ThankyouFred

I have been slacking on my blogging duties for awhile now.  First off I wanted to say that I am proud of  Bob for getting in a boat, and surviving.  I hope he was exceedingly polite, please. Thank you.  I assume they restocked the river after you guys pulled all the fish out of it.

I went to Portland a while back on a quick, surprise trip.  Bob made me promise to avoid chain restaurants for the duration of the trip and it was truly expert advice.  The occasion for the journey was Monica's birthday and we had no agenda except eating three meals a day.  Following more of Bob's advice we stayed at the Kennedy School which was a pretty unique experience, definitely would do that again.  We bumbled around Powell's book store, went to both Voodoo Doughnuts and even hung with the homeless in China Town.

We got reservations at Fred's store for Friday night, Monica's birthday dinner.  My only experiences with Fred have involved strong smells, slurred speech, copious amounts of profanity, too much wiki, blood and feathers.  I heard tales of Fred having a pretty nice little place in Portland but didn't really know what to expect.

I had no idea what a classy guy I was hanging out with.  Everything was amazing, Jackie brought out course after course of incredible food.  We had everything and dessert.  Dinner was the highlight of our trip, and it was shocking to see Fred in a professional setting. Thank you for making it such an awesome night, we both had a really great time.

Cliffy, you should come out with Fred this winter, early season.  Also come play golf with shotguns in a few weeks, Bob needs someone to carry his gun.  His heart can't take too much strain.

goose

A Friend of mine heard we hate geese, so I have these now!

The Float 2014

                                                                                                                                         

Pretty.  The one word to describe this year.  

This year was like all others, lots and lots of fishing, great food, BB gunnin, beer and booze.  Amazing fishing.

Cliffy picks us up bright and early at 6am.  Rain in the forecast did not scare us off.   After a short jaunt to the put in unload and load up, on the river at 830.  The river was the crowded, the most we have ever seen, this did not sway us.  Bob this year boughtin a license and a spinner rod with the hopes of catching the biggest, the most and the best fish.  He was on mark.  First stop Bob catches the first fish.  Damn!  Next stop Bob lands another monster, truly amazing, Cliffy and I are scratching our heads, spinning reel?  It's on.  After many stops we make it to the camping pull out.

We procure our normal spot.  We unpack and set camp.  I am immediately back in the water throwing flies.  My first cast I hook up a massive white fish.  It fought for nearly 20 minutes until I thoroughly exhausted it, we were undecided if I should even throw it back due to how I punished it.  Would it survive after such a battle royal?  Well I gave the big guy some mouth to mouth and revived it back to life and off it went up river, cause that's the way fish swim, to live to die another day.  Cliffy had some stank on his hook a couple of times, teaching these bastards not to F with the H7HT.  We start some damage on the cooler to make props we could put down with the Daisy.  There was also much wikki flowing too, it was so cold, which we welcomed on the scorching desert day.  Cliffy was on fire!  Knocking cans silly, making Bob and me drink over and over again.

Dinner arrived not a moment too soon.  This year was Mexi.  Pork Rojo tacos.  Delish.  After we all helped do the dishes we were back on the Daisy.  Still Cliffy was master, punishing every can like it was his red headed step brother.  These two guys even felt bad for me, remember that time I did all the shotguns?  Well they just volunteered.  Soon enough all of our bottles of wikki went dry.  Darkness fell upon us like goose poo on a golf course.  We sat up by the fire and told stories of slaying ducks and watching stars shoot by us.  After several hours we call it and hit the hay for the most restful night sleep, bellies full of chili rojo with beans.  A light rain lulled us into slumber.

We awake and have an awesome breakfast.  Farm fresh eggs, homemade sausage, griddle cakes with fresh strawberry jam and hot coffee.  We pack up and hit the river for some more catch and release, and there was much to be had by everyone.  Seems as though if our flies were wet there was a monster on the other end.  We get to the pull out high from our river experience.  As we are pulling out we hear other fishermen cursing the river coming out with no luck.  Of course they came out empty the H7HT caughtin all the fish.  

Yet another great float.  Beauty.

Do the DU, Monica is bonafide!

Won't be long now.

