New Colorado Bowhunter

2010 Turkeys

2011-07-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

Its summer here in CO now, but I never took the time to post the birds that Isaac and I killed during the spring.

Turkey Season is almost here

2011-03-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

Photos from our scouting trip to Eastern CO: Eight toms chasing each other in circles trying to determine who's the boss. They were all longbears. Two strutters heading towards three other toms out of the photo to the left.

Two toms relaxing in the sunshine. They were in half strut when I first spotted them.

Two strutters with 25+ hens (most are not in the photo)

We will be hunting CO and IL only this year. The NE trip we've taken the last three years will be put on hold. I had also looked closely at KS and OK instead of NE, but those are off also.

The CO season starts on 4/9 and Isaac has drawn a limited entry tag on the eastern plains. The SWA we'll hunt is on the CO/KS border along a cottonwood riverbottom. We've scouted it once and already saw quite a few birds, so we have high hopes for Isaac to kill a Rio this year.

I have not decided if we'll hunt it the first weekend. We would like to, but the round trip uses about $125 in fuel. The IL trip starts the following weekend and we can stop there for a 2 day hunt (one afternoon and one morning) on our way back, then plan accordingly if it doesn't work out. However, I'll be driving to the OTC area we hunted last season this Saturday to listen and scout. If the snow is still too deep and I'm not hearing or seeing anything promising.........we'll suck it up and point my truck eastward for Isaac's tag and hunt our OTC mountain tags upon our return from IL.

2011-02-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

Its been a long winter and we are no where near the end. We've had a great year for skiing with a lot of snow, but I've skied less this year than the last couple. The kids are still loving the mountian and Isaac switched over to a snowboard this year. I expect Olivia to do the same next year and Boyd to follow.

We are supposed to have our Leadville house on the market the first of March, so hopefully that goes well and it sells quickly. The mine is making plans to open, so they are hiring a lot of new people. That should drastically improve the real estate market for selling.

We aren't sure what we'll do if it sells. I'm sure we'll rent for a little while. I'm hoping to end up down valley closer to work, but the prices are higher there. We'll worry about it if we sell.

Summer

2010-07-15T15:14:00.001-07:00

We are well into summer here in the mountains. In fact, it will be fall before we know it.

We've worked on the house quite a bit, but have decided to hold off again on listing it for sale. We'll probably be sorry about March next year, but that is life at 10,000 ft.

The CBA Jamboree is this weekend and we will be camping Thursday (tonight) and Friday. David and Gretel will get here on Saturday and then Heather, the kids, and the grandparents will drive to CA to visit Heather's Aunt Betty. When they return the following Monday they will stay here until Friday and then drive to IL to visit. They will follow Mom and Dad back here to CO on the 18th of August, so they will be in IL almost 3 wks.

I'll try to get in plenty of elk scouting and bow shooting while they are gone, along with a little fishing, but I'll be one lonely guy and will definitely look forward to their return.

Elk season won't be long after they return (Aug. 28th). I don't have any photos of elk, but I've got plenty of NE turkey photos from our May hunt. I'll let the photos do the talking.

Turkeys

2010-05-24T12:06:00.001-07:00

The IL trip was great this year. We had great weather and got to visit with family and friends. I killed two birds and Isaac one (his first). Isaac's bird had three beards and weighed 20 lbs.

On last Saturday, 5-22-2010, I killed a Merriam's here in Colorado. Isaac was with me but couldn't get the shot. We are headed to NE tomorrow to hunt the 26th to the 31st of May.

Isaac holding my CO Merriam's

IL Trip

2010-03-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

We'll be pointed toward IL in three weeks. We are looking forward to the visit. Isaac and myself are also looking forward to the turkey hunting. We should arrive sometime around noon on the 16th.

Skiing at Cooper

2010-02-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

We skied at Ski Cooper today. It was snowing most of the time, so the snow was nice. Photos of the kids:

Olivia

Boyd
Isaac

Isaac in the terrain park

Boyd in the terrain park

Isaac on the lift

Olivia in the terrain park

Olivia on the lift

Finally - Late Season Cow

2010-01-18T21:25:00.000-08:00

I finally filled my late season cow tag on the last day, January 15th. It was an average size cow. I shot her at a range too far for me to even tell, but it worked out and we have a full freezer.

Knee deep snow in an area that should be neck deep. We just missed a herd here. The tracks can be seen behind me.

The Eagle County Airport was reporting -13 this morning. We never did catch the herd we were trying to catch up to. Elk sign can be seen behind me. The road is about 600 ft below.

My last day cow where she came to rest. The bushes kept her from rolling over a rocky ledge.

I dropped her head while trying to move her and got a little blood on my face. Eric wouldn't give me anything to wipe it off until he got a photo.

We did get her moved around for a photo and to start working.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-30T22:37:00.000-08:00

We had a good Christmas this year, as usual. The kids decided they wanted to open gifts in the basement, so we had to leave Santa a note to drop them off downstairs instead of up. I've attached a few of the photos from Christmas morning below.

Isaac w/ new ski coat.

Olivia looking wild eyed wearing her new ski coat.

Boyd wearing his new ski coat and its removable face mask.

New ski pants to compliment the new ski coats. Boyd was rather fond of the lightning bolts.

Olivia is our horse lover. One day if we can afford land in CO, we'll have a few horses. Olivia is convinced that she will be a vet when she is older. I hope so.

Opening up gifts from mom and dad.

Everyone needs a pair of binocs.

Heather wearing all of the kids gifts to her. Boyd picked out the snuggie on his own. Olivia picked out "toe socks" and ski socks. Isaac picked out nice new mittens, so Heather's hands don't freeze while skiing in gloves. I bought her (actually I bought all of it) the hat. Santa put a nice MP3/camera/video player in her stocking.

Thanksgiving in IL

2009-12-03T12:55:00.000-08:00

We got back to CO on the 28th of November after our visit to IL for Thanksgiving. We had a good visit and a safe drive both directions.

Isaac killed his first deer, a little buck, on the last day/last afternoon/last half hour of the shotgun season. We were both exited. Jacob and I both shot does the last morning of the shotgun season, and I killed a doe with my bow on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Sean was in a tree about 10 yards from me when I killed the doe on Friday. That is one of the few times, if not the only time, I've been able to kill something before he had a chance to shoot. Good thing I didn't choke the shot.

The archery doe is the third consecutive doe, in as many years, that I've whacked on our Thanksgiving trip to IL.

My late season rifle cow tag starts on the 15th of Dec. I'm ready to pack the freezer w/ elk meat.

6 days to Thanksgiving visit

2009-11-13T07:17:00.000-08:00

We will be pointed east in less than a week. The drive will start wednesday afternoon and we'll arrive close to noon on Thursday. We will be staying at David and Gretel's first. I take the easy road and let Heather worry about when and where we stay.

Isaac is exited about his first deer tag for the shotgun season that starts on friday. I have a doe tag for the shotgun season and then a bow tag that I can use the following week.

CO season is over.......looking towards IL

2009-10-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

Bow season has been over for almost a month now. The rifle seasons are in full swing (2nd season now), but my rifle cow tag is a late season tag that is the last week of Nov. and Dec. 15 to Jan 15. We plan to be in IL the last week of Nov. over Thanksgiving, so I won't hunt here in CO until Dec.15. Matt calls it a "haystack" tag because that is what a lot of the elk are trying to get to at that time...........a rancher's haystacks. I've been in withdrawals since season ended w/o a single tag punched.

We took the kids fishing last weekend and had a nice time. A lakeside campfire always adds to the fun. I believe the weather is about to take a permanent aim at winter soon, so we may not get to do too much more fishing. Hopefully we can get some good ice fishing in this year.

We should start driving eastward on the evening of Wed. November 18th and arrive in IL on the 19th. Isaac and I will both have antlerless gun tags and I'll have an archery tag also, so we should get plenty of deer hunting in while we are there. We will head back to CO on Saturday the 28th.

Last weekend approaching

2009-09-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

The last weekend of elk season is approaching and I have not loosed an arrow yet. It has been a really tough season for me. The first weekend started out well, but all of those elk have been pushed to parts unknown. I hope to invest in some horses in the years to come, so I can start hunting farther away from the roads and still be able to pack an elk out w/o losing any meat.

Mom and Dad have been here for a little more than a week and will be leaving this Thursday morning. I was unable to put Dad on a cow, but he has caught quite a few fish. I think this will be his last elk tag for a while. We'll miss them quite a bit after they leave.

Not sure if we'll make it home this year at Thanksgiving. Furlough days at work have required a little tightening of the budget. We are going to try to make it, and I've scheduled the days off, but.............we'll see.

Elk Season (opening weekend)

2009-09-03T11:34:00.001-07:00

We had a good opening weekend. We did not get to pack out any meat or antlers, but we came very close to killing a bull that I had been watching with a large herd. I made a conservative guess on his score while watching him through a spotting scope for quite some time. We originally were thinking 300" and maybe 320, but after having him at 65 yards we both decided he is a solid 320. However, considering all the opening weekend pressure in the area, it is ulikely that we will find him again. We had a few other smaller bulls close also. I would have taken any one of them given the right opportunity.

2009-08-17T07:51:00.001-07:00

Isaac and I made it out for a short scouting trip on Saturday. We found a little fresh sign and a little old sign. Nothing to get too exited about, but a nice day out anyway. Isaac is doing pretty good keeping up with me now, so after the first weekend he'll probably hunt with me quite a bit.

2009-08-03T11:05:00.001-07:00

I have not updated this in quite a while. I've been uploading photos to Facebook instead.

Summer is nearing its end and I am preparing myself for the beginning of elk and deer season in four weeks. Isaac and myself spent part of the last weekend scouting for elk and plan to continue that right up until season starts on the 29th.

Summer?

2009-06-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if we are going to have a summer this year. The weather has been quite unusual for Colorado. We have been in a cloudy/raining pattern for a while now w/o much sunshine. Hopefully this passes and the sun shows back up.

I'm trying to get my remodeling done and get this house on the market. Still haven't decided if we want to stay up here in Leadville or mortgage more money than should even be permitted and buy a home in the valley (probably Gypsum). The more I look at the cost, the more I think stay in Leadville.

Once I finish up remodeling the two bathrooms, I'll be done other than some back yard work. I plan to spend the rest of the Summer fishing and camping with Heather and the kids, and hiking above treeline to look for big mule deer bucks and herds of elk. I'm desperate to get above treeline. Maybe I can get out for a weekend camp at treeline and include scouting for elk and deer along w/ fishing a couple alpine lakes for brook trout.

Remi

2009-06-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

I've finally been able to get Remi out a little and let him enjoy open water. He hasn't been in water for a while. Winter doesn't leave any open water near Leadville.

He was so exited he was shaking, and that was before he got in the cold mountain water.

Turkey Season is over

2009-05-31T21:21:00.000-07:00

Nebraska Merriam's

Turkey season has came and went, Isaac and Olivia have both had birthdays (now 10 and 8), and Summer is almost here in Leadville.

Isaac and I hunted in the IL 5th season, CO, and NE. CO was a bust, but I wouldn't say we put a lot into it besides driving. IL didn't go as well as planned, but I was there when Donnie Vickers killed a good bird and I managed to kill a jake on the last day. The jake wasn't supposed to be a jake, but instead his longbeard buddy.

Nebraska was a great hunt and I killed a bird the first morning. We had two more birds within range of my 12 ga, but I had not bought another tag, so it was back at the cabin. I decided to concentrate on Isaac killing a bird, but they just weren't close enough for his 20 ga set up. He had a great time anyway and I really like spending time with him hunting. The Nebraska hunt will become a family trip every Spring if we have the money. I'll buy a second tag next time though.

Donnie Vickers' bird - 24 lb - 10+" - 7/8"

My mistake jake - 17.5 lb

Nebraska Merriam's - 20 lb - 8 5/8" - 1/2"

Isaac w/ my Merriam's

Twin Lakes

2009-03-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

We drove to Twin Lakes last weekend. The sun was shining, so it was really nice out. The wind was the only thing that kept us in our coats. After some tire repairs at home the kids were able to ride their bikes for the first time since last Fall. They also did quite a bit of running, as did Remi. I've had a few comments about me not posting enough photos of the kids and just posting hunting photos, so I've included a few more photos of the kids.

Olivia and Heather

Isaac, Boyd, and Remi headed for a giant bolder.

Isaac and Boyd on the giant bolder.

Olivia trying to start a fire w/two sticks as Heather, Boyd, and Remi watch.

Remi enjoying something other than snow.

Olivia's ski school & Ski Joring in Leadville

2009-03-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

Olivia graduated from her SOS Vail ski class while Mom and Dad were here. The lessons have bumped her skiing up several notches.

Today was the ski joring championships in Leadville. We had never watched them before. They truck snow into the street and build jumps. The skiers are being pulled by a horse that is running (much like water skiing). The skiers fly over the jumps and have a stick (?) that they catch hanging rings with. They are timed and they have seconds added for missed rings. It is really fun to watch them. We did not get to see the guys doing the bigger jumps. We came back home because Heather wasn't feeling good.

This is one of the horses w/ a skier behind.

This horse and rider is flying , but the skier had just went down over the previous jump.

This horse isn't moving too fast because the rider had let go at the beginning several blocks back. We didn't see what had happend.

This guy is just flying off the jump. The stick w/ rings can be seen if you look closely.

This skier is just about to come off the jump. These guys are crazy.

Three future ski jorers?

Cabin Fever!!!!!!!!

2009-02-19T15:26:00.000-08:00

2007 IL Turkey

2007 IL Doe
2008 CO Turkey

2008 CO 4x5 Bull

2008 IL Doe

2008/2009 Late Season CO Cow

Bow season has long since passed, late elk is over, turkey isn't quite here yet, and it is too early to get out scouting for anything. Besides the occasional predator hunt or fishing trip, I'm pretty restless this time of year. I've been looking through my hunting photos and thought I'd post some of them up. Most have bee shown before, but I'm showing them off anyway.

February is more than half over

2009-02-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that March is almost here. I'll be 39 in March, so I've only got one more year in my 30's. I hope 40 to 50 doesn't fly by as fast as 30 to 40 has, but I'm sure it will.

Mom and Dad will be here to visit in less than a week (Feb. 24) for 10 days. I'm exited about them coming. I hope to get Dad out fishing a couple times on the ice and one of the rivers. Mom is hoping to see it snowing, so maybe we'll have a big storm while they are here. I should be able to show them plenty of elk. There has been several hundred of them south of town.

Turkey season will be here before too long, so the wheels are starting to turn planning out locations to hunt. I don't have any new photos worth posting, but I'll have some of my completed basement bedroom/bathroom by next weekend. If I get dad out to look at the elk, I'll try to get some of them also.

