Did it Again

I'm getting better at this, so practice must help. Another deer down - a doe and on Hwy. 74, again. This time, though, I managed to slow down enough so that it hit on the corner of the front bumper and only busted one fog light and cracked the headlight. I rarely get over 50 on that stretch of highway, anyway, but I was going slower than that this time because I'd already slowed for a few deer before this one a mile or so before. It helped that I was driving the full size truck and not a small car or the jeep full of plastic grill. The deer flew over a steep embankment and I couldn't retrieve it. So, there's a new set of burnt rubber on the pavement.

Gab's deer

It's a little lopsided in the antlers, and had a gimpy leg - a good one to cull. She did good!

Gab's Hunt

Ha! This morning Gab bagged an 8- point. You'd have to know the history of the conflict between my daughter and my sons to understand just how incredibly strange this is. When she was little, she hated the idea of hunting and would always chase whatever my son was stalking away, starting with blackbirds and his bb gun. So this season she decides she wants to kill a deer and none of us seriously believed she would follow through. Guess she proved us wrong. I'm waiting on pictures and then I'll upload.

Opening Day

Modern gun season opened today and my boys were ready. Even my daughter went hunting for the first time. Apparently, she'd gone through their closets last night pilfering camo. When they got up this morning to get dressed, they were hopping mad because they were missing some of the things they planned to wear.

Zack (human), Chester (dog), and Rachel (cat)

Ducky

Badger and Garrison. Badger wants to go hunting, too. They never let him go.

Zack successfully procured some dinner.

Horses

We didn't see any deer this morning. It was so windy that they probably just stayed bedded down. When I got back to the house, I decided to ride Snippy. He's been recovering from a severe white line, or separation, in all but one hoof. This was a result of his visit to a corn feeder over the mountain in late spring. His hooves are looking much better now, but we haven't been riding him. His trimmer, Dell Watkins (who, by the way is an excellent barefoot trimmer), loaned me some Boa Boots to use on him. You can see them in the picture; they're on his back feet. We rode around a little bit, and then I came back to the house and swapped the saddle and bridle over to Comanche. He's a lot taller than Snippy, but skinnier. Snippy is a quarter horse, Comanche is half Missouri Fox Trotter/half Spotted Saddle Horse. Comanche will never be as chunky as Snippy, just because of the difference in breed traits. He's not trained yet, but he saddles, cinches and takes the bit just fine. Except that he chews on the bit because he's not accustomed to how it feels. I climbed on and off a few times to give him some experience with me mounting and dismounting. He was unfazed. I turned him around in a circle, but could not get him to go forward. After that, I just let them stand tied to the hitching post while I would be around for the next few hours, working around the yard.

Garrison helped me hang the gate properly on the stall. That took a little while. We had to drill holes in the post and screw in the gate hangers. Then we worked on the fence a little.



You can see that Comanche has a bunch of cockleburs in his forelock again. I couldn't get them out.

Youth Hunt

Tomorrow is youth day for deer hunting with guns. Zack (Garrison's older brother) was planning to bring him out to the stand to sit with him, but now Zack has to work. Guess who gets to go deer hunting tomorrow with Garrison?? Yes, that would be me. I'll worry about what to do with it if we get one, if we get one...one hurdle at a time. Getting out of bed and to the stand before daylight will be the first hurdle, and sitting there quietly for however long it takes is the second hurdle. The odds of making it to the third hurdle is not so great with me as a hunting partner, lol.

Waylaid Again

Best laid plans just don't seem to work out lately. Today I intended to change out the top element of my hot water heater because it keeps tripping the breaker. I changed the bottom one recently, so my dad figured the top one would be the problem. A couple people said that since I was only changing the top one, I wouldn't have to wait for the whole hot water tank to drain; just drain it past the top one. So I said, okay, that will save some time...although I really didn't know how one would tell WHEN the water level is past the top element. So I started draining the water a while ago. I watched the hose and water was coming out. Let it go for a while, figured it was probably good, but for good measure I'd let it drain a bit longer. Okay, NOW it must be at least past the top element, right?

Wrong. I struggled a bit to get the old element loose, using a special tool and a screwdriver. I should have taken the hint then to wait a little longer. But no, I push forward, finally got it loose and a rush of water comes pouring out all over the floor and just keeps on coming.

I'm hollering for Garrison to bring me some towels and he just dumps a few dirty clothes down there for me. No, I want ALL the towels, clean ones dirty ones, it doesn't matter, just bring me some towels. But mom, we just got these folded and put away....Just bring them!

Finally I have enough towels to mop up all the water, that now has quit gushing out the hole where the top element should have stayed for at least 10 more minutes. All the insulation is wet, plus the insulation for the bottom element. So now I will have to get a blowdryer and dry all the contacts in there, and wait for the insulation to dry before I can get it all put back together and turned on. Hot water will be a good bit farther down the road today.

There are a couple lessons here for us homesteading gals on our own. First, this element can be reused. See the picture up there? Daddy said its the rust that is causing it to short out right there at the base. If I clean the rust off, I can use it again. So I'm putting that element away to use later in a pinch. The other lesson is just drain the whole darn tank. It's more time consuming to clean the mess and wait for insulation to dry than it is to wait for the water to finish draining all the way down.

Sunrise

This morning I got up before the sun crept over the mountaintop. I fed the horses and sat down for a spell to enjoy the sunrise. The first finger reached way over the tops of the ridge to the south and west. For a long time the only thing with bright illumination was that mountaintop. Then the next finger crept over the top of the mountain east, brightening the southeast corner of that ridge. In short order the sun's orb showed itself in a blinding splash of light. At that point, I picked out Snippy's hooves and turned them loose. No particular reason for waiting; I just wanted to watch the sunrise. It's always late here because of the close proximity of the mountains. The final show arrived at about 7:40. That's about one hour later than the flat-landers.

With last night's time change, I was able to get up before the sun and feel like an early riser. Tonight, though, I'll take back all the nice things I felt because it will get dark an hour earlier than the night before, and I don't particularly like that. It means that Friday was the last day until March 25 that I'll get home from work before the sun is completely down. So, I'll leave when it's dark and get home when it's dark. I don't like that at all.