Arrow Hunting

          After being with my hubby for so many years, a person would think that I would completely understand and interpret all of my hubby’s antics.  Though, there is NEVER a dull moment for me or our girls.  For example, the word “arrow hunting” does not mean the same for me as it does for my husband.  Heck, I was a past member of the Girls Scouts in addition my mom was an active volunteer for both Boys Scouts and Girls Scouts.  As a young girl, I accompanied the Boy Scouts in an arrow hunt so I am extremely aware of what arrow hunting is and what arrow hunting involves.  I know I have previously explained what a GREAT listener I am when my husband speaks to me and I NEVER part-take in the activity of selective hearing-EVER.  If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to read my previous blogs.  Thus, I KNOW I heard him when he stated let’s do some arrow “head” hunting when we are up camping this weekend NOT let’s take our bows up camping!  I know I didn’t add any words that I did not hear!

SAWEET-I haven’t been arrow “head” hunting for many years.  No, I didn’t find this statement out of character for my husband either AND I didn’t think twice when he packed mine and the girls’ bows out to the camper.  In my mind, I was thinking, searching for some historical Native American artifacts with visions of the following:         

 

courtesy of:http://www.google.com/imgres?

Every summer we spend one camping trip with Nani and Papa.  Our camping trips with them encompass days filled with uncontrollable laughing due to the combination of Jimmie, his Dad, mixed in with our youngest daughter; develops a misguided land hurricane!  Papa and our youngest have extremely wild imaginations, and enjoy discussing their days with Sacajawea as they all travelled down the river hunting wild buffalo.  Oh and it doesn’t stop there, our oldest, the moral compass, encourages them both by asking question after question just to see what they will response with!  Needless to say, our trips together are MOST extraordinary. 

After setting up camp, I was excited to go arrow “head” hunting.  Damn, I have GOT to quit listening to Taylor Swift and singing along with her!  Apparently, this camping trip, Jimmie wanted to gain additional experience with his bow since he and Barney were anticipating participating in the upcoming archery season.  There would be NO arrow “head” hunting the way I was foreseeing.  We, Jimmie and I, decided to have a small competition between us to see who could shoot the best with our bows.  Of course, I won the competition; he was no competition (my story)!  Haahaaha…the last leg of the competition, I am in the lead.  Jimmie draws back; focuses through the peep–site holds his breath a bit; and releases.  I believe that he was scared of me winning, which resulted in-NOTHING BUT AIR!!  AWWWW!  I would have been way happier had we arrow ”head” hunted the way I was thinking rather than spending three plus hours arrow hunting, Jimmie style! 

This particular arrow hunt saved us money because Jimmie didn’t have to explain to our elderly neighbors about the ferocious man-eating tire!  Plus, my child-like attention span, allowed me to discover-WILD STRAWBERRIES!!  YES!!

I am positive that Jimmie purposely lost his arrow and placed the wild strawberries in my view in an attempt to bust my concentration.  I am positive this was his intentions because he thinks if we would have finished our friendly competition with me winning that I would constantly remind him-HE LOST!!  Nenner-nenner…I mean, if any one happens to be in the Medicine Bow National Forrest this coming summer and you find an almost brand new arrow, please, let us know!  Feel free to leave me a message on the blog. 

 

 

Preparation Has Paid Off

  

After many months of MUCH anticipated waiting and preparation for the day the taxidermist was to call has now come!  Recognizing the infamous number, my husband got the BIGGEST smile, even the Joker couldn’t grin like he did.  Of course, I am not going to tell Jimmie that I was also excited and after viewing the finished product I got one word:      W O W!!  Our taxidermist, David Hrabovsky owner of Western Wildlife Creations [(307) 778-2051 on 5960 Klipstein Road in Cheyenne, WY 82009, military discount available] did an amazing job.  No wonder his studio is full of “Best in Show” ribbons hanging from a variety of his work.  We highly suggest you to stop by his studio to view his artwork for yourself, breath-taking.  A big thank you to Barney for helping Jimmie bring in the precious elk mount which meant I could be the acting supervisor!

