Duck Duck Goose!

We went goose hunting this morning! We had so much fun, I wish the limit was more than 3! Last night after cleaning Continental I saw where about 150 geese were landing, got home and told Nathan to run up North to figure out whose land it was. We looked it up in the plat book, called the landowners, and they gave us permission! So around 3 this morning I woke up SO extremely excited that I couldn't sleep! The alarm did wake me up at 5:20, and boy did I jump outta bed! Nathan on the other hand slowly rolled out, but I know he was just as excited! haha

We went North of the house 5 miles, got set up, and from the first bird down to the last bird, it took a total of 10 minutes at most! We had some ducks trying to come in too, but didn't take any of them. We agreed it was probably one of our most favorite and fun hunts! We were back to the house at 8 and I left to go clean a house, and got back home at 11! The girls and I helped Nathan clean the birds, and now on the beautiful FALL day, we are just enjoying it together!

Happy 26th Anniversary to the two most wonderful and loving people! We know that they are in the field today working hard, but we are thinking of you on your special day! We love you Mom & Dad!! And by the way...WHO gets married in October anyway?? Everyone knows that you'll ALWAYS be in the field harvesting! ha ha!

Wagner Update

Well I wish I had new pictures to add, but this week I don't!
We had our Dr. appt last Monday, the 20th, and it went okay. We got to meet our 2nd OB and she was pretty concerned about my high blood pressure at a young age, and set up an appt in Rapid on Thursday. We weren't too happy, but after getting to hear the heartbeat again, it made our day! The heartbeat was at 160 beats/minute and I'll be 14 weeks on Thursday!
Nathan stayed in the Hills to Elk hunt from Mon-Thursday. They saw quite a few, and if they would've had a Bull tag, they probably would've had success. But since both guys had cow tags, they didn't get one. The tag opens back up in December, so Nathan is hoping to get back out then.
I met Nathan early Thursday morning so that we could go to the hospital in Rapid to have my appt. We got there, it took an hour from start to finish, and so far no news. I think that if something was wrong, they would've called by now.
Friday was supposed to be a day for me to catch up on things, but that didn't happen! I don't even really know where Friday went, it just was here and gone!
I did take Jade out pheasant hunting with me Friday afternoon. Oh what a time we had! We started out East of the house, walking through some taller grass. Well, Jade loves to heel up all the time, and so I finally got her to leave my side and I see that she caught scent. So I took my gun off safe and got ready...and all of a sudden I hear the worst growling snarling sound ever! So I start yelling at Jade "no bird no bird" and then I see it...Jade and a Coon rolling and rolling and rolling. Well Nathan scared me last year by telling me that a big grown coon could kill a dog, so I am always scared for the girls to get in a fight with one now! So you can about imagine how bad I was screaming! Anyway, I finally got the guts up to get closer, and the coon saw me and ran to the fencepost a few foot away, and ran to the top of it. So...before I knew it, I had shot and it was a dead coon! So that was the start! Then, we walked some more trees, and found nothing, so I had seen 2 grouse in the distance fly to a spot, so I thought we'd go that direction. Well, there has been a buffalo calf out for weeks. We put it in over and over, and the stinker gets out. Well, like I said, usually Jade heels up until you beg her to go, and this night, she took after the calf! It was not good...I was screaming at her once again, and after her chasing this calf, it got so mad, snorted and pounded her into the ground with his tough little head and then kicked her! I just laughed, called her over to me, and then beat her! She was a hurting unit, but I was glad that calf hurt her! She got over it fast, and on our way back to the house after NOT getting those grouse, she looked at the calf, looked at me, and cowered down. I think she got the point! haha...SO, Jade and I had a nice walk, and I ended up getting one of those pesky coons!
Saturday got here, we slept in for the first time in a long time, and since we're in between antelope and deer, it felt great to not have to worry about hunters! We decided to take the day to pheasant hunt and went NE of Buffalo. I was surprised at the number of people out, since Harding County isn't known for great pheasant hunting, but a lot of Rapid City/Sturgis people out and about. We walked a few spots, and Nathan got the first bird. Libby had her A game going, and Jade did okay. Libby flushed the bird, Nathan shot, and Jade retrieved, so I guess they had a good system! I was on the other side of the draw cheering them on and waiting for MY turn to come! We drove to another spot, found a friend of ours also out hunting, and he took us to some prime spots to hunt! The wind had really picked up, and a front was moving through, but we still tried hard! Nathan ended up with 2 birds, Justin with 2 birds, and me with none. It just felt good to get out and watch the girls work, and getting a few shots and birds didn't hurt either! We were definatly tuckered out, from the wind, walking, and the cold. It sure took me awhile, I got pretty chilled and was ready to be in the warm house.
Today has been the day to play catch up! Nathan went out and helped skin out another buffalo, this time a cow, and I stayed in to get housework done. The wind is insane, and I heard there were some gusts measured over 60 mph!
Tomorrow is the dreaded Monday. We are leaving on Friday to go to the Hills for the weekend. Nathan has to work Black Hills Deer hunters and since the state is getting him a hotel room, I'm driving seperate so I can go shopping while he is working, and then we'll stay over night Friday and Saturday! It should work out good!
The next visitor we'll be having is my Uncle Tim the week before Thanksgiving. He will be here to hunt rifle mule deer! We don't have all the details worked out yet, but we're excited to have him come stay and to get a deer. With the weather this chilly, and having snow a few weeks ago already, it feels like Thanksgiving should be closer than it is, either that or I'm just excited for my family to come visit! :)
Have a good week!