More photos of fishing and elk

2009-01-26T15:25:00.001-08:00

I got a few more photos of the fishing trip and Eric's cow from Eric. The fishing photos are foggy due to the amount of moisture we had coming down.

Ice Fishing

2009-01-24T21:32:00.000-08:00

I loaded Isaac and Boyd up this morning and headed to Green Mountain Reservoir. Olivia had a ski lesson with her 2nd grade class at Vail, so her and Heather's day was already planned. I was running behind as usual and it was dumping snow from Leadville to Climax Mine on 91, so we didn't make it to Silverthorne to meet Eric and Ashton until around 7:45. He piled all their stuff in the Tacoma and off we went. We were packed in the truck like sardines (two adults, three kids, and one lab).

I think we drilled the first hole some time around 8:30 (maybe a little later). We started off in 42 ft of water and Isaac had his first laker on in about 15 minutes. I don't think I had even started fishing. I've gotten used to the fact that when I take the kids fishing the whole day is about keeping their lines in the water. Ice fishing adds additional challenges because I also have to drill quite a few holes with the hand auger.

Ashton had one on soon after and a few fish were missed in the next half hour. It seemed like the bite was gone, so after 3 (I think) fish were landed we drilled some more holes a little farther out. Water was 62 ft in the new location.

We got a few bites pretty quick. Actually I didn't. I was trying to get the kids all set up, move all the gear, and keep Remi under control. Remi had never been on the ice and he wanted to get one of those things flopping on the ice so bad that he was about to go crazy. A dog dragging an ice auger that I thought had him staked down into the midst of 5 people with ice rods out can make quite the comotion.

I finally managed to get my tube jig w/ sucker meat in the water after at least one or two fish had already been landed. It slowed for a little while then a lot of fish moved in and we spent around a half hour with someone always trying to set the hook on a fish. A lot of fish were missed, but we managed to land quite a few.

By around 1pm all three boys had their limits, I had landed 2 and realeased one, and Eric had landed two of his own fish. None of the fish were very big, but the kids had a great time and Boyd went on and on about every fish he pulled through the ice being "huge". The snow had came and went several times and wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for the last hour of heavy wet flakes that soaked all of us. Good thing it was so warm.

These were the first lakers any of us had caught. I did not get to land too many fish myself, but the gear packing, hole drilling, dog chasing, cooking lunch, and non stop assistance to Boyd took it's toll on my time. I had to help him set the hook on his fish, so the rod handling with both of us having our hands on the rod made for a quite a few missed fish. DOW was also on the ice today and checked us and the other fisherman we could see. Boyd wanted to make sure he saw all three fish he had landed at that time. Boyd handled those fish so much that I don't know if the smell will ever come out of his gloves and coat.

I did not pack my camera out into the weather, so Eric got a few pics that I don't have and I took a couple in the back yard and one before the fillet knife came out after the kids had taken their shower and I got all the fish smell off of them. The day turned out great since all three kids had such a good day.

Last Day Cow

2009-01-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

My plans to kill a cow during the first part of the late cow season did not work out. Myself and Eric made it out about 5 times from Dec. 15 to January 15.

Eric killed his cow last Sunday afternoon after we slipped in on what we thought was four cows. It turned out to be about 30 elk and several of them busted us after we jumped some deer that ran past the herd. We charged up the hill to try and suprise some that might not have been too spooked and Eric got a standing 100 yard shot. I missed my shot at a 220 yards after she started to trot away. I could not get steady after running through the snow for 75 yards. When I finally did, she started to move and I missed. I followed a while to make sure of the miss then we got to work on Eric's cow. He shot her at 3:30 and we had meat packed and loaded in the truck by about 9pm.

I had said I wasn't going back out after we got Eric's, but the elk returned and I decided to give it a try. I glassed from the road and found some of them bedded on Tuesday and planned for a Wednesday assault, but could not find them Wednesday morning. I decided to not hike in if I did not know where they were. I glassed again Weneday evening and had almost decided they were gone until I drove back by on my way home and spotted the herd. So, plans were made for a last day Thursday hunt.

I arrived at the glassing location and watched the entire herd of 25 or 30 make their way up the mountain. They bedded quite a bit higher than I had hoped, but 4 or 5 stayed behind and we spotted them bedded on another ridge in a more approachable location. Eric dropped me off at 10am and I was on the phone with him at 11:30 declaring "dead cow".

I managed to crest the ridge across from them without detection. As I was trying to get into position to see them I noticed one of them had spotted me. I found a rest and took her while she stared from approximately 150 yrds quartering to me. The Remington 7mm mag dropped her in her tracks. She was a small cow, I believe a calf in 2007, but I'm not sure. The two other elk I could see before I took the shot were smaller calves from 2008 and the other two that stood after the shot were larger adults. I would have preferred the larger cows for the extra meat, but I was expecting everything to fall apart pretty quick and wasn't willing to take the chance on the last day.

We had a more difficult pack with this cow and had to make a second trip after a Burger King break. I shot the cow at 11:30 am and we had her packed and in the truck by 9 pm. So much for filling the tag early.

New Year

2009-01-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

The new year has showed up faster than the last. I guess it comes with age. Hopefully 2009 will be a good year.

Sean, Jennifer, Jacob, and Lane were here over Christmas. We all had a great time with them here. Sean and Jacob were sick part of the time, but I believe they took it home with them and none of us got sick. We had fun skiing a couple days and played the new Wii a lot. They got to see plenty of snow and lots of cold....real cold.

David and Janet will be here on the 13th, so were looking forward to their first Colorado visit. I should have the new basement bedroom finished when they get here. The shower may not have the tile installed, but the drywall should be finished and painted.
David plans to ski some at Ski Cooper. I'm sure we can get a couple days in if he wants to.

I've done a poor job of taking and posting photos lately. I've got some from Christmas to post, so maybe I'll get them up before too long. I've got video of Sean, Jacob and Lane skiing that should be fun for anyone to watch.

December 23 Office Window Snow

2008-12-23T08:20:00.000-08:00

We had 6" in Leadville last night, 10-12" in Avon, and they reported 17" on the ski slopes. Its not easy to hang out at work in these conditions. I would rather be skiing, but someone has to show up.

Sean, Jennifer, and the boys showed up on Friday. We cut a Christmas tree on Saturday, went to church on Sunday, and skied at Ski Cooper on Monday. Jacob and Jennifer did not get to ski because Jacob got sick Monday morning. They are going out with Heather and the kids later this week and I'll take all the kids up on Saturday also. I don't have any pictures because I left my camera here at work over the weekend, but I did get some good video of Sean digging himself out of a faceplant in the powder and Lane actually doing a face plant in the powder.

I'm hoping to get out this afternoon looking for a cow elk to fill my rifle tag. If my tag was good for unit 45, I could easily fill it. I'm seeing elk everyday when driving to work.

Bow ( Oct. 19, 2007 - July 2, 2008)

2008-12-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

I finally took Bow's picture down from my cover photo. Remi has now taken his spot in our home, but Bow has not been forgotten. I was more attached to Bow than the rest of the family was and it is probably the same with Remi. It is incredible how much a part of our lives they become in such a short period of time. We had Bow from late Dec. 2007 to early July 2008. Remi is now just as much a part of our every day life as Bow was. These are a few of the photos I took of Bow during his short life.

The above photo was take while Bow was still w/his litter in Nov/Dec 2007.

This was just after Bow came home with us the weekend before Christmas 2007.

We did routine walks in the snow at Turquoise Lake. My snowshoe tracks can be seen in the photo. Bow is 13 weeks old in this photo.

Our walks during the week were at night. We were walking in the snowfall at Turquoise Lake in this photo.

This was Bow's first and only exposure to birds (quail) on our April 2008 visit to IL. I took him over to Wendel Wright's house in Paducah and let him get his first smell of a game bird. Needless to say, he liked what he smelled. I was pretty proud of him on this day.

These last two photos were taken in late June a couple weeks before Bow died. We took our walk at Twin Lakes and Bow did several water retrieves. He was a retrieving fool.

Office View

2008-12-17T13:04:00.001-08:00

This is the view from my office window. I will probably never have a better view from an office. I may make this my "cover" photo if the fog clears from BC and I can get it in the photo.

Ski Season

2008-12-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

There has been quite a bit of snow here for a while now. The last series of storms and those that we are experiencing right now have sealed the deal on what appears to be great skiing for the Holidays.

Ski Cooper opens on the 19th. We have season passes again and are ready to get on the mountain. Even with the "Epic Pass" for Vail/BC being sold at such a discounted price, the cost for three kids and two adults was more than we were willing to spend. If we lived in the Eagle Valley we would have bought them, but the cost along with the drive made it impractical.

Our Christmas visitors (Sean and family) will be here in a few days (19th). I don't believe they will be disappointed with the snow. It will probably take them a few days to acclimate to the altitude (10,152 ft) in Leadville, but I'm sure they will be OK. I'll assign them each a snow shovel and that should speed up the process.

Expect to see lots of skiing photos soon. I'll hopefully have another elk photo soon. My late season cow tag started on the 15th and continues until 1/15.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

2008-11-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

Remi has grown a lot since I got him in August. He has claimed us as his own. The bay window is a favorite of his to keep tabs on us and the neighbors. He likes to stand there in the window and watch me when I leave in my truck.

We will be in IL on the 21st and will leave for CO on the 29th. We are looking forward to the visit. Heather has planned out where we will be and when we will be there. I will spend more time at Mom and Dad's or Sean's house since we will be bringing Remi with us. Hopefully we will get to visit with everyone.

It sounds like the church (Mt. Sterling) will be having a chili supper and hay ride on the 22nd, so we plan to be there. We will celebrate Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad at Mom's on Wednesday night and spend Thursday at David and Gretels. In between all of that, I'll bowhunt with Sean a lot and hope to drag a doe or two out.

Winter is approaching

2008-11-03T13:41:00.001-08:00

Olivia and I took Remi out for a walk and released a couple quail for him. He is definitely "bird crazy" and hunts like a dog on a mission. I've not seen the same inclination to point out of him that I did with Bow at this age, but Remi pointed more as a pup than Bow did. So, I still think the point will come around, but I really need to get him on wild birds. Maybe I can find some quail in IL when we come to visit over Thanksgiving. Regardless, he is ours and we wouldn't trade him for anything.

Looks like we will be visiting IL over Thanksgiving. Our plans are to arrive on Friday the 21st and leave on Saturday the 29th. We will spend most of our time with family, so if you want to visit you will be welcome to stop by. I will bowhunt (of course), so finding me may be difficult.

The photo above is Olivia with Mt. Massive and Mt. Elbert in the background.

Winter is here.

2008-10-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

We had our first 1" of snow Monday then Tuesday night/Wednesday morning it snowed 3 or 4". When we got home from church last night at 8:45 it was 17 degrees. That isn't that cold if it was December, but it sure seems cold right now in October.

The kids are getting all geared up for Halloween. Boyd and Olivia got costumes last night, Ghost Rider and a Skeleton. We're going to take Isaac to Silverthorne and Frisco tonight to look for his costume. I believe he wants a Star Wars costume.

They will probably trick or treat at Beaver Creek this Saturday, then Minturn on the 30th and Leadville on the 31st. We'll have enough candy to last till next year.

Remi has grown quite a bit and is now 6 1/2 months old. He isn't as big as Bow was. I've released several quail for him. He finds them well and hesitates when he does, but he hasn't pointed for any length of time. I still believe he has potential, but probably not as much as Bow had. That is ok though, because he is a really good family dog even if he never makes much of a hunter.

End of Archery Season

2008-10-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

It is a depressing time of year for me. Archery ended a couple weeks ago. I didn't get out much after killing the bull on the first day. I regret not spending more time in the woods looking for a deer now. I do have the late season rifle cow tag that comes in the last two weeks of November then again from mid December to mid January.

The Aspen leaves have long since turned golden and the recent wind has blown most of them to the ground. Winter is on its way and I can't say I'm ready for it yet. I enjoy the skiing, but I would like another month (or two) of Fall.

We drove to a local lake to look for waterfowl today. We did see one flock of 20 or so geese and three flocks of Gadwalls. I don't think hunting is allowed on the lake though, so it doesn't do me much good. I could drive about an hour southeast and hunt, but the cost to set back up to hunt waterfowl an hour away doesn't seem practical.

It has been a while since I had the necessary equipment for hunting waterfowl. I would need to buy waders, decoys and everything they require, a call or two, amo, etc. Seems like a lot of cash to only have a couple opportunities to hunt. But, it is something that Isaac could hunt before he turns 12 in three years and can hunt CO big game.

We hope to have the funds to travel home to IL over Thanksgiving. I will certainly buy my lic. and an archery doe permit. Don't think I can swing the either sex permit. Looks like the waterfowl season starts in IL during that week, so maybe I'll try to put Isaac on a wood duck or two. Probably won't be too many mallards there by then. I know Sean still has the dekes, but I would still need to buy waders.

Isaac and Olivia have been playing flag football since September and will probably have games until the weather prevents it. Isaac ran four or five touchdowns today in two games. He played for another team the first game that did not have enough of their own players. I think he's as fast or faster than most of the kids. Olivia holds her own with the boys. She ran a touchdown today also. I'll try to post some photos of them playing.

2008 Colorado Elk Hunt

2008-09-17T07:43:00.001-07:00

Here is the video of my 2008 archery elk hunt. I did not know the video camera was on. The action came on so quick that I did not think about the camera until he said "I've got all of this on film".

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-31T15:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the first day of the Colorado archery season for elk and deer. I have both tags, but elk would be my main goal with deer second. I hunted with a friend and killed my first elk, a bull, at a few minutes after 7 AM. Not only did I kill my first elk, but my buddy managed to get my video camera turned on and caught most of the action on film. The bull was a 4x5 and would not be considered a "big" bull, but he looked great to me. I couldn't be happier with him.

Highline State Park Camping

2008-08-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

We went with our church to Highline State Park on a weekend camping trip. We go every August, so this was our second trip. The weather was nice, but a little cool for the kids swimming. I did get Remi into the water there and there is no doubt he's a water dog.

I took several photos at sunset after working with Remi. There is nothing more beautiful than a Colorado sunset.

The fishing photos are from a little lake south of Leadville named Crystal Lakes. The fish are all "stockers", but I'm sure there are a few big fish in the lake. The geese are while I was fishing the little lake.

Today's walk

2008-08-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

We will be following Julie Knutson's training methods for training Remi. One of the most important steps is "The Walk" in the field. Not down the road, not on a leash, no voice commands, just a continuous walk keeping my mouth shut and paying attention to the dog. Both of us eventually learn a lot about one another, it builds confidence in the dog and he learns to hunt.