Final Product

P.S.  In case you have forgotten-it IS OFFICIALLY Hunting Season!!  Yes, I am slow these past few months BUT I will have some GREAT material for you all too read-stay tuned!! :)

     

 

 



 



Here Fishy Fishy

My husband wanted to go to the spot where he took our oldest daughter to harvest her first elk and perform a needle in the haystack search for the remains, if any, of the casing from the bullet.  What an awesome Daddy, he is…I totally agreed-what a great opportunity to be outside enjoying the beautiful Wyoming summer; do some fishing; and checkout any wildflowers that managed to pop up, while searching for the prize remains. 

We hopped into our truck and took a long scenic route with high hopes of spotting a moose along the way.  Okay, I was hoping we’d spot one.  Jimmie was hoping we’d see some elk; neither of us seen either one of our wish list creatures!  DANG!  However, I have my suspicions as to why Jimmie really wanted to take the short trip out-only the two (2) of us-while our girls were busy…

When we finally arrived at the secret hunting grounds, Jimmie quickly took off walking in the direction where our oldest daughter had shot her elk, but he forgot to share the directional information with me, which he usually never forgets to inform me of where we are going.  I am certain of this because I was totally listening to him the entire time while I was singing along to Taylor Swift on the radio (or was it in my head…not sure…oh crap was that out-loud)…no, I do not have selective hearing!  Of course, when we finally did get out of the car to search, there were so many butterflies and bees on steroids flying around not to mention some wildflowers and other amazing portraits in God’s outdoors-they ALL distracted my child-like attention span!  No, no, that can’t be it either.  Ya know, I am truly lucky I didn’t get lost during our search.  We had been in the truck at least a few hours…I think I had been in the vehicle way too long.  This is why I was not a lot of help to my husband and had become so distracted during our search for the casing.  Yep, that is my story!  J 

In spite of my lacking participation, I did manage to take lots of pictures to assist me in case I were to…hum…get lost; I would be able to retrace the ground I covered…

Bees on steroids enjoying Low Larkspur (Delphinium bicolor)

 

Pretty butterflies on top of Cow Parsnip (Heracleum sphondylium)

Ohhh, even prettier butterfly on top of Cow Parsnip (Heracleum sphondylium)

Yet, as our trip continued, I am changing my original claim for why Jimmie really wanted to take the short trip out-only the two (2) of us-while our girls were busy.  Come to think of it, I am re-examining the entire day’s events.  My new suspicion is:  Jimmie is trying to get rid of me! 

Here are the events that took place.  After lunch, we stopped at an undisclosed fishing location sharing the spot with another fishing buddy(ies).  I walked across the “bridge” and began to prepare to do some fishing.

Company’s lodge

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I am certain that Jimmie released JAWS into the pond!!  Here is what I saw while standing on the “bridge” of darkness:

Courtesy of: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073195/

Here is what Jimmie captured:

My spot while fishing

Holy schnikies!

That dang “fish” waited until I had almost reeled in my line to attack the worm that was seductively dancing on the hook.  It was the craziest occurrence I had ever encountered in all my few years of fishing experience!  Jimmie “claimed” it was a fish, but I still feel very lucky that he was unsuccessful with what could have been a bad end result, after releasing JAWS into the pond!!  Though, I am NOT taking any chances…in case I do go missing on our next escapade when he suggests only the two (2) of us again go out, please, note the area in the picture below where we could possibly be and feel free to pass it onto the authorities!

A-Lure

When I was attending college, my husband didn’t get to hunt much.  As a matter of fact, his hunting was extremely limited to much smaller game such as frogs.  One of the most memorable frog hunting trips was taking our oldest daughter to Crow Creek.  During this particular trip, I was pregnant with our twins.  I couldn’t go more than a few miles…I am saying miles but actually it was more like 25 steps…without making a pit stop so it was a good thing that Crow Creek was a short distance southeast of town, having the means to a rest stop and let’s not forget the variety of blue-rooms and/or other outdoor “potties.”

While making a stop at one of the “potties,” Jim caught a frog for our daughter and put it inside an empty McDonald’s cup he found.  Our daughter’s job was to keep the lid on the cup and we’d set it free when we reached Crow Creek.  I’d like to say we made it to Crow Creek with no abnormal events but who are we kidding here!  Our daughter was sitting in the back seat proudly holding the frog secure inside the cup while Jimmie and I sat in the front.  An infinitesimal amount of time after we made our turn towards Crow Creek, we hear our three year old squeal, “OOOHHHHH!” 

