Keagan had been complaining she couldn't see again so we made her another eye appointment and sure enough her eyes had changed 3 steps so she needed a new prescription. Luckily this time around Costco's eye glass center was open and we were able to order her a new pair of frames and lenses there (with the higher end lenses and new frames it was still $50 cheaper then any where else). She is pretty excited to sport her new rainbow frames and to be able to see 20/20 again!
Well it finally happened, Kabree got her braces! She was excited and nervous all at the same time!
This year was a year for helping out everyone else. I can say that over the course of the hunting season I have helped family and friends find, call in, harvest, gut, cape, skin, pack out, and/or be apart of their experience this year. This was a very busy hunting season for me, my knife and my pack. As for myself, I didn't harvest any big game animals this year so none of my gear was used for anything I harvested. But it was still a great season and I got to spend a lot of time in the outdoors enjoying the scenery, animals and friends/family. I stopped to count down the people that I helped this year and here is a brief summary. I have helped with 7 deer and 4 elk this season. Some of the help was way more involved than others but it was fun to be apart of so many experiences.
My hunting season started off with going out for a few day hunt with my dad and brother looking for a big bull. We were not able to find a big bull, but I was able to call in a 5 point bull to 40 yards for my dad. To bad there was not a lane to shoot or my elk number would have been 5 for the year in helping and packing out. It was a great time to spend out in the woods with my dad and brother. After that archery hunt I came home and James Ward was headed out to find his first archery kill. I asked him if I could tag along and maybe help out. He was so grateful that I was willing so we set some game plans and went out that night. We did see some deer but couldn't make it happen where they were at. I spotted some elk a little ways away and James had an elk tag. So we quickly change our tactics and went after some elk. I called in a bull to about 30 yards but he didn't come out of the cedar trees for James to shoot. It was a great experience for James to feel that adrenaline rush.
Deer #1 - James 2 point buck. So we planned to go out on the day before the last day of the archery season. On this day I was able to help him close the deal with his first archery kill. He shot a nice little buck and it was an awesome experience. But he shot is so early that we quickly gutted it, hid it in some trees to cool and went to go get the elk we saw as well. This night I was able to call in a bull to 45 yards but James couldn't get a shot. We were so close to getting a buck and a bull in the same night. Oh well, it was a great experience for James and that is all that counts. That is the first deer I helped with.
Deer #2 - This was Kabree's deer. She did fantastic this year and she is my one shot wonder. I already wrote about her so on to the next.
Deer #3 - Justice's deer was shot with his dad, but Kabree and Justice shot theirs at about the same time so when Justice and Matt came up to skin out his deer. We were up at Darrel's doing Kabree's. I quickly finished Kabree's and then turned to help Matt with Justice's deer. I got to hear Justice's hunting story and teach them some tricks about skinning out a deer.
Deer #4 - Eric's whitetail deer. Eric shot a nice whitetail out here in Arbon Valley. It is the only one that I have every seen out here. So it was pretty awesome that he shot such a big whitetail out here. That will probably be the only one gotten out here for a while. But he came to ask me to help cape out this deer so he could have it mounted. Then I help skin out the rest of it to help Eric get done and hung up in the cooler.
Deer #5 - Morgan's 4 point deer. Morgan went out hunting by himself and was able to get a good 4 point this year. But he had never really gutted a deer and so he needed a little direction to get it done. I helped him get it all the way gutted on the hill and then helped him skin it out and get it ready to hang to be processed later. There was some gun shot wounds that needed to be cut out to not damage more of the meat.
Elk #1 - Alyssa's 6 point bull elk. So we were getting ready to go to my parents house this Saturday when Eric called me at 8:30am to say Alyssa had finally got her bull. He was calling to ask me to come help him get it quartered out and pack it down the mountain. So I got my stuff together to go help him because he is always willing to help me when I call. The girls waited for me to go help him and Alyssa before we went up to my parents house. I went to Shawn's house to get Shawn and Ethan for more hands to help carry it out. We got up there and I quartered out the elk with the gutless method and we all got it pack out in one trip with Shawn, Ethan, Morgan, Cayleb, Alyssa, Eric and myself. With the many hands we were done and I was home by 12:30pm. 4 hours I felt like we did it in a flash.