Today was our first walk near the headwaters of the Arkansas River just south of Leadville. Remi has started out at my heels, except for the few bumpers I tossed for him. Through a continuous effort of going on "The Walk" daily, he'll build the confidence needed to venture out ahead of me, learn to use his nose to hunt, learn how to find birds and won't have to depend on me to point him in the direction of the birds.

"Happy" bumper during today's walk.

New Puppy

2008-08-01T21:13:00.000-07:00

Where are all the kids you promised?

Lounging in my office.

A little more lounging.

Your kicked back too!

He doesn't care for the flash.

Not the flash again!

Taking a nap at my feet.

Those shoes look mighty tasty.

I picked the new puppy up on Thursday, July 31st. He is starting to adjust to his new surroundings and follows me around like, well......a lost puppy. The kids and Heather made it safely to IL last Friday, so the kids have no idea that I've got a new puppy here. It will be a big surprise when they get home from their visit.

The new puppy's name is Remi and he's 16 weeks old tomorrow. He doesn't replace Bow, but he sure makes me happy. He does some of the same things Bow did and I have a hard time not calling him Bow.

The last photo is under my computer desk in our basement (note the 70's carpet that will be replaced in a couple weeks). When Bow was a puppy he would curl up under there when I was on the computer.

Joe and LeeAnn visit & Heather's IL Trip

2008-07-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

Joe and LeeAnn will leave from IL on Friday and be here on Saturday. We are looking forward to the visit. I'll still have to work, but will get to spend time with them each evening. May get to take Joe fishing somewhere and drive them up over one of the passes (12,000 ft) to see a few mountains and breath some clean air (if they can breath at that elevation).

On the following Friday, they will start driving back to IL and Heather will be driving along with them for a 2 week visit back home. She will go to Lacey's wedding at Gulf Shores while visiting. I will fly into Nashville at about 10:20 pm August 7th, stay at mom and dad's Friday and Saturday, then start driving back with Heather and the kids Sunday.

While Heather is gone I'm getting a new pup from the same parents Bow came from. I wish I could have him now, but the owners are coming to CO on the 30th and considering gas prices, I'll let them deliver. The pup will be 15 weeks old by the time he shows up. Owners have already brought him in to start crate training and they are working with him on retrieving, so we should still be ok. I'll have to kennel him at the vet when I fly to IL. It costs too much for him to fly with me.

The kids do not know we are getting him, so it will be a nice surprise when they get back to CO. We all miss Bow quite a bit. He was a great dog and could have had a really great future with grouse hunting.

Very Sad News

2008-07-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Bow made it through the surgery on Wednesday and they called me to tell me they wanted to keep him a couple days. They removed the ball, but he had some damaged small intestine. They warned me of the possible problems, but then said their gut feeling was he would recover fine.

At 6:30 pm the doc called and said Bow was bleeding and he needed permission to go back in and see what was up. He was really concerned about the amount of blood. In about 30 minutes he called back and said it looked really bad. Bow's entire small intestine had died and the only option was to remove the entire small intestine and reattach the large intestine to the stomach. He felt that even trying that was a very long shot of survival.

They had told me what the problems were with only small sections of the intestine removed, but I could not imagine him having any kind of life without his small intestine. The other option was to euthanize him. He was going to be in terrible pain if he were to wake up and he had very little chance of survival. Reluctantly, we decided we had to euthanize him.

We are a very upset family. Bow living in the house with us had made him part of our family. He never hesitated to show us his love. He was our friend and we miss him.

Bow is in surgery!

2008-07-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

Bow eat something in the last few days that will not pass and he has been sick. Today it became clear that the only way to get it out was with surgery. The vet has him right now and should be nearing completion. I'm worried about it. A dog living in the house quickly becomes a family member. Hopefully they'll be calling with a good report very soon.

Baseball Season Finished

2008-06-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

Olivia and Boyd had their last T-Ball game on Thursday and Isaac's last baseball game was Friday. We planned to get out hiking and scouting for elk and deer on Saturday, but I decided to sleep in. We went to a friends birthday party in McCoy Saturday night and had a good time.

They live on a farm in McCoy along the Colorado River. We fished for a while, actually I tied and baited hooks for kids (and adults). The river was moving fast, making the fishing difficult, but fun. I also let Bow run and do some retrieves in their field. After eating, they had a fire and everyone made smores. Then they had a lot of fireworks that were great. They are situated in a canyon, so the fireworks echoed off the walls. It was the best home fireworks I've ever seen.

Boyd started Sunday morning off sick. Becasue he was sick, I stayed home with all the kids instead of going to church. Heather made it down the mountain on here own. Boyd was feeling fine by mid-day and played like nothing had been wrong.

This morning my back decided it didn't like the way I bent over to pick up a pair of socks and I yelled like a little girl. Heather didnt' know what was wrong. I'm at work now and my back still hurts. I've been trying to stretch to get rid of the stiffness, but it still hurts. I'm walking like someone has given me a "wedgie".

I'll send some more photos out soon.

Baseball

2008-06-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is the best photo. Actually looks like he knows what he's doing.
This is one of his "change ups". Actually, this is what I talk about below. He doesn't lob it like that when I practice with him.

Baseball will be over at the end of the week. Isaac is not old enough to play in the All-Stars. He needed to turn 9 before May 1 and his birthday is May 18. Other than that minor detail, he would have been playing. We want to get out and do some camping, fishing and scouting for deer and elk anyway.

I've included a few photos of Isaac pitching. He was able to pitch in two games. He pitches pretty good to me, but he changes everything when a batter gets up to bat. I think he is afraid of hitting them. Maybe he'll get over that and be a pitcher, but I expect he'll be an infielder. Him and maybe two other kids on the team are the only players that have any clue what they are doing. Some of these kids just quit T-ball and still want to run with the ball. Drives me crazy. Coach Drew taught him quite a bit back in IL.

On another note, there is still a lot of snow up high, but Isaac and I will be getting out looking for elk and deer. I kept an eye on several of the herds as they followed the snow line up, but other than the big group of "calving" cows, the herds are mostly out of sight. I did see a few bulls outside of town a little while ago, but they are in a limited unit that I can't hunt. I've got some plans on where to look in one of the closer unlimited units.

I desperately want to find elk, but finding a big Mule Deer buck above treeline is one of my goals. I guess big may be relative to the fact that I've never killed a Muley. But, I have no intentions of packing a little buck or doe for a long distance.

Also, if you did not know, we are supposed to close on our house in IL on June 30th. The buyers are from Ledbetter, KY and lost their house to the state due to the new hwy and bridge.

Summer has arrived

2008-06-18T06:45:00.001-07:00

Summer finally showed up here. Temps have been near 80 here in Avon. I still wear a jacket in the morning, and if it clouds up and the wind picks up it can be needed up in the day. I got good and sun burned yesterday. A short trip into one of our subdivisions to check on some work turned into a standing around a couple hours watching someone work. I'll be putting sunscreen on today.

Work has steadily picked up here in Town, so that I don't feel like I can keep up sometimes. I like this time of year much better than the dead of winter when paperwork rules. We've been working on the house again. The basement bathroom and bedroom has been gutted and all new materials have been bought for the remodel. After I get that done, I'll start on the new fence in the back yard.

Our house in IL will be officially sold on June 30th. At least that is the scheduled closing date. It will feel good to have only one mortgage payment. I'll probably get rid of the old Tahoe and buy a used four door Toyato Tacoma. I want an 05 or newer. We have had the 95 Tahoe since 99, so it has served us well for nine years and now has 170,000 miles on it. I may keep it for a while longer, but it needs multiple things fixed on it and a new set of tires.

Heather and the kids are enjoying VBS this week, but the drive down everyday is killing them. I believe next year we will probably sell the house we are in now and try to buy down here. Most likely it will be in Gypsum, but calling it affordable there is only relative to homes in the valley. It is not affordable at all. We'll see how this winter goes, but I believe we will have had enough of the long drive to work and church. I know Heather will have had enough of the snow.

Heather will driving to IL July 25/26 with Joe and LeeAnn after their visit out here July 19-25. She will head back to CO on Aug. 9 after I fly into Nashville on the 8th to drive back with her. 1200 miles is too far for her and the kids to drive alone.

Baseball Season

2008-05-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

Baseball started today w/ a parade of all the little league teams through town. Olivia and Boyd are on the same T-ball team and Isaac is playing baseball. Isaac's team is the Cardinals, his Grandpa David's favorite team. There was sunshine today for the kids games. It made it to the upper 60's (67 by the car's temp.) w/ only a little breeze.

I still have not been able to send the pictures. Shutterfly keeps crashing Explorer. I've used it quite a few times, so I don't know what is up with it. I'll set up an account w/another and try that.

May 2008

2008-05-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Isaac's birthday. He's already got his gift from us, a new mountain bike. He rode it for the first time today. Heather has been gone this weekend to Steamboat Springs with the women's group from church. The kids and I walked around a little down town, cleaned the back yard today, went to a small dirt bicycle track, and went fishing at a local wma pond. Heather has only been gone since yesterday, but we will be glad when she gets back tomorrow afternoon.

I've got lots of pictures to share, but I don't have the time right now to upload them. Actually I'm too tired to upload them right now (11:40 PM). I was trying to upload them to Shutterfly and email the album to everyone like I used to do, but it keeps making Explorer shut down.

The weather was very nice today and it appears that spring may be here to stay. All of the snow had melted out of our yard besides a big pile along the back (north) side of the house, but it decided to snow about 12" last week. Thank goodness all of that is now gone too.

We killed turkeys here in CO during the third weekend (April 26). Lot of luck involved. We also hunted Nebraska last weekend and took the snow to NE with us. Saturday was rain and snow. Sunday morning was cold and snow on the ground. Sunday afternoon got really nice and all the snow disappeared. Then Monday morning (our last) was really nice. We saw lots of turkeys, found lots of tracks, and heard several on Monday morning. We didn't kill a bird, but we will be going back next year.

The kids will be out of school soon. I'm sure they are looking forward to Summer break. I know heather is. I believe they will be coming home to IL to visit during last part of July and first part of August. I'll probably help her drive home then fly back to Denver the next day so I can go back to work. Then I'll fly from Denver to Nashville a couple weeks later to help her drive back. So, I'll get all the fun of the drive without any of the visiting.

I've got an assortment of tags coming again this year. Hopefully the turkey has broken the dry spell. I plan to do a lot of scouting this year closer to Leadville where I found elk last year. I'm sure Isaac will spend a lot of days in the mountains with me this year. Olivia and Boyd will both want a few days out also.

I'll try to get those photos out soon.

It's been a while

2008-04-23T10:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything new in several weeks. We made our spring break trip to IL to enjoy the rain then returned to several inches of new snow and had around 8" the next week.

Isaac and I have been out hunting turkeys the last two weekends just south of Salida, CO. We found turkeys the first Saturday then came oh so close to closing the deal on a good tom on the second Saturday (last weekend). We'll be hunting again this Saturday and may hunt Sunday morning early then sprint back to church. I'll eventually post a whole string of pictures from our turkey season in the mountains and hope they culminate into a grand finale that includes a Merriam turkey in hand.

Spring has finally showed up for the most part and the snow is steadily disappearing even in Leadville. We're looking forward to green grass in our little yard and Heather has plans for me to create a couple raised beds for growing lettuce, carrots, etc. (cool weather garden).

New Snow

2008-03-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

It snowed around 8" last night in Leadville, maybe 4" in Avon, and Beaver Creek reported 10" on the mountain. I'm not sure if we are getting more or not. I had planned to take the morning off on the next powder day to ski at Ski Cooper, but Heather is on a retreat w/ church staff at Yarmony Ranch until Saturday afternoon. Maybe I'll get another chance before our visit home. Cooper closes before we get back, although they have plenty of snow to stay open a few more weeks if they wanted.

IL visit and Turkey Season are fast approaching.

2008-03-05T21:26:00.000-08:00

We're looking forward to the visit at the end of this month. I'm also looking forward to the turkey hunts. I'll hunt with Sean and his boys the 29th and 30th during the youth season to try and help them put their first birds on the ground. After that I'm heading to northern Alabama for a few days with Isaac to try and put him on his first bird. I hope to drag a couple people along with me. I wouldn't mind packing my own bird out also. I've been given some good local info from a guy who lives there, so I'm exited to get back down there.

I bought a new Remington 870 Jr. 20 ga. last weekend in Denver for Isaac to use. We will try out the turkey choke and Remington 3" #5's we bought pretty soon. Isaac will shoot low brass target loads and I'll shoot the thumpers. I also bought him a turkey vest and a monopod to help him hold the gun up w/o getting tired. He is exited about trying for his first bird. We'll both try for CO birds this year, but that will be difficult. We've got to find the dang things and I'm afraid the snow will keep them on private land. The snow is deep this year.

I've had nothing but turkeys on my mind lately, so I've been spending money on stuff I don't really need. But I sure do want it. I've ordered some custom made mouth calls, a fiber optic sight for Isaac's gun, looking at a custom crow (locator) call, bought Sean's boys turkey vests for their birthday, decoys I found on sale, videos (as usuals), and I actually need new boots.

I'm also starting to twitch a little and occasionaly gobble.

New Pictures

2008-02-28T20:25:00.001-08:00

Boyd's preschool class has been skiing one day a week. Wednesday was their last day for the sesaon, so they rode the snow cat up to the top. Boyds been up there plenty of times, so the hill was no big deal. But, I think he really liked the snow cat ride.

Boyd skied quite a bit last year and the lessons at Beaver Creek were quite a bit more advanced, so he is normally well out ahead of his class. They skied twice this week on Tuesday and Wednesday to make up for a missed day. They had a different instructor on Tuesday than normal. When the instructor here asked his name and he said "Boyd", she said "The infamous Boyd, I've heard about you". I joked with him and told him a couple years we wouldn't have to buy passes because all the lifties would be saying "hey, here comes Boyd". The second photo looks more like a train wreck than a ski lesson, but I think some of these kids had never skied until this year.

The next set of photos are at the house. The snow overhanging the roof is now gone. I spent yesterday evening on a ladder w/ a snow shovel getting as much snow as I could from the ladder. The snow was about 30"+ near the gutters. Today the sun was out and the rest of it all slid off.
The biggest mounds of snow are from the roof and shoveling the driveway. We've had a lot more snow than that fall, but after it sets and the sun comes out it consolidates. Its still deeper than waist deep and I've almost lost control of the driveway. The kids have made a sledding hill from the top of the shoveling mound through the yard into a hole in the front yard. They also spent part of the day monday climbing the tree in the back yard and jumping into the snow to almost bury. They've been told not to do that any more, but Heather had to get a couple pics first.