I turned around to see our blond-haired, blue eyed, little girl dressed in her camo frog-hunting attire had succumbed to curiosity and was holding the lid in one hand and the McDonald’s cup in the other, watching the frog jump from out of the cup onto the back of the front seat.  I reached out to attempt to catch it, but, apparently, my reactions were much slower due to all the hormones my body was producing.  The frog jumps from the seat right into the air condition vent into the dash.  Ugh!  Is this kid her Daddy’s or what!  LOL!! 

Immediately, Jimmie turns off the air condition and not so smoothly stops the vehicle.  He and I both jump out of our Tahoe, while we determine how the heck we are going to get the frog out of the dash without causing it harm in addition to NOT tearing up our vehicle.

Short interlude:  Now you’ve seen a picture of my husband from previous blogs.  I am not sure if you can tell but he is Big Foot’s brother.  His hands are two feet in length that is measuring from the tip of his middle finger to the end of his palm.  His feet are size sixteen (16) and he is approximately six foot three or four inches, plus or minus, weighing 250± pounds.  Have you ever seen the show, Tommy Boy, and heard the phrase, “Big guy in a little coat?”  Yea, that is my husband when it comes to working on vehicles.  For example, one day Jimmie decides he is going to change the oil in his truck in addition to fixing some wiring that is causing some issues with the stereo.  What should take him just a few hours ends up taking him eight plus hours because his hands are so big.  It is like attempting to jam a circle block into a square hole and you KNOW it HAS got to fit!  After the scuffle, his hands are the only part of his body that appears to have been in a cat fight and lost, horribly, profusely bleeding!  We attempt first aid on him but he usually ends up looking as if his hands were horrifically burned with all the gauze wrapped around them.  Johnson & Johnson hasn’t figured out that a “standard” Band-Aid DOES NOT fit all!

We are back:  Somehow the frog worked, jumped, and/or possibly slipped its way from the air condition vent to somewhere in the dash.  Many hours later we finally figured out where he or she is located and also figure a way to retrieve it from out of its location from within the Tahoe’s dash. 

What an adventure we had before, during, and after our frog hunting trip.  We even managed to catch a few frogs, and because of the few snags frog hunting has become another Mlinar addiction.

Figure 1: Our daughter’s first of many frog hunting trips to Crow Creek.

          After moving to Cheyenne many years later, we had another successful frog hunt.  This particular trip, I believe, Mommy had a weak moment, possibly from too much sun, and allowed Jimmie and the girls to bring a few frogs home with the assurance the frog tank would stay extremely clean & NO ODORS.  Thus, our girls happily returned home with two frogs and Jimmie and the girls entered us in the Cricket Club at one of the local pet stores for food for the frogs. 

          One day, prior to me returning home from work and before our weekend fishing trip in the mountains, Jimmie and the girls purchased new bag of yellow scented rubber bass bait and some lures.  I am not sure exactly who talked who into fishing the frogs with the new bait but I can tell you that water, plus salt, plus heat from lights that sit on top of a frog tank DOES NOT equal a happy ending!  Please do not attempt this in your home on your frogs. 

Figure 2:  Another frog hunting trips at Crow Creek.

It doesn’t end here…although we lost all of our frogs that day and got kicked out of the local Cricket Club; my husband is really a generous man, a wonderful husband, and a fabulous father.  I couldn’t ever ask for a better person to call my man!  For Mother’s Day, he bought me a beautiful custom made rod through one of his buddy’s he made while part-taking in some stock trading (I am going to have difficult time talking garbage about stock trading, now, if there are benefits for me-geesh!).  He also bought me a very expensive lure to go with it for our upcoming fishing trip.

Figure 3: Fishing Rod

Unfortunately, this past winter has been very VERY VERY L O N G for the Mlinar Clan.  After preparing all of our rods for the upcoming fishing trip, I am sad to announce that the lure did not take long to become décor in da hood!

