Work

Not much is going on up here lately. I started riding again after some needed time off after Burnin'. I'm keeping plenty busy with work. I don't know that I've ever talked about work here. I love my job. The reason I love it so much is strictly because of my students and my parents. They are all super great to work with. I've worked hard to establish relationships with them all and I think they trust me. I know some of them check in here from time to time. Thanks for being so cool to work for/with and trusting my judgement with your child. You are the reason I go in each morning.

Elk

My buddy Hayes had some elk steaks marinating but he had to hop a flight at the last minute and leave town on business. Really sorry you had to miss out on this man. This is what they looked like right before I threw em on the grill. When they came off there was no time to waste with pictures as the meats gotta be eaten quickly. He's trying to get me to start killing animals with him. If he keeps dropping this stuff off, I may not have a choice.

I haven't carved pumpkins since I was a kid. These turned out rather nicely. We usually only get 2 kids but these oughta scare the crap outta them.

Oh yeah!!!

Brisbane is in the house!!

I used to wear Blundstones don't ya know.

vehicles

Dan, TK, and myself were recently talking about vehicles and, specifically, some of the ones we've owned through the years and the various noises they made (TK) or how many headlights they were missing (me). Now I've owned some real gems over the years but since I moved out here I have migrated to the 4x4 scene and I've had my Jeep longer than any other vehicle I've owned. I love it. It's way more than I need. I'm terrified to go on the trails that it really belongs on but it gets me to any fishing or camping spot I want and, knock on wood, it's been the most reliable thing I've had. Until yesterday. I had a feeling the problem was with the rear driveshaft so I pulled it last night. I looked at it today when I got home and found one of the u joints was grenaded. I should have that rebuilt tomorrow and then while I'm there I'll rebuild the front shaft next. The weather people are calling for a pretty decent storm starting right now so hanging in the garage will be cool. Currently we have an inch of snow.

I hiked up to this lake yesterday with 2 buddies to fish it before things freeze over. This is at about 12,300'.





We saw about 10 mountain goats. There are 2 pairs of them in this picture. An adult and a younger one are on the right side. They are directly to the left of the "F" shaped area of snow. The other 2 are a little higher and all the way on the left side of the picture just below the large rock face. We watched these guys for 30 minutes as they walked around the side of the mountain with ease. This particular area was really steep and loose. It's amazing to watch them.



I think we were probably 3-4 weeks late to fish the lake as the fish were hunlered down deep and out of reach of our fly rods. After 4 hours we decided to head back down and fish some of the tiny streams. This is one of the greenback cutthroat that we caught. These are the most beautiful fish I think I've caught. They're neck and neck with brook trout but very rare and you have to usually put in a hard effort to get to them. They are also federally protected so guys usually keep their locations on the down low.

Fit for a King

Tonight I had a meal that was fit for a King. Some friends of ours had us over for dinner. He's a big game hunter and he just got back from a hunt in Washington state where he harvested a black bear. Now I love wild game but Heather's a bit leary. We dined on mushrooms stuffed with black bear sausage. Elk steaks, okra, squash, and baked potato. It was killer. Surprisingly, black bear sausage tastes just like ground beef sausage. Some of the meat is being smoked and that it supposed to taste just like ham. I'm not sure if all black bear tastes like that. Most of the black bears around here eat trash because our city kinda blows with the whole trash thing. Many towns up here have all of the bear proof containers and will issue citations if you don't use one. I wish we did. Anyway...the bears up in that corner of the nation eat berries (blue, huckle, and rasberry) and that definitely influences the taste of the meat. I'd highly recommend you try it.

Now I gotta finish gearing up for tomorrow and reviewing some maps. It's gonna be fun.