Thanksgiving Week

Mama and Brandon flew up on Friday before Thanksgiving.  They left 70 degree weather and arrived in 5 degrees and snow.  The weather warmed up on Monday and stayed warm until Friday when we wanted to go shopping.  We went anyway and Mama survived.  They left on Saturday - early Saturday in 12 degree weather and arrived in Huntsville in 75 degrees.  I think fun was had by all.

This was Saturday after they arrived Friday night.  It was pretty cold outside. Yes, that is Shadow's tail in Brandon's face.

 Brandon all decked out to ride the 4-wheeler

 Shadow and Oreo "fighting"

 Table almost ready for Thanksgiving dinner.

 Mama getting her gun safety lessons.

Getting ready to shoot.

 Taking her first shots

 Pretty good grouping for her first time ever shooting a gun.

Brandon taking his turn at shooting.

Time Lapse Movie

One of our timelapse controller customers sent me a link to a time lapse movie trailer that he put together. It really is pretty amazing what can be done!

http://vimeo.com/31265264

Make sure you view it full screen

So you want to live in Montana

If so, you should really watch this first...

(Turn your sound on)

ELK HUNT UPDATE

Saturday Fred and I rode/walked into the Gates of Mountains Wilderness.  I had a 6 point bull in my cross-hairs at 385 yards.  It was a little too far for me to take a shot - so no elk yet. 

On Sunday, we went in again in the afternoon but did not see any elk.  Maybe this Saturday I will have an elk picture for the blog!

Elk Hunting

Rifle season started last week. I have already gotten an elk so I can't shoot another but I still have tags for deer, mountain lion and wolf. Not likely I will see a wolf or a lion. Terry has a deer tag and an elk tag so today I took off work and rode up the mountain early to try to locate some elk for tomorrow. Sure enough I found a group of about 8 bulls feeding on a hillside just after daylight. They eventually moved on up the hill out of site. There is a decent chance they will stay in the area if someone didn't bump into them this evening. We plan to be there at daylight.

Here is a long distance photo of them. (They were about 1 mile away).

Here is a little horse "barn"
 I built with sawmill lumber. Dad and I put the metal roof on:

Fall colors were nice but are almost gone now:

 Here is Terry taking a break from hunting last Saturday. The wind was a little cold on the mountain top!

Whirlwind trip around the South

I flew to Huntsville, AL on Wednesday, picked up Brandon after school and drove to Aiken, SC.  We arrived in Aiken at 11:45pm.  On Thursday, we just rested.  Friday we drove to Nashville, NC to visit my grandmother while she is in rehab for her back.  While we were there, I was able to see my Uncle Richard, Aunt Bobbie, Uncle Skippy and Aunt Mona.  After dinner with Bobbie and Richard, we went to Raleigh and watched my oldest niece, Bronwyn, play soccer.  Then we were off to Holly Springs to stay with my brother, Byron and his family.  We got up Saturday morning and watched my youngest niece play softball then hung around with Byron, Laurie and the girls for a couple of hours before driving back to Aiken.  Here are a few pics from our visit.

Da Bears

Last Saturday, I rode back in to get the tent and some other camping stuff. While I was there, I placed a game camera in a tree overlooking the scraps from the elk I had gotten the week before.

Terry and I rode in yesterday and picked up the camera. There were about 50 video clips of bears on the camera. I think there were two bears that had fed on the carcass.

Here are two of the best videos. The one bear is huge!

http://vimeo.com/29556469

http://vimeo.com/29556839

Elk Hunt

Saturday morning, Terry and I rode horses about six miles into the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness Area and set up camp. Much of the area is dry but we camped in a cool shady spot along a small creek.

Saturday evening, we hiked around and tried calling in some elk but they were pretty quiet. We did see a big black bear. On our way back to camp at dark, we saw a herd of elk in a meadow and there was one big bull with them. It was too late in the day to try to go after those.

The next morning we heard two different bulls bugling so we set up and tried to call them in to us. They didn't want to come down so Terry stayed in one place and called every few minutes. When she would call, the bulls would answer. I moved closer and closer until I was within about 75 yards of him. He walked a short distance then started rubbing his antlers on a tree. I was able to sneak up to 40 yards for the shot. Afterward, he ran about 50 yards and then tipped over.

We got the bull at 10:00 AM and it took until 6:15 PM to get him to the trailhead. It was a long hot hike out leading the horses.

My Trip to AL

I went down to AL for the Labor Day Weekend to visit Brandon.  I went down on Thursday so I could watch him play football.  Here are some videos that I shot while there.  They won the game 28-7.  Brandon is #84.



Wildlife Camera- Bear Video!

The chokecherries are all along the creek at this time of the year which attracts the bears. I put out a video game camera pointed at one of the bushes and this bear was nice enough to come out in broad daylight to have a snack: (click on the link to see video)


http://timelapsecontroller.com//liveslideshow/lss/images/bear2011-1.wmv

Wildlife camera pictures

(Date and time on the photos is not correct)
Turkeys with chicks:

 Elk:

 Curious elk! :

 Whitetail buck:

More pics from vacation