September Activities

September Hunt

I don't know if I mentioned in any previous blog entries that Roy "drew out" for an antelope this year.  I'm not sure what that entails, but he was surprised and excited.  His hunting area was right in the vicinity of our cabin in Manila, so he and Nick took off for a couple of days to look for antelope.  

Roy used one bullet for the entire hunt.  He shot this antelope right through the heart. 

 He's having the meat made into jerkey and sausage. 

Roy - My Story

    I put in for a "Special Non-Resident Antelope License" and drew out. The odds of drawing out for a non-resident are very low.  The area included our cabin going north to the freeway near Green River, Wyoming, a large deserty area.  I had been scouting out some areas to the north with the Honda as suggested by our friend who lives up the street from the cabin.  I went out several times early in the morning over the past couple of months.  I would drive up the highway towards Green River for around 15 minutes and then drive on trails off to the left (mostly) some to the right.  I had to open up a cattle guard gate and close it behind me.  I alway saw a few bucks and 8 - 10 does.  The hunt was Sunday, September 10th until the end of October.  I asked Nick and Dan if they wanted to go with me.  Nick accepted but Dan said that he was too busy with Jieun opening her new business.  The plan was to go up to the cabin on Sunday, September 10th in the evening after respective family dinners, then get up early on Monday and Tuesday mornings for hunting as well as in the evenings (I don't like to hunt on Sundays for obvious reasons).  Nick and I got up around 6:30 and ate a quick breakfast of fresh peaches and cereal.  We then headed north on the highway up to one of my favorite areas.  Along the way we saw a group near the road on the other side of the fence from the highway.  We pulled over to check it out.  It was a buck and several does.  We went back to an access road in order to check things out.  I wasn't really educated about what would be considered a decent sized buck.  Nick and I discussed it and felt like it was too soon to make a decision to shoot one yet.  As it was Monday we didn't see any hunters anywhere.  We passed on that first antelope and headed up the highway to the primary scouting area.  Nick opened the fence and we headed west on the trail in the Honda.  Within a few minutes we saw a group of (3) does off to the right of the trail.  We then continued a little further over a small hill when we saw a larger group.  It was a large buck with a harem of about 6-7 does.  They seemed to be spooked by the Honda and were moving away and to the south fairly quickly.  We stopped to check them out but by the time the buck stopped they were too far away and they then continued over a hill.  We kept driving for another half hour or so trying to find some side trails that would get us into the area where the group went and at one point I could see couple of light objects off to our right.  Nick and I commented that it didn't look like anything but as we viewed them through the binoculors, a doe and a buck stood up and then ran over the hill. We continued down to the end of the trail for a few more miles to a water hole, but found nothing there.  We decided to head back to the highway and go scout another area.  On the way back we scared up a small buck, he kept going until he was a fair way away.  Then he stopped. We examined him and he didn't appear to be very big.  During all of this I had put a call into my next door neighbor (in Manila) Doug Watts who is an avid hunter.  He texted me and said that he was elk hunting and would call me when he could.  After several minutes he called.  I asked him what a decent sized buck would be.  I guess that I should have done more research before the hunt, but as we were seeing so many bucks I wanted to at least make sure that I got a decent sized one.  He said that anything with horns 4-5 inches or longer above the ears would be good.  This at least gave us a measure to go by.  We went up another area for a while but found nothing.  When we were on our way back we came around a bend of the dirt road and there was a doe and buck (decent sized) on the road.  They scared us and we scared them; they immediately took off and were several hundred yards away within minutes.  We decided to head back to the cabin for lunch as things were kind of slowing down.  Actually, we had probably seen around (15) bucks and 30+ does.  We each commented that this was kind of an exciting way to hunt something. We had lunch, worked on some projects and then headed back up the highway around 6:30 pm.  I decided to go to the right side of the highway and a dirt road.  When we got to the top of the hill we could see some does down in the ravine.  I thought that I saw one that might be a buck but it wouldn't lift it's head up.  So we parked the Honda, grabbed the gun with the shooting tripod and binoculars.  We quietly hiked out of sight for a few minutes until we go to the edge of the ridge.  Looking down we could see several does in the ravine and on the other side of the hill.  The buck must have heard us because he stuck his head up.  I was looking through my scope and Nick was look through binoculars.  As I recall we said to each other that he looked like a pretty good sized one.  I had the gun on the tripod.  The antelope's rack looked pretty nice; a big buck with his harem.  He walked towards us 25-50 feet and then stopped.  I guess that he was curious about us.  He looked at us for several minutes face on.  I took my safety off, exhaled (3) times and then squeezed a shot off to his chest.  He dropped and moved a little before stopping.  I asked Nick if he could go back to the Honda and get my hunting pack which had everything that we needed while I went down to check him out.  It was GREAT to have Nick there just to be together, but also he was a great help.  He is very strong.  Nick got the knives out for me.  I primarily used the one that the kids gave me for Christmas which worked quite well.  We had vinyl gloves on but it was still pretty messy.  The idea was to cut all of the gutts away from the walls of the Antelope so that everything could be pulled out all at once without contaminating the meat with the bladder or stomach materials.  Mission successful!  It took about 35 minutes and it was getting dark.  We dragged the animal up the hill to almost the top and then Nick brought the Honda down so that we could load it up.  When we got back to the cabin area we drove up to Dana Dixon's cabin. I wanted to have my next door neighbor who is a taxidermist mount the head (as it was trophy sized), so we had to do some of the caping as it is called (separating the hide from the carcus starting around the shoulders on up the the ears).  Dana, being a great hunter said that he would help us which was awesome.  We hung the carcus in Dana's garage overnight because it was cool.  The next morning I called a meat processor was near Mountain View in order to let them know that I was bringing an antelope.  We went up to Dana's (he had gone out of town), sawed the head off, wrapped it up in trash bags and put it in a cooler with ice.  Then I headed to Mountain View (about 45 minutes away).  They were pretty busy checking in harvested animals.  The lady that helped me said that antelope was her favorite meat.  I should be processed within a couple of weeks.  We waited for Doug to return from Elk hunting later that afternoon in order to give him the head.  He said that I should have it back within 3 - 6 months.  I told mom that I would like to put it in the cabin but she isn't too excited about that, she said that I could put it in the pole barn.  We'll see.  Anyway, it was alot of fun and I enjoyed having Nick along.  I think that he had fund as well and was a great helper.

