Reeking, Rancid, Sliming Excitement

When I woke up this morning, I realized that our house reeked of rancid pond water. This smell oozed out of Shaun’s pile of hunting clothes worn several times, the dogs mud caked crates and foul fur, and was emitting from a very forbearing pile of hunting gear sitting atop our couch. I also realized that I was the only living thing in the house that seemed to mind. To Shaun and our dogs, the smell was a memory of a great duck hunting outing the previous day... and frankly our cat, Elby, loves anything that stinks.

After a successful day duck hunting, Shaun brings his prey and two bounding-bustling-ponging dogs home. While trying to avoid the potential sliming of dog, I get to see the duck experience a new type of waddling… the type that consists of Shaun plucking the feathers and scavenging for the meat. I think that is why I appreciate deer hunting more than duck hunting. When Shaun successfully shoots a deer, I don’t even see it until it is back from the taxidermist and/or in wrapped packages from the butcher.

YET, I would never take back Shaun’s desire to hunt. Selfishly, I enjoy the money we save by eating protein from the wild. Also, I enjoy watching the joy, or rather, the excitement of my “family” as they prepare for a hunt.

Truly, the excitement and expectation of our dogs is one of my favorite aspects of “the hunt.” Shaun has worked with our dogs so well that they have become “working dogs” when out hunting. They know what to do, look for, and smell while out duck hunting. It is amazing to watch them “work.” (Although, our poor German Sheppard General gets cold fairly quickly… he was definitely not genetically made to be a duck dog. Still, you couldn’t keep him home.)

So now that I have scared every one of you away from ever wanting to come visit my house (smell of fish outside and rancid pond water inside), I do have to clarify that it doesn’t usually stink in my house. I guess my over sensitive nose picked up such a smell this morning that I just had to blog about it. If anything, I have decided to impose a few new hunting rules of my own… wonder what Shaun will think of them ;).

For a bonus, does anyone know what the word “ponging” means without looking it up?

And then it was November...

Work, weekends, and evenings have been so busy that I have barely had time to think about posting on the blog. It is only proof that time is flying by faster than I could even imagine.

My last post alluded to my love of fall... and all the activities that go with it. So, I am going to attempt to update everyone (in a timely manner) of everything Shaun and I have been up to this past month.

After I wrote the last post, I had several ladies and their children over to my house for a tea and an At Home America party. I was able to convince my grandma to stay the whole weekend with me and help me get ready for the party... so that made it extra fun. At the party, it was really nice to see some faces that I hadn't seen in a while like Annie and Isabel! Also, Andrea missed the party due to work, but still drove all the way from Montana just to hang out.

The weekend before Halloween, as is tradition, I drove to Montana to celebrate Andrea's birthday with her and friends. Every year, Andrea has a smashing themed birthday party. This year the theme was Alice in Wonderland. Andrea was Alice (of course). I was the Queen of Hearts with a long stemmed rose who kept yelling "Off with her head!" We had the White Rabbit with a giant clock saying "I'm late, I'm late... for a very important date...," a Cheshire cat that could not give a solid direction of where to go "Maybe they they went that way... or that way," the Mad Hatter yelling "drink up, drink up! Move down, move down!", the March Hair, and the Green Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom. Unfortunately none of my pictures turned out!! I am terribly disappointed because the costumes were AMAZING, and I can't wait until I get copies of other people's pictures! As always, it was a really good time.

While I was in Montana playing dress up :), Shaun was hunting in Chelan with his family... and his Dad got a deer!! It was incredible exciting for everyone. Refer to Darcy's post for more exciting reads on this event.

The Sunday of Halloween weekend, Shaun and I were able to enjoy friend's fellowship during yummy meals. First, we went out to breakfast with the Finch's, who are some church friends of ours. They just had a baby and named it Andrea (a good solid name ;) ). Then, Trisha and Matt came over for dinner and brought dinner!!! She was literally 9 months pregnant and brought homemade soup, rolls, and cookies over for dinner! I felt slightly guilty for not doing anything... but not guilty enough to not thoroughly enjoy her delicious cooking!

The following Tuesday, Shaun and I met up with my Zumba partner Holli and her husband for dinner at their house. Again, we enjoyed really good food and company.

On that Thursday, Ruth Marie Nelson was born to Matt and Trisha!!! Congratulations to you two!!

Aright, that is all that I have for you today!!! Tomorrow, look for a post on this past fun weekend with Kat and James!

Fall Festivities

Can you believe that it is already fall!?! It is that time of year where people are already starting to count down the shopping days until Christmas (my mom) and starting to put together their Christmas cards (Darcy).

