The Hunt

If we are being honest the only thing the hunt meant for me was sitting in camp with three children while my husband and his friend got to go out and do all the fun stuff. Don't get me wrong. It was fun to be in the mountains and I adore my children so I could definitely think of worse things to be doing but Id be lying if I said I didn't wish I could be out there with them.
However, I was lucky in the fact that Whitney joined me in my sitting around camp so I had help and company. My kids think the mountains are the best thing that God ever created. I tend to agree for the most part. So they were more than happy to just hang out and get overly dirty while we were there. We tried hunting frogs but that was a big fail.
Peps bow was the coolest. It was a stick that had a bungee cord hooked on it. Legit. He loved it and carried it everywhere. AnDee actually had a bow that Dave made for her. It was sweet! And she was getting pretty good at shooting it but it got left behind at the campsite. Some other little kid scored big on that one.

 AnDee was the only one to spot a frog. The things were taunting us with their croaking.

I had to take the kids home on Sunday evening so we could get AnDee to her first day of preschool the next day. We were sad. There were tears shed but Andrew ended up getting his elk the next day so we wouldnt have been up there much longer anyway.
He didnt take any cool pics. You know like you always see in magazines or on the boards at Cal  Ranch or Sportsmans Warehouse? No... instead I got one really high quality one from Dyl's phone that wasnt taken until AFTER they started slicing up the poor beast.

Lovely, isnt it?

This is where I explain why we have goats. Yes my children love them and think riding them is the coolest thing ever but their original intended purpose was this...
Apparently they can be used as a decoy. Andrew said his elk stepped out of the trees 30 yards in front of him and didn't even see him because it was so wrapped up in the goats. The goats follow him everywhere and don't need lead ropes so they were just grazing behind him and the elk was so enthralled that Andrew was able to notch his arrow, pull his bow up, draw and release without her even glancing in his direction. But that's not all this magnificent animals do. They pack. He put every ounce of that elk on their backs and just walked out worry free. He had multiple hunters ask if he would ever let them use his goats. I told him he should start renting them out. They are so much better than horses for hunting because they can go anywhere, you don't have to bring feed for them and they don't scare off the game by tromping around like a heard of elephants. Plus the game animals actually seem to like them.... or at least think they are weird enough that they get curious and want to stick around to get a better look.

Andrew didn't make it home until after midnight Monday night. I woke up Tuesday morning to this...

Gross? Yes. but at least he was thoughful enough to warn me/apologize
We spent a full week cutting and packaging. Between work, school, church callings and soccer I'm surprised we got it done at all. We ended up with a TON of meat in the freezer and about 60 lbs of jerky meat. (which I just pulled off the racks this morning)

Elk steak anyone?

Its done! ... Just in time for Andrew to go out on the deer hunt on Monday and then the rifle hunt (elk) in November. I'm going to do my best to persuade him to take his next kill somewhere else to be cut and packaged. I don't want to do it anymore. (even though if I'm being honest, Andrew did almost all of it by himself)