We're Traveling Men

Derek and I are back from another outdoor adventure.  This time we traveled to Sipapu NM for what was supposed to be a 2-day 3D archery shoot.  We had a rough start, as we were intending to use our Coleman pop-up but only made it as far as the pavement 10 miles from home.  When I stopped to check things, I discovered  a flat tire.  Our spare was flat, too, and Mom had to come to our rescue with a tank of air.  I'd had a premonition of a flat and so this wasn't too surprising, but it did turn our 6 am start into a 9 am start.  Instead of traveling w/out a spare tire, we decided to just sleep out of the truck, so after re-packing, we were finally off.

In case you're not familiar with the genre, a "3D shoot" is where you shoot at foam animal-shaped targets which are set at unknown distances.  This is in contrast to the "field archery" shoots we've been doing all summer at which flat paper targets are set at known distances.  3D archery is a booming thing but, honestly, I prefer field targets.  3D is suppose to sort of, kind of, simulate hunting conditions, but I really don't think it does.  For one thing, most people carry chairs stuffed with cold drinks to sit on while waiting to shoot.  It's common for people to use umbrellas to shade each other and block wind.  I can't remember ever doing that during a hunting.  The distances are unknown and the shots are frequently "challenging" with sharp uphill and downhill angles, often obscured by branches and such.  In a real hunting situation, I'd probably pass on about 1/2 the shots we take in a 3D shoot and I'd be using my rangefinder on the rest.  From 10-30 yards I can use my 20 (or 25 yard) sight pin, but 3D shots are commonly 35-45 yards and I just can't guesstimate that distance accurately, I know that, and thus when hunting, I'll use my rangefinder or pass on the shot.

3D advocates are often critical of field shoots and we actually had some discussion about this in my group, one of the guys being a field shooter like me and the others being 3D-only guys.  The 3D guys said "what's the point of shooting more than one shot?  You only get one one shot when hunting!".  True (usually), but again, while hunting, I know my limits and I'm not going to the take the shot if they exceed my limits.  3D targets score 12-10-8 and then you get 5 for hitting the body.  In my opinion, a 5 ought not to score- that's a "wound"!  In fact, there's a seldom used variation of 3D scoring that scores the "wound" as "-5".  With that scoring, there's some incentive to pass on a shot instead of scoring a "wound".   Another thing about 3D is that you can never be sure just how good you're shooting, since the distance is unknown.  If you miss, did you miss because you blew the shot or because you misjudged the yardage?  At least 1/2 the "game" in 3D is judging the distance in the first place.  In hunting, you often have to make a split-second estimation and shoot, but in 3D, shooters glass the target, stare at it for awhile trying to estimate the distance, glass some more, shrug their shoulders, glass some more, etc.  That's not hunting.

A foam 3D target 

Typical scoring

In spite of my complaining, I like to shoot my bow and 3D is one of the games we do, so we were off to the shoot, our first 3D shoot of the year, and looking forward to it.   We arrived at the Agua Piedra campground, got set up, and then discovered that our neighbors a few campsites away had Screaming Kids On Bicycles and were the kind of campers who feel the need to bring boom boxes and noise with them from the city.  I guess you have to take what you get, so after setting up camp, Derek and I walked down to the stream to do a little fishing. Stream fishing is a lot tougher than the lake thing we usually do, and we ended the day fishless.  We hit the sack tired, wet, and sweaty.  The shoot was to be on a ski slope and during the night I had a dream that I had a heart-attack at the top of the slope and died.  I obviously didn't sleep very well after that, but I took some deep breaths and morning found us at the shoot, ready to go.