Fall is absolutely my favorite time of the year! I love how the cold weather brings everyone together to enjoy good food and company... as people start planning pumpkin carving parties, Thanksgiving Day celebrations, and Christmas memories.

Many of us are already well on our way towards putting together a fantastic holiday season, while others of us still have come to terms with the looming fall weather.

I fall (no pun intended) into the category of somewhat prepared for fall festivities. Already, I have gotten together with Staci and her fam to can nummy apple sauce... and helped Trisha finish up some "fall planning" in her home.

I am also eagerly awaiting my annual Halloween trip to Missoula, MT for Andrea's birthday celebration. This year we are all dressing up as Alice and Wonderland characters... and it is sure to be an adventure!

Shaun is also eagerly hinging on fall's alluring hunting anticipations. This Friday marks the true beginning of fall for Shaun as it is the beginning of hunting season. For the last week he has been eagerly praying for a snow that would bring the deer closer and more visible.

BUT, I think that we both can say that even though we have given limited forethought to all the other upcoming fall festivities, we both are eagerly awaiting all that this holiday season has to offer.

APPLES!

On Saturday, Karla, Phil, Staci, Brian, Shaun and I all drove up to Chelan to go apple picking in the Robison Orchard.

Karla, Phil, Shaun and I had all gone apple picking in the Robison Orchard three years earlier. Both Karla and Phil loved meeting Shaun's Uncle Dave and learning about the apple industry. They were so enthralled with their visit the first time that we had to plan a second visit.

Once we arrived in Chelan, we first stopped by to say "hi" to Shaun's Aunt Karla... and meet their four new cute kittens! I am pretty sure that my friend Karla would have kidnapped one of the kittens if Phil had let her ;). As we were leaving the house to begin our apple picking in the orchard, everyone commented on how nice and welcoming the Robisons are.

When we arrived at the orchard, Staci and Brian proved to be experienced in apple picking. They provided Shaun and I with authentic apple picking bags... and good apple picking expertise.

Although, they were no comparison to Uncle Dave... who was able to double our apple picking numbers in one hour (and we had been there for three hours before he came along).

Needless to say, it didn't take very long after Uncle Dave arrived to fill up Brian's truck (literally) with apples. Staci has a great picture of the apples in Brian's truck on her blog.

After gettin gour apple fill, Shaun decided to remove some weird mistletoe from a tree... and it was an adventure!

The parasite shot out seeds that hurt if you got too close! It was really funny to see it attack everyone... even though it did actually hurt a little bit. If you enlarge the picture below, you can see where the seeds attacked Shaun.

After getting our apple fill, we then went looking for bears (much to the dismay of Karla). Along the way we saw fresh bear droppings, bear tracks, and other bear markings... but we didn't actually see any bears (much to the delight of Karla).

Lastly, we returned back to the Robison house to say our "Thanks" and "Goodbyes." It was a really great day!

Again, thank you Robison family for allowing us to spend time gleening in your orchard! We all had a really good time!

Sturgeon Fishing

On Sunday, Trisha and Matt invited us to go Sturgeon fishing with them and Matt's mom and her husband. It was a blast!



I had never seen a Sturgeon before... let alone seen one up close... or touched one.



The sturgeon reminded me of some sort of dinosauric alligator crossed with a shark. Very cool.



We had a lot of luck Sturgeon fishing (hence all of the pictures). Thanks to Jim's expertise (and Matt, Trisha, and Linda... of course), we were able to catch 4 Sturgeon.



We caught 3 really large Sturgeon and one baby.



The largest Sturgeon we caught was over 8ft long!



Sturgeon fishing is not easy though. Once a Sturgeon hooks onto your line, you have to vigorously reel it in. Often times, the Sturgeon will take more line out than you are reeling in.



Then, once you have surfaced the Sturgeon, you have to direct it to the shore (using your expert boating skills) in order to consider it a successful catch. These fish are WAY too large to try to bring into the boat.



Since the boys were measuring the Sturgeon...

I decided I needed to measure Trisha's growing baby belly :).


Not only did we have fun catching fish, we also had beautiful scenery. Along the river bank, we saw a coyote and many deer.
Thank you Nelson family for sharing such a great experience with us!

1: Alaskan Adventures: Deadliest Catch

At last, our most favorite memory! We absolutely LOVED our "Deadliest Catch" excursion!


We were actually able to ride on the Aleutian Ballad... which is the original "Deadliest Catch" boat that made the series. This boat was famous for taking a huge rogue wave that nearly put the boat and crew permanently out of commission. In the above picture, Shaun is standing next to the boat... and if you look closely, you can see all of the ice damage that the boat has encountered over the years.

