Finally Back Home!

Here are a few facts that you might be interested in when it comes to hunting in North Dakota. A North Dakota non-resident waterfowl license costs $149. You get to hunt two-seven-day periods and are allowed to shoot 6 birds each day. But not just any ducks. You are limited to certain species and within that species you are often having to identify males and females. 

 The regulations read like this:

The daily bag limit on ducks (including mergansers) is 6 with species and sex restrictions as follows: 5 mallards of which only 2 may be hens, 3 wood ducks, 2 redheads, 2 canvasbacks, 1 scaup, 1 pintail. Note: An additional 2 blue-winged teal may be taken September 23 through October 8 only. The possession limit on these restricted ducks is three times the daily limit.

So, you have to know how to identify birds on the fly, many times as they are flying by at 40-60mph.

Friday was the last day of my seven-day period. It found me standing by myself on the edge of a slough. Bob was standing at another slough with his friend Warren who had arrived from Minnesota the day before. 

It was cold! 30F with 30 mph winds. The birds were flying fast in that wind, but we managed to drop a few despite the fact that I could not feel my fingers. 

Can you tell which way the wind blows here?

We had a great shoot, filling out the rest of my possession limit to take home. 

Me, Ember and Warren. Can you tell it is a bit chilly?

As many of you know, birds have very unique and complex coloring on their feathers. Here are a couple of close ups of a Gadwall. Just look at the intricate detail nature created.

We returned to the shop to find the cat had taken up residence in a tote on a wool hunting jacket. So cozy!

That night, Chris's friend Seth came over for pizza and poker. Oh man, what a night. We finally shut down the night at 2am knowing we had to get up in a few hours for the pheasant opener. 

Here is a picture that Holly took. I forget what is going on here. Seth was either smelling me, or itching his nose, I forget. 

We played Texas Hold'em with a $5 buy in. Once you lost all your chips, you could quit or buy back in for another $5. The caveat being that you had to take a shot of Fireball to buy back in. I bought back in 4 times, Warren and Bob 5-6 times each. Chris and Seth did not buy back in at all. Seth ended up being the big winner taking home $80. 

The next morning came way too soon! We were all pretty quiet, working out our grogginess during our first field but after an hour we were all awake and ready to walk the rest of the day. By the way, a pheasant is not covered in your waterfowl license. They require another $100 license giving you two seven-day periods to hunt them. The limit is 3 birds per hunter per day, roosters only.

Young Gavin joined us proclaiming he was going to hunt with us all day! By the end of the second field, he was ready to go home. Although it was in the 30's the dogs worked hard and took breaks whenever they found a water hole or mud puddle. 

Ember taking a break as Gavin and Bob look on.

We ended up with 11 pheasants and 3 Hungarian partridge on Saturday.  I swear, pheasants are the most beautiful birds in the world. 

We had enough for 4 pheasants each, enough to keep us fed for a while. So, with my freezer full of birds, I decided to head home a day early. I sent Barb this picture as I passed through Douglas. 

I knew she would recognize two things in this picture. The elevator in Douglas and the hedgehog on our dash. That little guy has ridden from coast to coast for over 10 years in two different trucks. I did not hit the road until after 2:00pm, meaning I would not get home until 10:00pm or so. I listened to the Vikings lose and the Twins win as I headed south. This guy kept following me most of the day until he faded away as the sun set. 

After driving for a few hours, I officially declared an accident/getting stuck/breaking something free visit to the farm! It is a rare event and does need celebrating! I did have two incidents; one leaving the auger open and on while carting resulting in me shooting 60-100 bushels of wheat on the ground (we were able to salvage most of it) and I overfilled a grain bin. Luckily that only resulted in a broken shear bolt and no spilled grain. Although avoidable, both were relatively minor inconveniences rather than major incidents. That said, there, is always the possibility that I will be blamed for something after I am long gone!

The same cannot be said for Farmer Bob who sent this to me just two days after I arrived home. 

Apparently, this is what happens when you hay ditches that are a little steeper than initially thought! I am sure somehow this was my fault, even though I was hundreds of miles away. 

Once I got home, Barb and I talked for a bit, but I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. So good to sleep in my own bed! When I awoke the next morning, Barb was excited to show me her purchases and projects. That's what she does when I leave, work on things and buy something for the house. 

Her main project for the past few weeks was filling the woodshed for the winter. Cutting down trees, cutting them into fireplace sized pieces, splitting them and stacking them in the woodshed. At first glance, that might not seem like a lot of wood, but when you consider that it is 5 rows deep, that is a lot of wood! Did I marry a good woman or what?!?!

She also bought two wardrobe cabinets for the loft in the garage. Up until now, we kept all of our seasonal clothes in totes which worked fine but you always had to search through multiple totes to find what you are looking for. Now she has everything organized in the wardrobe cabinets! These things weighed over 75lbs each, so she had to take each piece out of the box and bring it up the loft stairs before she put them together. Did I marry a good woman or what!?!?

Next up was the garage. I have a shelving until that is kind of a catch-all for tools and nuts, bolts and screws. She went through and organized the whole thing separating the nuts, bolts and screws into separate containers. 

Then she took me up into the loft in the house where she showed me all the auction items we won. I knew about these but had not seen them yet. My next project is to build a bookcase in our bedroom, and I wanted to fill it with some good books. Well, she found an online auction with lots them! One of my favorite outdoor author is Gene Hill. Whenever we go to an antique store, we always look for his books. They are very hard to find and if you do, they are $20 or more. This auction had 10 of them in one lot! I did not care how much she had to pay, I wanted them! As far as I can tell, that is all the outdoor books he wrote. She had to fight for them, and they went for more than any other book lots, but they are now ours! She ended up winning them for $12.50 each.

The next book I wanted was Hunting Trips on the Prairie by Theodore Roosevelt. This book was published in 1885 and is in great shape. Online, it goes anywhere from $100-$300, she got this one for $70. Some might call me crazy, but I wanted this book!

I started reading it already. I have to program my mind to read late 1800's writing. Very different from the writing of today. Here is the first page just to give you an idea how things were written back in the day....

She also won two decoys, adding to our collection. We like the old working decoys, not the prettiest but they have a lot of history and character. They are the goose and canvasback on the right side. 

Last but not least is the gazebo. She installed lights around the outside, installed fencing to keep Zoey in, and bought two very cool liquor storage units made from old whiskey barrel and refinished an old Buffalo Trace whiskey barrel top into a wall hanging. They are the perfect addition to the gazebo. She also got Dakota a raised bed for when she is out there, so she does not have to lay directly on the concrete. Did I marry a good woman or what!?!?

There were also fall decorations scattered around the house, this one was my favorite....

It is so good to be home. The first order of business was to clean the camper. I apologized to Barb before she even set foot into it. My intension was to clean it before I came home, but leaving a day early changed that. She set foot into the camper and immediately started opening windows saying it smelled like a man has been living in it for the past 6 weeks. Funny, I did not smell anything. 

A few hours later, it was clean with a candle burning in it, I am sure she will give it a deep cleaning before our next adventure. 

In the meantime, I was not even home an hour before Zoey found her spot on my legs as I sit on the couch. I think I will just sit here for a few days, relax, soak in the scenery and just enjoy being home. Life is good!