Where does the time go?

Has the time just been flying right on by or is it just me?? For a pregnant woman, that's always a good thing, but it just seems like I can't get caught up. The month of September flew right by, and now we're already looking towards the end of October!

I guess I will start off with Wednesday October 15th. I took the day off so that I could get my house all caught up since I was having a "girls night" of carving pumpkins and eating way to much food! Nathan's boss was here antelope hunting, so they were busy hunting that day. Wednesday night came, the girls showed up, and in the meantime a guy from Florida was here hunting a buffalo from Painters with his bow, can we say crazy?? It took him 12 hours of hunting to finally get a shot, and around 7 or 8 shots, with the help of a rifle too, he was down. It was a huge old bull buffalo! So, me being the non-girlie girl I am, wanted my "girls night" girls, who are girlie, to see this incredible animal! Well, they all got an eye full and were ready to keep on carving their pumpkins! Needless to say, they weren't too impressed! haha..

The guys stayed out in the barn and helped skin this buffalo out. It took about 6 people, a lot of sharp knives, and a lot of muscle and time!

He only ended up wanting to take the cape to make a rug out of, and the head to mount. So he left ALL of that meat for anyone else to take! We were all pretty surprised, and Joe and Cindy said that if we cut it up and packaged it, that we could have 1/2 the buffalo! We definitely took them up on that offer, forgetting we were running out of time and energy, fast!

On Thursday morning, we were all up by 5:00 and out the door to antelope hunt. Jim, Nathan's boss, had already gotten his buck the day before, so he was after a doe. I was after either one of them, just as long as I got one! We ended up walking our butts off that day, belly crawling WAY to much (for my opinion)and had a few chances that just didn't pan out. We were very frustrated, and Jim took off that afternoon without a doe also.

Friday came along, and we were out the door early again. My stomach was so sore from the day before, we could only joke about how that little one growing inside me had to be feeling from all that belly crawling!

We headed down South to Painters relatives ranch, and once again, had some opportunities that just couldn't pan out. I was so sore from the day before that my patience level was wearing out. We ended up going one more place, and as luck would have it, found some does in a hay field. We got a spot in the nearby stack yard picked out, and slowly crawled our way there. We got situated, ranged her at 140 yds and I shot. A nice shot too if I do say so myself! We ended up laying in some cactus, which I had all over me. In my knees, elbows, hands, belly. They hurt SO bad to pull out, and I just started bawling. I think it was out of extreme happiness that I got my antelope, tiredness from 2 BIG days, and hurt, from just the cactus sticking me! I got myself pulled together, and the picture below shows how excited I was!

We got her gutted, went back and got the cart, and then brought her back to the pickup! It was getting warm that day, so I was glad to be done hunting. We headed to town to run some errands, and then headed home. When we got home, we soon realized that Saturday was the next day, and that meant a big day of work for Nathan since it was opener of pheasant season! So at 3:00 on Friday we started cutting up meat, and 10:00 that night, finally got to come in! We had the roasts all packaged and labeled, and it was up to me on Saturday to grind up all the burger!