Once we were on the boat, we were served delicious hot chocolate and watched the famous rogue wave overtake the Aleutian Ballad on a TV in the cabin. It really helped to set the mood for the rest of our voyage.

We were also excited to meet the "crew." Each of the crew members have been fisherman for 15+ years. They were rough around the edges, extremely friendly, excited to have us there, and genuine. Shaun and I truly believe that we had such a blast on this excursion because the crew was so cool and down to earth.

After leaving the dock, we watched the crew bait a line and toss it over the side of the ship. They talked about and showed us the massive hooks that they used to catch anything from Halibut to Sharks. They also talked about the weight of the line and the dangers of tossing a line like that over the ship. If a hook were to get caught in you or your clothing, you would get seriously injured or killed. A best case scenario would be losing a chunk of flesh or limb... worse case scenario would be having yourself be taken over the side of the ship. If you were taken with the line over the side of the ship, you were unrescueable and considered "dead." The picture above is of one of the crew baiting the hooks.


Next, we made our way to a bald eagle nesting ground. From the ship, we were able to feed the bald eagles and watch them swoop down from high nested perches and grab fish out of the water. It was absolutely amazing... and such a testament to God's awesome power!

After feeding the eagles their fill, we located and pulled up one of the Aleutian Ballad's crab pots.

The method of pulling up one of their huge crab pots was just as precarious as dropping the baited line over the boat.

Once the crab pot was on the ship, we were able to handle the crabs. This crab pot had snow crabs and rock crabs.

Shaun and I thought that the rock crabs were awesome! They really did transform into looking exactly like rocks when they got nervous.

Once we finished looking at these two varieties of crab, we tried to find a crab pot full of King Crabs! It took a lot more effort to bring the King Crab pot on board than the snow crab pot due to the King Crab pot's massive size.

While watching the crab pots being lifted from the sea, we also learned where the crabs were stored after they were caught. Crabs were kept underneath the boat's deck and kept alive through a water pipe system that pumped seawater through the under-deck compartments. The extra weight added by the crabs and the sea water also helps keep the boat sitting topside in rough weather.

Unlike the snow and rock crabs, we were not allowed to hold the king crabs... apparently, one king crab had tried to off a tourist...


But, we still had fun watching the crew master the King crabs.

Lastly, the crew pulled up two octopus! They were incredibly ugly and interesting to watch.


One octopus even left an ink trail!

All too soon, the tour was over! Shaun and I wish that we had the whole day to spend out there! We would ABSOLUTELY recommend this excursion to anyone heading to Ketchican, Alaska.

2: Alaskan Adventures: The Marriage Show

Shaun and I were one of the lucky couples to be picked to be in our Cruise Ship’s Marriage Game Show. We were picked as the “Newly Weds.” (Remember, the average age on our ship was 59). The other two couples had been married a really long time: 30 years and 50 years.

The Marriage Game Show was played by having our Cruise Director ask several questions to one significant other without their other half around. Then, the other half would come back on stage and have to try to guess what answers their significant other gave to the question(s). Then, they would switch. The goal was for us to try and get the most matching answers than the other two couples.

Shaun and I definitely rocked the show! We had some embarrassing, but truly funny answers. For example, I was asked what Shaun’s most annoying habit was. My answer was that he tends to make “Dutch Ovens” in the bed. Well, since we had an older audience, most of them didn’t know what a “Dutch Ovens” meant. SO, after Shaun came back out and tried to guess what I had said his most annoying habit was, he had to explain what a “Dutch Oven” was to the audience. He told them that a “Dutch Oven” occurs “when you try to let gas go under the covers to warm up the bed (!!!!).” The crowd just died with laughter.

Another question that I was asked was what I thought that Shaun looked like after he got out of the shower: Droopy Dog, Woody Wood Pecker, or Superman. I said Superman (of course), but he guessed Woody Wood Pecker (!!!).

While Shaun was being asked questions, he was asked how many shoes he thought I brought with me. His answer was 17 pairs! Which, would have been true if I had more room! I only ended up bringing 5 pairs. BUT, I really had no idea how to answer that question! My guess was “a whole suitcase full.” (Which of course made the audience laugh).

There were several other questions that I feel would be fun to share… but not on the blog… so, if you care to hear more… just ask. :)

Anyways, we ended up winning the Marriage Game Show! The Marriage Game Show was at the beginning of the cruise, so we had lots of fellow cruisers coming up to us for the entirety of the rest of the cruise making good fun of our answers. It was pretty neat. It also was what sparked Shaun’s celebrity status. Lucky guy… he makes Dutch Ovens and gets to be a superhero!