The photos from the tree in the backyard was on Monday when school was cancelled. We had around 10" of snow, but school was closed because the bus barn had a gas leak and they couldn't start them for fear of causing an explosion.

The sabertooth and unicorn. I think Isaac looks more like snotsicle man.

Bow is growing and is now around 18 wks. He has become a handful lately. He stole a whole burrito off of the counter last week and eat it before I got upstairs. He doesn't get to eat table food, so he made a big mess in his kennel that night (if you know what I mean). It wasn't pretty.

Links to our pastor's web site

2008-02-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple links to Ethan's (our pastor's) web site and the weekly article he writes ("first tracks") and places on the Trinity's web site. We really like attending Trinity and have made a lot of friends there. It is, honestly, the best thing we have become a part of here in Colorado.

First Tracks - http://www.trinityvail.com/Firsttracks/firstracks.htm

Ethan's web site - www.gracecommando.com Ethan is the guy shown under "What happend to me"

Spring Break Trip to IL

2008-02-20T14:31:00.000-08:00

Well we've decided to come home to visit over Spring Break again this year. We were going to wait until June and go to California over Spring Break, but the CA trip was going to cost too much. Heather may still come in during the summer, but I will not have the vacation time.

We will probably start driving on the evening of Wednesday, March 26th and get there the evening of Thursday, March 27th. If I was brave enough to drive all the way through, we could get there Thursday morning. We will head back to CO on Saturday, April 5.

Of course I've already cooked up some turkey hunting plans. Sean's boys will have youth permits for the 29th and 30th, so we'll try to get them both a bird that weekend. Also, Isaac and myself will probably skip out from IL for a few days to hunt in AL where he can try to kill his first bird, and I'll be backup. :-) I've talked to a few others about going and sounds like a couple are in, if everything works out. If I haven't talked with you and you want to go, just let me know. Anyone will be welcome. A 3 day lic. will be $120 and a WMA permit is $16. Other expenses would be food, and depending on how many of us go, fuel and hotel.

We will be hunting Northern Alabama in the Bankhead NF. The Black Warrior WMA is within the NF and can only be hunted until noon, but the rest of the NF can be hunted all day. The terrain is steep rugged hills w/ hardwoods and pines. We (Dad, Sean, Kenneth, Sonny and myself) hunted it in 94 and there were birds everywhere. In 97 Sonny and I went back and didn't hear much of anything, but the weather was cool and rainy. It will be like any other DIY public land hunt, a hunt, not a guarantee.

Basketball Players

2008-02-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

Isaac and Olivia had their first games on Tuesday and Thursday. They both have the same coach. She asked for my help during Isaac's games, so I pretty much sat and yelled at Isaac because I don't know the other kids names yet. Isaac (4) did really well. It took him a few times down the floor to remember what he needed to do, but out of their 34 points he scored at least 12 of them and he handled the ball really well too. His team won their game.

Olivia (4) did really well also, considering she has never played before. I did not get to go to her game because it started at 5:30, but Heather took some pictures there also. Olivias team won their game also.

We skied today at Ski Cooper. It snowed about 8" yesterday and was snowing today also, so the snow was really good. Boyd has gotten over some of his fears from earlier, so it made for a really good day on the mountain. Isaac is skiing really well and has picked it up a notch the last couple times out. I would expect within a couple years he'll be waiting on me. He can actually smoke Heather right now. Olivia is doing well and with a lesson or two could be close to Isaac. The only difficulty we had today was Olivia started feeling bad so we left and got her some antibiotics called in. We should have expected it since the other two have been sick the last few days.

Turkey season around the corner

2008-01-30T07:19:00.000-08:00

It's not too far off to be planning now. Hopefully Isaac will pass his hunter's ed. class and we'll make a trip over to Nebraska for his first turkey. Eric's son is taking the class also, so they may come along too. Of course the whole trip will have to be centered around the two boys getting their first turkey. I'll have to make a covert scouting trip w/ bow in hand the week before we go. Their archery season opens early and I want to try and wack one with my bow.

Of course the entire trip could be out of the question if Uncle Sam doesn't feel we've paid in enough this year. I normally get a big refund, but I've restructured my witholdings so I'm a little concerned I'm gonna owe money this year. I'll set up a tax/ turkey hunt relief fund that each of you can donate to before April.

It has snowed a couple three inches each of the last couple days/nights. Not sure if we are going to try and ice fish this weekend of get out and ski. May try both. I'll try and get some good photos of either and post them here. Isaac and I skied last Saturday and it was a really nice sunshine day that would have made for some great photos of the Sawatch Range in the background but I forgot the camera.

Recent Photos

2008-01-25T08:54:00.000-08:00

Here are several recent photos taken around Leadville. We haven't had any big snows up here lately, but none of the snow we've had is going anywhere for a while. The first picture is during a very short ice fishing trip with Heather and the kids just south of town (same pond Joe and Dad both fished while they were here). It was colder than I thought and the trip lasted long enough for me to manually auger everyone a hole to fish over and the kids to cry they were cold and ready to go home. I'll be buying an ice fishing shelter soon.

This is Mount Elbert from Leadville. Elbert is the highest peak in Colorado and is part of the Sawatch Range. There are quite a few 14,000 ft plus mountains in Colorado, but this is the highest of those. It seems like it is always snowing in that range. I think in this photo it is mostly clouds and blowing snow. While this photo is not from our house, we can see this mountain from our house.

This is Notch Mountain. It's in the 13,000 ft plus range. I drive by this everyday on my way to work.
Here are photos I took of our new puppy. I took these while Bow and myself were on one of our walks. This is the closed road around Turquoise Lake just north of town. We were walking in powder, so if you look close you can see tracks from my snow shoes. These were taken at 13 wks of age. He is now 14 weeks old.

This is a herd of cow elk that Eric and myself were trying to get a shot at. Actually, I was working my way to them with the purpose of Eric getting the shot as they moved away from me. They are on the wrong side of the Town/NF boundary for me to shoot at this point. When they crossed over they were too far for me to shoot. This is only a portion of the elk. There ended up being around 27 cows and two spikes. When Eric was done shooting there was one less cow in the herd (see last photo). This is Eric's first animal of any kind, so needless to say we were very happy.

Since Eric didn't know anything about quartering an animal, I quartered the elk while he helped. Then two guys we know showed up and helped us pack it out in one trip. The pack was't very far, maybe half a mile, but it was straight down then straight back up. We were wearing snow shoes in about four feet of snow. Eric shot the elk at about 10:30 am and we had it packed out by 5:30 pm. We had already agreed to split whatever elk we killed. I took the elk to my garage and hung the quarters then butcherd it through the week. I bought a grinder and we made a lot of burger mixed w/ beef fat and made a lot of breakfast sausage mixed w/ pork.

Christmas Photos

2007-12-27T07:03:00.000-08:00

These are some of the photos I took on Christmas morning. Several of the photos are blurry. I just bought a new, more complicated, camera and have not figured everything out yet. Mainly that I have to open the flash up for it to work. I'll get it right eventually.

Christmas

2007-12-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had a great one here in CO. The kids got more gifts than they needed of course, but we had a lot of fun playing with their new toys. I spent half Christmas Eve night and part of Christmas day assembling games. Of course our new puppy, Bow, has made Christmas even more eventful.

We drove to KS last friday and picked him up Saturday morning. The drive out was awful in 40 mph cross winds and snow. I was beginning to believe the storm was a hint to turn around and forget about a dog, but we made it there and back safely. We had stopped there on our way back to Colorado from our Thanksgiving visit and told the kids I knew the people and wanted to visit. The kids had played with the 7 males from the litter of 11 puppies. They thought my "friends" just happend to have a litter of puppies.

When we pulled into their drive Isaac remembered it was the house with the puppies and they were all hoping the puppies were still there to play with. Olivia said, "I bet the two with the blue and green colars are already gone." They had no clue the green colar was to mark our puppy. We went in the house and our puppy was inside waiting for us. We let the kids play with him for 10 or 15 minutes before Heather asked them if they wanted to take him home. It took us almost as long to convince them that he was our puppy and was going home with us and that he was ours when they played with him the first time. From there all the way back to Colorado was a never ending argument over who got to sit in front of the kennel that Bow was riding in.

So far he has been a good puppy. I've been using the kennel to house train him and I think he is going to catch on pretty quick. I've been reading several books on trainging pointing labs, by the way he is a pointing lab, and have started the early stages of retrieving. He loves to chase after the bumper and bring it back, but only give him a little and then put it away while he is still exited about it. We'll see how it goes, but I think the only thing that will hold him back will be my patience for training.

I have several Christmas photos of the kids to post, but haven't downloaded them to the computer yet. I'll get them up in the next couple days.

Happy New Year!

Dec. 8 and 9 th

2007-12-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

We skied on Saturday at Ski Cooper. Ski Cooper is a much smaller area than the resort we skied last year, Beaver Creek, but it is plenty big for us and there are no crowds. It was snowing pretty hard while we were there but we still made several runs. Isaac and Olivia picked up where they left off last year, but Boyd needs a couple more times out to get back up to speed. He tired out pretty quick. Heather had a couple falls that I missed while keeping track of the kids, but I could tell she planted her head into the snow by the amount of snow wedged between her goggles and helmet. Last weekend we had around 15" of snow and from the 6th to the 9th we had from 12 to 18 additional inches of snow.

On Sunday afternoon we cut our own live Christmas Tree. Permits can be purchased from the National Forest Service for $10. The trees they allow you to cut are scarcely better than a "Charlie Brown Tree", but Heather and the kids enjoyed it. I kept waiting for a light to shine down on the perfect tree like it did for Clark W. Grizwald in Christmas Vacation, but I never saw anything more than snow. The tree was probably around 12' tall prior to me trimming the bottom off. Boyd was the only one who would help decorate it once we got it trimmed and stood up in the basement (our artificial one is in the window upstairs). Heather, Isaac and Olivia set around and watched. I guess the fun was gone once it was home.

Thanksgiving in IL

2007-11-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

First things first, I killed this doe on our Thanksgiving visit back home. Someone, I think Cheryl, asked me to quit showing hunting pics and show pics of the kids. So, this picture is for you Cheryl. HA!
Boyd and his "wohawk".

Olivia and Uncle Bubba.

Pegram Kids at Thanksgiving.
Dad, enlightening any audience he can get.
Grandpa, almost asleep from listening to Dad.

Which one is Eli?

Eli after a hard day of Christmas shopping.

Sam and Isaac searching for their brain.

We had a great trip home over Thanksgiving. The trip seemed short due to all the driving it required, so we plan to make the trips a little longer in the future if possible. I got in about four hunting trips and was only rained out on one. I killed the doe the first morning I went. Olivia got to go with me on my last hunt and her favorite part was watching a group of does run when they saw us. That wasn't my favorite part. Olivia counting down the last five minutes after I told her "only five more minutes" made me laugh and was my favorite part of the hunt.

We didn't get to visit with as many people as we would have liked due to time constraints but we did enjoy the short visits had. If we didn't make it to see someone, it wasn't because we've forgotten you.

It has finally started snowing here, so I'll try to get up some snow pics soon. We thought we were going to ski this weekend but the mountain we have passes for isn't open yet because of the lack of snow.

I have another tag for a cow elk that runs from Dec. 1 to Jan. 14. This tag is a rifle tag, so maybe I'll finally shoot an elk, but I wouldn't count on it.

Pictures from this falls hunting

2007-10-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

Joe showing off the lunch made just for an elk hunter.
Michael wondering how he got talked into this.

Not sure what these two guys were doing at 9,000 ft, but I almost stepped on them.
Joe, Michael and Kelsie fishing for trout in Turquois lake in the rain. Heather , Nancy and Isaac watch. You can see a few fish in the lower left corner.
The mighty hunter (Dad) all dressed up but no elk to impress.
Dad and the Flattops in the background.
Wild flower that I don't know the name of.

I didn't take a lot of pictures while elk hunting this year. I had several close calls and got in on bugling that I had never experienced, but I could not get it done. My side tags, deer and bear, never worked out either. I was pretty disappointed in my bowhunting results. I expected to at least kill a deer, but since I had a tag nothing was ever near me.

This is the first day of my Bighorn ewe tag. There were 10 sheep around the rock you can see through my spotting scope. They were around 2,500 to 3,000 ft above me, and of course I took off after them.
A while later I made it to this point at treeline. The sheep are bedded on that diagonal line where the snow is melted just above the tree tops. If I could just get to the log above the scrubby trees I should have a 40 yard shot.
The interchange way down below is where I started from.
This is where they were when I finally got up there. I never could get closer than 100 yards and I hung out all day hoping they would feed my direction. That never happend and I made it back to the truck after dark. I was very tired.

I packed in this camp about a mile and a half up a drainage just to treeline on the second day to hunt for a few days.
This is a few sheep out of a group of 13 that I planned to hunt on day 3, but they disappeared never to be seen again. I did try to ambush four that I found close by that evening, but while watching two of them from 75 yards one had got above me to about 40 yards and caught a glimpse of me sneaking in. I had to slide on my but back down the steep slope to find my pack in the dark. I could not find it so I had to make it back to my tent with no light and find it in the morning.This is the rock slide I climbed up through to stalk the same four sheep from the night before after finding my pack. I though I had them, but instead of continuing to feed up the slope past the rock outcropping I snuck to, they bedded on the far side of the chute they were feeding in and 68 yards was all I could get to . They finally winded me and spooked. I again had to slide on my but all the way back down to the trees. The climb up wasn't much fun, but the slide down was nerve racking. If you kick a rock loose, it will roll a half mile down the hill.
This is looking back down the drainage from the same spot as the last picture. Last nights stalk had been on the edge of the trees on the slope to the left. At this point I called Heather and had her meet me in Georgetown with the 7mm mag. I had had enough climbing and sliding back down and planned to shoot one and let it slide down to me. I never got another chance. I got to 275 yards on the last day, but was not comfortable with that range and before I could get closer they made it to the trees and I never could find them again.This is the head of the drainage that I was hunting. This is well above treeline.
This is Mt Elbert this morning on my way to work with the first rays of sun shining on it. Elbert is the highest peak in the state, one of the many 14'ers. Both it and Massive can be seen from our house. This was taken just north of Leadville.

This is Mt. Massive at the same time as the last. Massive has the largest amount of acreage above 14,000 ft of any of the 14'ers in the state. I plan to climb it some day.

