What Did You Do Today?

[TRACY]

Lucky to walk away from that wreck!

Tracy

[JW_Halverson]

one of my coworkers started off their day just plain bad! I passed an accident this morning and it was an NPS vehicle! No details yet.

Apparently this guy has only been working a couple of weeks for the NPS. He is a local kid to the park. Going to fast and fell asleep at the wheel! He is physically fine  definitely feeling more than a little sheepish.

They sure don't make 'em like they used to.  Thank God!  If he's have crumpled a mid 1970's pickup like that one, he'd have been dug outa the cab with a spoon and a dishrag.

[Eric Krewson]

Heard the dreaded drip, drip, drip though wall when I got up a few days ago, thought it was just hot water pipes expanding. I crawled under the house and couldn't see a leak in the dark, yep, hot water pipes expanding and popping. Crawled another foot or so and put my hand in a puddle of water, dang, water was dripping out next to a joist.

Spent the next few hours making a game plan on tearing out the wall to find the leak. Better look at the water heater on the other side of the wall before I tear anything out. Thank goodness it was leaking a slow drip that was collecting in a puddle, running under the wall and out by the joist on the far side.

Normally I change these things out myself, but at 66 I don't like wrestling heavy things around in tight places anymore. Went to Lowe's, picked out a water heater and told them to install it, which they did.   

Paying for the installation freed me up to go to the local management area today and cut trails to out of the way spots for a 4 day hunt starting Wednesday.  The Arctic blast comes through on Thursday and may curtail my hunting plans. I can stand the teens but single digits take the fun out of the process.

[Wolf Watcher]

My wife and I took the side by side to the mountains today.  Never ever been able to do that due to the deep snow which is the usual thing here in January.  She found a tiny forked horn shed in a gate she was opening.  Had to bust a few drifts, but nothing really bad!  Saw a small herd of elk maybe 40 head on the way over the top.  When we topped out there were maybe a 1000 head of elk along a fence about a mile away.  Was only able to get a part of them in several pictures.  It was something to see as the whole mountain side seemed to be moving like sand in an hour glass. No bulls and saw only one spike we were sure of. It takes a lot of graze to feed that many elk and the local ranchers are stuck with them.  We were able to get to the back of the ranch, but not into the different drainages.  Hunting season has been over where these elk were at for about a month so can only think the wolves have the elk bunched up in large herds.  Saw lot of wolf tracks, one mountain lion track, and a surprising number of moose tracks.  We found a dead six point bull elk dead in a draw. Was a really great find and the horns were still a deep brown.  Have to guess he was wounded during hunting season as there was no wolf sign around the kill.  You can always tell on a recent kill if it was the wolves that did it.  The white tails are shedding but the small two point is the only one we have found.  The forecast is for cold and snow so lucky to get to the back country.  Sorry I can't post pictures, only on email!  Will have to go to town tomorrow to get an $8.00 tag for the horns.  Joe   

[osage outlaw]

Joe, I love reading your descriptions of your land.  If you would like to email some pictures to me I could post them here for you. 

[Stoker]

got my powder horn just about roughed out... buffalo horn and cherry
Thanks Leroy

[JEB]

Went to the Dr this morning and the report on my  thumb is a good one.  He said it is healing up good and I can remove the bandage after the weekend for good.

Leaving for the Tucson rock show next Tuesday. Good to get away to warmer weather although I hate to leave my wife home in the winter time  but she works as a nurse and couldn't get off. Had to hire the neighbor to keep the driveway clean.  We have gotten 75 inches of snow this year and our average is 55" for the entire winter.  Dang global warming.

[YosemiteBen]

HEY JEB! Send some of that this way. We got a few drops today but no significant moisture since the storm of December 7 2013!

Continued with dogbane cutting today 4K stems and counting.

[chamookman]

Good lookin' Horn Stoker ! Bob

[Eric Krewson]

I went flintlocking on the local mgt area, saw about 20 turkeys, heard some deer just over the rise that I couldn't see, sat in 20 degree weather with a 20 mph wind so it wasn't the best of conditions.

[Stoker]

Thanks Bob.. Finished shaping and sanding the cherry butt..Got to clean up the front end and polish up a bit... Next will be the plug and strap
Thanks Leroy

[Josh B]

I broke the ken-a-bego!  Lost the head gasket or cracked a head .  Somebody seen all the steam coming out of the exhaust while I was crippling her back to the truckstop  and called the fire dept. on me.  That was embarrassing!  Now I'm sitting here in Olney Il waiting for a wrecker to drag me to Evansville In.  I was looking forward to a three day weekend at home this weekend.  Now I'll probably be stuck in a motel for three or four days.  Momma ain't Happy!  Josh

[Pat B]

I just got back from the Dr. office for a physical. All is good! now I'm ready for my next 63 years. 

[osage outlaw]

Today I saw a bald eagle flying over a river bank 30 yards away from the road.  Very cool.  I also taught my 12 year old daughter how to use a toilet plunger 

[seabass]

Clint,i also spotted a bald eagle the other day.i was coming through downtown Dayton on I-75.very rare sighting indeed around these parts.it wasn't near as big as the one I saw at the river by the house.it must have been a youngster.the big one I saw by the river also had the female with him.i saw the pair two days in a row and haven't seen them since.i guess they were just passing through.