This & That

What?

You mean you don't have mechanical duck feet on your bathroom counters....for 2 months?

I guess some explanation is in order. In his quest to bring as much disgusting, livery-tasting duck home as possible, DH has acquired some tricks to do the job. The plastic, bright orange duck foot is part of a plastic mechanical duck that is attached to a metal rod that sticks in the ground. The Duck-On-a-Stick also has a battery connected to it that makes 2 plastic, fake wings rotate. 

Now from the air, this is supposed to advertise to apparently really stupid ducks that this is Duck Nirvana...the place they want to use for a pit stop. "C'mon in! The water's fine! (heh, heh, heh....). I guess its foot came off in one of the attempts. Maybe we're waiting for parts?

Distraction

So we were feeling just a tiny bit blue as we drove away from the MTC and started home and DH decided that he needed a little distraction to make him feel better.

And what spells comfort more than...

A trip to Cabela's. Yeah, because I don't know what would make anybody feel better than a store chock full of dead things.

I don't know about you, but I feel so much better already....*eyeroll*

The Souvenier

When DH was unpacking all that dirty laundry, he came across something he probably didn't declare in Customs. He laid this on the counter:

Yes, you can all give a collective, "Awwww......" You may remember that I have a bit of history with Heart Rocks. He said he found it in a stream when he was tramping around up in  Canada.

It's sitting with The Girl's rock on my bathroom counter where I can see it every morning and evening.

It made me almost volunteer doing his traveling laundry. Almost, but not quite.

It especially came in handy the other day when he told me at 11 AM Sunday morning that I would be having 5 people stay over that night. And we had no milk....and only a couple of eggs.....and could I fix a big breakfast Monday morning  since they were all headed off for their annual horse pack trip....and it was Sunday for heaven's sake and no shopping....because it was Sunday. Yeah, it wasn't pretty. Thank goodness for the heart rock, though. It calmed me down some....after I'd done a fair amount of yelling. Because we've been married nigh onto 32 years, and he knows better.

 

Intelligence Can Be Measured

I know this for a fact, and I'll tell you how in just a bit.

For about 10 days this past month, my DH has been here:

Hello, Northwest Territory!

Not only has he existed here, but he and my 78 year old FIL, who had sextuple coronary bypass surgery  a few years ago, roamed up and down these mountains. Yeah....crazy, I know. But they consider it fun. Like I said, crazy.

They are fairly close to the Arctic Circle here. Close enough that it never gets totally dark, not even in the middle of the night, which was when this photo was taken.

You might imagine that there are no showers here. You would be right. He brings home laundry the likes of which you will never smell....which is why I don't do it. He tries every time to shove some in my face for a sniff, but I'm pretty good at evasive tactics.

And you know how I know intelligence can be measured?

These are the flowers I got about 4 days before he came home. He's no dummy.

 

Sigh....

Rise and Shout, the Cougars are out?

Seriously?

The Walk

OK, so maybe it wasn't quite a walk, but it did involve walking up the side of a hill...straight up the side, bushwhacking it...no trail and I don't do that very often. You might imagine, though, that any time at the cabin involves some traipsing around initiated by my DH.

We took the rhino in a trailer to this spot. In the fall, this is where ranchers will come pick up the sheep they've had out to graze.

Then we drove the rhino on a road like this. It's a skinny road. Not my kind of road at all and I don't mind telling you that it makes me more than a little nervous to look out my side and be able to see straight down a drop off like this:

Trust me when I tell you it loses something in the photo translation.

Ollie was at my feet while we were driving. He spent the ride with his head in my lap.

PB spent part of the ride in this position. He was feeling very daring. I was feeling more than a little anxious.

We got out at this point and prepared to head up the hill. Ollie promptly found a stick to chew on. There weren't any logs available right here. We got to the top of the hill and looked around. DH and PB were looking for beasts. I was looking at the clouds.

And then it began to snow. So we hiked down off the hill without seeing any beasts, got in the rhino, drove back down the road and by the time we got to the trail head again, it was sunny.

We crossed the Boise River on our jaunt (the photos are the same spot, just looking both directions).

Be Vewwy, Vewwy Quiet

Warning: The following post contains an image of legal gun use. Guns are part of my family's lifestyle.  If you're not into that sort of thing, quit now.

Just don't ask. Blame it on post-duck season depression.

 

A Moment of Silence....

Let us all just take a moment, a moment of silence, and join my DH and the boys in mourning the end of duck season. Yesterday was the last day.  It marks the beginning of the long, dry spell in which there is no hunting. My DH mourns. Each one of my 5 sons mourn. Ollie mourns, because he has become a mega-retriever spurred on, no doubt, by his feathered friend experience at the cabin.  They spend their free time pouring over fall tag applications like some women pour over, say, the Williams-Sonoma catalog...that would be me, or handbags advertisements....cough, cough, Julie, cough.

The duck calls will be put away until next year. Ollie will look at us all with sad eyes, wanting to know why no one will take him down to the ponds to play. Oh yes, it's a sad, sad day.

Can You See Me Now?

Yeah, what do you do at my house when you have a couple of spare hours during the holidays? Wrap, maybe? Do a little baking?

Um, no. You assemble goose blinds in the front hall....and then you try them out.

Another Seasonal Moment

And here is another seasonal moment brought to you by my DH. Lest you think any differently, the critters my DH brings home find a place in our freezer, and then at our table. It took me a long time to get used to this, city girl that I am...was....whatever.

But there it is, lovingly prepared to join the exotic meat collection in the freezer.