CATCHING UP

It has been a rather eventful couple of months! There has been so much going on, it seems like. Matthew went down by Blanding for the bow hunt this year. He got a call 2 days before the hunt started and they told him that he drew out for the San Juan unit...which he obviously hadn't been scouting for because he thought he was hunting in Logan. He was kind of stressed about that but very excited as well. This is a limited entry hunt (they only give out so many tags a year) and there are supposed to be a lot of really good sized bucks down there.

The first weekend he chased a four point...had a good shot, but didn't take it because he figured he's see something bigger. I think he still wishes he had shot that deer because the only thing bigger he saw that weekend was a bear! He was out looking for deer and he found some cow elk. So he was watching them when he heard a big crash in the trees and a black bear came running toward him like 60 yards away. Thankfully he was next to his four wheeler so he got on that and drove away. I was pretty scared when he was telling me about it. I can't imagine how he felt!

The next weekend he went down there, I got to go with him! It was GORGEOUS down there! Big ponderosa forests and quakies. Lots of cows and the only deer we saw were right off the side of the road. We hiked sometimes but didn't see anything off the fourwheeler. It was crazy. These are pretty stupid deer--just asking to be shot!

Like I said, I wasn't great about the camera but here are a couple examples of how close they were! This was us driving in the truck!

We were driving down the road, just kinda looking around...not really expecting to see anything, when all of a sudden we saw five awesome bucks. One was a huge four point. They just stood there and looked at us as we drove by. So we parked the four wheeler and tried to stock them for a minute, but something spooked them. So we chased them for a minute and they started heading back in our direction, and then got spooked again. We decided to find a spot to hide and wait for them. So we started walking (getting farther away from the fourwheeler) and we heard a noise behind us. We turned around and there was a cinnamon black bear. My heart started beating a million miles and hour and the only weapon we had was a bow. If I was in charge of the bow, I don't think I'd be accurate enough in a situation like that to kill anything! I was so scared! He looked small enough that he might have had a mother somewhere. I didn't like the thought of that. Matthew told me that he was probably old enough to be on his own, though. Anyway, he stood there and looked at us for a while as we were walking away from him. Then he took off running in the oposite direction. I couldn't believe how fast he made it as far as he did. He was so fast! It was pretty cool, but I was really bummed that I didn't get a picture! He was so cute!

I did get a picture of his footprint!

Well, it turns out that I didn't bring much luck to Matthew. We came home with no deer again, but I did get some pretty pictures and we had a ton of fun!

These are called the Bears Ears. It's near where we set up our camp!

We didn't get back to our camp until after dark every night, so in order to cook our gourmet dinner of Oscar Mayer weiners, we needed a fire. We only had one minor set back. We forgot matches. So, we used the next best thing...




A FLARE!!!

My husband is a genious!

And dinner was

delicious!

So, Matthew tried again. He and some buddies went back for a couple of days, again, with no luck. Although, I would consider him kind of lucky because he got out of teaching sunday school. It was our first Sunday teaching, and he was hunting, so I had to do it by myself!!! I wasn't angry, but I definately felt like he owed me one! I made him teach last week by himself!

Haha!

So, he tried one more time. This time he went down there with his friend Brady. He was determined to shoot something (hoping to get a four point, or the massive 28 inch two point we saw...or something exciting.) I guess he had the right attitude, because he shot something. It just wasn't exactly the big buck that he wanted.

I was really excited though! And he was happy to have shot something!

The deer down there are well fed, that's for sure. He was such a fat deer!

He's a pretty cute little three point, and he was starting to get cheaters on both sides, so he's really not bad!

As you can see in the other picture, Matthew dug up all of our potatoes and carrots, and picked some more tomotoes (which we are still getting more of) and some more squash and zucchini (which we are also still getting more of) and our onions! Then, he put his deer head in the mix. Boys.

So, we still have tons of potatoes and hopefully our tomoatoes and squash quit producing here pretty quick! Matthew's mom and sisters made 14 pints of salsa, and some spaggheti sauce, and some stew (using all of the russet potatoes and carrots...don't worry we still have tons of red potatoes and yukon gold potatoes) while they were here. Then I canned 4 pints of pizza sauce, and this weekend Matthew and I canned 14 pints and 6 quarts of salsa, and 12 pints of deer meat. Hopefully we are set for the winter!

Matthew is headed out this weekend and next for the elk hunt so wish him luck!