First camp at Aqua Piedra campground

A heart attack was certainly a  possibility as we hiked up the slope, down it, up it again, and down it again,  in the breezeless, 90 deg weather but I just took it easy, drank a lot of water, and actually felt fine, except that my feet hurt. We started at 9 am, shot 25 targets (and there's another thing... in a Field round, I'll shoot 28 targets for 4 arrows each = 112 arrows.  Here... just 25 arrows), and finished around 2 pm.  I probably don't like 3D because I stink at range estimation and in my group of 6, I was running dead last.  I made some good shots, but too many bad ones ("5"'s).  Derek shot pretty good from the Cub stakes.  We were both glad when it was over, ate a couple of dramatically over-priced resort burgers, and looked forward to fishing.

Derek giving advice

Derek shooting at turkey

Everyone shot a little low on this one

Back to camp we went and stream fishing we did go.  Derek eventually caught a fish (right... "one fish"!) and I caught- of all things- a water snake.  It reminded me so much of the verse, I just had to laugh:

Luk 11:11 NKJV  If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?

After releasing the snake, I cooked Derek's fish, took 3 Ibuprofen and hit the sack, tired, sore, sweaty, and sticky.  It rained that night, forcing me to close the truck camper windows and turning my little space into a sauna.  The next morning, Derek and I talked it over and decided to skip the second day of shooting and move camp to Coyote Creek State Park where there was beaver dam fishing and- praise the Lord!!!- showers!  So, move we did, after stopping in Mora for some gas, coffee, and a Allsup's chimichanga.

 Sunday morning in Mora

Coyote Creek was pretty full of campers but many were leaving and we found a great primitive site, set up our simple camp, and went fishing.  It took a little while to find the lay of the land, but once we did, we quickly caught 5 fish.  A storm was moving in and so we took a break from fishing.  I headed straight for the showers, only to find that the park people were just getting ready to clean the bathrooms.  The cleaning lady said "half an hour" and I said "I'll sit right here and wait".  I must've looked pretty beat, 'cause then she, God bless her heart!!!, said "I'll do the ladies' room first and you can use the men's shower while I do that".    It wasn't the best shower I've ever had but it sure might've been one of the most appreciated and I sure felt better afterward.  

Coyote Creek campground

Beaver pond fishing

Storm over Mora Valley:

Then it was back to fishing in between storms and finishing up our limit.  Back at camp, we cooked up 2 fish for supper, cleaned up, and then the real storm started moving in.  I thought, "you know... it's only 6 pm and we're going to spend the rest of the night huddled in the truck or under our tent.  Home is just over 3 h away."   I broached the idea of heading home to Derek, he agreed, and we packed up in lightning speed and hit the road.   We had enough daylight to take the scenic route home thru Black Lake, Angel Fire, Eagle Nest, and Cimarron.   The storm sprinkled on us, but visibility and driving were great.  In Cimarron, we stopped at the Cree-Mee Drive In for some killer smmooooothhhh ice cream cones.   The place was packed with Boy Scouts on their way to/from Philmont Scout Ranch.

The end of the rainbow in Eagle Nest

Leaving Cimarron, there was a huge storm front out on the Eastern plains and we finished the drive home in sporadic rain, listening to a mix of Sharon Shannon and Natalie MacMaster.  We pulled in just before 10 pm and the last song to play, as we approached our little house, was "David's Jig".   I liked that.  I'd like to think that David was with us in spirit.  We sure miss him.

Here we are Monday morning. Georgia was off to Amarillo at 5:30 am for her first cancer treatment follow-up so I got up to see her off.   I'm looking at the results of over 1" of rain (and still sprinkling), I've finished my 2nd cup of coffee, and Derek just heated the last of our camping Pop-Tarts for breakfast.   Until our next trip,  it's over and out!

Birds, Bows, and Bouteloua

I'm just terrible at keeping up with this blog and you can blame Facebook for that.  It's so much easier to just spit out little comments over there whereas over here I feel like I have to actually write something and I don't know if you've noticed, but writing is hard work.  It's work digging for the right words to describe situations and events and to think of interesting things to say in the first place.  But, well, here we are again.

