Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thanksgiving

Here are just a very few things that I am thankful for this year.
  • The continued health of my wife and children, our rich opportunities and wonderful life together.
  • My family and friends with whom I have had chances to grow closer this past year.
  • My work, colleagues and our mission.
  • The land that we live in, it's rivers, woods, fish, birds and the peace it brings.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Pheasants

Last weekend my Grandpa, Dad, Uncle, Three Cousins and two of their kids went to Sprague WA. We pulled in late Friday night and setup campers. Saturday Morning we got up and walked 50 acres of scrub looking for pheasants.

I used to go along on hunting trips when I was a kid but was too young to take along a gun. Once in Ohio my Dad and I walked the woods on the farm we rented for squirrel to hunt with a 410 single shot shotgun but we never found anything. My Grandpa, uncles and cousins all hunted deer, pheasants, prairie chickens, grouse, deer and elk. One year one of my uncles took a black bear. I had never hunted anything.

So it was on a farm near Sprague that I found myself following my cousin and his dog Ollie with a 12 gauge in my hands. There were seven of us so we broke up into two groups. It wasn't fifteen minutes in when we heard the other group shoot twice and a pheasant came over and flew down the draw which we were walking down. We were all excited to know that the birds were around. Coming up out of the draw onto a flat table of land Ollie, my cousin's pointer, began getting excited and pointed. Curt, his proud owner smiled at how well he held even with the bird only feet away. Knowing I'd never hunted before Curt told me to come forward to take the first shot and when I was ready flushed the bird.

Shotguns are strange things after learning to shoot rifles. Most of my shooting had been done with air rifles and 22 s with which I could put out a candle if I wanted. There are those that can light a match (my mother could with a 30 06) but I never tried. With a rifle you peer with one eye down the sights and wait as your gun wobbles with each breath, beat of the heart or the slightest twitch of your arm until you pull the trigger. Borrowing my Dad's 12 gauge at a trap range I learned how to shoot a shotgun, both eyes open, swing through the target and squeeze off the shot when it leads the clay just the right amount. Repeat... My tendency is to swing slowly and catch the clay further out than most. I like a full choke that keeps the shot in a tight pattern.

So it was the the bird flew nearly straight up out of the scrub and I swung my 870 up, squeezed off the shot and caught the bird right as he was straightening out. The image, like my first fish on a fly, is etched now in my memory. The black rail on top of the gun with it's silver bead at the end, the pheasant's wings wide and tail out like an elongated spade. It's solid weight in my vest pocket afterwords and Ollie's excitement.

For my Grandpa's birthday several of us pitched in to get him a new side by side double barrel shotgun. The old man's eyes have had issues but his right eye is still clear and I got to watch him shoot straight as any of my cousins who are dead shots and fast. He bagged two birds with his new gun and Saturday night we cooked pheasant and potatoes for dinner. Before we were done walking the scrub we stood at the top of a hill.

From Pheasants 08
"I sure miss wide open country" he said. "I get so sick of seeing green trees everywhere and feeling closed in". We looked to the west where the sun was tracking down, the clouds ran in bands that alternated purple and peach. A farm sat at the bottom of a wide valley, green patches denoting crops and fenced off scrub land holding cattle. To the north more of the wide open land with it's red brambles, birch and water alder hollows, sage brush, rocky outcroppings and rolling hills and though I love my home, full of green trees, lowland lakes and wandering rivers I understood why a man from Oklahoma would long for this type of country. It was painted by god long long ago and a man might feel his rightful scale in the universe and know to be thankful.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Hunting

This weekend I embark on my first hunting trip since I was a kid. My family, cousins, Grandpa, Dad an Uncle and some nephews will embark to Sprague WA. We'll hunt pheasants but most of all we'll eat, drink and BS together for a weekend.