That yearly update...

 

So this is where I plug something in that serves as a place holder for doing something with this blog. Anything at all. As always fairly esoteric mix of my life in the last year. But FINALLY we've got some pics of the knuckle heads doing what they do.

 

 

 

 

 Basa slobbers something fierce. If you want to read about his namesake you can actually find it here. It's like Ole Yeller except with Turks playing the part of the rabid coyote. Or Austrians, I forget which. Suffice to say they're being dicks.
 

 

 BAM! On point. This is what it's all about.
 

 

 We were taking a water break between passes in a milo field. Lady Bird is not only a true love bug but also my star in the field.
 

 

 I took an Adult Onset Hunter (AOH) [not to be confused with the AoH] up deer hunting this year for his first time. As I had my deer tag for a late season plains hunt I toted my shotgun along and nabbed a couple of blue grouse along the way.
 

 

Just a view from the side of the mountain. This is the best part of hunting.

 

 

 My friend was successful in his quest for a deer. As a thank you for sighting in his gun for him, taking him to "my spot", helping him haul his doe out five miles, and then butchering it on the spur of the moment when the freezer he was storing it in died he gave me some meet. This is what I did with it. That's backstrap and it was delicious.
 

 

 Opening weekend for pheasant in Kansas at a fertilizer depot where some family members work. That's the old man and the primary son. Lady Bird is inspecting the rooster my brother nabbed during a massive flush.
 

This was our kitchen when we were out in Kansas. Lets review the items because why not?
McBarrons Navy flake pipe tobacco (for me)
Dogtra e-collars
Collapsible water bowl for the dogs
Couple of rooster feathers beneath the Colt .45.
Colt .45 revolver
Crisis of Russian Democracy by Richard Sakwa (we will be returning to this later)
Knife steel (goes with another pic)
A National Geographic magazine.
Normal smokes (for my brother)
Latex gloves for cooking.
And I almost forgot the American made Melton brand wool mackinaw jacket with game bag. We tend to hew towards a very traditional style and when we roll out one could almost be forgiven for mistaking us as hunters straight out of the 1950's. Pump guns are acceptable though wood stock is preferred while the new fangled autos are looked upon with distaste. We all shoot Winchester 101s. My brother has my dad's old one and the old man and I shoot new ones. Though if I ever "make it" in life (whatever that means) I have my eye on a Winchester model 23 which is essentially the 101 in a side by side format. For us growing up toting around bolt action 20 gauges or 870s from the 1920s the 101 was "the" bird gun that we salivated after. So when the time finally came for me to get a "new" gun my dad stepped in and gave me a new gun as part of my inheritance. Now even as I note that we are disdainful of autos I was fully prepared to buy a Mossberg pump or semi auto simply due to the my economic realities at the time (recession with a young child at home).

 

These are the knives my brother brought with him for a long weekend trip. Just the knives mind you. not including all the pots and pans and other utensils he brought to a "fully" stocked cabin. I must confess that having a highly skilled chef for a brother is both a blessing and curse. When we have time and space (in the trucks) you will never eat better but genius with a penchant for perfection is difficult to wrangle into a fixed timetable. Which for a man such as myself whose life is guided by productive man hours and tight schedules the lack of time management can literally make me pull my hair out. Oh but when there is time...perfection.

Alright well that's a pretty place holder. Certainly nothing of consequence or depth but...meh. Actually come to think of it, this isn't esoteric at all. It's just pictures and notes from hunting camps over the course of the season. But I suppose...