Deer #6 - Hank Fitch's massive 4 point deer. Eric called me and send me some pictures of Hank's deer. He was trying to convince Hank that he should have it mounted. So I agreed to go up to Hank's house and help cape out Hank's deer and then skin it. This deser scores 195 inches. He is a huge bodied deer, like after we got it skinned out it look like a small elk.
Elk #2 - Dezi Williams 5x3 bull elk. When I got the call from Eric about Hank's deer, we were actually at the William's planning on the elk hunt the next day. I got done with Hank's deer and home at 1am, only to get up to meet Trevor and Dezi at 5:30am. So Eric and I didn't get very much sleep, but we knew there were some elk traveling through and we both wanted to be a part of Dezi's hunt. That morning was super quite and we didn't see anything. So we went back down and got horses to go further up in the Big Onion to find some elk. Eric took off and went home, he isn't a big horse guy. So Trevor, Kenzie, Dezi and myself went back out to find a bull. It was a cold day and the animals didn't seem to be moving around very good. We hunted hard all day and then at the end of the day heading out, I finally spotted a bull. We work and could only get to 553 yards away from it. Trevor said he wasn't sure if his gun would work out that far so I ran and got mine. Dezi made a fantastic shot and got her bull. I then went to work and quartered out her bull in about an hour. We were making good time until the horses decided not to like what was going on. By the time I finally got home it was 2:30 am. It was a long night and I was exhausted. I still had to go to work the next morning, that was a long day at work.
Deer #7 - Vance's 4 point buck. I got off work early a day before the hunt ended so I could go out with my father in law and help him find something to shoot and take care of for him. We got up there and found a 4 point right off. He made a great shot at 503 yards and dropped him like a rock. We were about to drive up to him which made it super nice. We took some pictures and then I gutted and loaded up the deer. We got down to the house to show the girls and Eric was at the shop. So I told Vance to stay home and I would get Eric to help me get it skinned. Eric and I work well together and we were both back home by 8:30pm. It was a quick hunt, quick gut and load, and a quick skinning and into the cooler.
Elk #3  - Morgan's and Trent's cow elk. Morgan had been complaining to me all morning that they will never find any elk and he was getting so frustrated. So after lunch I decided that I would glass up the hill to help those guys out. I found the elk within about fifteen minute and found Morgan to let him know where these elk were at. Trent, Haylee, James and Morgan were all at the house in about 10 minutes. I showed them where the elk were, how I would get to them to shoot, and sent them on their way. They asked if I wanted to go, but it was cold and wet and I had put away all my hunting stuff. Well after Morgan and Trent shot their elk and 3 hours of struggling to get them out, they called me. So I got Eric to come help me and we were able to get Morgan's cow out in about 3 hours. Eric and I have got alot of animals out together and we just got faster with each one.
As always Adrianne did a beautiful job! I'm very lucky to have such a talented friend!
Halloween was pretty chill this year where it was on a Saturday. Zach had to run a deer to town so the girls and I just chilled at home and he brought us back pizza for lunch. Katie came to visit for a bit so Keagan had to take Lane for a little spin in her baby back pack ;). In the evening we went down to the school for the Trunk-or-Treat, Heather came out with Justice. Kabree dressed up as a Sorceress and Keagan dressed up as Mal from Disney's Decendants. Cody and Chelsea Hubbard took the award for best treat this year with serving up homemade donuts from their truck bed!! They were delicious!! After the Trunk-Or-Treat Jason and Dee went to Nelda's to pass out candy for her and asked us if we could take MaKaydee with us Trick-Or-Treating. We all loaded up in Heather's car and went to only a few houses this year. The kids had fun and as always got way too much candy!!!
