Hunting isn't all Blood and Guts.

There's beautiful scenery....

And peaceful meditation trying to get inside the deer's head and figure out where I'd be hanging out if I was a deer...

Hard to tell here, but this is about a 70 degree slope. I was so tired by this point in the day I no longer cared that my boots were resting in...elk poop.

There's little birds looking at you like "Boy, I woudn't have climbed up there just to sit in poop."

There's river-side naps, and trout-viewing...picnics of energy bars and gatorade...perhaps a little dip in the river! Mine are the toes on the right, with the purple frost polish. Sorry, didn't have time to muster a hunting themed pedicure.

And there's lots of binocularing, which appeals to the spy in me. Hooray for the first hunt of the season! Even tho its hot out, I do loves me the summer huntin'. Guys tend to dismay that it ain't real huntin'. But I'm a big fan!

First Hunt of the Season!

It's important to get into character for the first hunt of the season. Tho my husband pointed out, this is more like snow camo than desert camo. While I have lots of snow camo colors, I don't have a large collection of olive greens.

The master hunter, in the field. Our day started at 3 a.m. and went until after 10 p.m. Blech!

As you might guess, I wasn't just plannin' on shootin' with my gun. :) I said "Ooh, butterfly!" My husband said, "Ooh, the moths that are killing all the trees!" Oh. :

Kill or not, it was lovely to be out in the woods. We ended up hiking 11 miles, some of it lovely woodland touring, some of it miserable hot flat death march...

My husband speculated these might have been made by an animal of some sort, but it was really high up.

Late afternoon surveying a draw.

Shootin' Practice

Well, 2 years ago my husband had really good luck with that early controlled hunt that goes mid-August through September. So we thought we'd both put in for it this year. As fate would have it, I was the only one who got it. Best find a weapon, eh? (I have very much enjoyed yelling "Git Yer Gun Off the Dining Room Table!!!.... Oh wait...that's my gun... hee hee!)

Being the cheap-a$$ that I am, I tried my darnedest to get by with one of my husband's myriad shootin' irons. But I just couldn't get close enough to the scope to see proper. So off to the store to get me a youth-size .243 huntin' rifle! It's kid-sized!

Then, off to the shootin' range to sight-in my rifle...that is, for you peaceful-types, making sure that when I look through the scope, the bullet goes where I'm looking.

Shootin' was fun, albeit dusty. My shootin' coach was thorough, patient, and encouraging. He even did a little shootin' and sightin' in his own self.
Turns out, I'm pretty good at shootin', if the small amount I've done is any indicator!

The green highlights are my shots...three from 25 yards, 6 from 100 yards! Last weekend I also took paddleboard lessons (stand-up paddling) which I really rocked at. I never even fell in the water once, and left DRY!! It's rare to find a sport I'm decent at, much less relatively good at...but two in the span of 2 weeks? Unheard of! I've heard of people fishing from a paddleboard, but paddleboard hunting has yet to gain much popularity...

I am a Hard Worker.

Just as basements don't remodel themselves, mold spores don't die on their own.

Mold removal requires a pretty toxic bleach solution.

And some wire brushing, just for kicks. Btw, you can't see any mold in these pics, it was actually quite minor. But might as well take precautions while the walls are down. What you see is breakdowns in the concrete paint or in the concrete itself, given that it's 72 years old.

Scrubbing concrete with a wire brush is hard work.

Here's me abandoning my concrete scrubbing to take self-portraits. When we were little and we lived in Oregon City, we had an old house with basement stairs that were rickety and had a bad handrail if one at all, and my mom didn't want us to go down there. So she told us there was a basement monster down there, which scared us to death. Look at me now. I AM the basement monster.

My Husband is a Hard Worker.

Which is lucky, as there's lots of work to be done.

Here's him removing sheetrock remnants from behind the ductwork we had installed.

Here he's chiseling away part of the concrete foundation to make way for the pocket door between the bedroom and bathroom. Yuck!

The same big mallet is used to whack the new 4x6 header into place in the door frame.

I have taken many photos with him making this face, haven't I? ;)

Part-Time Job

Work continues in our basement dungeon. It's coming along nicely, considering. Working all day and then all evening is like having a really hard part-time job. But mostly it's doable.

We have removed two and a half stuffed to the gills truckloads of debris... After we hauled it up the stairs from the basement. Probably the most back-breaking work we've done, other than the tile breaking. Ugh.

And this is part of the reason we are removing it. Yuck! Turns out, if you don't actually seal the house or use treated wood, bugs eat yer house. Who knew!?!

Debris removal generates just a bit of dust.

The expansive view of my future bedroom...of the Coopah!

Extry Fair Goodness

I couldn't pass up this exquisite still life...Embroidered Portrait with Sock Monkey.

Then i just stood there taking pictures while my husband was attacked by a ninja. (Can't you just see how much he loved the set up for this? ;)

Then, off to the concert stage to see Kansas and participate in the extravaganza that was people watching! Note to self: next year, boot and shorts. Definitely.

A rousing conversation ensued about why, if you were Kansas, you'd still be rockin' the free-admission county fair scene.

I'm not real trusting of carnies, so we admired the shiny rides from afar.

And then, we left Canyon County behind...at least for a while...

We Use Everything but the Oink.

You can't just write on the pigs. They'll think we're just using them.

Pig. In pants. Pig pants. No shoes, no shirt, no problem.

Never mind what I said about them feeling used. This poster hanging above their heads probably gave them some idea. Marshmellows (sic)? Since when are marshmallows a pork product???

This fellow doesn't seem all that worried about his future as glycerin for explosives.

Shooting Animals

With my camera, people!! I like this sepia cow.

Old Navy makes goat collars? I must have missed that section last time I was at the mall.

Bunny in a bucket! Bunny in a bucket! The water bottle with the lid screwed on isn't to torment the thirsty bunny, it was at one time frozen and is there to allow the bunny to cool himself at will. 'Cause bunnies don't dig 9o degree weather.

Or so it seems. Poor Destiny seems a bit thirsty.

Believe me.

I LOVE THE FAIR!

I love love love myself a good county fair! Despite the 95 degrees, it was rather dark out! The Canyon County arena (not our county, btw) is the same as the Caldwell Night Rodeo's! It's a rodeo. At night.

First up, we enjoyed a bit of fair fare and watched the young FFA folks exhibit their tractor driving skills, which was mostly hilarious. If you get your tractor so jacked around that you tear a tire, you actually have to pay for it.
That's a good ol' slice of Americana right there.

No advertisements, no "like us on Facebook"...just good clean fun. :)