Hunting Along the Miner Creek Trail

Yesterday, Trever and I went hunting for deer.  When I told Scott of our adventure, he said he was proud of me.  Honestly I'd rather shoot an animal with a camera than a gun, but I've never had any objection to hunting.  It's been about 15 years since I've actually done any hunting, so it's definitely been awhile.

We had kind of a day of misadventures.  It was already snowing, and my car wouldn't start.  After a quick jump start, we got a couple supplies and tried to get a license for Trever.  Unfortunately for him, I didn't realize that he needed hunter's safety because of his age, so he was unable to get a license.  I guess it didn't matter anyway because we never saw anything that we could take anyway.

Regardless, we drove to Tom Miner Basin and tried to get as close to the campground as we could.  I started realizing that if I went any farther, I would probably get stuck in the Blazer, so I tried backing up to where several cars were already parked and got stuck doing that.  We couldn't dig ourselves out and the tires just wanted to spin, so we asked someone there if he would pull us out with our chain, which he did.  Thanks, Jeff!

We started hiking up one trail and then we realized we were going up the wrong trail--we were on Sunlight Basin trail instead of the Miner trail.  We backtracked and then went on the right trail.  Things look a little different in the snow than in the summer.  We trekked through some snow on the trail but soon found that we were getting into deep snow.  We waited for about an hour at the edge of a clearing, but saw nothing.  Once we stopped moving, we started getting cold, and I was glad to get moving again.  I think the worst enemy to clothing in the winter is sweat and humidity.

When we got back to the car, a little cold from the waiting and the drop in temperature, the car wouldn't start.  Jeff was once again our savior with a quick jump.  The only thing I can figure is that my four-year-old battery may need to be replaced since this isn't normally the kind of problem I face.

Getting back to Gardiner was easy, and the only deer we saw was on our way home: a mule deer doe on private property, which we weren't allowed to harvest.

Once in Gardiner Trever realized that he didn't have a key to his apartment.  Once he got in, Trever and I parted ways and got into fresh clothes and had met again for some dinner at K-Bar.  Pizza really hit the spot.  Trever's a bit sore today.  From the digging I did yesterday my shoulder blade areas are a little sore, but I feel alright.  It's been awhile since I've hung out with any friends.  It was good to get out!

We might go out hunting again soon, we'll see since there's only another week left to hunt deer.

Even though things didn't turn out as we were hoping and planning, we still had a good time.  I was a little amused at all of the small disasters we had!

Dipper, My Birthday, and Other News

It's been about a month since I last wrote on this blog!  I really am not being lazy.  Honestly, not much has happened.

A month ago, Dipper died.  October 20, Jean and I couldn't get him inside that evening because he was struck on the highway.  Jean found Dipper, but didn't want me to see him.  She said that he basically died instantly.  I was really sad when it happened, and I'm going to miss him.  He was my favorite cat out of the three.  It was interesting that I just took some photos of him a day or so before when he had gotten into some iron oxide.  Now only Butterscotch and Lightning are left.  My mighty hunter is gone.

Dipper got into iron oxide somehow!

Lately, Lightning has been acting pretty strangely.  On Wednesday evening and Thursday morning we had a bad windstorm which blew in a snow storm.  Ever since then Lightning hasn't come out of Grandma's bedroom closet.  Yesterday I told Jean at work, "There was an old kitty that lived in a closet.  She had so many worries that she made a 'deposit.' "  Subsequently I moved one of the litter boxes next to the closet so that we wouldn't have this problem in the future.  I don't know what to think about Lightning.  Maybe I need a cat whisperer to figure out why she's so nervous.  Butterscotch doesn't bother her, and there isn't anyone there to do mean things to her.  She is an obsessive licker and has a bare belly with no fur.  Maybe this is related somehow.

This month I've been working a lot on family photos and genealogy.  I recently discovered some cousins on my paternal grandma's side of the family.  I only knew of one that was still living until Jean and I found a wedding invitation from 1952.  I'm in contact with her, and I've been collecting information from her side of the family.

I've seen a lot of photos lately.  We pulled out several portraits of people, one of which was my second great grandfather's wedding photo from 1892.  We're having it professionally digitally rendered since it's bigger than my scanner.  He's one of my favorite ancestors anyway, so I consider this a good investment.  The digital version should be ready by Wednesday, but I don't know if I'll be in Bozeman to get it then!

Tuesday, November 16 was my thirty-first birthday.   I got so many birthday wishes on Facebook!  I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday with Jean.  She and I are so close we're like a brother and sister; I never thought I'd be so close to her.  She took me out to Corino's in Bozeman and we watched a movie together.

By the way, I didn't like Skyline.  They had a good idea for a plot, but the movie never had a conclusion; it ended on a twist.  As well, I found the movie depressing.  I thought the movie was violent enough that it should have been rated R.  Oh well.

Also while we were in Bozeman we did some shopping, mostly related to family genealogy and archiving.  We want to preserve the special things in Grandma's house like photos.  We'll eventually transfer all these things to acid-free media.

We had a big snowstorm on Friday.  In one night we got about 12 inches of snow.  The next day it continued to snow, though we didn't see more than a couple inches Saturday.  Today was pretty clear, but last night it got really cold.  It was 4 degrees last night and warmed up to 21 today.  This is more snow than we got cumulatively last year!  In general we've had more precipitation this year than normal.