Duck Hunting

Thursday morning I rolled out of bed, turned my alarm off and stared at my clock which read 5:45. Slowly, I put on my hunting gear. I grabbed my bag and my shotgun, a beautiful semi-auto 12 gauge that used to belong to my grandfather. Andrei, one of my little brothers, ran out to greet me and wish me luck. I went down stairs to wake my Dad up, then left to start the coffee.

After we got every thing together I started the truck and loaded Chewy, our black lab, up and grabbed two pieces of pizza my Mom had made the day before and went into the truck. We drove into Manhattan and pulled into our hunting spot.

After walking to the river my dad set up our decoys. We then hid in some trees and waited. A duck flew by us and I pulled out my shot gun and took the safety off. "Not yet!" my Dad said. I put the safety back on.

Dad tried to call the duck back. Suddenly it flew over, not 20 feet away from me. I stuck my shot gun out and tried to take my safety off, but it had frozen in place! We didn't see any more ducks the rest of the day.

As we left for the truck my hands started hurting they were so cold, Dad's gloves froze in place, both of our face masks froze and Dad's coffee, which was in the truck, froze. We went in the truck and I looked over at Dad. "That was fun!" I said. My Dad laughed.

The next morning we also went, only this time I had cake my Mom had made the day before. Once we got walking to the hunting site some of my gear fell out of my hunting bag, so I went to pick it up and by that time my Dad was gone.

So I picked my bag up and left in the general direction that he went. After a couple minutes of searching I found him setting up the duck decoys. For most of the morning we didn't see much [O.K, I didn't see much. My Dad saw plenty, but I couldn't.]

Later on though a group of golden eyes were flying by us. I was kneeling at the time, and I stuck my shot gun through some branches and fired. Since I wasn't standing, I wasn't prepared for the kick which knocked me down on the ground. "You got him!" My Dad shouted.

The duck fell on the far side of a river. Chewy ran off after it, stopped, looked back at my Dad and walked over to him. "I'm not going over there, that water's cold!" He was probably saying. My Dad tried to get it but the water was too deep and the current too strong. Oh well, at least I got my first duck.

Boat work

To prevent our hunting boat from filling up with rain, we put a tarp over it, but the wind blew the tarp away, the rain poured in, and then it froze. So on Sunday we took our chisels out and started chiseling away the ice. It was hard work, and after the two hours it took us to finish it, our hands were freezing. We then went into town to get a new tarp. We then tied that on and stood back to admire our work, sore, but proud.

Heat wave

O.k, I know that in my last post I talked about how cold it was, but almost right after I wrote that it got to 0 degrees! We all ran out there in our shorts and t-shirts, enjoying the warm. And guess what? It only got warmer! The average temperature is 45 degrees, but unfortunately it will only get colder and soon will be back in the below zeros. Oh well, we'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Winter

A couple of days ago we got quite the winter storm. Not necessarily lots of snow, but cold. This whole week and most of last week it didn't even once reach above 0 degrees. We quickly got the barn fixed up and put all the animals in it.

So far the warmest it has gotten is -4 and the coldest is -45. BURRR!

Pearl

A few days ago one of our parakeets, named Pearl, died. We're not sure how she died, but she did.

We were having breakfast and Molly saw her lying on the bottom of her cage. We were all sad to lose her.

Thanks Giving!

This morning at 5:30 I crawled out of bed, put my hunting gear on and walked downstairs to wake dad up. I carried our rifles up and soon Aaron, [a family friend] drives up. We all pile into our truck and are on the rode. We drive into the Bridger mountains. There were spots at least a foot of snow. Why did we do this, you ask?

Elk Hunting.

So far my first Elk has eluded me, but this time I was ready. After about an hour we stumble on some tracks, some several days old, others fresher. We followed the tracks to an opening where several animals have been living. Suddenly I saw something. I motioned for my dad to look where I saw it. He looked for awhile.

"All I see is that tree stump" He said. I looked again, and true, it is a tree stump.

We didn't end up seeing anything but a couple more tracks.

Well, who knows. Maybe next time I'll get my Elk.

So, it's today we remember the Pilgrims escaping England and persecution, who came here to practice their beliefs; those who had more than half die through the winter, who, with friendly natives like Squanto would have all died.

Who knows where the turkey got its name?

It was named by one of the first Europeans to set foot on American soil, Luis De Torres, who sailed with Columbus in 1492. He wrote, in Hebrew, a letter home describing all the exotic animals, including a 'peacock'. The Hebrew for peacock is Tukki, translated into English Turkey!

Happy Thanks Giving!

Bowling!

Tuesday we went bowling. This was mine and Molly's second time bowling, and mom and dad hadn't gone in a while. It was so much fun! At first I did really bad, than I did o.k, than really bad.

We played two games, and my dad came in first place, then mom, and I can't remember the rest. I got a total of 120 points.

Afterwards, we got pizza.