Three days from now

I sit on the prow

Of the fishing raft how

I try to fish now

 

 

My Captain Cliff

Bridges the rift

Between my old skiff

And the hunting I wish

 

That my days did hold

And while I still fold

The new dreams are told

Are of fish all cold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That elude my grasp

 And swim right past

The rod I cast

Never to be last

 

Of my desire to be

A fisherman thee

That gets maybe three

Of the elusive fishee

 

 

Maybe I can win

A fish that can swim

And a beer that gives in

To my ongoing grin

 

I'm not the only one thinking about the annual H7HT fishing trip.  You are too.  You say to yourself, "I wish I was going down the mighty Deschutes river and challenging fish to their final demise", but alas, you are not going.  We are.

All three of the Charter Members will soon be packing their gear and heading to the Warm Springs Indian pow-wow for a 2 day float trip.  We will fish.  We will camp.  We will shoot a BB gun with amazing accuracy.  But most of all, we will represent the H7HT.

It's spring and many people will be thinking about riding their bike or playing golf or working in their garden.  Not us.  We will bond. (disclaimer: I have been thinking of all those things.)  The Fish we catch will fry on the grill with amazing ease and the beer will be consumed with the same fervor. We will teach all other fishermen on the river how to be Men and they will look at us with respect and envy.  Furthermore, we will be Kings.

So just be aware of how you are missing out on this.  Be jealous. Be resentful.

And the following day be happy you are not the one with a big hangover counting the hours until you reach home.  RESPECT.
GBCH.

Notice the fisherman in the background, looking dissapointed.

Old School. New Old Spot.

These things need to be stopped, and we're just the guys to do it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/woman-claims-injured-pet-duck-sues-owner-275-000-article-1.1767496

The beauty of the Fishing Trip.

Floating Happily.

The beauty of the fishing trip is the float. Soon after the mighty Deschutes River has given us a relaxing and reinvigorating overload of water and fishing and scenery, we set about making a campsite worthy of Kings. Camping chairs, BB gun course, homey tents and a kitchen worthy of the finest Chefs and Captains of the food industry.  Soon after, the magic begins.  Dinner and  movie.  The 'movie' being shooting cans that have just been liberated from containment of their liquid oppressors. The conversation inevitably turns to the upcoming hunting season.  The season of the Greenie.

I can't wait to discuss the upcoming 'Expert' and how I will be that guy.  The cliffhanger of who will be the winner of the coveted 'First Greenie' and 'First Duck' of the season and maybe who can catch the most fish while hungover on the float out.  It won't be me.  I'll be relaxing in the boat.  Enjoying the float and trying not to interrupt the majesty of what I see. It is a beauty that is a long time coming.  I can't wait.  GBCH

GDMF Clider. The 'EXPERT' at everything.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/71281747

Until next year.

Double the Horses!

I am currently involved in a project that will allow Bob and I to fly to the blind at breakneck speed, clearing obstacles with ease.

"Can you please point the light in front of us please, I can't see, please....Thank you"

Turkey Season

Starts Tomorrow, Bob won't go.  Doesn't like the idea of waking up early, hiking in, setting up a decoy and calling birds in, also wiki.

It's On!

BUT NOT IN THIS BOAT
 

Seventeen!

Last night Clider and I went to the D.U. benefit dinner at the Wallace Elks lodge here in the Silver Valley.  It’s been a while since Ducks Unlimited has had a chapter in the valley and we wanted to go and represent the H7HT well.  Tickets were $35 for the event and prime rib dinner and there are always many prizes to win.  Long time readers will remember that I won a hunting rifle at the last D.U. dinner I attended in CdA years ago.  We hoped to bring some of that magic with us.  Going into the Elks Club was like stepping back in time and the upstairs was filled with guns and merchandise to win and lots of people.  Clider commented that people in the valley do benefits well, and he is right.  Fundraisers of all kinds, whether for organizations like D.U., the NRA, scholarships or for individuals in need,  are well attended.  I guess there were about 150+ people there and everyone was ready to spend. 

We both bought the $100 booklet of tickets and started in on the raffle prizes.  I was smitten with a cedar clad mailbox and bid heavily on that.  Clider, in addition to spreading his tickets around,  went after only the goose floaters.  He claims to have enough decoys already.  I bid into lots of different decoys and other items but had my eye on that mailbox.  Surely nobody else was interested and if I put enough tickets in I would win.  Rocky the miner was there too and Clider and he chatted as Rocky mindlessly tossed tickets into the mailbox raffle, no doubt trying to steal my prize.  We both had 3 gold tickets for a special raffle and I went for 3 different guns, Clider went for two guns and a layout blind.   

Other money raffles were the $20’ goose band’ for a beautiful D.U. edition Benelli autoloader with gold inlay, the $20 ‘shot game’ for another gun and the $10 ‘envelope game’ where everyone wins a prize.  We were all in.

