Sorry to all who read my blog but life has been busy spending a lot of time 400 mile north with a friend. The newest news on the home front is the deer I shot Sun. afternoon west of Milford. So hunting season is over for deer having harvested the one shown and another in northern MN a weekago. Enough venison for the coming year. The latest was taken to Hartley to have ground so Carol and I can make some breakfast sausage when she comes in a few days. Now will be time to hunt a few pheasants before settling in for winter.

Gorgeous day

What a gorgeous day it has been. A beautiful sunrise and sunset. The am was complete with dense fog in the low areas and the day warmed to 65 degrees. The lakes and ponds have been mirror like most of the day. Nalo and I went for a walk and she treed this woodchuck in a small scrub tree just to the east of the house. Little guy was not happy as Nalo kind of took a playful nip at him before he ran up the tree(could be a she).

Been sitting here nursing a cold listening to the wind and thinking back on my recent trip to Germany. Thought I would share a couple of photos of the Bavarian Alps and a castle built by King Ludwig II.

Goose Hunt

The funniest hunting experience happened when Mary was in high school and on a Christmas morning we drove to Caseys to pick up something and of course had to take a quick trip to do just a minute of road hunting. Well dad shot a partridge (Minnesota style sticking the shotgun out the window) and Mary trudged through the snow to get it. Every time she reached down to pick it up the partridge would run. I suppose you had to be there but Mary and I have had lots of fun with this story over the years. Actually maybe it is just me that has had so much fun with the story.

This morning is a close second. Got up and put a pair of jeans on and was relaxing watching the sunrise and checking email. Walking into the bedroom noticed a flock of geese flying low coming toward the house. I ran out into the living room and grabbed my goose gun that sits loaded by the front door, ran out on the porch bare footed and bare chested and lo and behold shot the goose you see in the photo. When I got shirt and shoes on and went out to retrieve my goose my friend Virg was walking accross the field toward me. He had two geese that he shot and after he shot the same flock was the one that came over the house. Want you to know I can count the number of geese that I have shot out here can be counted on one hand with fingers left.

Windy Day

Last weekend was the Iowa "pheasant opener" and four friends all raised in the "iron range" came down for a long weekend. Saturday, the actual opening day, was very nice and hunting was good. Sunday we had a horrid wind with a sustained wind speed of 45 with gusts over 55. Well, I would have written a day like that off and said it was a waste of time to even go out. The "rangers" went out anyway and harvested five roosters on an impossible day. Today was much better and before they left they got three more for a total of 17. Not bad for my little farm. The wind was so strong that it produced white caps on my six acre pond complete with mist blowing off the tops. The posted photo doesn't show the mist but does give one an idea of the force of the wind. Had to sit when I took it as couldn't stand up against the wind. A good time was has by all with plenty to hunt, eat and drink.

Turtle

Sitting at my computer desk I looked out and saw this huge turtle walking across the front yard. Perhaps you can't see the size would guess it was about as big around as a toilet seat and maybe in the 30 pound size. What amazing things happen in this little sanctuary!

AK/day six

Today was an early start from Homer to get to Seward for an ocean cruise. One goal was to see a moose and we were starting to think that the closest we would come would be our stop at the "Moose is Loose Bakery" in Soldtotna about an hour and a half north of Homer. An hour outside of Soldotna we came upon a sign that warned of moose over the next sixteen miles. My experience is that these signs never mean a thing. Nonetheless, shortly after the sign we came upon a large cow moose with twins feeding in the ditch along the road. My photographic skills aren't the best but you can see one of the calfs. We arrived in Seward in time to go to the post office to send some fishing poles home and check in at the cruise office. Shortly after embarking on the "Kenai Star" into Resurection bay where we saw one of the many sea otters and a miriad of shore birds. 'too many kinds to mention but the cutest are the puffins. Also we saw a number of Bald Eagles. The cruise offered a lunch of salmon and prime rib which we enjoyed as we came up to Aialik Glacier. Aialik is a huge gracier that runs down to the water in Aialik Bay where it rises to over 1000 feet and goes back for miles. It is over a mile wide at the base. On the way back we were treated to quite a show by a couple of hump back whales and also saw a rare Minke whale. A group of porpoises escorted our boat for quite some time. Seals and Stellar Sea Lions covered lots of rocks along the shore. The mountains peaking above the clouds along both sides of Resurection and Aialik bay were just to beautiful for words. Today was a perfect end to the most wonderful AK trip with Michael and Holly. Tomorrow to Anchorage and back home.