I will give a doe antelope a try with the muzzleloader this weekend. I have to hunt with iron sights so I need to be less than 100 yards. Isaac will be hunting with me so we'll see how that goes. I then will have a late season cow elk tag from Dec. 1 to Jan. 14. I have a little bit of help finding them, so hopefully I can finally put some meat in the freezer.

I should have never bought the muzzy tag and muzzy accessories, but instead bought decoys and waders and went duck hunting during the first half of the season. The second split will probably have everything frozen around here, but maybe I can get it together next year for waterfowl. I'm in the process of trying to get Heather to let me buy a lab pup. They kids are completely unaware and would be pretty exited if they thought it may work out.

We will be home in IL the week of Thanksgiving. You guessed it, I'll have my bow and hope to find several stupid whitetail does to shoot since I can buy the tags over the counter.

Last weekend's hunt

2007-09-11T08:48:00.001-07:00

I hunted the same area as Thursday on Friday evening, but I climbed up the mountain to the area the elk were in the evening before. Of course once up there, a bull started bugling on the far side of the drainage about an hour before dark. I stayed put since it would take me an hour to get there. Finally just before dark the bull on my side bugled at the far bull from about 100 to 150 yards away. I cow called some with no response. Then right at dark he bugled above and behind me out in the open. He appeared to be bugling at me and saying "if your coming, get over her now". When he crossed over the ridge he skylighted his rack. He was a really good bull with a huge body. The two behind him were spikes and I did not see any cows.

I hunted the same area on Saturday and was expecting some exitement after Friday evening, but all I heard was three shots from someone with a muzzleloader. The muzzleloader season started today and goes through the next weekend. I don't know if the extra people in the woods shut them down or what, but the entire day was uneventful. Needless to say, I was very disappointed.

I went to church on Sunday morning then took Isaac hunting with me in a new area on Sunday evening. We found fresh moose tracks from a cow moose and here two calves that have been seen near Redcliff a couple times. We also saw a couple elk rubs from this year, but that was the best we did. All other sign was old and the evening was uneventful.

I'll be hunting with Dad next weekend and plan to take a couple vacation days next week before season ends. I jjust need a couple lucky minutes to make this season work out.

Hunted Thursday Evening

2007-09-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

I managed to get out just early enough to hunt for a couple hours yesterday evening. I hunted close to town. The hike to the area I hunted was only a mile or so, with only a steady verticle climb. I just quitely still hunted through some heavy timber hoping to see elk or deer or bear, I wasn't picky about which.

I managed to see a small herd of elk. I only made out three of them, one 4 or 5 point bull, a calf and a larger elk that I'm sure had to be a bull also. Considering the calf, there had to be at least one more cow around somewhere. I had enough time for them to come to the call, so I made several cow calls. The bull stood there on the slope looking my way, but refused to budge or make a sound. I snuck out without spooking them in hopes that they would be in the same area this evening. If I can get out a little early, I think I can set up and wait for them to feed through the same area. Who knows with elk though, they may be miles from there tonight. I did see a few deer tracks and some bear scat, so if the elk aren't around, maybe one of them will show up. I may still be a little picky with the deer I would try for, but an elk just needs to be legal.

I would really like to get lucky before the muzzleloader starts this weekend. It would also allow me to concentrate on Dad killing a cow when he gets here next week.

Long weekend

2007-09-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

Joe and I hunted together Saturday morning without seeing anything other than a little bit of elk sign. Joe helped me set up a camp then I drove Joe down to Eagle where he met with Nancy, Heather and all the kids. I drove back up on the mountain to hunt and camp until Monday. I made a short hunt and saw a couple small bucks and a doe Saturday evening but no elk.

I got up at 4:30 Sunday morning, got all my stuff together (should have done that the night before) then drove to the location I would start from. It was getting light, so I was rushing to get to the ridge top and walked right into a big mule deer buck. I circled him to try and get ahead of him for an ambush, but I never saw him again. I then spotted a couple elk in the awful hole that Joe and I hunted last weekend. Of course I bailed off into it again. I stayed in there all day and managed to hear one bugle, but before it was over with I believe the wind gave me up. At the end of the day I had to climb up out of there again, but chose a different route than last week. It was still a tough climb, but not even close to as bad as the last choice.

I debated it for a while, but decided I wanted to spend some of Monday with the kids and Heather and see Joe for a while before they were to leave on Tuesday, so I drove home that night. On the way down the mountain I saw another big Mule Deer buck and was wishing I had stayed, but there is always next weekend.

On Monday we fished at Turquoise lake for a while and kept 8 fish caught between myself, Joe, Kelsie and Michael. We could have caught more, but the weather was nasty and we were hungry. I had planned to hunt near Leadvill that evening with Isaac, but it was raining hard. So, I drove Joe to pick up their rental car in Eagle for their drive through the Rocky Mountain National Park on Tuesday then to the Denver Airport. Of course the weather looked great up on the mountain I had been hunting.

I've still not loaded any pictures onto my computer, so no pics yet.

Bowhunting Again!

2007-08-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

Season finally arrived last Saturday. I picked Joe and Michael up in Denver on Thursday night and we camped Friday and Saturday night. We had a good first day and I almost got a shot at a 4 point bull, but 70 yards was the best shot he offered. In all we saw a group of five bulls, called in one spike and managed to get in front of the four point. We also saw two other elk and a nice bear. The bear was in a really good position for a stalk, so it was too bad season doesn't start until the 2nd. Our choice of routes back up the mountain was a very poor one and we didn't make it back to camp until 11:00pm. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to climb out that way, but during the climb I was thinking I was going to have to tell Nancy how I killed Joe climbing a mountain. We slept in Sunday morning and hunted Sunday afternoon with no sightings.

Joe has hunted a few more times since the weekend and found some good sign, but no elk. Joe has ended up with a nasty sounding cold and it isn't helping his strength to climb these mountains. They did however catch a limit of trout on Monday out of a State Pond and we took the kids back on Tuesday evening. They all caught some fish and had a good time. Joe and Michael are fishing a bigger lake this morning in hopes of catching some larger fish. We plan to cook the fish when Nancy and Kelsie get here.

Nancy and Kelsie will be flying into Denver tonight and Joe, Michael and myself will be driving to pick them up. We plan to leave early and stop in Georgetown to glass for sheep in my sheep unit.

I'll be hunting the same unit as Saturday again during this long weekend and hope to bring something out of the woods besides sore feet. I'll post some pictures soon.

Various photos from the last month

2007-08-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

Elk and Deer archery season starts the 25th. I'll be out every weekend until the last on September 23rd. Joe N. will be out the first two weekends, so hopefully we will be packing a lot of meat up the mountains. Bear starts on the 1st of September, so if given the chance I'll shoot a bear. Dad will be here for the last two weekends of archery and the following weekend when he has an early season cow elk rifle tag. I hope he comes out every year to hunt along with Sean and anyone else that has the time and money. It would be great for everyone to come out during the first rifle when they can buy tags over the counter for bull or cow depending how much they are willing to spend (250 for cow 495 for bull). Following all that, I start hunting for my ewe on the 2nd of October when I have four vacation days and two weekend days to make good on the tag. I'm pretty exited about the prospects, but know I'll be lucky to fill any one of those tags considering my limited time out this summer and my inexperience with these mountain animals.

Its been running low to upper 40's at night here in Leadville and every morning I can smell the spruce and sage brush. It smells like hunting season is upon us. And thank God it is. The following photos are from the last several weeks. Enjoy!

Here is a 6 point elk shed that Heather spotted while we were driving through the aspens down the mountain I plan to elk and deer hunt on. There have probably been a hundred people drive by it since spring that thought nothing more of it than an aspen branch. I was pretty exited that Heather spotted it.

I found this skull on the opposite side of the same mountain while scouting for deer and elk the week before finding the shed. There were only a few other bones around and it was at about 10,000 ft. Considering the elevation, I don't think it was a winter kill. More than likely it was an unrecovered hunter kill from last season or a mountain lion kill. It is just a decent muley without much mass, there are a lot of muleys like this one on this mountain. I won't hesitate to kill one this size, but I would like to find a bigger buck since I know this mountain has them.

This is the mountain I'll be hunting the first couple weekends to try and fill my deer tag with a big buck. I hope to kill one coming out of these steep draws in the mornings or going into them in the evening. I've been seeing elk there too, so maybe I can take one of them home also.

This is a wildflower I photographed, among others, while on a sheep scouting trip above timberline. I was at around 12,000 ft here. The three pictures that follow the flower are all from the same area looking in different directions. There is nothing like being above timberline. A man can not help but stand in awe of God's creation from up there. I can't keep from thinking that when God finished creating the Rockies, he stood back and said "Shane is gonna freak out over this". And he was exactly right.
To top off the fantastic views, I was able to find a big group of ewes and lambs. Since I have a ewe tag, I was exited about finding them. Hopefully they will be there after the early season hunters get done. I can't hunt until October 2nd.

The fog was really rolling through early in the morning.
This is a little later in the morning.The big group of ewes and lambs are scattered throught the rocks and trees at the top of the point of trees in the center of the photo. I'm guessing around a half mile away.

Boyd and Olivia at the museum in Denver.
Isaac and Olivia north of Leadville above Turquoise Lake.
This is a bridge I drive over on Hwy 24 every day of the week. The road beneath it goes to Redcliff.

This is a view of Mount Massive from Leadville. Our neighborhood is just down the hill and to the right in the picture.
This is a view over our neighborhood from the same location as the previous photo. If you look hard you can see our house before we painted. It is located behind and to the right of the red roof. It is the beutiful mint green w/gray roof, or as Gretel called it "Starnes BBQ Green".

This is a photo of the house in the evening after I finished trimming the new garage door. I still have painting to do, but it won't stop raining. It actually snowed above town, above 11,000 ft, just south of town today. I'm sure it will be gone tomorrow, but it was neat to see snow above timberline in August.

Scouting Trips

2007-07-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

I went scouting last weekend to look for deer and elk. I managed to see one decent mule deer buck and one that was too far to judge. I also saw a small herd of elk feed out of their bedding area. It wasn't as well as I would have liked to have done, but it was encouraging.

I plan to scout for ewes this Saturday near Berthoud Pass. I'll be hiking around above treeline in the 12,000 ft elevation range. I can't wait to get above the trees. I'll try to get some pictures of the hike.

On another note, Heather and the kids have been gone for 10 days now and won't be home for another 4. I will be glad to see them on Monday. I haven't got much more work done on the house. I have arrived home late almost every day, so work hasn't been a high priority. Also, it has rained almost every day in Leadville, so painting was out of the question. I have, however, worked some more on the garage door and am ready to install the springs. I will probably need to wait until David gets here next week to install them. I will also have the interior doors up this weekend and will clean the house up. Tonight I have to attend a community meeting here in town to update residents on the Town's street improvement and pedestrian path projects.

Before and After

2007-07-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

The first photo is while we were covering the mint green and bright green trim. I don't have a true before picture for the exterior that shows the color and the entry door and window that had replaced the garage door.. I'm not sure my camera could have taken it. You know your house is ugly when several neighbors stop to applaud your painting efforts and appraisal values increase by 10% on your street.

Photos from LR toward hallway. The first picture already has new paint and floors have some work completed on them. Baseboards have not been installed yet and won't be until our funds are rebuilt.

Dining room from LR. The first picture already includes some new paint and the green windows had been covered with white. The lovely light fixture and solid door can be seen though.

As far as I'm concerned the kitchen was the most disgusting room in the place. Notice the nice yellow coating of grease and cigarette smoke on the ceiling. The entire house had the cigarette stains, but the kitchen had the added bonus of grease. The light fixture and choice of cabinet finsh was also a favorite. The new kitchen still needs to have the plywood countertop tiled, but that brings us back to the rebuilding of funds.

This is the Living Room. The first photo shows some of our moving in efforts, but you can get the idea.

We still have a lot of work to do, but we are getting there. I still have to finish up exterior painting, garage door exterior framing, baseboards, tile in the kitchen and bathroom. The basement is a whole other can of worms I don't want to think about right now. I've got too many elk, deer, bear, antelope and sheep to worry about right now. Maybe next spring I'll think about it, but then Turkeys will be on my mind. I just need to quit work.

On My Own

2007-07-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

David and Gretel have been in for the last week. They did more work on the house than I could have ever expected them to do. They touched up a lot of paint inside the house, took down the wall w/window and door that had replaced the garage door, hung the back exterior door, repaired the front exterior door, installed window blinds and curtains and last but certainly not least, we painted the exterior of the house and covered up that awful mint green color. I'm sure there is more jobs they completed that I'm overlooking, but you should get the idea. It was great to come home from work and see the additional progress being made with the help.

BUT, the week had to come to an end, and today they started the long drive back to IL in our mini-van. The trip back includes Heather and the kids. They will visit back home for two weeks then David and Gretel will drive back with them, stay a couple days more, and fly out of Denver to return home. Therefore, I am on my own for a couple weeks. It will be a lonely couple weeks, but I plan to finish hanging the garage door, hang a couple interior doors and finish up the exterior trim painting on the side and back of the house. I'm also going to get some camping/scouting in for sheep and elk/deer. I've got more tags this year than I know what to do with and very little time to scout, so I have to get the house work out of the way and get in gear on the scouting. Hopefully these projects along with work will make the time go by quick.

I'll post some before and after house photos soon.

Scouting with Olivia

2007-07-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

Olivia and I went on a scouting trip Saturday afternoon/evening. We didn't walk much, but instead used the binocs to look for elk and deer. I didn't get to look things over as much as I would have liked because I took it easy with Olivia, but we had a good trip anyway.

We saw a total of three cow elk, a calf, a few distant mule deer and a bear on the drive out. The bear was the first Olivia has seen. Too bad it was so late. The bear crossed in front of us, but Olivia did not see it until I stopped and it took off running through the aspen.

This area is the same area that Joe, Scott and Myself hunted in 2004. During that hunt we saw several elk but could not get an opportunity. We also saw quite a few good mule deer bucks, so I applied for that tag this year. I plan to do my best to put my tag on a mulie buck in that area. The area is really tough to draw for rifle season because it holds some great bucks. I'm really exited about a chance to shoot a mule deer with my bow. Maybe the elk won't know I'm hunting them too. I hope to have a bear tag in my pocket also, just in case.

I took several pictures of Olivia when she wasn't looking that turned out good. The other photos are just some I snapped while we were out there. The wild flowers are all over the place. One picture is Olivia with a muddy snow ball that she made. The patch of snow is in a low spot next to a waterhole that is shaded from the sun most of the day.

