elk hunt

Don and I brought back a cow elk Tuesday night. A couple hunters from Cambridge loaned us a thousand feet of rope. Don went down the hill about 250 yards and tied the rope around the elk's neck. We tied the other end to the hooks mounted on the front of the Dodge 4WD. I backed the pick up, retied, put on the chains and backed the PU up until we had the elk on top of the ridge. Leaving the pickup lights on, we cleaned the elk in the dark, cold (21 degrees), and in a blinding snowstorm. Then we drug the elk a half mile to a vacated hunters' camp where we had seen a cross beam mounted. We had a block and tackle thanks to the Cambridge hunters, so we used the pickup, rope, and block and tackle to pull the elk into the air, back the pickup up under the elk and with a great deal of effort get the elk into the bed of the truck. Hoisting around a 300 pound animal is not easy.

The next day we got the animal quartered and hung. I spent two different cleaning sessions with Biz and detergent washing the blood from the interior of the pickup.

Friday we go out again scouting for Don's elk that he must shoot with a black powder loading muzzle gun. Effective range is no more that a hundred yards, so this hunt will be more challenging. We will be hunting with my school principal and his son and our school's football coach. D might be joining me as I birddog through the brush pockets trying to drive elk towards the hunters. If they succeed, the work starts all over again. Right now I am a little stiff and sore.

Chores Around the House Nearly Done....

Just about got the place winterized. Have storm windows to put up and the front yard to rake one more time. Almost all the sunflower stocks have been pulled up and piled for a future burning. The yard is fertilized and the bird feeders are out and filled. The sprinkler pipes have been blown out and the water outlet for the heating and cooling system has been hooked up to the dry well.

Don leaves Friday morning and we go elk hunting Saturday. Don might have to find a tree to sit under so he can rest up to help pack the elk out after his 18 hour drive from El Centro. D might join us for one weekend or the other.

Kids at school will have to watch some film and videos.

I will take some pictures at the two TG Dinners we have been invited to. Grand daughter L has a cold and Gramma J might be coming down with it.

Gramma J has been busy decorating the house for Christmas. I have built a cover for part of the stairwell to the basement where Gramma J proposes to place the tree. The wrought iron fence will then become the protector of the tree. As in baby proofing and toddler proofing. I think I will be busy putting up some outide decorations and lights for Christmas on Friday while also getting ready to hunt.

John died and went to heaven. When he arrived at St. Peter's gate he could not help but to notice the very large wall that extended forever and ever. It was plastered with thousands upon millions of clocks. He asked St. Peter what was with all the clocks and was told that they were lie clocks. As in tell a lie and your special clock in heaven would move ahead one click. As John looked over the clocks, he noticed one that had not advanced as much as a single click. Thinking it had malfunctioned, he asked St. Peter about it. St. Peter was particularly proud of the clock as it was Mother Teresa's...she had never told a lie. Immediately John thought of Honest Abe Lincoln so inquired as to where his clock might be located. St. Peter took him for a short stroll and pointed high up on to the wall where a clock's hands had only advanced two clicks. Wow! said John. Only two lies? Yes, was St. Peter's reply. Not quite ready to inquire as to his own clock's whereabouts, he delayed the inevitable facing of the music and blurted out, "Where is President Bush's clock?" St. Peter replied, "Oh, that clock is up in Jesus' office. He is using it as a ceiling fan."

Yeeeeoooooowwwwww! and Yip, Yip,
Have a very thankful and pleasant Thanksgiving Day, Dinner, and after dinner nap.

Papa Coyote Loves You All.

Goldfish are showing up!

Yesterday the sun was shining brightly inspite of the dire warnings by our weather forecasters for rain. I returned from work and looked to see how badly the pond would need cleaning since we had a brisk wind the night before. Yup! Lots of leaves in the pond...and what was that? A gold fish swimming in the middle, six inches below the surface? Yes, my eyes did not deceive me. And what is that near the corner of the pond? A dead goldfish floating amongst the few lilly pad leaves still holding on after several frosts? Yes. It is!

WOW! We still have gold fish. Today I cleaned the skimmer box out and found about a dozen dead goldfish in the skimmer box. They looked none too alive. I think there are still about two dozen in the pond. It will be interesting to see what we have left come spring. Oh, Well. I know where to get some more.

