Closing day success

Today was the pheasant closer in south Idaho.  I headed out after lunch today for a few hours to some property north of town that I had gotten permission to hunt.  I figured it was the last day so I'd better get out there and make the most of it.  We didn't hold back any, we covered every little patch of cover we could find.  It had snowed a few days ago so we saw a lot of tracks, we knew they were around.  We had a few get up but they were well out of range.  Finally we had one flush out of a small piece of cover we were working.  I feel fortunate on this last day of the season that I was able to harvest a nice rooster.  Unfortunately Kati tore up a few pads while out in the snow today so I'll have to wait till this weekend to get back out to the chukar hills again.

Taylor gets her deer mounted

Got my daughters mule deer back from the taxidermist.  They did a great job.  I offered to pay for half of it and she paid for the other half.  The rack now resides in her room.  She's very proud of it, as are the rest of us for her tremendous accomplishment.

Back in the hills

After an extended hiatus from the chukar hills I was finally able to get back after them this week, and oh how I've missed them.  I can't believe in only one short month chukars, huns, and quail will be closed.  After that it will be ice fishing and possibly some coyote hunting till spring bear season.

This outing was quite a change from the last time I went chukar hunting back in September.  I was lucky to get into the high 70's then, and the heat whipped both the dog and I very quickly.  We were usually done hunting by around 11am.  Today there was snow on the ground and it was easily in the low 20's with the windchill.

What a difference the cooler temperatures make though when hunting.  I'm not a big fan of the cold, but I am a fan of not getting wiped out because of heat exhaustion and it takes it's tole on my dog as well as she covers a hell of a lot more ground then I do.  She kept it up the whole hunt without showing any signs of fatigue.

It was a good days hunt and we covered a lot of ground and got into a couple covey's of birds but I couldn't connect on them as they were too far away when they flushed.  Kati was impressive as usual with working the cover, and was able to smell the birds at 100-200 yards away and we moved in on them, but they were skittish and let loose to flight before we got close enough.

We were able to have the wind in our face from the beginning of the hunt which helped us tremendously when we were working the area.  I was also able to work on the infamous "whoa" command.  Finally success on this command after many years trying to implement it.  I called out this command from 10 yards to 150 yards and got the same result...my dog holding fast till I released her from it with the "ok" command.  Very exciting stuff considering this is my first dog that I have trained myself.

As if getting outdoors isn't enough the added bonus of having a gun dog by your side just makes it that much more enjoyable.

An all year long committment

Anyone that works out and actually expects results knows that it isn't something you take lightly and do sporadically.   It's an all year long commitment.  Something I learn quite frequently because I find I usually need to have a goal to keep me going, and usually that goal is some kind of hunting season, and when the hunting season starts I usually stop working out.  The perfect setup for a fail.  Since Taylor's deer hunt ended I've only been hunting pheasants, on fairly flat ground, no chukars, no high country big game hunting.  I've also been getting out of good eating habits since it's the holidays, and have noticed the pounds packing on.....the same pounds that I have worked so hard to get off.  As you may remember from a previous post called Exercising and eating well I've been trying extremely hard to get these excess pounds off that I have managed to put on the past 10 years.

Everyone needs their own wake up call, one that gets them going and motivates them to make some life changes.  I had mine this past Monday when I realized how crappy I felt from not eating right and exercising, and the scale showing it.  So now it's back to it again, and even in a short week of being on track I feel a hell of a lot better, and have dropped a few pounds.  It's even harder now then ever with the holidays.  So many treats and cookies around the house, even me baking some of them.  It takes some extreme discipline to have some boundaries.

One piece of exercise equipment I use is the Weider Total Body Works 5000.  The first thing I like is it's inexpensive, the second best thing I like is it stores very good under the bed.  You can read to your heart's delight about all the things you can do with it, but in a nutshell it uses your own body weight for resistance.

From spring to fall I usually do quite a bit of walking, but in the winter I don't get real excited about walking in the cold so I hit the exercise bike instead.  I currently have a Schwinn® Airdyne® Exercise Bike that I use.  It uses air resistance which eliminates a lot of electronic nonsense, gadgets, and gears that could break down.  So like the Weider, there is less of a chance it will malfunction and break down.

So these are just a few pieces of equipment that I use to keep up my fitness during the year when I'm not outside getting exercise.  Compliment these with actually getting into the outdoors and I think they lay a good foundation for keeping yourself in somewhat decent shape, more so then laying around watching TV and eating fast food as much of America does these days.

Not the only hunter

I haven't been chukar hunting since my daughter got her deer, but I have been out about every weekend chasing ditch parrots.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to put any in my bag.  These past few years have been terrible for snow down here in the valley and the roosters love to run when there is no snow.  There does seem to be someone hunting though that has had a bit more luck then me.

I never ran into the culprit but I wasn't the only one that was wondering who had done it.

I have a long break coming up so hopefully I'll get out after some chukars again, and even better maybe some ice fishing if it stays cold and starts producing some solid ice.  I like about 6-inches to give me a warm fuzzy, I'm not a fan of thin ice, especially when I'm taking kids with me.  I know somebody that will be pretty excited to get after some red legged devils again!