Pictures from last weekend

2007-06-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to the Frisco Barbecue Challenge. We had some good barbecue, but I don't think the event is as good as Paducah's Barbecue on the River. Isaac did get to climb a rock wall, they ran through an obstacle course and Heather got to eat a funnel cake, so they had a little fun in the midst of the huge crowd and hot sun. After the barbecue we drove up to Berthoud Pass which is located on the northern boundary of the unit I can hunt sheep in this October. We didn't get to see any bighorns, but I am more familiar with some of the access now.

The lake pictures were taken from the north side of Turquoise Lake, which is just north of Leadville, looking across the lake.

2007 Hunting Prospects

2007-06-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

I have gotten all results in on the 2007 Big Game Seasons. The following tags have been drawn or will be purchased over the counter:

DEER - Either Sex Unit 44 Archery (Aug. 25 - Sept. 23)
ELK - Over the Counter Either Sex Archery(Aug. 25 - Sept. 23)
BIGHORN SHEEP - Ewe Unit S32 Rifle (Oct. 2 - Oct. 11)
ANTELOPE - Doe Units 6, 16, 17, 161 Muzzleloader (Oct. 21 - Oct. 27)
ELK - Unit 35, 36 Late Season Cow Tag Rifle (Dec. 1 - Jan. 14)

I also plan to buy an archery Bear tag, but they are first come first serve with a cap and go on sale July 9 at 9 am. I have a sticky note on my computer at work, so I dont' forget to call at 9 on the dot. The season runs from Sept. 1 until the end of archery elk and deer, so it will be a "just in case" tag. Never know when an opportunity may present itself.

I'm unsure about getting to hunt with the antelope tag, due to the possibility of taking the PE in October, but I thought I would get it just in case and dad will be bringing me a muzzleloader when they visit in September. I will be hunting with my bow during the Bighorn Sheep Ewe hunt, but will cary a rifle for the late season cow elk hunt. If I dont' fill a freezer this year, I'm going to be disappointed. Eric says I must have a very understanding wife. He's right! How else would I have gotten to move to the mountains of Colorado.

If Mom and Dad come out during the deer and elk muzzleloader season, I hope to talk dad into letting me buy him a leftover deer or cow elk tag. I'm not sure what tags will be available, but I can find something for sure. I'll then have to find a waterhole or something for him to take a stand at that isn't too far from the trail/road.

The kids are almost done with school (June 15th). They had to go late this year due to starting late at the Charter School. They will change schools next year and attend a couple blocks from our house in Leadville, so getting them to school will be much easier. I got the cabinets all in on Monday and now need to install the countertop and kitchen sink. The bathroom work will be soon to follow along with new baseboards.

We may go to the "Frisco Barbecue Challenge" on Friday night and see how CO barbecue events compare to Paducah's "Barbecue On The River". It's unlikely there will be better barbecue there, but I've never met a rack of pork ribs I couldn't make close friends with. So if we go, I plan to be good and sticky by the time we leave.

Summer in the mountains

2007-06-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

Heather just called and it is snowing in Leadville. Probably not sticking, but snowing. Other than the snow today, the weather has been nice. We have to run the heat at night but it hasn't been kicking on during the day. The house is still a wreck, but we are gaining ground on it. I started hanging new kitchen wall cabinets last night and will continue tonight. I

may drive to the Lowes in Glenwood Springs this evening to pick up a new gas range. We pulled the old range out and set it in the back yard to haul off. I have as much to haul off as we hauled in. I hope to have the inside mostly in order by the end of this weekend, so I can start making a few outside improvements to the yard, fence and house exterior. There is a lot of work to do.

The first two photos were taken from our front yard looking over the top of the neighbor houses at Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive. They are both hiding in the clouds. Both are over 14,000 ft elevation, with Elbert being the tallest. Mt. Massive however, has the largest area above 14,000 ft of any 14er in the state. The last photo was taken Monday from HWY 24 just before reaching Leadville. The two previous mountains would have been to our right. The picture does not do the rainbow justice.

We went to the Edwards skate park on Sunday, while Heather had a church meeting. The third and fourth photos were snapped at the park. The kids love the skate park, and I believe Isaac will eventually be a really good boarder. Boyd will likely be right behind him. Olivia may be a little timid for it, but she may suprise us all.

David and Gretel will be flying out to visit on July 6 and staying about a week. Heather and the kids along with David and Gretel will then drive back to IL for a couple week visit. After her visit, David and Gretel will drive back with her then fly back home.

Now onto more important information. I have drawn several tags for next season. The following are what I've drawn so far:

Late Season Rifle Cow Tag - Dec. 1-Jan. 14

Archery Deer Tag - Aug. 25 - Sept. 23

Bighorn Ewe Tag - Oct. 2 - 11

I will also buy an archery elk tag that runs concurrently with the Archery Deer. I am also waiting to see if I drew a Muzzleloader Antelope tag for late October. I have yet to shoot my knew bow since I brought it home and I have a lot of scouting I need to do. I may need to quit my job.

Moved to Leadville

2007-05-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

We made the final move to Leadville yesteday in the snow. It was raining in Avon, but we ran into snow on the way up. We have all the furninture moved into the garage w/some in the house. The refinished floors weren't quite ready. The floors have turned out real well. I actually should have sanded with a screen and added another coat, but we don't have time right now. I still need to get new baseboards and doors installed. I'm using the existing frames on the interior doors, so we'll see how hinge installation goes on the new door slabs.

We removed the old cabinets last night and were pretty grossed out by the amount of filth under them. I found an old package of rolling papers stuck between cabinets. I knew the previous owners had to be high when they painted the house. I plan to install new cabinets this weekend and maybe purchase a new stove. The gas stove that came with the house is shot, along with the dishwasher and refrigerator. However, we can make due with the fridge for a while and live without the dishwasher if we have to. I'm also going to replace several light fixtures and maybe try to add one to the living room.

After I get done w/the inside it will be on to the outside. We will start with repainting and garage door installation. Then I'll move into replacing the back yard fence and building a deck and patio. Lots of work this summer!

Snow

2007-05-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

Although not that unusual for the mountains, we have had snow off and on since yesterday morning. I had about an inch on the cars this morning and the grass and trees all had snow on them. I'm sure the snow pounded the higher elevations. The golf course down the road is covered in snow with bright green putting surfaces showing through. The greens must be warmer than the rest of the fairways because they are cut so close to the ground, either way it's pretty cool looking. I'll bet Sean never mowed a green in the snow.

We planned to pave today on the Town's roundabout project, but the weather and the site conditions were not suitable for pavement. So, maybe it will dry up enough today to pave tomorrow. I've never stopped work on a construction site in late May due to snow.

New/Old House

2007-05-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

We closed on the house last week 5/15 and have been working on it daily. So far we have removed all baseboards and interior doors, leaving the door frames. The ceiling and walls had to be washed down because they were filthy. I think the previous owneres must have smoked. I rented a paint sprayer from Home Depot and sprayed all the ceilings, so that was an easy job.

I have also touched up all the nail holes in the sheet rock and we have painted the three bedrooms and all the door frames and windows. Tonight we will put a second coat on the bedrooms and start on the living and dining rooms. I want to have all the floors refinished before we move in next week, so I'll be renting a drum sander starting Wednesday.

The kids are loving being able to run around in the house and basement and the small back yard. It all needs a lot of updating, but I think I can get it done this summer. I'll just be glad to get moved in.

I forgot to mention

2007-05-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

I drew a sheep tag. Since I didn't have any preference points I applied for a ewe tag which isn't too terribly difficult to draw as a 1st choice. No one w/ preference points will apply as a first choice because they will lose them all if they draw their fist choice. Since everyone wants a ram, they keep trying for a ram tag and apply for ewe as second choice. Ram tags require a min. of 3 preference points. Some guys will draw a tag in as few as 6 years and I know of some who have applied for nearly 20 years for a ram without drawing. Hopefully I can get lucky and fill the ewe tag then start the long wait of applying for a ram tag.

My season will be Oct. 2-11, which is actually a rifle season. I will be hunting with my bow and will take a few vacation days along with a weekend. I plan to scout all summer and I've met a guy from Loveland that has killed a ram and a ewe in the unit I drew that has offered to help. I've also met a guy from north of Colorado Springs that has done the same.

I'm really exited about it. Sheep are at the top of my list for animals I wanted to hunt with my bow. I've included some pics I found on the web. I did not take either photo, but included them to show the difference between the ewe and ram.

This is what I'll be after in October and scouting for all summer.

This is what I'll be passing up and hoping to hunt some day.

A few pics from last months visit to IL

2007-05-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Sam/"Elvis has left the building"
Bicycles at Granny and Papaw's
Boyd w/Ben 10 watch
Jessie and Eli
Eli's already picking up chics w/his board

Lacey K.
Maddy
Isaac @ Noble Park
Olivia and Boyd @ Noble Park
Olivia and Jade

I'm finally getting around to posting a few of the pics from last months visit to IL. I didn't get pictures of everyone and some that I did get weren't any good, so I'm just posting some that turned out ok.

Weather is really nice lately. The sun will bake you and it is only 70 deg during the day. Leaves are almost all out except for up at the higher elevations.

Turkey hunting didn't go so well the weekend I got back. Hens were the only thing I saw and other hunters. I've got to find more birds in a larger area, but we are a couple of hours from any of those places. Was planning to make it out this evening w/ Isaac and camp between here and Grand Junction up in the mountains closer to more turkeys so we could hunt tomorrow all day, but I needed to check on one of the town projects I'm responsible for before hunting. Then we were going into GJ to buy a new bow. I haven't decided between the Bowtech or Diamand.

After checking out the job, we plan to drive out to GJ if they have the bows in stock then hunt and maybe camp then get up early and head back for Mothers Day. If the bows aren't in stock, we will just hunt.

Will probably be my last chance to go hunting although there are two more weekends left. We will be closing on a small house in Leadville on the 15th and then will be working on it for two weeks before moving into it by the end of the month. The house is only 1100+ sq.ft w/ 900+ sq.ft. basement and is mostly 70's era finishes. The house also has a one car garage they had enclosed but never finished for living space. I'm going to remove the window and put the garage door back in. I'm also going to refininsh the wood floors throughout the house and repaint the entire interior before moving in. The outside has to be painted a different color until we can re-side with a more modern siding (probably vinyl). The bathroom and kitchen needs to be modernized but won't happend until were already in. We will get everyone our new number at the first of next month when we get moved in.

An IL Turkey Hunt

2007-04-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it back last Sunday from our visit and my turkey hunt back home in IL. We had a great visit and tried to spend time with everyone. If anyone was missed it wasn't for lack of trying.

I've posted some of my turkey hunting pictures. The first picture is of Josh with the bird we called in early Sunday morning before church. The bird weighed 20 lbs, had 3/4" spurs and a 10 7/8" beard. It was actually spitting snow when we took the picture. I thought I had left the mountains.

The second picture is of Sean with the bird we called in Monday around 11:00 or so. We had hunted all morning before getting lucky and finding the group we called in. Sean shot the strutter at 30 yds. The bird weighed 23 lbs, had 1 1/8" spurs, 10" and 3" beards. Yes it was double bearded, which makes 3 double bearded birds for Sean through the years. One of those should have been mine but the birds always come in on Sean's side.

The third picture is of Sonny and Ron with the bird Ron killed on Wednesday morning. The bird came in right after flydown, but we had to walk at least a mile to get to him. The bird weighed around 18 to 20 lbs, had 10" or so beard and 1" spurs.

The next two pictures are of the bird I killed on Saturday. I only had two days to hunt with my own tag, so I was very happy to kill a bird on the second day. Joe was with me that morning and actually called the bird in by setting up behind me about 40 yds. Sean also killed a bird that morning and had called me at 10:30 with the good news while Joe and I walked across the field to the place I killed my bird at 11:30. It was tough couple of days but It made for a lot of fun. My bird weighed 18 lbs, had 3/4" spurs and a 10" beard. Seans bird weighed 20 lbs, had 1" spurs and 10 1/2" beard (I think).

The last two pictures are of Sean and I together with our birds and of Joe and I together with my bird.

I had a great time hunting with everyone and hope I can make it a yearly event. I also hope to come home around Thanksgiving or Christmas. Of course I'll bowhunt for deer a little then. Heather and the kids should also be home for another visit in July. I'll get more pictures posted of kids and family a little later.

Turkey Scouting

2007-04-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

Olivia and I went scouting on Saturday. The Garfield Creek SWA where I had taken pictures before had a few turkeys on it this time. The first group was a big strutting tom and three or four hens. The second group was four jakes with one of them strutting and gobbling. I got pictures of the jakes, but they aren't anything more than black spots. I did blow up one of the pics so that the strutting bird could be seen.

We also found the skeleton of a deer that Olivia thought was great, so I took her picture next to it. We drove quite a bit and I found some other areas that look promising. I would love a shot at the big tom I saw strutting, but by the time I get home from IL, they will have been hunted for a couple weekends. I saw one other guy checking things out and the area didn't have a lot of area for turkeys to hide, so I'm sure he will at the very least be pressured by the time I give him a try.

Speaking of IL, we will be driving to Denver tomorrow to spend the night then we will fly out Thursday morning to Nashville. We should be in Brookport by 6pm and I will be hunting by Friday morning with someone.

Grand Junction last weekend

2007-04-05T09:05:00.000-07:00

We all went to Grand Junction last Friday and stayed in a hotel. Myself and Isaac got up early and drove around looking at areas that the DOW suggested for turkey hunting. We walked a short distance up a trail and I thought I heard a gobble. After walking the trail we drove up the road a short distance and I spotted two turkeys in a field on private land that was posted with "NO HUNTING" signs about every 100'. I'm pretty sure that was probably where the gobble I heard came from. We drove to another area that was also suggested by the DOW and came to a huge valley of private ranches along a river bottom with big Cottonwood trees. We saw two big flocks of Merriam turkeys, but they were on big private ranches along a Cottonwood river bottom. I'm sure the first couple birds I saw visit the public land, but the big flocks have quite a bit of private land to stay on and I wasn't quite to the public land that was suggested by the DOW.

Our scouting from the road took up the entire morning so we headed back to get Heather, Olivia and Boyd. They had spent the morning swimming in the hotel's pool. We then went to do some shopping. Heather was looking for clothes and I was looking for a new bow.

I shot the new Bowtech Guardian and Diamond Black Ice at Sportsman's Warehouse. I also shot the Hoyt Vectrix and the Mathews Drenalin and XT at Red Rock Archery. I liked them all, but I think my top choices are the Bowtech and Diamond. I'll shoot them again before I decide which to buy. I may even shoot them when we come home next week to visit.

I will be scouting again this Saturday, so I hope to find some more turkeys on public land. I'll try and get more pictures up from last weekend and from this weekends scouting as soon as possible.