Figure 4:  No tied tennis-shoes hanging on power lines for our neighborhood; we advertise way better, more expensive, and excessively usable bling!

Prepping for a Mount

First, let me apologize for the delay in blogging.  However, the Mlinar clan has been busy with change….thank you for being my loyal blog followers-enjoy:

When I was little, my friend’s Dad was a Game Warden.  One of my favorite visits to their house at the ripe age of probably nine years old was one that allowed me to briefly help her Dad and her nurture an injured porcupine back to good health in order for it to survive after its return into the wilderness.  SOOO COOL!

We had had a sleepover the night before and the following day her Dad left us a note, asking us to feed the porcupine for him because he had to leave early that morning for work-SAWEET!  We ran out to the area where the porcupine was being safely kept.  Once inside the building, we discovered that there was only ONE pair of gloves available for use.  They were rather heavy for us.  If I stood next to my friend, I almost reached her chin as long as I stood on my tippy toes.  She had shoulder-length blond hair, beautiful green eyes, weighed approximately 65 lbs, and did I mention, that she was a bit taller than me.  Because the gloves were so heavy when she put them on, we were almost able to see each other eye-to-eye, which still makes me giggle because she looked as though she had very long spaghetti arms attached to her collar bone and no shoulders with a head-funniest sight I had seen at that age J 

With no arguments from me, my friend courageously volunteered to wear them and softly hold onto the porcupine while we fed it.  We didn’t want the wild animal to think it was in danger and then shoot its quills at us. 

Once the porcupine had finished eating, we delivered it back to its temporary home.  Then, my friend and I spent the next half hour plus or minus pulling the quills from the gloves.  I had never seen a porcupine so close before; touch it; or viewed their quills attached and then detached.  My prior encounters to any porcupine was watching it run from the road towards the woods and/or examining their quills after being made into intricate pieces of Indian jewelry. 

After feeding the critter, we’d return to her house and I’d gaze quietly oohing and awing over the numerous animal mounts that hung from her Dad’s office walls.  My favorite décor on the office walls was the magnificent moose; there were some other animals too.  Though, the moose was most spectacular.

So, when Jimmie came home with his beautiful elk harvested from the previous fall, I jumped on the opportunity for it to hang from one of our walls not as a European mount like Jimmie had originally intended.  NO WAY-Momma wanted the big shebang!  In my defense, it wasn’t entirely my plan to be pulling out the fireplace; building in a new wall; tearing out floors; oh and let’s not forget some new furniture.  Again, in my defense, everything has to match! 

Don’t let it leak to my husband, but I feel bad for him.  I really do have a heart despite what he says!  He’s been working his tail off for the past few weeks to get everything ready for the big day that the heavens open, angels sing, and an elk mount arrives to our home to F-O-R-E-V-E-R reside.  Hopefully, in June but possibly not til August, but of course, I will post a picture for you to view!  The girls and I have been helping him but there is only so much my husband would allow us to do.  He’s Superman and Superman doesn’t need much help unless there is Kryptonite in the house. 

The first step for preparing for the elk mount was to take out the fireplace, make the wall sturdier, and apply river rock as seen below: 

Figure 1: The beginning project that led up to a variety of projects.

Good thing we didn’t mount and hang the ferocious, man-eating…16.5” CAMPER TIRE that was previously captured & blogged about!  What a waste of saving would that have been! 

          During the strengthening of the wall, I was at work.  By the time I returned home, the project was nearly completed.  Thank you to the girls, Nani, and Papa for their assistance to Jimmie while I was unavailable!  Because I was not there when the build-up was taking place, I wasn't able until returning home to share with my husband the GREATEST idea, and naturally, I wanted to change the plan.  My idea was to turn the wall into a built-in secret gun case with an alarm system like the character from Pixar’s, The Incredibles, ⁽¹⁾Edna Mode had to included lasers, fingerprint identification, retna identification, and a voice activated security system.  What man WOULDN’T go for that!?!

Figure 2:  ⁽¹⁾Ena Mode, who is an eccentric fashion designer and designs the costumes for many members of the superhero community, with a unique German/Japanese accent created by Brad Bird for Pixar character in The Incredibles. 