Today, Saturday, is here now and I've spent from 9:45 this morn to 4:45 grinding burger. We ended up with 40 quart size bags of ground buffalo! That sure was a lot of griding, and I ended up taking the tip of my left thumb off! Nathan's thumb is just healing from two weeks ago, and him taking the tip off from a potato peeler, and now I took a little off, but nothing like Nathan's job!

Nathan had a big day of checking pheasant hunters in the next county East, Perkins county, and now just got home and brought pizza! While he was on his way home, I needed to make two pies for the church bazaar tomorrow. Well, since we all know I'm not the best in the kitchen, I bought two frozen pies yesterday. I started the oven, read the simple directions, and when it says to "remove the carton" from the pie, I think of the damn carton being the PIE TIN..nope..Sara Lee figures that "carton" means BOX! Comon, why would anyone put the pie in the oven WITH the BOX on it?? Well, so I took off the pie tin, which comes off easy. If they didn't want it taken off, they should connect it better! Anyway, baked this yummy apple pie for an hour at 400 degrees, timer goes off, I go to take it out of the oven and yeah...yummy apple filling all over the cookie sheet, and it's black and burnt! Oh yes, another good one to laugh about in the future, but for now....tears. And more tears. Nathan was laughing so hard that he got me to stop crying and to laugh. We put it back into the tin, and after it breaking into pieces, decided that apple pie did sound pretty good for dessert! I'm so challenged in the kitchen it's not even funny! So tomorrow, I will be taking ONE peach pie and helping out at the drinks table! It will be fun to see neighbors from our community all come together for a fun fall day!

Monday October 20th we will both be driving to the Hills. At 2:00 we have a Doctor appt. it's just a checkup, so we're not sure what that all entails since this will be our first "checkup". We'll give a baby update after Monday. But after the appt I will be coming home, and Nathan will be staying in the Hills in a camper. I will be spending next week alone, since Nathan will be in the Hills Elk hunting. He'll be home by Thursday, hopefully with a cow Elk. So if anyone wants to come visit me, I'll be here waiting!! haha...

Well, I'm glad that tomorrow is a new day..because from cutting my thumb, to ruining an easy pie, I'm done for the day!

This last picture was taken on Friday, South of Buffalo on the "Jump Off". It was a bunch of bachelor mule deer hanging out on a ledge! There are two decent bucks, and it was a neat site to see!

Our Wednesday October 8th Anniversary!

This was the victory picture we took after an awesome early morning goose hunt on our Anniversary! That's all the plans we had made, so the rest of the day we watched a movie, ate a yummy brunch, ran to town to run errands, layed out in the yard and played with the girls, and now..getting ready to eat some Steaks, homemade bread (sort of, it was frozen!) and potatoes! It's been a great day spent together! After awhile, we'll watch our wedding video, like we've done on past Anniversaries!

Today I actually had more energy! I don't know if it's because I knew I didn't have to work today or not, BUT..it still felt good to have energy finally! Tomorrow is 11 weeks, which means in 7 days, I'll be out of this first trimester stuff! THEN, I might start buying a few things! It's been a rule around here that we weren't buying any baby stuff until I hit the 2nd trimester, so we're almost there! I think I had to talk myself into it more than Nathan, but hey, it was a good goal!

So here is how the morning started out...

We got out to the sorghum field that is a couple miles SE of our house around 6:15, we were totally set up with our 18 full body decoys, two blinds to lay in, and our two guns, by 6:45ish! Nathan took the pickup over the hill, and we layed with the wind at our back. It was a chilly morning, but since I had seen the birds in this field yesterday at 7:30, we were pretty sure they would be coming back. Well, as our luck would have it for today, the first group saw us and came honking on in! Well usually Nathan calls the shot and says to "Take Em" well, this morning I was a little (or a lot) ancy to shoot a goose, and decided since the birds were right in our face, to shoot! SO, I pulled up and shot one...down. Then shot again...down. Oh my gosh, I had just gotten my first double and Nathan still hadn't shot. SO I pull my trigger again, and nothing! Well, my shell had jammed, which means my gun needs cleaning. I look over at Nathan, and he had shot, thought he hit one, and nothing came down. So there we were, two birds on the ground, from ME shooting! I love goose hunting, it is our favorite, so of course I screamed in excitement! My wonderful teacher of how many years, didn't get a bird, and I got 2!! Needless to say, I was super excited and Nathan was pretty proud, but disappointed in himself.

