Hunting

Well, Im back from Hunting, no animal in tow but thats ok. That is the beauty of bow hunting, and being pregnant. :) I couldnt hike as much this year, Dr said it was fine I went, but was very adamant that I couldnt get too cold. It looked like this when I first arrived up in the mountains where we hunt, down at camp we never got any snow.

It was so heartwarming for me to hear Siara express an interest in hunting. I have been hunting since I was her age, with my long bow, trying to shoot chipmunks as my Dad and Grampa went and hunted the big game. And yes, I did shoot a chipmunk with my bow, and yes, I ate it. We dont hunt to kill, we hunt to eat, pure, healthy, meat. Really the only form of organic, besides owning/feeding your own cow, chickens and pigs..but Im not a big pork fan what-so-ever. Anyway, I came back early one day and took Siara out down on a low road near camp, it was the cutest thing.

Here she is in her camo, she did change her boots before we went, but she got on her best camo..haha. We  havent bought her actual hunting clothes yet, because to be honest its expensive and she wont sit out there with me for more than 20 minutes if Im lucky, so we will wait :) But she does really want a bow, so we will get her that. We didnt see any animals, but we did find a lot of elk track and boy was she happy about that!!

Anyway, moving onto later in the trip..the snow started to fall up top for us, GOOD. That gets the animals moving down, especially the elk who stay way up in the wilderness until the snow gets too much and then they head over to the feeding station. Its right off 410 in Naches and an awesome sight when the snow is heavy and they are thousands of head of elk in the fields waiting for their alfalfa.

I love snow and I love the mountains, so lets say I was one happy girl. :) Plus I was hunting, so thats triple happy! :D I was very careful to go back to the car if I got cold, or made sure I only did one long hike each day, and other times stayed near the car. Every hike we went on we spotted animals. One hike we went down an old Jeepin' road a couple miles and decided to turn back as we faced a big hill and the wind was really picking up, as I took a few breaks on the way back I was checking this hillside, and sure enough I spotted 5 cow elk headed up. So I told my Grampa, we need to get up on that road up there, they werent spooked and I was for sure we could catch up with them. We hustled (as fast as I could haha) back to the car and headed for the high road, came around the corner and sure enough, there they were..

This is the best picture I could get from my cell phone, but there she stood in the middle of the road eating moss off a fallen tree. We sat parked and watched her, she really didnt care we were there. I even ate some beef jerky like I was watching a movie..haha. My Grampa had a plan to get out of the car and slowly walk up until he was in safe shooting distance. Down from 150 yards to hopeful of 50 yards and the furthest. If we were Rifle hunting she would have been taken down easily, actually not cause Rifle can only shoot branched antler bull elk, but thats another story. ;-) If I wanted to shoot her I would have needed to be within 40 yards..bow hunting is a challenge. 

So after a few minutes these two guys pull up in a truck behind us, get out to see whats going on, pee, talk whatever and Im in the car with wide eyes, BE QUIET! QUIT MOVING! haha, so needless to say my Grampa didnt have a choice and had to start sneaking in on her, he got very close, about 65 yards away when one of the guys from the truck behind us grabbed his bow and started after my Grampa. Im thinking he figured there was more than one and wanted to get a shot himself, but he wasnt very quiet, and once the cow looked up and spotted him, she left. I was SO upset. Who does that?! Ugh. Oh well. 

And to top it off, as we were leaving the area we pulled over for another car to pass us, and there was my  buck, 20 yards from the car. He didnt care we were there, but once the other car drove by, he did and left. Ugggh again! 2nd time that day people ruined our chances of an animal. If we could have kept driving and I walked back and waited for him to cross the road, I'd be feeding my family venison for the rest of the year, but hey..there is always next year! :) My Mom has already agreed to watch my kids, take Siara to school while I go over. How lucky am I?! Very!!! Thats just a couple stories, I have more, but dont have time to type them all up. I had a great time though and was thinking I should name my baby boy  (if its a boy) Hunter..haha, I mean do we HAVE to choose an S name? My family is Tim, Salina, Stacy and Steven..so I'd say its ok??? ;-) 

Now its on to Christmas shopping..thankful for Amazon and my Prime membership! :D

Nice little run from a Buck..killed the tree!