Just wrap me in butcher paper and mark me done

I owe all my blogging friends a big “I’m Sorry”. I had hoped/planned to post lots of wild hunting stories and amazing pics from Northern Idaho. Obviously this did not happen. I think the whole trip was pretty well wrapped in the the foreshadowing of the first day here when the hubby and bro went to Walmart to get their licenses. Hubby had purchased his in July and just needed to get the paper version of it. His Bro was attempting to get his out of state elk license and they had sold out of them 2 days earlier. This meant my Dad also could only purchase a whitetail deer licence, which is also good this year for bear and Mt Lion. Hubbies Dr. bro had purchased his elk license online so all told we had 2 elk and 4 deer plus licenses. There was much grumbling

Our wonderful semiprivate piece of heaven was not nearly so deserted this year either. The gate which keeps all motor vehicles out was torn down and now anyone and their grandma can drive all over the mountain- and were. The timber company had been cutting timber all summer and they had workers in the area burning up piles of useless stuff and doing some replanting, there were people coming up and popping off rounds from semi automatics-seemingly playing war games instead of hunting.

The boys did drive around to different areas to find suitable places to hunt but because they all know this mountain area and are comfortable here they kept returning to the back 40 so to speak. The elk are non-existent here this year. They don’t like to be harassed.

One evening bro discovered that he was eye to eye with a grizzly-it sent him running for his quad. Dad watched a mt. Lion walk away cause he wasn’t sure what he saw- no mt lions in Nebraska. He was pretty disappointed in himself when he realized later what he had passed up. There are moose all over the area though. Yesterday they counted 8 separate moose. Hubby was looking down from his rock perch about 50 feet down to watch the biggest moose he has ever seen, and he has never been this up close to one before. Moose are so big that people do not intimidate them at all.

My Dr. bro in law was sure busy this trip as bro, dad and I were really sick. Dr. bro is an allergy specialist and discovered that the 3 of us are allergic to Mt. Cedar. It has been a very difficult trip for bro and me. We sound like we are coughing up our lungs, can’t breathe, cant sleep, and can’t enjoy the magnificence of where we are. We will have to go home and get treated for these allergies so that next year is not so difficult. I guess it take about 3 exposures to bring this allergy to a head and boy did it go to our heads this year. Atleast the Dr was in the house and could diagnose it even if we couldn’t fix it here.

Hubby is out hunting again this morning- hunters must be eternal optimists and very patient. He is saying that if we can get everything ready we will be leaving tomorrow morning.

Be blessed and I will do write more when I return to W. PA and my DSL.