The Holiest of Nights- Christmas in the Desert

Christmas Eve with family in Arizona is our tradition. An ironwood (Palos fiero) campfire blazes, Lorena McKinnet sings her Celtic Christmas carols and the dogs lay around the camp dreaming of tomorrow hunts. Ellen fixed us a standing rib roast this year to make up for the traditional fruit cake she passed on. We are not complete and we feel not whole with our Catherine “Kate” away at studies in far away Oxford England for the year. She moves us to get going and even the boys miss her jabs. Ellen sunbath with her in the arroyos when we are quail hunting and this year Ellen will just read and think about her statistics.

The dove flights again are awesome and the desert quail coveys the best I seen in twenty years. Multiple coveys with 20 or greater birds are common. We are having a great shoots starting a 28 gauge double that Ellen bought me years ago. I move within several days to my beloved bar-in-wood Damascus side lever Thomas Turner, on to my true and tried 1876 W&C Scott & Sons Premiere hammer gun and to finish my shoots with a top lever 1893 Stephen Grant. The Grant seems so personal being struck a small firm and Stephen being alive when the gun came to life in London.

My eldest son Nick has his gentleman limit first within twenty minutes while my youngest, Thomas, a fast growing senior had to adjust to his 1963 Holland and Holland 20 bore that he uses every year. The gun has remained the same, he has changed and Tom pays for not going to the range just down the road to readjust fit. He is done within the hour. I direct the dogs to blinds and Fe our pointer is wonderful in marking excellent retrieves. The lab, Senora Belle will let Fe get all the birds the boys shoot but never will she allow Fe close to mine.

We clean the harvest and are back for Christmas dinner that Ellen has prepared and the Christmas Eve dusk in the desert bring us to recall the birth that changed the world beginning in a simple stable. The Arizona eve is cold much like Bethlehem 2,005 years ago.

The boys fine some fireworks and celebrate Christmas. We look forward to sharing some gifts with are host in the valley tomorrow.

December 18, 2006 On our way to the Desert Hunting Grounds

The snow finally made it over the Sierras and left a 2" blanket on the valley floor. Reno is ready for the Christmas travelers and the neighborhoods are blazed with Christmas lights. I watch Rick Steves Christmas travels in Bavaria and wonder where is my daughter, a serious student at Oxford is these days. Cate wirtes in depth about the moral teachings of Agustine, Aquainas, Plato and Moore with such eloquence. She is an intellectual and the Oxford teaching one-on-one a very tough school forces her to write and write.Cate is either in Florence, Dublin or Paris with student friends from the University of San Francisco. She doesn't use her cell phone outside the British Isle and her emails are sporadic. We are sure she is having a wonderful adventure. She will miss our annual camping trip to Arizona and Mexico.

As a family (n-1), we travel this season with selected friends who camp, hunt and love to explore the Indian ruins and find a seclude arroyo with plenty of wood and stay there for 2-3 weeks. We avoid the hideous commercialization of the season and celebrate the joy of Christmas day in the Sonoran deserts with daily hunt, raging camp fires and soaking in hot irrigation waters

Winter Fly Fishing at Pyramid

December can bring the big Lahonton cutthroat trout inshore and range for fly fishers. Water temp is around 52 and the bait fish are starting to show up. We spent the night on the beach and in the morning landed three trout ranging from 3- 6 lbs

The Great Basin is full of chukars this season. We went out this past weekend for three nights and found birds every where. Seems Oregon has better populations than Nevada and so we spent most of our time over there. There is no pressure as we are far from motels. The Menifee Vintager load performed exceptional with the hammer gun. Most of all Jay’s 28 ga buffered shot we test for him out did 12 bores. I use 28 ga for grouse and pheasants and this year we added chukars.

After a hard day of climbing sitting in a hot spring sipping wine and having smoked goose breast ala Canada grain fed eliminated all the sore bones

November 11, 2006

ELLEN TELLS ME SHE MISSES ME AND WANTS ME HOME BY THANKSGIVING. Nice to be wanted after being on the trail for so long. My dogs are in heaven and want each moment to be repeat again and again. They say that insanity is repeating an act time and time again trying to make it better. I can not make camping and dog working with such fine made guns and better so by definition I am sane but compulsive

That is my nature to achieve the heights one can go without loosing the perch and the drive to learn and be curious. The journey to the top is what it is all about. Why settle for less. After all this is America and the dream is achieving what you desire and the pursuit of happiness with humility. The best in women, children, dogs, intellectual honesty, best gun, theology, politics health, are all achieved through relationships. You have to like people and I really enjoy people .

