Thursday, August 28, 2008

It's a VelveteeN!


Nate's bull


Rance's bull



So.. here is the bull that Nathan shot on the 1st of August. He had been scouting out these bulls for at least 3 weeks before the opener. He was able to film these bulls a couple of times too. There were a total of 8 bulls in this bachelor herd. Nathan is calling this bull his "unicorn" because he has been trying to get one in the velvet for about 3 years now. Finally he was able to put the hammer down on one. It was a hard hunt. People might thing, "How hard is a desert hunt? Really?" Well, let me tell ya... First you have to find the sneeky SOB's just laying out in the middle of nowhere in some sagebrush. Then Nate and Rance walked about 5 miles into the desert, in 100 degree weather. By the time they got to them, they were out of water. Out on that hot desert and on the black lava rocks. Besides the heat stroke and the mental anguish of thinking, "Are we there yet?", "Don't look up because you are just going to be disappointed that you still have 3 more miles to walk." and "I think that I could drink my own piss because I am so thirsty!". Luckily, they were able to come out on top. You never know how open hunts are going to go. Even though you have done your homework and scouted them out, knowing where they go to sleep and eat, it doesn't matter. There is always going to be those idiots that drive through the hay fields at 4am trying to scare anything up and chasing the critters on their 4-wheelers and trucks. Until the animals are running with all their touges hanging out. Anyways, I am not going to go on about how lazy people are, we are just happy it worked out for them both. Congrats guys. (too bad mine is going to be bigger this year!!) haha.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

AfricA PictureS

Here are some pictures from our trip:



Pam, Me & Layne


African Sunset, B-E-A-U-tiful!!


Nate's Zebra



Nate and our other dad, Dave





Ostriches running away because we were shooting rocks at them with our home made flippers.


Stick bug




Rance and Quinton


Nate's Blue Wildebeast
(Rance, John, Nate, Layne and Dave)


The Chicas
(Me!, Tessa and Mikala)



The Boyz
(Nate, Rance, Quinton)



My Low Felt Impala



Nate's other Blue Wildebeast, unfortunately one wasn't enough!


Me and Tess



Pam's Zebra
Yes, she loves horses. But I promise, zebras are much different than horses. You don't have to take off the saddle before you shoot it and the dang thing has stripes!! J/K


Giraffe


Layne's Sable.
He shot this thing at 40 yards with his bow. While, I must add, trying to keep the Cape Buffalo from charging them.



Pam


Tuesday, August 26, 2008

AfricA BounD, AgaiN



So we were lucky enough to take another trip back to Africa. We took our first trip in May of 05' and we were planning our second trip back before our first one was over. Now some of you might think, where is their money tree? I would like to know that too. We have been living on Macaroni and Cheese and Ramen Noodles for two years. Not just to save money, but that is all I know how to make, and yeah, okay... I really like those meals!! There was 9 out of the 11 of us that got African Tick Fever. Lets just say that Kenney Chesney's song about checking each other for ticks got old, real fast. But we survived, and if I had to do it over again, I would!!