Chad and I made 80 pounds of sausage Saturday morning. I tried a new recipe with a tablespoon of red cayenne pepper and a half a head of garlic for forty pounss. The red pepper definitely did not overwhelm the taste and the garlic is not too stong. J likes it and so do I, so I think the recipe is a good one. Chad had shot a small whitetail buck and got forty pounds of boned out meat from it. He put ten pounds of that meat into his sausage recipe.

Red Apple was nice enough to sell us 70 pounds of picnic hams boned out and ground for $1.59 a pound. We like dealing with the Red Apple meat department. They always treat us real well.

We were done early enough to try our sausage out for lunch and then go to the State Semi-Finals played at Fruitland. The home team won 49-21 over Timberlake so we were all happy with the day's activities.

Friday morning J and I leave to go to Pocatello to watch the state championship game. We are hoping the FB team can repeat as the state champions.

I don't know if you know or not, but the football team has a girl who kicks their extra points. She is pretty deadly and there simply is not a boy in the school who can do it as well as she can.

Yeeeeeeooooooowww!
Papa Coyote

The flute arrives

As I have already related, my wife has won an Indian flute. Knowing nothing about how to play the Indian flute adds to the mystery of winning this beautiful crafted flute. You know that little carved bear on the top of the flute near the mouth piece? Well, that moves. It has to be moved to uncover one of the holes (it covers two holes) before one can blow a note. Trial and error done over and over and we might play a tune yet.

Learning to play a tonette was mandatory in my fifth grade class in Valparaiso, Indiana. Probably worthwhile except I only remember that it had eight holes with which one could play the scale and we learned to do that in the first lesson. Well, whoop-de-doo! This flute has only six holes. So, I am mystified as to how I am going to play a scale--if I could recognize it if I did play it. I even played the accordian for three years and the scale is as foreign to me as the subtleties of soccer. Are there any subtleties in soccer??

The first challenge will be playing the same note on purpose. Place a few fingers over some selected holes and blow. Nice sound. Do the same thing again and blow a little harder. Ah, different sound. Place the fingers exactly the same and blow again. Another sound. Ah, hah. How one blows into the instrument causes different notes with the fingers in the exact same placement. I am beginning to gain much admiration and respect for Douglas Spotted Eagle and Carlos Nakai and my friend High Eagle.

The flute and carrying case are pictured to the right. You can also see a pitch covered basket made by a Paiute lady and a rattle made by an Iowan Indian. I purchased the basket during our Momorial Day trip to Eastern Oregon and the rattle while at the powwow held at Wallowa, Oregon in July.

What kind of flower do you have between your nose and your chin? Ans. Tulips.

What did the the tie say to the hat? Ans. You go on a head, I'll just hang around.

I have been having an Ambrosia melon explosion out of the garden and it is ummmm, ummmmm good! Also, fresh corn on the cob every day. That is ummmm, yummmm good, too.

You can see the melons and the garden spot below. I have been throwing dozens of yellow squash and cucumbers away because we can't keep up with them. Too bad.

Until later. Keep eating those peaches.

Papa Coyote

Powwowing with Chief Joseph's descendants

J and I drove to Wallowa on the 2oth of July via Brownlee Reservoir and Hell's Canyon. A very scenic, but slow route. We stayed at the Best Western in Enterprise, Oregon. When we checked out the clerk told Jane the room was free because of our points. What??!!!! Five years ago I made every effort to stay at Best Westerns because of the point system they had. But, before I could redeem any of the points, I got an e-mail saying, "Sorry, sucker, your points have all expired." I fired back a nasty note pointing out that I thought it was a pretty cheap way to treat a valued customer since they easily could have e-mailed that my points were about to expire and that I might want to use those that I had. I deleted my link to the Royal Crown Points club (or whatever name they went by) and was done doing business with them. I never did get a return on my nasty note, but I guess I was comped a room. We just have not stayed at a Best Western since then.

For a dining treat eat at the Calderas Restaurant in Joseph, OR. See my review at http://www.superpages.com/.