On my way back to our place on the MADISON, i want to stop and visit my dear friend John Palmer truly a man who has a deep love affairs with dogs, English setters in particular. John has managed to keep things simple and his love for the outdoors is wonderful to be near. He is a gentlemen that actively participates in outdoormanship from trout fishing to pointers. John carries a SxS unloaded in the field and will not load his English double until his dogs are on a firm point. He will pass on a shot if there is eveen a remote chance the dogs may be in harms way. John is generous and always sems curious much like my hunting friend, a Mormon Bishop who leads a double life away from the city. John reads like a bookwarm, stands 6'9" and lives in rare aire ....is know as the Palm Tree. He is as gentle as a lab yet could hurl a hay bale over the wagon when needed.

The winds near Livington are voracious as usually . I pass Ben Willam place and wonder how many brittany's he kennels. Ben is new to the SxS's and with his protected fields I suspect he will enjoy shooting as 28 ga. He has a slide collection that deems worth of a donation upon his passing. He is a dire hard democrat I suspect a tick from his Northern Illinois days and high school teaching

November 03, 2006

The Prairie fields are filled with wild birds this years. We see no other hunters in North dakota as we hunt in area that have no lodges or guides. There can be too many birds for untrained pointing dogs and here the labs excell on recovering crippled birds.

I hunted with others who shoot doubles and we tend to hunt creek bottoms where the rooster like to hide. We see anywhere from 1000-3000 birds a day and harvest just enough for food and alway a gentleman's limit. Ellen is amazed at the habitat and the affect it has on numbers and the fact there are not others hunting such abundance. She understands keeping coverts locations close to the vest and plans to return each years to enjoy North Dakota.

November 1, 2006

Today the snow abated and the sun made conditions perfect for holding birds. My 1876 Scott Premiere Hammer gun is deadly over pointed birds. I must give my other English and French SxS beauties a chance. Ellen is a strong walker and feels at home among the Farmers and wheat fields. She loves watching her dogs have such a wonderful time and she is in a good mood.

October 30, 2006

WINTER HAS COME TO THE PRAIRIES. Within six hours with the north wind the geese have left and I must drive to meet Ellen in North Dakota.

The border crossing back into the States is smooth and it is good to be home after being away for six weeks. The weather is intermittent snow but like the geese I have tail wind and the Camper moves at a steady clip. I move down to Fort Mandan and after they try and hit me up for an absurd entrance fee, I find that the site isn't close to where Lewis and Clark spent their winter on the Missouri. The site was flooded out hundreds of years ago.

October 28, 2006.

Evening was warm almost blamy meaning that the winter front from the artic was aproaching. If there is a nothern wind tonight the 3-4 million geese near my camp north of Regina will lift off at night and the sounds of their constanst cackling will be absent but for the big honkers starting to show.

I will follow them and haed for North Dakoata to meet Ellen who is flying into Bismarck to spend the week watching Belle and Fe on wild Pheasants

Late October

Winter is coming and the sprits from hard toil true pioneer ethics of the abandoned homesteads are silent until next year when the sod is broken and seeds palnted.

aThe sloughs have opened again and the last phase of waterfowl staging is underway. There are still considerable numbers of pintails in Canada and the northern greenheads are here along with the bluebills. The upland is wonderful as the birds are plump and all mature. The young of the year are educated and provide wonderful hunts

October 22, 2006

Hunting is prime now. The birds are fully pinned and the upland is coveyed into larger groups. There is little hunting pressure this time of years and once you get away from the towns with motels at least 30-40 miles the hunting is wonderful again.

What I enjoy most ARE THE LIFESTYLES AND PEOPLE. They HAVE TRADIDTIONAL MID WESTERN VALUES AND WORK ETHICS. Get in a bind and they are there in a heartbeat to help. It takes me back to my grandparents’ home in South Dakota and graduate schools years at Purdue. … Wonderful community where people are enjoyed.

The camping is the centerpiece of the campaign. Being close to the hunting grounds away from restaurants is wonderful. Having the dogs so well behaved and part of the camp is most welcomed. Usually for breakfast I brew coffee with splash of Jack and farm eggs and bison sausage. I am filled until supper when I prepared the game taken the day before.

Grouse, either sharptail, ruffed and spruce in that order with a side of rice or boiled potatoes balances the food. I try and eat only what the gardens and bush provide. I get most of my staple from the Hutterites and the remainder is harvest. I avoid the towns until I need fuel.
I like to stir fry game whole. Mallard breast are at the top of the list as well as goose. I can take a guy who dislikes waterfowl and prepared a dinner he thinks is a filet. Like my friends Wayne Nish a famous chef and dedicated hunter in New York, it is in the prep.

