Thanksgiving Was Fun and now it's FREEZING!

Ashley and I drove down to Idaho for Thanksgiving. We enjoy seeing the family, especially the niece and nephews because they grow so fast. Derek's little family is doing good; he is a good hard working guy who treats his wife and daughter really good. We ate like there was no tomorrow and just lounged around on Thursday. It was nice to have a weekend off.

We had announced the news to the family that we were having a baby, but this was the first time they have seen Ashley since they heard the news. She really isn't showing that much. You can see that I am already really excited.

Jenntry is getting bigger. She will be a year old in February of next year. She is even getting a little attitude. She was really cute, and she put on a show for us after dinner.

Derek with his first muzzleloader kill.
Dad and Derek drew late buck muzzleloader tags in Howe, ID this year. They went out a couple times before Thanksgiving, but really hadn't seen that many bucks. We talked each other into going deer hunting on Friday. We started by driving to a spot they had seen a buck the trip before, and sure enough we spotted a nice buck, 27 in. 4 point, up the hill in the morning. He probably had 10 does with him. They were on the move, but we decided to try to get within range before they went into the trees; we even had fresh snow to track. We chased them around for half the day, but never saw the buck again once they went into the trees. We were good and tired by the time we got back to the truck and had some lunch.

We headed for home over a different road looking for something from the truck. We probably had 45 minutes of daylight left when I spotted two buck at the top of the hill. We knew they weren't huge, but it was the end of the last day of the hunt. Dad said we could go after the bucks, but he was going to stay in the truck. Derek talked me into it. We basically had to run up the hill. I was a little out of shape and told Darlo to go ahead of me. It felt like my chest was going to explode, but I kept moving. I actually was able to catch up to him at the top, because he had to slow down to not scare the bucks. We got to the top, and we figured that the deer had to be around this rock pile on top. We crept around the rocks, all the time losing daylight. We were just trying to spot something. Right at dark we caught a glimpse of the larger buck walking out from behind the rocks. He was only about 80 yards away. It couldn't have been a more perfect setup. Derek leaned on his shooting sticks and squeezed the trigger. I was trying to keep my binoculors on the deer to see if it was hit, but lost him admidst the fire and smoke from the blackpowder rifle. While he was reloading, I caught a glimpse of the deer moving down the hill; it looked like he was hit. Derek ran to the top of the hill, peeked over and got another shot. We just didn't know if he hit the deer again, and then darkness came.

We tried to find the deer that night, but we only had two small flashlights. We definitely had the adrenaline flowing from everything going on. We thought we heard the buck in the sagebrush, but didn't want to scare him off. We were forced to go back to the truck and come back later. Luckily, we found the buck the next day. He was a small 5x5 and not too much work to get out. It was a fun trip.

Ashley, How do you feel about the weather now?

So I have to mention the weather. This whole fall has been pretty warm up here in Missoula. We hadn't had any real snow and the weather was fairly warm, until now. This past weekend the winter weather finally came and it is freezing! High for today was 0 degrees. Yes I said 0. When I got to work in the morning it was -3 deg. It is sooooo cold. I can barely start my car anytime of the day, and it is painful to be outside. Just walking to my car from my apt puts me in a bad mood. Hopefully it doesn't last long even though we checked the weather and it is supposed to last for the next 2 weeks. boo. My real concern is Brodie. He installs satellite internet and to do that he has to be inside and outside peoples houses for a few hours. I worry something horrible will happen to him like a finger or nose falling off. We will see. I think he will postpone his jobs for a little while, hopefully it will warm up for his nose's sake. The other pain is that the roads are covered in snow/ice and it is way to cold to melt. People are driving soo slow and it takes for ever to get anywhere. It took me about 23 min to drive 4 miles home for lunch today. Oh well. I guess summer can't last forever. Hopefully we will survive.