2007-03-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

I went on a road trip looking for turkeys on Saturday. The first four pictures are just south of New Castle near a State Wildlife Management Area (WMA). They list turkeys as being hunted there and the state shows it as part of their range, but I didn't' see any turkeys. The big valley is mostly private land with the land between the road and valley being WMA and the surrounding mountains are BLM and NF. More than likely if there are turkeys there they would travel to the state land also. The NWTF was listed along with others as partners with the State in developing the area, so I would guess there are turkeys there on occasion at the least. I'll definitely give it a closer look. When I left there and got on I-70 to drive toward Rifle, I could have swore there was a flock of turkeys in a field just above New Castle on a small plateau. I was driving too fast to stop on the shoulder, but when I came back through I did not see the same spots in the field. I hope they were turkeys.

I drove on to Rifle and stopped at Timberline Outdoors and bought a couple Primos Videos (Elk and Turkey) . I've been having the shakes not watching any new videos lately. I then drove to Rifle Gap Lake which can be seen in the next two photos. I stopped into the State Park office there and met a guy from Mississippi that has lived near Grand Junction for three years. He was trying to find out about the fishing. He said he wasn't much of a hunter but loved to fish. If the guys in Avon think I have an accent, they ought to here someone from southern MS talk. I enjoyed talking to the guy. He had actually lived in Mt Carmel, IL for a couple years a while back.

I then drove north of the lake on a county road which can be seen in the last four photos. There were a few fields that looked like they could have turkeys in them, but there aren't many trees for them to roost in like I had hoped. I did see several Mule Deer and a few cow Elk, but no turkeys. I also saw a Golden Eagle, just off the side of the road, feeding on a deer that had probably been hit by a vehicle. I tried to stop and get a picture but it flew off when I made the sudden stop. The magpies swarmed the carcass when the Eagle flew off. This country was nice, but I probably won't find many turkeys there, so I'll try other areas.

I did see one of the worst sights I've ever seen while driving down I-70. I spotted a mule deer doe in the median that was standing with here head low, so I figured she had just been hit. When I got up to her, everything behind her ribcage had been ripped open and was hanging out of her. I wish I could have stopped and put her down quickly, rather than her standing there dieing like that. When I came back through a couple hours later, she was laying there dead.

Other than the doe on the interstate and driving out a tank of gas, it was a pretty good trip. I got to see some beautiful country and bought two new videos and one map.

2007-03-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

The pictures are from the Towns Rec. Center. Several people from church took their kids swimming Sunday afternoon since our sledding day had to be cancelled. The snow is pretty much gone here in town. The first two are Olivia and Boyd in the Lazy River and the next three are of Isaac climing a small climbing wall out of the diving pool and jumping back in.

I think it took him a couple times to get the hang of it, but he can climb it every time now. There was a kid a few years older than Isaac trying to climb it before he did. The funny thing was the kid couldn't get the hang of it and Isaac was trying to tell this older kid how to climb it. The kid got out of the pool and went to do something else.

Isaac has been moved up to the next level in his ski lessons so he is looking forward to skiing with poles for the first time tomorrow. We have two ski school tickets left. Olivia was moved up last time also, but she doesn't want to go, so Isaac may get to use both tickets before the season ends.

Isaac doesn't show any interest in playing ball this year when we've asked him about it. I'm not going to force him to play, but he may change his mind after he's been here a little longer. He is only interested in skiing and skateboarding. I think he would like a mountain bike also. Olivia and Boyd may want to play soccer, but with the number of Hispanics here, the game is taken a lot more serious than back home.

I'm going scouting for turkeys in the morning. I'll be driving west of here to the Rifle, CO area. I'll probably do more driving and glassing than anything to try and familiarize myself with the country. I hope to get out and walk some just to be out and maybe find some sheds.

There is an outdoor store in Rifle that I plan to visit also. They carry some bows, so maybe I'll get to take a look at some of those and I hope to find the new Primos turkey and elk hunting videos. I'll also try to get some pictures of the area and post them in the next few days.

Fishing Again

2007-03-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

I got home this evening around 5:30 and since Heather and the kids were at Beaver Creek, I decided to make another quick fishing trip to the same spot as before. There was another guy fishing with spinning equipment when I got there, but there is plenty of room for a few people to fish. I managed to catch three Browns and lose one. I also had several strikes that I didn't get hooked. The first fish was small like my previous picture and the second two were similar to the previous picture of Isaac's fish. They are fun to catch and hopefully later this Spring and Summer, I can fish enough to find some bigger fish.

We are going to look at a house on Saturday if the realtor calls us back. Actually, we will probably look at a couple houses. Only one of them is in the range we could pay for before selling our house at home. They are both in Leadville, but even the houses there sell for double what they do at home. The house is no more than 1,500 feet w/ 3 BR and it is in Town in an old subdivision that has houses right next to each other. They are all very similar houses and were probably built late 60's to early 70's. If we could find one of them that is in good shape, but needs some cosmetic work, I could make all the upgrades myself. Selling it after we sell our house at home should be no problem and we could probably live in it for a little while anyway. Any upgrades I do myself should build some equity in the house also. We'll see how it looks.

The drive from Leadville is about a 45 minute drive. It isn't the distance that makes the drive that long, but instead, it is the ten miles of the drive closest to Avon over Battle Mountain. I've drove it enough now that I'm used to it, so I think I can do it without any problems. Considering the price difference in housing, we will more than likely end up in Leadville for a while. I prefer the town for living anyway. It is not much of a tourist town. It is actually an old mining town. So, as you can imagine there are parts of the town that are pretty old, but the mountain views are incredible. Our lungs will be strong as a horse living at 10,000 ft.

Spring is here

2007-03-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

The weather has been upper 40's for the last week with sunshine. I drive with my window down when I go to lunch at noon. I believe Denver has been near record highs. I like the nice weather, but I'm not ready to see the end of winter yet. We can have snow all the way to May, so I don't really think the snow is over yet.

We didn't get to ski this weekend, but Isaac, Boyd and myself went fishing on Sunday while Heather worked and Olivia went to a friends house to play. We just went behind the apartments and fished the Eagle River for about an hour. I wasn't sure how we would do, but I rigged spinning rods with 1/8 oz. Kastmasters. Isaac had a little trouble with the moving water, but he did a good job casting. His rod's line is too heavy for trout in these rivers, but I had a Micro 6lb line on my set up. It is the same set up I used for trout fishing in Arkansas's White and Norfork River. I ended up catching two beautiful Brown Trout around 14" and 15" long. They weren't very big but they have incredible color. They were my first Colorado Browns. Isaac and Boyd each netted one of the fish.

Since we did OK on Sunday and the time change gives more evening daylight, I decided to go again today. Isaac, Olivia and Boyd all went with me. Isaac was the only one fishing, but he was using an even cheaper rod and reel since the screw that holds the handle on his other reel was lost during Sunday's trip. I caught one small brown on the second cast, which exited Boyd and Olivia quite a bit. I actually thought it was better than the two from Sunday when he hit and started to fight, but that didn't last too long.

We were fishing the same deep section of the far shore that we fished Sunday. The fish seem to want the lure to be moving fairly slow. I had several short hits that I couldn't hook. Isaac was trying to fish the lure like I told him, but the rocks were too much for him. While I was busy breaking off his second lure, I handed him my rod that I had just cast and told him to reel it in slow. He hadn't had it in his hand more than 10 seconds when he hooked a fish. He was very exited to catch one. It was another Brown and a pretty good fish.

After Isaac caught the fish he went to playing behind me in the rocks with Boyd and Olivia. I had at least 6 or more hits, and even watched several Browns chase the lure and repeatedly strike at it. But, they were striking short and I couldn't get a hook in them. None of them were any bigger than the one Isaac caught. I was fishing a rainbow trout colored Kastmaster (chrome on the back) by casting it slightly upstream and slowly reeling it in as the moving water moved it downstream. I think this spring and summer I'm going to give flyfishing a try. I never thought I would want to flyfish, but there are so many guys doing it that it's hard to not want to give it a try. I'll also be buying Isaac an actual spinning rod and reel of his own.

I got a few pictures of today's fish. The first is the small Brown I caught and the second two are of Isaac holding the fish he caught. His hands were cold holding the fish, so he didn't smile. You can see some of the color even though he is covering most of it up.

Warming Up

2007-03-05T12:24:00.000-08:00

The temps are climbing here. The highs this week will be around 46 everyday w/ a chance for snow thursday night. It seems like unseasonably warm temps, but I think it is standard for this time of year here. I'm sure we will see plenty more snow and cold temps though. The sun is so intense here that 46 is really warm.

Heather and I drove to Glenwood Springs last Saturday. We went to a "Mountain Sports" store where she gets a discount for being a Vail Resorts employee. Heather bought a pair of Snowshoes that were already on sale at 20% off. She got an additional 20% off so she got a good price. I plan to buy a pair myself, but they didn't have what I wanted.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife on the drive down. We saw several mulies, a couple herds of elk and one small band of sheep in the Glenwood canyon. A couple of the sheep were rams, but I didn't get a very good look at them. Sunday there was actually two cow elk behind our apartment on the face of almost a cliff. I was shocked to see them there. I watched them through my binocs for a little while. I can't wait for bow season.

Heather and I also went skiing today when she got off work and during my long lunch break. I drove up and parked in the parking garage. Parking is free for less than 2 hrs. We skied a couple runs. I wore too much clothing and was sweating when I wasn't moving down the mountain. The weather, even though warm, is still fantastic. I'm just not ready for the warm weather quite yet.

Our trip home isn't too far off. We are all looking forward to the visit and I can't wait to listen to the turkeys gobble. Heather is worried I'm going to upset someone by spending all my time hunting, but I think most of the people who want to see me will be hunting with me. I think most of the family is probably most interested in seeing the kids, so I don't think I'll upset anyone.

I talked with another hunter at church yesterday who has lived here for a little more than 10 years and knows a little about the turkeys. He mostly hunts private land in NE, but has hunted them here before also. Since I'm going, he plans to hunt them also. We will probably go out in a few weeks and do some scouting in areas that he is familiar with.

I may take the kids fishing again this weekend while Heather finally goes snowshoeing with the girls from church. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post this weekend.

2007-02-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

Heather and the girls whimped out on their snowshoeing. So, we took the kids to ski school on Saturday and we skied from around 10 until 3. It was a good day to be skiing. It had snowed in the neighborhood of 8" from mid mountain up. It was a "powder day", so that combined with Saturday made it pretty crowded. By the time we got up there all the runs had been hit pretty hard, so there wasn't much of anything untracked. It was still great snow. Heather didn't care much for the powder. She felt out of control. I'm not even close to a good skier, but I love the powder.

The ski pictures are from Saturday. It was nine degrees on top of the mountain. I new it was cold, but I didn't think it was that cold. Not only was it cold with fresh snow on the ground, but it was snowing through most of the day. It is actually snowing outside right now. I think we are supposed to get another good snow, so maybe I'll get another chance to ski during the week. The sculptures are from outside of the big lodge (Spruce Saddle) halfway up the mountain.

The first two pictures are from a Bowling outing that Heather went on with the girls from church. They didn't have a lot of ladies going so they brought the daughters. Olivia had a really good time. The bowling alley is in Eagle and it's the nicest bowling alley I've ever been in. The seating is great, the food is great and there is no smoking. Actually there is no smoking in any of the local businesses in the area.

I think my plans for NE turkeys are about to come to an end. I already knew I would be missing the church sledding day, but I also started thinking about the limited weekends I have to try and find turkeys here in CO. On top of all that, they announced at church today that there would be a men's outing/retreat at a ranch nearby on the weekend of the 17th. I had already planned to go to the retreat, so looks like I may cancel the trip for this year. Probably don't need to spend the money anyway.

Snow for the Weekend

2007-02-23T13:41:00.000-08:00

The forecast shows snow getting here late this afternoon. We are supposed to get 2 - 4" tonight and 1-3" tomorrow. Heather and the girls are already having second thoughts on their snowshoeing tomorrow. Whimps!!

If they don't go, I'm going to make Heather and the kids go skiing tomorrow. I won't have to twist any of the kids' arms, but Heather may want to whimp out on that too. I could just go ice fishing again.

As usual, I'm trying to work out a turkey hunt other than the one at home and here in CO. Nebraska has quite a bit of public land in the northwest corner of the state called the Pine Ridge area. It is full of Merriam turkeys and the archery season opens on March 25th. I may go scout the weekend of the 17th and hunt two or three of the weekends before we fly home to IL.

The terrain there is rolling hills with ponderosa pine, unlike the Nebraska most people think about. There is a lot of open country mixed in the rolling terrain. Hunting would be mostly from a blind w/ decoys. My blind is fairly quick to set up so I could still be fairly mobile. I've never hunted turkeys with a bow so that would be a first.

I'm currently trying to sell a bow on ebay and will probably add my bow on there as well. That will still leave me one that is left over from the shop, but I hope to get enough from the two I'm selling to mostly pay for a new bow. I don't really know what brought it on, but I have the itch to buy a new bow. I'm considering a Diamond or Bowtech. Hoyt and Mathews will also be in the running, but until I get the chance to shoot each of them I won't know. I will admit that I imediately lean away from Mathews because so many people think they are the only manufacturer. I don't care for taking everyone's word for what is the best.

Pictures of Green Mountain Reservoir and HWY 9

2007-02-21T19:50:00.000-08:00

The first two pictures are actually of Boyd at preschool. Heather helped them out yesterday because they have lost one of their teachers. They are going to pay here to help out occasionaly and Boyd gets to go on those days for free. Since we planned to take him out once we make our trip home in April, it will allow Heather to help occasionaly and Boyd will still get to go a couple days here and there at no cost on days Heather helps.

The next four are from my Green Mountain Reservoir fishing trip last weekend. The first two are on the way from HWY 9. One is pointed north along the road and the other is pointed at the mountains to the west. This valley has incredible views in all directions. You can see it had snowed the day and night before making the roads slick.

The next picture is from the road above the reservoir. The lake also runs back to the right and behind me quite a ways to the dam. The lake was created by a dam on the Blue River. If you look close you can see a couple guys fishing in the middle of the lake.

The last picture is from HWY 9 on the way home facing the mountains to the east. The roads had cleared up pretty fast once the sun came out.

Heather will be going snowshoeing with some ladies from the church this Saturday, so I'm not sure what the kids and I will do. I could take them to ski school and go skiing myself, but I'm not sure yet what we'll do. I dont' think they want to go fishing after the last trip didn't produce much action, but who knows.