OCTOBER 15

The cold weather forces us down from the northland. There is so much water up here that it seems as though a vast river covered the forrest. The nights are crisp and the camper is cozy. Belle sleeps next to me all night and the lows are getting to be about -10. I dare not turn the heater on or my propane and battery would be gone within days and I am at least two days from propane. My sleeping bag is down and with extra long indeis I stay warm. Although I must socailize with the others I usually start try and begin to to sleep no later than 8:00. Early mornings are quite very cold but turing on the stove to heat water for coffee gets me going. There is frost covering the windows from my breathing.

Bellefe and Fe are let out to air and truly enjoy the adventure and the day that lies ahead. They delight in everything and are really "Angels" put here om earth . The coldness doesn't seem tp phase them in the least and Fe who sleeps in the cab never wakes until morning. They are wonderful to travel and hunt and I am blessed to have such talented companions. Each night they dream and relive the day's hunt. I can see Belle moving and shaking as though she is on chase.

Staging is at it peak now. They flyway has changed from the Quills to ,ore central because of the all day hunting disruption of fall migration patterns and over zealous limits. Allowing 20 white geese a day is unfounded and only cheapens these wonderful birds to a commodity status.

I will take the party down to the Quills Lakes and on to Last Mountain..

September 15,2006
Forgot to post about

sun valley

Ketchum is nested in mountain valley filled with Hollywood types, mega condos and winter homes. I'm here because Hemingway and Gary Cooper loved it. Had Hemingway become impotent.... to writing? I think so and decided suicide was an honorable end to suffering. What an irony from the man who exposed maniless yuet in the end opted for shortcut void of suffering needed for his redemption. What a place to end it. I guess Hemingway knew that.

After Ketchum and the Big Wood Valley, it was going to be clear sailing up through the Targhee with a strong . Ketchum/Sun Valley was a clone to Jackson Hole and Big Sky with Bozeman following closely. We made camp in a field by Loving spring creek and spent the evening watching huge brown trout prepare their redds. The dogs loved the moist grass and rolled around for a half an hour.

There was as field trail nearby and many rigs were carrying fabolous lab. I felt for them as they would rarely is ever see wild birds. But they loved what they did. We spent an hour throwing dummies and marking drills all preps for water blinds I knew the lab would preform up North.

Watched the "Hunt for the Red October" and within minutes I was fast asleep. I dreamed of Hemingway canoeing down Silver Creek jump shooting mallards. I can see why he, his two wives ,and Gary Cooper loved this valley back then. They loved to pheasant hunt and ski. I figured EH WAS A CLASSIC HEDONIST out of the Gertrude Stein era and lived life to the fullillfest from wine, women and writing. When he couldn't feel anything or write up to his standards, he decided to move on.

Retraced his last night in Ketchum. He was quit jovial with his friends and left to have an early but heary dinner of prime rib at Christina's. He was in a cheery mood and left after telling a few stories from his Havana days.

EARLY morning of July 2nd 1961 at the age of 61 he blow his head off with an English "Best-Bespoke" shotgun made by Boss Gunmakers of London. EH changed American writing more than any single author. His early works showed great empathy for the human conditions.

Few places special like here exist. We are fortunate to live in Renio and be close to Lake Tahoe and all the skiing. Wish we I had taken more advantage of these SIERRA fabalous slopes.

Spending the night in Bozeman another wannabe site. Can not wait to move up to the Praires and let the dog find their game.

We made it out of Saskatoon driving north east out of the parkland heading for the Pre Cambrian schist. Jack London's would have felt at home up here where Moose and Elk are everywhere as is their nemesis the wolves. The rut is over but the grunt for Moose is on and they must be given deference as they are ornery and seem not to care if they run you over. There are plenty of Plenty of wolverine, lynx and bobcats to keep the grouse in check and their foot prints leave the tell tale signs in the soft snow. The past several years the grouse populations have been spotty with some terrains exploding others crashing.

We make camp near a lake filled with pike, and walleye. There is trace of snow but we have quads and winches to extract us from the bush if a storm come through. Here I will deploy my Woodward O/U with extra full chokes for brush cutting to reach deeply embedded ruffed grouse that flush at your feet and quickly put obstacles between you and the flush. These birds flush so well and with great vigor that the sounds of their wing beat are rumored to cause men to suffer momentary heart failure. I find my first flush after the lab locates a scent on a cut trail where there are several tall black spruce trees.

Camp is simple and out of the winds. Each night the wolves come in close to welcome and serenade us. Their songs remind me of Gregorian chants from my Seminary days. The northern lights dance and the air are still with their songs but I know that killing by these packs is almost at nightly task. My dogs are a sleep inside and seem not to heed their accessorial calls. They are so removed from the gene pool by the domestication that they have little in common although I see the yellow piecing eyes from the German Wirehair that sometimes can raise the hairs on my back