Back to Catharine:

Jennie's doing hair in our basement, so Foster is getting used to spending
a lot of time there.  Camden donated one of his old toys to keep her occupied.

Family History

I inadvertently did some family history this week.  Christine sent me a few letters that I had written as a child.  One is a letter to Santa.  I didn't know I was so greedy, but I do know I never got ice skates for Christmas.

I wonder if this next one was a school assignment to tell my parents where the post office was.

I also found a letter from my dad.  I believe it was written to all of his children; below is an excerpt of this letter:

One day in my 15^th or 16^th year, I was assisting father as he prepared the old 1928 Holt harvester for the cutting season.  It was a hot day, and unusually so for father who was inside the harvester mouth surrounded by the hot metal of the concave area.  Without giving any thought for the comfort or welfare of my good father, I vented my temper for having to be around to do such heavy tasks as hand him tools as needed.  So exasperating was my temperament that father requested that I give prayer a try as he thought Lucifer had might have me by the nose.  This I adamantly refused to do, scoffing at the very idea. Yet, in my subconscious mind I felt he was right, so I slipped away for a few minutes, knelt behind the henhouse so no one could observe my attempt at obedience, and offered a simple and short prayer for deliverance.  Assured in my mind that no one had paid any attention to this prayer, I returned to the harvester feeling that nothing had happened.  However, when I got there, I rather humbly apologized to father for being so difficult; the evil spirit had left me completely and I could not do enough to help father with the work the reminder of the day.

