Today's hunt took place at Sauvie Island - an island in the middle of the Columbia River. Beautiful place - but at 4:00 in the morning, I wasn't concerned with the sights. It was dark and you could see nothing! I pretty much just drug myself out of bed, put on hunting gear and walked out the door on auto-pilot.
It was raining when we got there, as usual. The hunting processes at Sauvie Island are a bit strange, but here a quick and very basic rundown.
* It's only open every other day to hunt, during the hunting periods.
* You have the opportunity to apply to a lottery to win a reservation on the island.
* There are pre-determined hunting blinds and spots to hunt - and there are a limited number of them
* If you don't get a reserved spot, you show up extra early to wait in line.
* Once they open the line, you drive up and make a sort of mad dash to get your spot.
* We were late enough that we didn't make the mad dash. But since it was Tuesday, the line was shorter than usual, and it wasn't a big deal.
We got our spot, drove to the parking area, unloaded the gear and such onto the cart, took the dog (Lucky) out of the kennel and headed out. The boys were pushing/pulling the cart...and since they have much longer legs, they were very, very ahead of me on the muddy road to the hunting destination.
Once there, I was told to put out the field decoys (since I only had hip waders), while the boys got to play in the water putting decoys out there.
Once everything was set out and ready, we all walked into the corn field and waited.
Geese were out of season, and there were thousands and thousands of them flying over head. I, to this day, have a hard time distinguishing the ducks from the geese.
You see, being 'granola' as Oregon is....they have broken up their Canadian geese into like 8 or so sub-species. One of which, is illegal to shoot. They all look alike...and this one particular goose is the size of a mallard duck. So I was basically terrified to shoot ANYTHING the entire time we were in Portland.
We also found out that most of the ducks that are flying this time of year are nicknamed 'yuck ducks'.....it seems they eat seafood (clams, mollusks, etc) and are horrible to smell or eat. But, Mot was bored, so he was shooting at them anyway. More just to bug his brother than anything I think. (I love that man to death!!!)
Lucky didn't care what kind of duck we got, she just wanted to participate in the hunt.
We ended up with 2 pintails, 1 spoonbill thing (yuck duck), and a redhead duck during the day. (no worries folks, we took them all with us, nothing is wasted)
The rain stopped for a while, and yielded to a blue bird sky. Not a cloud in sight. Next thing I know, I look off to the right of us...and I see this......
That set of storm clouds moved in within a half an hour...and produced this.....
You probably can't see it in the picture....but we were hailed on, badly. (if you click on the picture, you get a little bit better view) The wind was midwest tornado weather stuff. :-) So, again, for the second time that week, I was soaked. Yes, I was wearing hip waders, and a rainproof jacket....but the same spot that was soaked on Sunday (aqfter my fall in the mud), was soaked on Tuesday. The area that encompasses the top 1/4 of my thighs and my entire butt (and coordinating front portion of the body). Ugh!!!!!
After the storm blew over - blue bird skies again!!!!! Portland weather rocks. Really, it does. I love the stuff. I'm not kidding.
By this time, I had put my gun down, and was making sloshy, farting sounds in the mud with my boots. I was taking ears of corn off the stalks and throwing individual pieces of corn at the boys and in the puddles of water. I laughed when ducks flew over, and I was the one that had to point them out.
OK, I admit it, I was being childish. But I was cold, soaked to the bone, bored, and frustrated with the way the week was going.
{warning - frustrated tangent!!!}
There are certain.....well......childishly competitive things that go on with his middle brother when Mot is around. It's...well....rude and cruel to say the least.
We were driving home from something earlier in the week. Mot and I were talking about getting a set of touring motorcycles so we can travel around the country. He said he'd have trouble selling the Ducati, and I told him he wouldn't have to. He could keep it for 'fun' driving around town. He loves that thing. Then he said that he might make the few upgrades to it, so he could take it on the local track. Do a little amateur racing with it, for fun. His brother says "you can't do that, you're too old and fat."
Older brother is in no better shape than younger brother, so it was a tad ironic...especially since older brother has taken up surfing. :-)
I will say this....I love my brother in law. He's family, and Mot loves him. His new wife Sharon is awesome! They are kind enough to put us up in their house, and show us around town. People allow stresses at work, home, and generally in their lives affect them. Mot's middle brother is one of those people. It seems he can't shut it off.
He needs to surf more....laugh more....smile more. He has an infectious laugh - when you get to hear it.
Back to hunting. Here is a pic of some of my boredom in the mud. I could barely get my feet out of those foot prints I had them so deep. :-) :-)
Eventually, Mot got bored as well. We are totally two peas in a pod, I tell ya!!!! :-)
He started putting corn stalk leaves in his hat, I was putting corn stalk tassels in mine. Aren't we a match made in heaven!!!!!
We finally left. Thank goodness!!! As we were getting things packed up, I noticed a rainbow against the storm clouds that were moving in (again). It actually ended up being a quadruple rainbow. Can you believe that???? You can't see it in the picture, you can only see one, and little bit of the one below it. But there were actually 4!! Stacked on top of each other. What a cool sight!!!!
(those black dots are a small, yes I said small flock of geese moving across the sky)
On the way to the truck, Mot and his brother spotted some pheasant in the road. We went home with a pheasant as well.
You know what? I just realized that we were there the whole week, and never once ate duck or pheasant. Darn it!!
On the way home, we stopped to get some munchies....Mot gets grouchy without food in him, and we didn't eat breakfast. It was almost 1:00 by then. Buffalo sauce and blue cheese potato chips, surprisingly good. :-)
We met Sharon at Taco Bell once we got nearer to their house. She had to go in to work that morning, and wasn't able to hunt with us. :-(
From there we went home, cleaned out the gear and guns, and then I don't remember what we did the rest of the night. I really, truly can't remember. :-(
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