It took a few hours, and I almost had him convinced!  While standing in front of the once-was-fireplace, deep in thought, contemplating, I even had seen him shift from one stance to another…GO ME, right!?!  Unfortunately, he was pooped and didn’t want to start over.  Geesh, you’d think he built a wall that day or something!  J  For future projects, I will think outside of the box BEFORE the construction is finished! 

However, preparation of the wall led up to other projects such as ripping out carpet and prepping for the new carpet (my job along with the “help” of our youngest); laying tile (our oldest and Jimmie’s job but grouting & sealing were performed by yours truly); finding new carpet and having it installed; selling our old furniture; and buying new furniture that for the past five (5) years we have been diligently conducting visitations with at a neutral setting also known as American Furniture Warehouse.  

In the end, a gratifying feeling from the accomplished projects in addition to feelings of anticipated excitement for the mount that should arrive in the very near future.

Figure 3:  Almost finished just missing an elk mount; notice the hole in the river rock!  Yes, it is low because Jimmie harvested a NICE elk.  GOOD JOB JIMMIE!

I wonder if I should break the bad news to my hubby, now, that when I have my successful moose hunt; that his elk will lose its status for awesomeness and be removed only to be relocated to an entirely different wall!  HMMM…maybe that news can wait until I find some Kryptonite…

(1) Photograph courtesy of http://pixar.wikia.com/Edna_Mode

A Trip To The Candy Store

Most women love to shop!  We particularly LOVE to shop when an item is on SALE!  All husbands give their wives grief about their shopping too.  Wives, please, take a moment to remind your husband that they, too, LOVE to shop especially during sales.  It is just a different kind of shopping.  The difference between a man and a woman’s shopping episode is that a man's shopping episode doesn’t involve buying 20 towels for the family bathroom or an extra pair of sheets for the guest bedroom to help keep the laundry at a minimum.  Men will shop sales for items they are passionate about such as hunting clothing, hunting gear, and/or hunting toys & gadgets. 

Recently, we were up and out of the house by 6:00 A.M….good grief, Santa hadn’t even come the night before!  Okay, so this doesn’t sound too early.  For those who also have two girls, one teenager and one pre-teenager, living with them, leaving at 6 A.M. really means that we were up at 4:00 o’my gosh this is too friggin’ early for a measly 100 mile trip to attend the glorious door-buster event sale at...aww-AWWW-AWWWWW….C A B E L A' S!!

As I sat in our car in the Cabela’s parking lot waiting for the doors to open, I couldn’t help but think that I should start an intervention/counseling session for Hunters Shoppers Anonymous (HSA).  I saw no difference between the day after Thanksgiving sales and the Cabela’s, Saturday, door-buster sale.  Here’s the visual:  Lines begin to form as the clock ticks closer to the 9:00 A.M., Cabela’s, Saturday, door-buster sale (After this Blog, I am pretty sure Cabela’s owes The Hunter’s Wife some advertising monies-J)!  Men are elbowing each other and cutting line just to be the first to get to the “rare” items that does very little to completely stock the shelves.  While my husband sits in our vehicle, he is fidgeting with excitement as if it were the day after Thanksgiving and he is about to ask Santa for the new Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock and “this thing which tells time” (a sundial) he has always wanted.  All we are missing in this picture is Jean Sheperd narrating; the infamous leg lamp covered with sexy hosiery that came in the fragile box; and the teacher dressed as a witch & the mom dressed as a jester both pointing and saying in a harmonious tune, “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

^(1),(2)

       

Five minutes to opening, we decide to join the others at the front door in the 120 mph winds that are blowing so my husband can load up on ammo and other thrilling door buster sales.  Possessing a welcoming smile, a sales woman comes out to greet the shoppers.  One guy with anticipation in his voice asks the sales woman, “Are the doors about to open?”  After asking his question, I swear, I observed this gentleman get down in the runner’s starting position for “the race.”  Hearing this question, all I can do to hold in my laughter from the fictional scene created in my mind is to suggest to my husband that the girls and I are dead weight and he should proceed to where he MUST go by himself.  We would meet up somewhere around the Bargain Cave because that is where I like to shop. 

