Ducks Unlimited 2012

Last weekend we went to Oregon for the annual Ducks Unlimited. 

Just because its called ducks though doesn't mean I shot any ducks. 

I wish. 

Out of state hunting licenses are just too expensive. 

My sister shot a rabbit though!

 And we shot lots of trap! Enough to make our shoulders sore and bruised! 

My handsome hubby manning the trap thrower. 

We decided to take our daughter/puppy Ruby so she could go on an adventure too. She had so much fun she wore her little paws out (her paws are actually HUGE). Literally. 

After the first day she would mostly try and stay on grass because her paws were pretty much raw. 

Luckily, many people took pity on her and she always had a lap to sit on. 

I think Ruby will be getting doggy shoes for Christmas. 

It was so nice to see all my family again. It's not to often that we are all together in one place, with me living in California, my sister in Washington, and my parents in Oregon. 

The dads. 

Father and daughter wandering the desert with dinner in hand.... (Just Joking! We didn't eat the rabbit. I'm sure a coyote did though.)

Married 2 months now! 

A beautiful sunrise!

This place is one of my most favorite places in the world. Can't wait to go back! 

Sunday Snapshot "Morning Light"

Just a few shots I wanted to share from our hunting excursion this past weekend. 

The one great thing about waking up WAY before the sun, is that you get to see the sun rise. 

Morning light is Amazing! 

The moon was still high in the sky as the sun was rising. 

Sunrise over the mountains.

Glorious Morning Light!

Linking up with... 

Trip Home-- Elk Hunting

A few weeks ago I flew to Oregon to go hunting with my family! (as usual I'm behind in blogging again...)

On our way over we stopped in the little town of Mitchell to eat breakfast. Its a old town with lots of cool buildings. I think the population is about 100 now. It used to be a booming town though! There was a really nice lady there that gave my sister and I a quick tour and history lesson on the town.

Very friendly people in this town!

And... they welcomed Hunters! haha

After a yummy breakfast we continued on our journey to one of my favorite places. A ranch outside of Dayville. As you can see from the picture below, it is really beautiful.

Our goal for the weekend was to kill a few elk, but they got lucky...

On Saturday we were driving around on the quads and spotted a huge herd of elk running up over a valley. Of course they had heard us first so we had lost the element of surprise. We quickly made a game plan and split up into two groups.

My dad and I headed over a big hill.  My sister and a friend headed towards the valley. We both ended up on the same mountain side but had no idea where the other one was.

My dad and I spotted the elk and tried to work our way down the hill to get closer. The trees were beginning to thin out and the elk were being really skittish. They knew we were near by. My dad and I knew this was our only chance, so we set up to shoot. We didn't have a range finder so we had to guess. We were probably about 400 yards away. I shot, and missed. My dad shot and missed. It was a long shot. We quickly found my sister who was not happy because she was in a much better position to shoot. Next time we will make sure to have walkie talkies or just stick together.

My dad and I decided to hike over to wear we shot the elk at just to make sure. We checked for a blood trail but found nothing. I really wanted to follow the elk so we started climbing another hill.

By the way... these hills were huge and steep.

By the time we got to the top of the next hill, the elk were on the next ridge over. We decided to head back to the group, which was a long ways away. We were so tired...

I turned on my almost dead cell phone and called my sister. Told her where we were headed and to meet us their with the quad if she could.

Most normal people wouldn't even think of driving a quad in our direction.

Not my sister.

Even my dad couldn't believe she drove to us.

The terrain was very rough.

When we finally met up, my dad and I were so relieved to see her because we had pretty much drenched our clothes with sweat and we were so exhausted.

All three of us climbed onto the quad with our guns and packs.

(I'll have to share pictures of that later, pretty funny)

We headed back to the cabin and cooked a yummy dinner and played card games that night.

Overall it was a wonderful weekend spent with my family doing the things we love.

Here are a few more pictures from our adventures weekend!

Future Family Christmas Card Photo!

I love this picture of my parents :)

My sister and parents headed back to the ranch this weekend to try again.

I hope my sister gets an elk! It would be her first big game animal :)

Hunting

WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT LIKE SEEING BLOOD OR DEAD ANIMALS DO NOT CONTINUE READING!!!!!

Deer hunting season for me started October 1st. That first weekend, my dad, me, and a few other guys headed over to Eastern Oregon to hunt our unit.

The weather was dry and windy which is not good hunting weather. We did a lot of driving, a lot of hiking and didn't see any deer. We did see some great views though!

Part of our unit was on a ridge which means we had some great views of the valley below.

Sunrise over Summer Lake

That first weekend our hunting trip was unsuccessful so we headed back to work for the week empty handed. 

Not to worry though... we headed back over Wednesday evening and started our hunt again bright and early Thursday morning! 

This time it was just me and my dad. I've come to learn that hunting can be really slow.... our unit is huge and the deer can be hiding anywhere. Most of the morning we drove around in the truck looking for deer or fresh tracks. We weren't having much luck so we decided to stop and cut some firewood for campfire that night.

After we had filled the back end of the truck with wood we started to head back to camp. 

Now I need to explain something.... for some reason my dad's truck puts me to sleep on the 4x4 roads. I don't know if its the rocking or the lull of the engine but it sure does know how to put me to sleep. Not so good for hunting.... 

I was trying to stay awake but my eyes kept shutting. All of the sudden I opened my eyes and to my left I saw a buck! First thing out of my mouth is "BUCK!" and my dad quickly shuts off the truck. We quickly grab our guns and make a quick game plan. 

He walks to the left in hopes of pushing the buck out of the woods. I run the right and get set up to kill this deer. All of the sudden I see the buck in my sights! I was so excited that I pulled the trigger without even steadying myself. I miss the first shot but the deer doesn't even flinch! I quickly reload and this time I take a deep breath and slowly pull the trigger with my sights right on his heart. Bang. He drops to the ground. THEN he starts rolling around and I start freaking out that he is just wounded and gonna run into the woods so I fire again this time hitting him in the butt. The buck gets up and runs further into the woods. By this time I'm screaming for my dad (because I have no idea where he is) and running further into the woods after this buck trying to quickly reload my gun. 

I'm soon on the blood trail and by the amount of blood I'm seeing I know this deer hasn't gotten far.

 Within about thirty yards I see the buck again, this time dead! 

I literally started screaming like a little girl I was so excited. I was jumping up and down, the adrenaline rush was in full affect, I could barely breath. My dad soon finds me, which isn't too hard due to all the noise I was making lol. 

After my dad arrives we start the hard part.... gutting the deer. Blood doesn't really make me squeamish, the part that gets me is how warm all the insides are still. I won't go into too much detail on this part. Just a lot of blood and guts. 

We proudly returned to camp to show off my buck!

I have done my duty by putting meat on the table this winter!