After a long line for dinner of prime rib, overcooked beans, mashers and puffy rolls we were ready to claim our prizes.  The live auction was first and I tried my best to convince Clider that he needed every item that came up for bids to no avail.  The first gun went to a non-H7HT member sitting next to us and raffle prizes started flying off the shelves.  A twinge of remorse came as I watched some nice flocked greenies, that would have looked great in our spread, go to someone else.  The first big money raffle was the ‘shot raffle’ and Clider was in.  The announcer mentioned the gun name followed by the number 17.  The very same number as on the bottom of his shot glass, winner!  Microseconds after saying the number 17, and as Cliders hand was going up in victory, announcer man follows with the caliber.  Seems the 17 was the model number, not the winner.  And so it went for the next hour or so.  The H7HT sat by and watched as other people walked off with our stuff.  Rocky the miner won the layout blind and a fine thermos and we were happy for him.  A guy sitting at the table behind us got my mailbox.  We’re pretty sure from his reaction that it went straight to the pile of stuff in the back of his shed. My old boss at DSM won a BB gun and Kids bow hunting kit for his daughters and a big spender from up north won tons of goods and services.  The time finally came for the ‘goose band’ raffle.  I prayed out loud to Heston for us both.   The beautiful Benelli went to an old man near the front and all the other prizes had found good homes too.

The very last game was the ‘envelope game’ where everyone wins a prize.  Clider got a Cabellas coupon and a duck call.  I got a cabellas coupon and a baseball card.  On the drive home we figured that the event raised many thousands of dollars (Thirty? Forty?) for the ducks, and wasn’t that the reason we were there in the first place?  The H7HT doesn’t need to win all the time like we do in the duck blind, we just need to be there to help the ducks and D.U. with our hard earned dollars.  As a consolation prize Clider loudly blew his new duck call for the entire ride home.  Sweet! 

When I got to work this morning I looked up my baseball card on the interweb as a joke.  It’s a 1959 Bazooka Billy Pierce card, he played for the White Sox and was a hall of famer in 59’.  The first hit was from Ebay and I clicked on it.  Identical card to mine in a plastic case selling for $1,200.  Winner!  Then I looked around more and realized it’s worth from $6 to $20 in mint condition, the one on Ebay must be a misinformed joke.  I can still hear Cliders duck call ringing in my ear.

GBCH

Do you Dove Hunt?

Would you if you were driven around in one of these and never had to leave the comfort of your seat?  H7HT trip to Texas?


More contraptions here:  http://truckyeah.jalopnik.com/a-photo-essay-of-the-intense-trucks-texans-use-to-hunt-1550481825/@tcraggs22

Local Woman Narrowly Avoids Mallard Rape

This was in my Facebook feed this morning, they were trying to break into Monica's cousin's house!  No one is safe from mallards

"For those of you that know me, this almost ruined my morning. They were blocking the door to my house. I almost stepped on him. Ugh."

Update 03-03-14

Sure, I've been skiing.  Sometimes even with Clider. But what have the other H7HT members been up to?

I don't know either because none of them seem to be posting.

Maybe I can keep all the thousands of readers up to date on my exploits better and maybe, just maybe, the other authors will too.

Heston Bless.
Bob D.

Inversion.

A temperature inversion is a thin layer of the atmosphere where the normal decrease in temperature with height switches to the temperature increasing with height. An inversion acts like a lid, keeping normal convective overturning of the atmosphere from penetrating through the inversion. The temperature at any given location is determined by a number of factors.  However, with all things being equal the temperature goes down about 3.5 degrees per thousand feet of elevation gain.  So here at Silver Mountain Resort the temperature at the top should be about 9.5 degrees colder than at the base.  In addition, our base area is higher than most of the surrounding land so we are often up to 10 degrees colder than Kellogg.

An inversion is when the air at lower elevations is colder than higher up.  Inversions are most likely to occur on calm nights following days with moderate temperatures.  Cold air is denser than warm air so it flows downhill and pools in the valleys.  This is over simplified, but you get the idea.

So why don't we have inversions all the time?  Three reasons:
A. When the air is consistently cold without dramatic daytime warming, there isn't enough difference in density to cause the air to move downhill. 
2. When it is windy, the air is sufficiently mixed to even out the density.
D. It's been butt ass cold, so this inversion is from 2 weeks ago.  Enjoy the picture.