Hunting!

Real quick - to follow up the Spring post, where spring has decided not to show up...
The next day after posting that (today I suppose), we woke up to 29, and within four hours it was up to 33 degrees. On it's way up, it maxed out at 55 and a lot of snow melted. The hoses thawed, we even got water back after lunch! Just like that -*snap*- the clouds were gone this morning and it's been bright (really really bright) and clear. It was warm enough that I even ran around in a T-shirt without a jacket most of the day!

So. I went hunting for the first time today. 1.5 hour trip. Took the Ranger (known to me as a mule from my days in Yellowstone) up to the airport strip. Yes, Chicken, Alaska has an air field. Typically for flying in THINGS not people or life-flighting people out. Also for the mail. Lining both sides of the air strip are long relatively skinny lakes, upon which were many duck. An owl. A beaver (well in a lake). And many small birds of air and water kind.

I went with a girl here, Rebecca, and her puppy Charlie. Charlie is a natural retriever. Kind of a dark-chocolate lab. Took to bringing the bird back like fish to water. When Rebecca fired that shotgun, my ears RANG. Charlie shook. The shotgun was not a happy cooperating participant. It was hard to pump, often times getting stuck, so was hard to fire with any kind of speed, so mostly it was a one shot run then wait for the birds to settle.

We (Rebecca - I didn't shoot) actually hit three birds. Only retrieved one. The other two were WAY far in the water. I personally suspect the beaver stole one of them. We only brought back to Chicken one. Bummer. Even more a bummer - it wasn't a duck. It was, unfortunately, a very small water bird that was not worth shooting, truly. But it was an adventure, tromping around through the boggy areas and snow. I got snow in my boots and mud all over my boots. I think I have a blister because I tied my boots down like tennis-shoes and not up tight like proper boots (didn't know we were going out at the time!). So worth it. All the work is basically done. I can take tomorrow easy. Paper work, to re-coup the feet. It was very exciting.
First hunting trip.
First trip in that kind of vehicle.
And eventually - I'm going to shoot the gun!
Or. A gun. Maybe not THAT gun.

So that's all for now. Signing off!