Birds
I took another wild prairie falcon.  My other prairie- the one that was going into her 3rd year, the year when she'd really turn on and become A Real Hunting Falcon- got injured at the beginning of the 2013/14 season and lost use of her wing.   I placed her with an educational group in the Dallas area and decided to get a tiercel (male) prairie falcon, something I've never had.  For the first time since 2004, falcons nested on some cliffs in the NE corner of our ranch so Derek and I started watching them. We went out to check them one day and were surprised to find 2 large white chicks on the nest- I was expecting much smaller chicks at that date.  There was a big storm with "damaging hail" on the way and the nest was pretty exposed on the cliff face.  I would've hated to come back after the storm and find dead chicks.  Fortunately, this didn't happen, but I can't see into the future and I made the snap decision to go ahead and take a chick.

Having snapped a decision, we went back to the house, gathered up the gear, and headed back to the cliff.  I anchored to a Grizzly 660 ATV and went down the rope.  I was a little disappointed to find 2 females when I really wanted a male, but, hey, there I was and "a bird in the hand...", and all that.  Into the bag went the female with the largest feet and done.

Here's footage of me taking the falcon chick:

And for fun, here's the view from my helmet cam:

And here's the falcon chick eating about 2 weeks later:

For better or worse, ready or not, it looks like I'm back in the falconry game.

Bows
The other big activity I've been up to is archery.   Derek is the defending State Champ and I'm trying to add my own plaque to the wall.  So far, I've shot 5 State shoots and won 4 with a 2nd place in the other.  That sounds good, but in my class there's not a lot of competition and I'm not shooting as well as I'd like.  So,  I've spent some serious time and effort (and a little $$$) working on my form.  I started videoing myself again and as a result of that, I sold some bows, bought some bows, and made some changes to my draw length.  All this paid off.  Here's some MORE video!

After doing this work, I shot an indoor round and shot my best score ever by a significant margin.  Here's my target from the 2013 State Indoor round for reference:

296/300 w 37 x's

And here's the target I shot after working on my draw length:

300/300 w/ 54 x's

The State Grand Field is coming up in mid-July and I'm looking forward to shooting it.

Bouteloua
Bouteloua gracilis is my friend.  That's the blue grama grass that grows here and provides the bulk of our cattle forage.  In order for it to grow, there must be rain and... you guessed it!!!... it's been raining.  The difference between this year and last year is astounding.  Last year I recorded huge dust devils.  This year, it's green and lush.

Bouteloua gracilis in its prime (from late 2013)

Rain clouds

Rain!

We're keeping stocking rates down to help the grass recover from the past 3 years drought, and right now, it's looking good.  I don't think we're out of the drought for good, but we're sure happy to have some relief.

And now for the cancer report.  Georgia's finishing her radiation therapy this week.  It's been a much better process that we feared and she's done very well.  The "burn" and associated pain has only just now shown up and it's expected that she'll continue to- just like a microwaved burrito- cook a little longer after the radiation stops.  We'll be glad to have her home and we're very, very, very thankful to have friends in Amarillo where she's stayed during these six weeks.

Upcoming- the 52nd Sierra Grande Rancher's Camp Meeting.  I've been Chairman/President/Organizational Czar of this for 6 years, I think.  We're on Facebook.

Counting the Cost

We're back from an trip to Amarillo where we got some good news- Georgia does not need chemo, "just" radiation.  That was a huge relief, of course.   While G continued on with her doctor's appointments, I made a run down to Lubbock to hand over my permanently injured prairie falcon to a raptor rescue group where she’ll be used in education programs.

I know that Georgia is feeling better because she woke up angry.  Not at me, fortunately, but at the medical process.  She _cannot_ get a straight answer on "How much will this cost?"  Even when a procedure is "approved" by our insurance- BC/BS- we still get bills for the portion that BCBS "didn't cover".   I mean, we have a letter in hand stating that BCBS has approved this or that procedure and we still get bills for it.  

