Scouting for Elk

Bob and I took a couple of horses and went to scout an area on the Idaho Wyoming border over the weekend. We got there Friday around dark and set up camp. I tried going to sleep around 11 because we were getting up at 6 but I was so excited that I only got 2 or 3 hours of sleep. We had breakfast and saddled up the horses and finally took off around 9:30 because of an issue of where we had parked. In the first 10 minutes of going down a dirt road looking for a pack trail my horse stopped all of a sudden and looked to the right and so did I and I saw a big bull moose in the trees but it only lasted a couple of seconds the after that some mule deer crossed the road. We went through some thick trees on a trail that wasnt too big. It ended up taking us around to the other side of where we left and we went down another dirt road and talked to a man and woman who were bowhunting. The man said that he just got a bull and his wife got a cow. I asked to see the bull and they were very nice and let us and it was a big bull and they kind of told us near where they got it. We left and went the other direction and went a few miles past where mechanical vehicles arent permitted. On the way back we saw another hunter that just got there and as we are riding by we would talk to people but Bob had his Tenn. hat on and the guy asked where he got it and Bob said from some hillbilly from Tenn and I said yeah the hillbilly in front of him. The guy asked what part of Tenn and I said the west part, Paris Tenn and he shouted through the woods as we are riding away from him, I'm from Paris. He said whats your name and I told him but we where out of sight by then. Later I wished we would have went back and talked to him but we and when I say we I mean I was getting tired and saddle sore. All together we went around 20 miles but it was a blast. We are going to go back in a couple weeks and hopefully I can get some better pic of the mountains changing colors, we just didnt stop very much and I didn't want to take pics while riding.

Visit home

We started out by driving 1500 miles and made really good time until we got to Missouri and ran into all the traffic and got into a traffic jam before we got to St. Louis. It took us 21 hours, we left Thursday morning and drove for 14 hours and then had 7 hours on Friday. One of my best friends Slade and his family came by to visit with us on Saturday and it was nice to get caught up with them because it had been about 9 years since we had seen each other. Then we spent alot of the day playing freeze tag with my nephews and nieces. Sunday we went to the DuQuoin State fair but didnt take the camera but we watched a rodeo and towards the end they put a ribbon on a bull and if you took it off you got a $100. We thought that bull would be older or more tame but when they opened the gate a bull with 2 or 3 ft horns on each side came busting out looking for someone to hit and the first guy he hit got flipped up in the air and did a complete flip then he took off and hit some more people and some jumped over the fence but nobody got the ribbon. It was alot of first for Shana she caught her first bass, bluegill, and catfish. She acutally caught a good sized bass and said that they were fun to catch along with the catfish even though they weren't very big they put up a fight. We also went down toward Shawneetown IL on the Ohio river and went to Cave in Rock where indians use to hideout there until the pirates ran them out and also they filmed a Davy Crockett movie there ( the one with Mike Fink and the river pirates). That was one of my favorites growing up. Then after that we went on a ferry ride across the Ohio river which Shana had never done. Once we were into Kentucky we went to Pattis Settlement and had lunch there. We got some good pics there and did some remote control boating. Then when we were almost home we stopped in Benton IL to show Shana where the last guy was hanged in IL. His name was Charlie Birger and he was a gangster in the local area. If anybody is intersted in knowing more about him they have a book called Bloody Williamson. Then on Thursday we got to go visit grandparents for a little while. Also a friend of mine threw a party for us Monday night but we forgot the camera but they grilled some food and had alot of people over and once everyone left we got to play cards with them which was nice. We didnt get to do everything we wanted to do but I guess that leaves something for next time. Oh and by the way mom I gained 4 pounds and Shana 3 but it was worth it. Thanks for everything.

Corene's Birthday party

Extreme Home Makeover in Pocatello

I took Shana down to Pocatello on a Saturday and Sunday to watch the progress on the familys new house. The story on the family is that it is a mom with 9 kids and has had breast cancer twice. Also her husband left her either 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after she found out about the cancer and their house had a fire. One of her sons in high school dropped out to work for the family but the local college gave all the kids free schooling. The house is 6,000 sq ft and has an apartment for the older kids upstairs. It is suppose to air around the end of October or beginning of November. We had alot of fun watching the progress and going to the fundraiser.