On another occasion I had a beautiful result for my well-being as the result of a special prayer.  After I had lost my position in Ireco and was trying to sort things out, having no job, being 50 years of age, and deeply worried about my future, I was in a state of deep depression and had been for several days.  My chest was filled with despair and confusion and you could say I was really uptight.  I went to our bedroom and knelt for fully 30 minutes in solemn (if not mighty) prayer and asked for help.  Very suddenly, near the end of my prayer, the congested painful feeling in my chest cleared and the storm clouds passed out of my feeling.  I had a beautiful impression of calm, and the words that passed through my mind were, “do not worry, all will go according to your blessing.  Trust in the Lord…you need not be this concerned, your future will be fine…exercise your faith and rely on your promises…”  This experience helped me to get hold of myself and get a proper perspective, and I went from there to perhaps a much better and even more prosperous and enjoyable lifestyle.

I also want to tell you of an experience within my father’s family where I learned a great deal about the power of prayer and forgiveness.  This experience did not involve me personally, but I learned one great lesson from it.  Some money was owed to father by R.A. Christensen who was a High Priest in father’s quorum.  Melvin was wanting to get started in school at Yale about 1933 or 34.  He was told that he could have the money R.A. owed father if he would stop on the way from Tremonton to the farm and collect it.  However, when he tried to collect, R.A. took a two X 4 and began to beat Melvin about the head and shoulders, and except for a quick get-a-way by Melvin, may have injured him quite badly.  When father saw the bruises from the brutal attack, anger resulted that could have led to a real altercation between father and R.A.  Father paced the floor most of that night trying to get hold of his temper, and he made this event a matter of prayer for several days.  It was not his way to retaliate in kind, but he was after something higher.  At length, after a couple of weeks, he went to R.A. and talked to him.  He told him that he would forgive him for this diabolical act and that nothing should mar their association in the quorum further. 

Father went on in that community and quorum for nearly 30 years after that event and became more faithful, more influential in the Church, and completed a productive short-term mission in Dallas, Texas.  Poor R.A. went from bad to worse, living a very unhappy life.  In later years he had the unfortunate experience of running over and little child and ending her life. 

From time to time we experience events that would try our faith, sometimes severely.  If our dominant respect for the Gospel and Church was even somewhat dependant on our position and reputation among the people, I fear we would have our feelings irreversibly shaken and our faith with it.  In order to avoid being permanently effected in our feelings by thoughtless actions of our leaders and associates, we should approach the Lord to be shown the right way, and as my father won the victory cleanly and hands down over R.A., we too will rise to a new level of ability and service.  Long ago I made a pledge to remain faithful to the Gospel regardless of how others treated me.  It is the Gospel that is right and true, and when any of us go against the eternal principles of prayer, repentance and forgiveness of others we will find ourselves the losers.  I realize this is a hard lesson for us to learn, but to achieve this ability in our lives is of primary importance.  I trust you will find these experiences of interest and worthy of emulation in your own lives…

Baseball 

Roy was able to watch Finn play baseball this week.

We don't get many opportunities to watch Mav in person, but we can see that he, too, loves the game.  

Ollie played this week, of course, but we didn't get to any of his games.

I taught gospel doctrine this week.  I really enjoyed learning from Paul about the resurrection, forgiveness, reconcilliation, and the Godly sorrow that leads to repentance, among other principles.  I used the story about R.A. Christensen that my dad shared in his letter (above) to give an example of forgiveness and reconciliation.  I have learned so much since the Come Follow Me program was instituted, and being the gospel doctrine teacher really helps me to study and increase my understanding.  My first day of teaching institute class was kind of a fiasco this week because I sent out a random Zoom link.  I can't even find where the link came from.  I was trying to use a better computer than my own laptop so I used the correct link on the better system.  I finally resorted back to my laptop and got into the class.  Unfortunately, my laptop wasn't powerful enough to play the video I had planned...and on and on.  I was a nervous wreck.  Hopefully next week will go better since I've sent the correct link out to all the students.