NO ONE- the nurses, the hospital financial staff, BCBS (who you can't even get on the phone- G was on hold for 90 minutes a few weeks ago)- can answer or is willing to answer the question of "How much will this cost?", This happens even when G is told about a procedure: "It's a recipe...we do this, we do this, and we do it for all patients".  If it's a recipe, you should know how much, or at least have an estimate of how much, it'll cost, no?  Georgia's been on the phone non-stop for the past 3 hours, asking questions and looking for answers.    Here's hoping something gets accomplished.

We went thru this already with David, but in that case, I didn't care about the money and we had no other known option.  When we got aggressive about trying to fix him, all I cared about were results.  As it turned out, we ended up with LOTS of bills and poor results.  True, we were battling an inherited genetic disease, but David actually died not from that, not from the seizure, but when a nurse rolled him over and his tracheotomy  tube came out and could not be reinserted.  I’m not going to blame that person, as accidents happen (and God’s will is done), but David died as a direct result of medical.... let’s not say “incompetence” but let’s say, maybe, “limitations”.  Why wasn’t a longer tube used?  Was there no backup plan to the admittedly too short trach tube?  Why was he rolled over?    In any case, the results were poor and the bills still flooded in.   Are we in that spot again?

I don’t think any one person is to blame for this boondoggle.  I think it’s more of a problem with compartmentalization and specialization.  There are few overseeing advocates- at least few to to whom the job is more than just a paycheck.  The office people do their job and don’t (“can’t”, as in “not allowed”, perhaps?) look past their responsibilities.  The nurses do their job, but in our experience, they are clearly discouraged from looking past their position.  They say it all the time- “I can’t say anything about that... you'll have to ask so-and-so.”  The doctors do their job and I’d certainly not lay blame at their feet as most of the actual doctors (and nurses) we’ve dealt with have seemed to truly care about the person in front of them.  The blame goes past them- hospital administration, perhaps?   

Something has been lost between the actual hospital, where people are trying to help people and save lives, and the insurance companies, where money is made and shuffled.  And I’m sure that drug companies- where billions of $$$ are made- have a strong influence.  It’s a parasitic mess and I’m sure there are hundreds of books on this topic all of them with proposed solutions, most of which are probably different from each other.   On the whole, you know what I think?

1Ti 6:10 NKJV  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

 Psa 135:15 NKJV  The idols of the nations are silver and gold, The work of men's hands.

I think that when lots of dollars get involved, that the higher purpose gets lost.  What to do about it, though?  
As of now, we’re not in an emergency situation so we're calling around to other places to see if we can find answers we like.  If necessary, we’ll abandon our current facility and go elsewhere- Santa Fe?  Another place in Amarillo?  Who knows?   What an incredibly frustrating thing this is, though, especially on top of one's actual medical needs.

Well, it's time to get to work and make money to pay bills.

Weak in the Knees

Isa 35:3 NKJV  Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees.

Here we are again... first, an update on Georgia.  She has more or less recovered from her two surgeries and we are just awaiting results to find out if she needs chemo or radiation or both.  It’s kind of frustrating- as these things can be- because 2 weeks ago we drove to Amarillo to discuss this only to find out that the doctors couldn't say anything and simply needed her to sign a permission form so they could then get the needed test.  So, 7.5 hours of driving and 4 hours of sitting around just to sign a form.   Oh well, we made the most of the trip and did some needed shopping.  And BTW, just in case you missed it: Georgia's Cancer Treatment Fund. [link removed as this is now an old post]  We've gotten some very generous and very much appreciated help from friends thru this.  

It's been a very windy spring.  The wind is the worst thing about NE New Mexico... it can be just incessant sometimes.   And destructive?  Stuff never rots here- it blows away long before that.  I've heard it said that if the wind doesn't blow, the summer rains don't come.  At this rate, we oughta have a genuine wet year.

