Tatonka

Spot

Stalk

Shot

Success

Hard at Work

These photos pretty much show my work schedule for the last couple months. I haven't included any photos of my desk in the basement where my thesis was written, or my office in Vernal where I do spend a considerable amount of time, but these ones are more fun.

The family chillin' the chopper before I went up to count Mountain Goats.


Radio-collared bighorn sheep at Flaming Gorge. Found the live ones and recovered the collar from a dead one too.


Jalapeno bacon cheeseburgers for lunch at the deer hunt checkstation. Mmmmm.


Bison photo taken out the window of our little 4-seater airplane. We did lots of circling and I didn't even puke.


Caught this bull digging through the snow for his breakfast.


This smaller buck hopped out of the way when his bigger buddy let him know he was invading his personal space bubble. Once the bubble was restored, they seemed to get along just fine.


I just caught of glimpse of these heavy antlers above the brush and stopped and watched this old buck for a few minutes. Big and chunky, just how I like 'em.



Hopefully I will be getting some more good deer photos in the next few weeks. Counting deer in November has to be my favorite part of my job.

H1N1 Buck

Things didn't go exactly as planned on my Colorado deer hunt. After building preference points for 5 years, finally drawing the tag, months of meticulous planning and lots of anticipation, things started to go wrong. My usually mellow boss flipped a 180 and told me I was required to stay in Utah and work the first 3 days of my hunt. After 3 very long days I finally finished my work obligations and headed out Monday night. I arrived in camp in the late evening and got ready for the next morning. Tuesday morning started with a light rain shower that got stronger and stronger and lasted most of the day. I gave it my best, but didn't accomplish much other than getting soaking wet and freezing cold. Tuesday night I called home to find that Preslie was in the hospital with post-influenza related respiratory complications. I drove home and spent most of the next couple days in the Hospital. We brought Preslie home from the hospital Thursday afternoon. After a follow-up Dr. visit Friday morning confirmed that she was doing better I decided to run back out to hunt one more day before the season ended. I left Friday after lunch, and shot my buck at about 6:30 pm just a few minutes after getting back to my hunting area. My friend Shane and I packed him out, I slept a few hours, and got up and made it back home for a total trip time of about 24 hours. While it is not the buck I had hoped to get on this hunt, considering the circumstances, I am thrilled. Thanks to God for watching over my Little Babe, to Tristie for handling all the stress at home and for letting me go back out to try to fill my tag, and to Shane for sticking around to hunt with me for one more day.

And then God created Mule Deer Country

I just got back from a deer hunt in South Central Wyoming. You just couldn't make better mule deer habitat. It was cold, and the hunting was slow for big bucks. I had a ball with an old friend from school/work and his brother. We ate well, put lots of miles on the 4-wheelers, saw tons of deer, and passed bucks every day. After a few days without turning up anything big, I saw this 2-point and my itchy trigger finger got the best of me. I made a 302 yard shot with my Dad's .300 Ultra Mag and my first Wyoming mule deer bit the dust (hard). After I broke the ice, my friend and his brother put the hammer down on bucks of their own later that same day. Not the monster you always hope for in the back of your mind, but it was probably one of the most relaxing hunts I have ever been on. Good friends, gorgeous country, and some venison for winter too. I can't complain.

Do or Die

This is it. I took a full time job in August 2007 even though I was just in the preliminary stages of writing my thesis to finish my MS degree at Utah State. I had completed my coursework and research project and just needed to run the data through analysis and write it up. Not a problem to do that evenings and weekends while working full time right? Wrong! I know some people seem to be able to do that, but I have not.

We moved to Roosevelt and I started a rather demanding full-time job with an unpredictable schedule and lots of overtime. I loved it and dove in headfirst trying to learn my area and the duties of my position. We had baby Mack in October which added some additional stress and time commitments, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Life got full and complicated and before I knew it, a year had passed and I had made very little progress on writing.

In August of 2008 after an exhaustive and frustrating real estate search we decided to build our own home. We did our own framing, electric, paint, finish carpentry, tile, stone, etc. I spent every extra evening and weekend minute at the house from Sept to February. In the spring we moved in and I started doing a little thesis work again. I found some time here and there and finally finished my data analysis. In the meantime my university colleges, my employer, my family , and about everyone else I know hounded me constantly about when I was going to finish my degree. Then I got the news that 2 of my 3 committee members were retiring and the 3rd was moving to California. We dedicated that fall 2009 was the last window of opportunity for me to defend. I figured I would have lots of time in the summer to get my writing done and be ready to defend in the fall without a problem.

Well here we are mid September and I am really starting to sweat. I have turned in 2 drafts to my committee and both times was asked to do major re-writes. I am halfway through the second re-write and I can hear the clock ticking (loudly). I have been royally chewed out by my boss and my wife (I will let you guess which chewing was worse). I turned back in a deer tag that took me 9 years to draw to give myself more time to write, and after paying $1200 in tuition to register for the required 3 credits of thesis defense this is it. Do or die time. If I can't finish this semester...