. After basically walking around in our waders and sweating in the sweltering weather, we went to track down Brock's parents. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with Brock's parents, Grandma and Aunts & Uncles in Island Park.

We had the coolest camp spot: 1. It was free 2. It wasn't in a campground 3. It was by the lake
The one downfall to the weekend (besides the mice and not catching fish) was that our tent officially died. The zipper has been on the fritz but it finally gave up and we had to duct tape the sucker shut at night, which made going to the bathroom really tricky. So, the tent is going in the trash...tear...sniff...

Dead skunk in the road....yes a stuffed one. The dogs scored a new toy!

Monday on the way home we fished the Gally on a few pretty sweet spots that we've been eyeing for a looong time. The Gally was a little crowded which is annoying but we enjoyed it!



Boat Trip

We took a trip out to the lake to run the boat after Brock had done some work on it. It ran okay but there was still some hiccups that needed to be tweaked. It was a short trip but it felt good to spend a few hours in the sunshine!

Lots of Fishy Business

We finally have gotten out to do some fishing this month. Brock has definitely done more than I have but we've gone out together a few times.
First there was the Yellowstone River....

Yes, this is a partially knocked over power line. The high waters this year did a number on this post and we had to float by it. It was totally bouncing in the current as we passed it, it was clearly unstable. I was pretty nervous about it but we survived.

Then there was a night on the Upper Madison....

Brock has a nice customer that owns the Montana Spirit Lodge and 40 acres on the Madison. He invited us out to his place to fish and stay in their lodge. We decided to take him up on his offer and went out to fish but didn't spend the night because of church the next day.
We got there and visited with the owner and his wife and toured their super nice lodge. After visiting we geared up and headed down to the river. The fishing was pretty good, we caught a lot a little fish.
After fishing we headed back up to the lodge and they fed us dinner and dessert. They are such nice people!

Next was Brock's trip to Idaho....
 Our friend the Doctor, invited Brock on a man's fishing trip in Idaho. So Brock and Daegan fished like mad men all day and caught a ton of fish.

Brock & fish

The Doc with his fish

Lastly, Hyalite Lake...

This week we went up to the lake for FHE with some pals and roasted Hog Dogs and made S'mores. The lake looked amazing!

Meanwhile...

I had to snap a pic of this huge ....tractor?....what ever it is, because I couldn't believe they were seriously driving it on the road. Really? Only in Montana!

We left the dogs in the car while we ran into the store. While we were gone, Boog delicately pulled his new box of treats out of the grocery sack, placed it on my seat, opened the box at the perforated tab and enjoyed a delicious treat!