A touch o' a breeze

In New Mexico you have to draw for just about every hunting opportunity and this year I was fortunate enough to draw a rifle bull elk and archery deer tag.  I’ll go to the spot where I killed the cow elk a few years ago and with that in mind, Derek and I took our turkey tags out for a little turkey hunting and elk scouting.  We didn’t see a single turkey or any sign, but we did see quite a few elk and picked up a decent shed antler. 

Shed elk antler

We walked- according to Google Earth- about 3.5 miles up and down canyons and my knees just flat-out gave up.  That’s the first time that’s ever happened.  I've gotten muscular tired before, but this time, my knees just quit and going downhill was painful.  I was carrying my new pack- a Horn Hunter Full Curl- with about 20 lbs of stuff in it, but still...  On the upside, now that I know I can’t rely on my inherent conditioning anymore, I have all summer to get my knees strong enough to pack out the big bull elk I’m going to take this fall. [< update!] The next day, I felt pretty good with no lingering stabs of pain, so I guess it’s good that I can still recover.

In the archery world, Derek and I traveled to ABQ in early April to shoot the State Animal Round.  Derek shot very well and, as usual, won.  I shot good at first and then fell apart a little bit- the uphill and downhill shots got me.  I ended up 2nd place, missing 1st by 1 point.  But, we got our scores in from the Vegas Indoor Round back in Feb and got a surprise.  This was a "sectional" shoot, covering CA, AZ, NM, CO, UT, and NV.   Derek took 1st place is now the Sectional Champ!  My score was good enough for 2nd and I'm not complaining about that.  Scores aside, we're having fun shooting.

David’s 13th birthday has come and gone.  In observance, we went to the grave site and placed some solar-powered crosses on the site.  We went back a few days later at night and they were all lit up and looked nice- as nice as a grave site is going to look, I suppose.  That was Weds night.  Thurs, Derek and I went elk-scouting and turkey-hunting.  Saturday, my gout returned and Sunday, it hammered me.  I really need to get a number on this thing.  It’s probably not any particular food I’m eating, but may be a result of general kidney decline.  For now, I’m drinking lemon water and lots of it, and here on Sunday evening, it’s feeling better.

We have cattle on the ground, it’s rained a little, the grass is greenish, and here we go into another cattle season- my 19th.  Hopefully, I’ll be showing pictures of green grass soon.

Early morning visitors

Rolling and Tumbling

Here we are again after a long hiatus from the blog. I guess that last post (Departure) took a lot out of me. It's been a busy, busy time since then. I went to Winfield KS in September for the Walnut Valley Festival and spent nearly a week there camping, picking and catching up with friends. It was a great time and I'm hoping to do it again this year, Lord willing.

Aerial view of Walnut Valley Festival- and we're not even in it!

The view from my abode.

Talking Friends

Jamming Friends

Eating Friends

Cattle shipping went well and there wasn't a lot to report there.  I wrapped things up and hit the guitar repair business full-time and full-tilt.  I suppose I did a lot of work, but at times it seemed like I was trying to run in mud; doing a lot of effort but not getting much done.   Derek and I went to the North American Falconer's Association meet in Alamosa CO during Thanksgiving week and it was COLD there.  Cold and snowy.  So much so, that we bailed out early and came home.    Except for that week and few others, our winter has been pretty mild with just a few snowstorms and days of frigid weather.  Unlike last year when the water heater and furnace both went out within a month of each other, everything held together pretty well.

Stressed out and missing homeschooling Derek, Georgia quit her teaching job in December.  She had to drive 60 mi/day to get to work and by the time we paid gas and etc, her hourly pay was about $7/hr.  It just wasn't worth having her gone from the house for 8-10 hours/day so we made the decision for her to bail.  At the same time, I investigated Subaru's trade-in sales pitch and ended up trading in our 2012 Subaru Outback with 32,000 miles (that teaching job put the miles on!) for a 2014 Outback with 0.0 miles.  It actually worked out to be a good deal and basically cost me about $3,000 to erase those 32,000 miles.  Here's hoping we put a lot less miles on this one!