Finally, The CHUTES open!  All the men scatter like little kids in their favorite candy shop searching for their golden tickets!  Wives-the next time your husband gives you grief about sale shopping, please, remind him that the Hunters Shoppers Anonymous (aka HSA) will be meeting every Thursday night from 7-9 at the local community center; first names ONLY.

(1):  courtesy of http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Story-Full-Size-Lamp/dp/B003TMAR9K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1331742650&sr=8-3

(2): courtesy of http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/

Mount & Balance

            My husband and I both grew-up on the Western side of Wyoming.  It was later in our lives that we migrated to the Eastern side.  One wouldn’t think that a State with so little population and large mass would make such a difference with which section of the state a person decides to be a residence of.  However, if you are a hunter there is a HUGE difference between Western and Eastern Wyoming. 

For one the Eastern side is completely privatized, which means a person cannot go out to the prairie and shoot gophers for target practice.  There is no place to go without spotting signs that call out in bold letters, “PRIVATE PROPERTY! NO TRESPASSING!”  In order to shoot your gun or bow, one must join a club.  For a few of the clubs, it takes up to a three years just to get your name to the top of the wait-list.  However, once a member, a person still cannot shoot the gophers around the gun or archery clubs those sorts of actions are not allowed.  There are rules that each member must follow in order to continue to be members.  As a result and probably comes as no surprise, my husband is a member of both the local archery club and the local gun club.  Our membership allows us as a family to practice shooting in one form or another to prepare for our hunting season. 

Living in the city limits, we are fortunate to have a decent size yard.  The best part is that we have amazing neighbors especially the elderly couple adjacent to us.  Thank God; they raised three (3) boys!!  I am positive that the elderly couple gets a kick out of my husband and his antics.  For example, prior to becoming members of the local archery club, my husband began familiarizing with the sport in our backyard by shooting at short distances and gradually building to “longer” distances.  The distance increase would consist of standing in one corner of the yard while shooting to the diagonal corner.  Then he would measure his distances that he successfully shot with his field range.  I’d like to say he added the full effect by dressing up in his camo attire and camo make-up but people might say I am embellishing after reading this blog.

This particular Sunday, ironically, began with no wind, which is highly unusual for this Eastern city of Wyoming.  Because there was little wind, my husband decides that he is going to go practice archery in the back yard.  He lets our dogs in the house so they don’t get in the way while he practices.  It doesn’t take long for him to come back into the house to tell me that he has lost his arrow.  Panic?  Have you read my other blogs! 

The entire family piles into the truck.  We all roll down our windows so we can evaluate the area.  We don’t want to arouse any of the neighbors suspicion, so we perform a drive-by, “gangster style,” (also known as the slow creep in a vehicle, shades over our eyes, minus blaring music) to see if we can spot the arrow.  We drive down two blocks on one side of the road and then repeat the same actions on the other side.  For such a short couple of blocks, we looked for that arrow for many hours into the afternoon.  Though, not all of our searching was performed in the vehicle.  We even managed to incognito our efforts by taking the dogs for a “stroll.”

          Finally, after hours of searching, Jim spots the arrow in our neighbors'…well, have you ever had to knock on your neighbors’ door to tell them you took care of their ferocious, man-eating…16.5” CAMPER TIRE?  I can only imagine our elderly neighbors’ face as Jim explains to them what had happened: 

“Hi, Barb and Steve!”  Jim says as they  open their door, “So, um, I was practicing shooting my bow…you know, like you have observed me do in previous days,” Jim explains as he shuffles from one foot to the other and pointing to the side of their house, “…I sort of killed your tire on your camper and I need to replace it.  I’d ask you not to tell my wife, but she is outside waiting for me in the truck.” 

The fun doesn’t stop there either.  The following day the implausible story is told to co-workers.  One, who points out, most people get their first bow kill mounted; Jim got his mounted AND balanced! 

Though, the thought of a 16.5” tire hanging over the fireplace and the infamous arrow above the beautiful petroleum kill in addition to a picture to capture the event had crossed my mind.  The thought of it being balanced did not.  It would have hung so entirely true!  LOL Logically thinking about this kill, $263.00 plus a few bucks for diesel to and from the tire station is the CHEAPEST successful hunt the Mlinar Clan has EVER had.