Long weekend

2007-02-18T22:28:00.000-08:00

We had some snow on Friday that closed down Vail Pass on I-70. It was open by Friday night so I drove to Green Mountain Reservoir Saturday morning to try and catch some more of the Kokanee. It took me longer to get there than normal because the roads were slick and I had to drive slower than usual. There wasn't as many people there as last week. I 'm sure it was because of the road conditions and the wind. The wind was gusting quite a bit.

I just knew I would catch a lot of fish, but it wasn't so. I drilled a lot of holes trying to find fish. I fished for quite a while near the dam in 100 ft of water. The dam is supposed to be good kokanee fishing, but the fish were really fickle. I had a couple hits but could not hook them. There were two guys within 20 yds of me that were doing pretty good, so I walked over and talked with one of the guys about what he was doing. He was definitely seeing a lot more fish on his finder than I was, but he could also see his jig on the finder. He was catching them around 40' or so down. At that depth, my finder could not pick up the jig. The fish were barely striking the jig, so he would drop the jig to the level the fish were at by watching it on the finder. He then could see the fish move toward it. He would jig it a couple times then set it down. He had a wire strike indicator on the end of his rod that was really sensitive. When the indicator moved he would set the hook. Even then he was missing most of the strikes. The whole trick was to watch the fish finder, and then watch the strike indicator once a fish moved in.

My finder will pick up the jig if the water is no deeper than about 50', but deeper than that and the sensitivity drops off due to the range increasing to show the full depth. Needless to say, I eventually moved and thanked the guy for the info. I drilled several more holes in various locations but did not mark hardly any fish. I ended up skunked for the day. I believe the slow bite was due to the front that had just passed through.

I did go home and read my instructions more and found a way to manually adjust the zoom on my finder. I can zoom a certain window of water then adjust say a 40' window to view depths from 20 to 60 feet. That should increase sensitivity to allow me to see my jig and watch the depth window that the kokanee are usually in. I also plan to get my hands on some of the wire indicators.

The kids and I also fished today (Saturday) at the Gypsum Ponds. The fish were biting really light there also. I caught three bows and Isaac caught one. Boyd reeled one of mine in, so Olivia was upset she didn't get to reel one in. It was all I could do to keep all three of them fishing. Boyd was more interested in the fish laying on the ice that we had caught. I don't think ice fishing is for Boyd and Olivia unless they are really biting good. I also don't think taking all three at one time works very well. I want them to enjoy it so me being uptight dealing with all three isn't going to increase their interest.

I'm not sure what we will do tomorrow. I think I will take Boyd to preschool, but Isaac and Olivia are off and Heather has to work in the morning. We all want to go skiing, but the kids just got over being sick. Heather said I could go by myself if I want, but I prefer to do something with them since I was gone all day Saturday.

I did take some pictures while driving Saturday, so I'll try to post them soon.

2007-02-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

We made it out fishing today. We did not get out as early as we had hoped. Eric had been up with his sick daughter part of the night and he overslept. We made it to the lake by about 9:00 a.m. We went straight out to the channel and redrilled some holes that had been drilled earlier that morning. The water was 195 ' deep. We fished at about 25 to 35' deep. We only managed to catch eight fish between the four of us.

The boys were always tough to deal with. We spend as much time keeping them going as we do fishing, but I think our inexperience here and our timing minimized our catch. There were a lot of people on the ice.

I was the lucky one today. I caught five of the eight fish and Isaac, Ashton and Eric each caught one. One of my fish was pretty small, but there isn't a size limit and it made a good fillet. If we had been catching more fish I would have let it go. I don't know what causes it, but these fish bleed like crazy after they have been caught and lay on the ice for a little while. The fillets are a bright orange, typical of any salmon and some trout that I've seen.

We would have stayed longer and tried for some Lake Trout (Mackinaw or Macks) and Rainbows, but Isaac and Ashton both wanted to go home. Isaac may be getting sick, considering Olivia was up all last night with a fever around 103, same as Eric's little girl.

The hat Isaac has on is Eric's hat. One of the guys at work went to China for about 3 weeks with a local hockey team (highschool age). He brought eric the hat back. It is incredibly warm, but I had to laugh at it.

Ice Fishing tomorrow morning

2007-02-09T21:18:00.000-08:00

I shouldn't be up right now because we are going ice fishing in the morning. Isaac and I are giving Green Mountain Reservoir a try tomorrow along with Eric and Ashton.

The lake is a man made reservoir located northeast of us. Eric and Ashton will be here at 6:00 a.m. We will take I-70 east to Silverthorn then drive north on HWY 9. It will take about an hour to get there. The valley that HWY 9 runs along has some incredible views so the drive is actually a great drive.
The plan is to be fishing by a little after 7:30 to try and catch Kokanee Salmon. I've never caught them or the Lakers we may try for also. Eric has caught them both, but not through the ice. The Kokes run in schools chasing bait fish suspended over the lakes channel in 180 to 200' of water. Water that deep under my feet is a little unnerving, but the ice is running at least 13" thick.
The plan is to drill 4 or 5 holes in a location over the channel and fish about 30' down with kastmasters, sweedish pimples, and Krocodiles, which are along the lines of a spoon. The lures are shaped to fall in an eratic motion like an injured fish. We will tip the treble hook with meal or wax worms and jig the lures. The lures have a lot of flash and attract the schools in. Since they run in schools, once a school comes by it sounds like the action can be pretty fast and the faster you get a lure back down to them the longer they hang around. Four of us fishing ought to keep something flashing at all times. I'll use the depth finder to watch for them coming in and check their depth.

The reports I have been reading on Coloradofisherman shows that they have been wearing them out lately. The limit is 10 each and I think they average from 12 to 14" with some running 16" or so. Reports show two guys averaging around 40 fish with each keeping their limit of 10. They aren't averaging real big, but the rumor is they are biting really good in the morning and they are supposed to be really good tasting fish. If we can find them and catch a limit or the bite stops, we will probably move in to about 50' of water to try for Lake Trout. The lake also has some good rainbows and browns in it that would be just fine.

I'm looking forward to catching something other than the tiny rainbows that we caught a couple weeks ago. Hopefully we will have a good day and catch a lot of fish in a variety of species. We'll see. If "The Wood" was here the fish wouldn't have a chance. I think he could catch fish out of a bathtub. The only person I know who might give him a run would be DL Stokes, the river otter, but that would be stream fishing in Arkansas.

I'll be sure to get some pictures up if all goes well, and if not, I'll just post more pictures of the mountains and a frozen lake.

2007-02-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

We made it out skiing for a couple hours today. It was a beautiful day except for the wind. It was terrible up toward the top of the mountain. The wind was more than the kids could stand. It was a mistake on my part to take them up to the top today. Isaac and Olivia did want to go back up for a couple more runs on the lower slope, but Boyd had endured all he could. We decided to go on home and beat the masses to the bus ride down to the parking lots.

The pictures show the Gore Range on the skyline to the north. The mountains up closest in the background are just above town and you can see how they don't have much timber on them down low close to town. I'll probably elk hunt next season in some of the timber that can be seen in the background since it is fairly close to town.

The building in the pictures is a little more than half way up the mountain. It is called Spruce Saddle Lodge and is a big restaurant with cafeteria style lines. They have quite a few different selections of severa types of food. It is the same place I got the $18 cheeseburger/fries and coke. It is pretty good food but too expensive for us to stop in and eat. We packed peanut butter crackers and granola bars in our coat pockets along with bottled watter.

I've been invited to a SuperBowl Party with some of the guys from church, but Heather didn't sound too excited about me leaving them to watch football. I'm not too interested in the game anyway. Besides, were planning to take a drive tomorrow to Leadville to check gas mileage and distance to a couple places. We may take the fishing equipment and give Turquoise Lake a short try for some rainbow and lake trout, but I don't think it can be a very serious fishing trip with the whole gang along.

X Games and Sledding Pictures

2007-02-03T17:38:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the pictures I took at the X-Games. They aren't very good pictues, but they are all I could get from our location. The sixth picture is of Isaac trying out a snowboard on a simulator.

The next four pictures are of Boyd and Olivia sledding during the church family sledding day while Isaac and I were at the X-Games. Someone from the church was taking the pictures and gave us a disc that included these pictures. The hill isn't very big, but they get moving pretty fast on it. Boyd is hard to recognize in the last picture flying through the air and cloud of snow. The only way anyone knew it was Boyd in the picture was the green neck gaitor with eyes and teeth that he was wearing.

Pictures won't go through

2007-02-01T22:09:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure what is going on, but I tried to post pictures and they won't load. I'll get them up eventually. The Xgames pictures aren't that good, but the pictures of Olivia and Boyd sledding with the church that day are really good.

I really want to go fishing this weekend, but I really want to go skiing too. The kids all want to go skiing Saturday, so maybe I'll make it out fishing on Sunday afternoon. I had hoped to get out tomorrow for a couple hour break from work, but it looks like I probably can't. I have too much to do. I'm trying to get the civil design engineers we hired to complete our construction plans and contract documents for two separate capital jobs. They have one mostly complete, but the other has been rather slow going. I'll be taking the one they are behind on in front of the Planning and Zoning Commision next week and the Town Council the following week. There probably won't be many questions, but who knows. Both need to be advertised for bid so we can get a contractor nailed down.

I also have another project that we are negotiating a price with a contractor right now. He isn't moving as fast as I would like, but we'll get there. It's obvious that we will be way over budget, so explaining that to Council should be fun. I'm glad I didn't develop the budget for the project. Norm has a way with the Council even if he won't admit it, and they look to him for a lot of guidance. I'm learning a lot about how Avon does business. I like being busy. It makes the day go by faster. I'm getting more comfortable here and don't mind fielding the occasional question. I expect to get plenty of calls from upset citizens about traffic delays this summer.

I'll try the pictures again later.

More snow

2007-01-31T12:51:00.000-08:00

It snowed around 4" here in town last night and this morning. Jeff made it up to Beaver Creek today during lunch and said there was a good 14" of snow where he did some backcountry skiing and the main mountain had around 8". I may make it out tomorrow for a couple hours.

The X-Games were fun to see, but the crowd was bad by late afternoon. You can actually see better from your living room looking at the TV, but being there was neat. The mens and womens slopestyle finals were going on while we were there but you had to watch it on a huge screen then turn to see them come over the final jump. We also saw the womens finals in snowboarder racing, but it was the same with the big screen.

The one race we were up close to was the elimination round for the snowmobile snowcross. We saw a couple wrecks up close. There was a jump behind us that they were clearing around 120' on and were at least 30' in the air. I've seen it on motorcycles before but a 6 or 700 lb snowmobile is crazy.

We wanted to watch some of the Superpipe elimination round with Shaun White (olympic gold medalist) but they didn't start until 6 and that was too late for us to stay. It would have been the one event we could have seen fairly well. I did get to watch it on ESPN when we came home though.

I've got some pictures that turned out ok. I'll try to post them later. We also saw an elk herd on a golf course in Carbondale on our way home that had anywhere from one to two hundered elk in it.

X Games

2007-01-25T08:29:00.000-08:00

Isaac and I are going to the XGames this Saturday with Eric and his son Ashton. The games are ongoing right now in Aspen. Eric offered to take Isaac and I decided to go along also. I have a feeling the crowd will be pretty crazy considering the kind of crowd that follows these games. The events that we'll be watching will be Snowmobile Snowcross racing and several Snowboarding events. I think Isaac is the most interested in seeing the Snowboard Superpipe event.
I think we will drive to Basalt then ride a bus to the smaller ski resort (Buttermilk) outside of Aspen where the event is being held. Isaac is pretty exited. I'm skeptical because of the crowd. The events will be fun to watch but I don't care for big crowds. Never have, never will.

ESPN will be broadcasting throughout the day so you may see us standing alongside the masses.

Sunday Afternoon Skiing

2007-01-21T21:58:00.000-08:00

We made it up to Beaver Creek around 2:00 pm today and skied until about 4:00. I got Heather to go all the way to the top this time, so we all rode the Centennial Lift up then skied down to the Rose Bowl lift. The Rose Bowl lift and a couple others take you to the very top. By the time we skied down from there it was around 3:50. We went pretty slow most of the way down.

I wanted Heather to see the view from up there, but light snow and fog/clouds that had moved in to the north blocked the view. I did however get a few pictures of everyone and Heather got one of me also. The picture of me with the kids should have had the Gore Range in the background, and my gosh I look like a hog in that picture. Not to mention the bullet head helmet. I'll eventually make it to the top with a camera with batteries on a clear day to get some pictures. Until then you'll just have to trust me that the view is incredible. I'm sure the pictures will not do it justice.

Ice Fishing with Isaac

2007-01-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

Isaac and I went ice fishing this morning in a pond just down the road in Gypsum. The State Wildlife Area we fished in is apropriately named Gypsum Ponds. The pond we fished covers a couple acres or so. We drilled several holes with my new hand auger and fished with our new ice fishing rods. Actually I drilled the holes and Isaac tried to drill a hole or two. He could get started but didn't have the "umph" he needed to get through 13" of ice and he wasn't tall enough to put his weight on the auger. I think the pond has a few warm water fish in it but we only caught trout. They were all little stocked rainbows and I started off just releasing them, but Isaac insisted we needed to keep our limit of 2 apiece. The state limit is 4 but we could only keep two from this SWA, so we brought home two fish each that were just big enough to fillet.

We used small ice fishing jigs called Ratsos that would catch crappie just as well back home or anywhere else for that matter. They are just little painted jig heads with plastic bodies that have a thin pointed tail. I also used a Gentz worm, which is a jig head that instead of one round head it has 3 round heads in a line and painted. We tipped the jigs with pieces of worm or Berkley Power Bait Gulps (looks like a maggot).

Dad's old Eagle depth finder worked good since I rigged the transducer to hang in the holes we drilled. The deepest spot we fished was 14' and the holes where we caught the most was in about 12' of water and they were about 6' down.

I started Isaac with a slip bobber but it kept freezing, which kind of defeats the benefits of a slip bobber. He caught his first with the bobber in place then I took it off and he was still able to catch fish. He did really well having never fished with a spinning rod or without a bobber. He caught around 5 or 6 and I caught around 8 or 9, so it was a pretty good trip. We plan to make some trips to some of the lakes that hold bigger fish next time. Some of the most common possibilities are Lake Trout, Kokanee and Walleye, and of course bigger Rainbows and Browns. One of the lakes we plan to try also has crappie, bluegill, yellow perch, pike, and tiger muskies. Cutthroats and Brook trout are also possible.

The pictures are of Isaac's first and second rainbow. We had a really good time and can't wait to go again. I remember laughing at the little short rods people used for ice fishing. I never thought I would be using one.