Subaru Outback #3

I've been working hard at my archery.  I posted on this in an early post "I Bow Down", and taking pictures for that post helped point out some flaws in my technique.  I'm shooting 3 bows now, only 1 of which was in that old post!  I now have a 2011 Hoyt Contender (which I bought last year at this time and immediately used in State competition), a 2010 Hoyt Maxxis 35 (which was in the old post), and a 2010 Hoyt Alphamax 32 (that I got a great price and couldn't pass up).   I made all these moves in order to get adjustable cams which my old Hoyt Vectrix didn't have and I did that so that I could play with my draw length.  I found a sweet spot and my shooting has picked up.  Last year, I finished 3rd in the State and this year, having been moved to a new class ("Senior"!!!), I should win.  Derek, if you didn't know already, is defending State Champion in his class.

Falconry-wise, we had a disaster.  My prairie falcon got tangled up in her telemetry harness and ended up damaging her wing and losing 6 primary feathers and follicles.  She will never fly again.   It was really disappointing as I had high hopes for her, going into her 3rd season.  But, that's the way it goes sometimes.  It looks like I'm going to pass her on to a raptor education group and they'll use for public education.  On the upside, the kestrel we took as a chick in June has been a lot of fun.  Derek took a liking to him and after an episode in which the kestrel was lost for a day, I made the decision to not try to hunt with him.I just felt that after losing his brother, that Derek needed to not lose something, but to have some success.  Instead, we just fly him around the house and work on training techniques.  We move from room to room and the kestrel will "hunt" us down at which time we toss a tidbit for him.   We're planning to release him back into the wild in late summer and get another one, which we will try to hunt sparrows and starlings with.   I'm also hoping to take a tiercel (male) prairie falcon- a bird I've never flown.  Derek's excited about that, too. 

Now for the biggest news.  In January, Georgia was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Fortunately- we hope- it was caught early.  As I type this, she's had 2 surgeries to remove the mass and will be starting radiation or chemo therapy in a few weeks.  That will require daily treatments for about 6 weeks in Amarillo, TX.  We have several sets of friends there and she should be able to stay with them and come home on weekends.  That's been a huge challenge for us, coming not even 2 years after David's passing, but it's certainly not as bad as it could be and we've had tremendous support from friends, family, and people we haven't even met.  One friend setup a donation site and the help we've received from it has been a real and appreciated blessing.   The link:  Georgia's Cancer Fund.   To do my part, I've been paring down as much excess stuff as possible; I've sold 3 guitars and a vintage Fender amp and applied the $$$ to our expenses.  It's kind of nice trimming away the excess, actually.

Georgia's book

Out on the ranch, I've rebuilt the 2002 Yamaha Grizzly again.  I did this back at the beginning of this blog and here we are again.  Last time, 2 valve tappets came loose and I miraculously recovered them from the engine, but I think they damaged a valve seat and smoking on start-up, oil consumption, and hard starting ensued.  Since I wasn't using the bikes during the winter, I decided to go ahead and rebuild the head.  It took pretty much all winter to get 'er done, but there was no rush, and the bike started up immediately and purred like a kitten (okay, a BIG kitten), so maybe it'll be good for another couple of years.

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED:
Engine guts

The tumbleweeds have been unbelievable this spring.  They have filled up the creeks, gullies, and fence corners.  This is going to be tremendous MESS if/when we get a gully-washer rain and all these weeds become flotsam.  Right now, when the wind blows, the weeds pile up and knock down fences.  I'm in constant fence repair mode.  And I don't think there's anything I can do about it.

Tumbleweeds along a fence (dark line running over horizon)

Weeds in a creek- the fence is buried

Weeds, weeds, weeds

Weeds on every corner

I think that more or less catches us up.  I've been spending too much time making short Facebook updates and instead of doing that, I think I'll re-focus on my blog and just link FB to it.  That way I can control my photos a little better, write longer posts, and non-FB friends can still read what's going on.

For now.... off to work on guitars and fix fences.