Jane and I attended the powwow known as TamKaLiks. This is the seventeenth annual powwow hosted by the descendants of Chief Joseph. See http://www.wallowanezperce.org/ if interest in reading a short history about the people and the event. The people have bought 360 acres so that they have a place to gather each year. While we were there, they broke ground on longhouse to hold their traditional religious ceremonies, feasting, and other celebrations. They have built a very nice arbor in which to hold their dancing and outdoor celebrations. We were very impressed with what they have done. There is also a nice monument remembering their horrific attempt to escape to Canada. What a sad story in American history! Besides the dancing J and I were honored to view a march of the horses. The horse is very important to the Nee-Mee-Poo people.

We were intrigued to watch a "give away" in which the Broncheau family broke their many months of mourning the death of a family elder (the members of the family attend no public events until the mourning period has ended) by giving items away to all who were in attendance. The idea is that if you receive a gift, you will remember their departed loved one. It works. Jane and I received a few yards of cotton fabric and a dish cloth. We were simply observers with no attachment to the family, but still were included. I was touched by these people's custom. Of course, the gifts to close friends were of significant monetary value. Thousands of dollars had to have been spent by the family.

We bought a program which included a ticket which entitled the bearer to win a drawing. There are several drawings and what appeared to be a hundred or so gifts to be given away. I won a ten dollar gift certificate to the health food store in Joseph. We drove all the way back to Joseph from Enterprise just to use that certificate and thank the store owner for their support of the powwow and the Nee-Mee-Poo people. We also bought five dollars worth of raffle tickets and can you believe, we actually won a prize again. J recieved a phone call a week later informing her that she (I put her name on 3 of the tickets) had won a flute. She did not think too much of that information until we had returned from Vancouver, B.C. and picked up the mail we had had held. This was a major Indian flute. It was beautifully crafted of elderberry wood by a man living in Richland, Oregon. Wow. Jane felt badly about winning such a fine gift. I have since purchased a book that I hope will help me learn to play the instrument and don't feel badly about her having won such a fine gift. J says she has no interest in learning to play the flute. I do.

The dancing was great. Not a real big powwow, but fun to watch and interact with these people who have such a wonderful heritage, albeit a very sad one. I don't know but what I would be much more bitter if I my ancestors had experienced what theirs had to experience.

Catching up

J and I just returned from eleven days on the road. Four days in Seattle and seven days in Vancouver B.C. Very nice time was had by both. Even bought a journal at Barnes and Noble at University Mall in Seattle to record our travels. We might back track some day and will want to know what happened the first time we made those tracks. I have lots of pictures so will post some of those. John and I finally got the Mariners turned around by helping them break their seven game losing streak. We saw them win two in a row before I had to leave town. Unfortunalely, they lapsed into their losing ways by Aug. 4th. Shannon Stewart of the A's did toss the ball he caught just into foul territory down the left field line. I fumbled it, but the ball fell into John's lap and he covered it up. The woman next to him about dove in, but modesty seemed to cancel her first inclination. The yard has not been mowed for 12 days and the pond filter needs cleaning, so I had better tend to that now and will post more during the heat of the day.

May all your trails be slightly downhill and the smoke blow in the other guy's eyes,
Papa Coyote

Grandson is in the den

Went to the trouble to learn how to get the pics on the digital camera to a disc and then to paper so that I could send some pics to my daughter. So, since, I had done all that I sent some pics to my son and guess what? The pics won't transmit to my daughter. They go out just fine to my son's e-mail address, but not to my daughter's e-mail account. bummer! So, I will post a few for her to view on this blog.

We have the grandson and he is doing well. We are having fun with him. We have been fishing in the pontoon boats. He has trouble with the coordination and strength to row, but when we tied the two boats together and he rowed on one side and I the other, we could make the "raft" move pretty well. He caught the only fish, so, he thought it was a good day of fishing. We will try the Malheur Res. tomorrow. Hope the wind dies somewhat by tomorrow.

I have been reading stories from Pat McManus' short stories. Great bed time stories. We have to make sure that he is not eating at the time because he gets laughing so hard, I am afraid he will choke on his food. He is also concerned about that. He wants water nearby to drink because he is laughing so hard. He likes "Mean Tents" about as well as his Mommy and Uncle D did when they were little kids.

Yiiiiioooowww!!!!

Papa Coyote and Pup Coyote are hitting the trail to go into the forest ot find a piece of wood suitable for making a bow and some arrows.

Bye