We decided that since a few other groups had flown over, but not came in, that we would pick up and go home. So that's what we did, and while we had the pickup out in the field, and getting decoys picked up and taking pictures, a pair of geese flew right in, and I yelled at Nathan to take a shot! Well, it probably wasn't the best of moves, but Nathan shot this goose at 90 yards and down it came!! It was an amazing shot, and we all felt better since HE got a bird too! The limit on geese is 3 a person, so we had gotten one limit's worth, and had a great 2 hours, from set up to tear down together! We got home, cleaned birds, and got comfy to watch a movie and warm up! It couldn't have worked out any better really! So, the picture above is me with my two BIG geese, and I plan on writing a Thank-You to the landowner, since it wasn't on Painters, and sending him this picture of me. After thinking about it, we came up that we got 3 birds, on our 3rd Anniversary, with me being (almost) 3 months pregnant! I guess it was the day of 3's!

Here is Nathan's goose that he put an amazing shot on! This picture is so cute because he looks like a proud little boy with his bird! haha..

The rest of this week is pretty uneventful.

Tomorrow I have to clean a couple houses, and I think Nathan is working. He has to save up hours, since he is working most all hours on weekends for hunting season. Painters have hunters coming to stay at the trailer house on Friday, but we're not sure where they are from, or if we met them before, so hopefully it goes well!

On Friday I might be heading to Spearfish for supplies. I have a bunch of friends that are coming on Wed night to our house and we're carving pumpkins! SO, I need to get a bunch of party supplies, and just normal grocery run!

My antelope tag is valid for this Saturday, but I think a couple days next week Nathan is going to go out with me! Hopefully I get something!

This last picture is in front of our house. I got my corn shock!! No pumpkins, but they are on their way! I can't get over how yellow of leaves that tree has put out! It is just beautiful, but with these hard winds, and chance of snow for the weekend, I'm not sure how long they will last! Happy Fall!!

Anniversary Trip to the Hills!

BLACK HILLS TRIP 2008

9.28-9.29.-9.30

This is how our 3rd Anniversary Trip to the Black Hills started out! Nathan went fly fishing, but like usual, the trout outsmarted him!

On Sunday morning around 8 we loaded up the bags, fly fishing rod, camera, and of course, the girls, and headed to the Black Hills for our Anniversary!

We had made reservations in Hill City, which is SW of Rapid City, and a town we really came to enjoy! We spoiled ourselves by getting the King Suite at the Holiday Inn Express, and wanted to bring the King size bed home with us! The environment in that town was wonderful, along with the cool fall weather, and colors which helped out too! We went shopping in Rapid on Sunday, and ended up checking in around 4:00. We knew we had an early morning ahead of us, since we were heading to the Buffalo Round Up in Custer State Park on Monday.

The alarm went off at 4:45 on Monday morning, and breakfast was at 5:30 to give us just enough time to feed the girls and bathroom breaks and then to get us on the road to Custer State Park by 6:00! I should've taken a picture of ALL the crazy people and tourists, 11,000 is the estimation, of people going to watch this Round Up! I didn't think we'd ever get into the park, but after entertaining ourselves by being stupid tired, and spotting some Elk, which turns out to be one of the highlights, we made it! We got parked and our spot picked out, which made it almost 8:00. Keep in mind, the buffalo weren't running by us until 9:30! SO, as talkative as my husband is, he made friends fast, and we enjoyed ourselves by meeting a nice older couple from Michigan sitting next to us. Before we knew it, the buffalo were running, and they pushed them through the gates! We are glad that we went, but probably won't do it again. If we hadn't ever ridden before, or seen buffalo before, it would've been neat, but in December Painters will be having their own Round Up, and we'll get to be entertained and involved with that!

After the Round Up, we went into Custer, parked the car, and walked the main strip to do some looking and shopping! It was such a fun time together! We ate a quick meal at Pizza Hut, got a malt and shake at a little purple and pink barn, and then headed back to Hill City. I wanted to do some shopping in Hill City too, so we did just that. They have a cute little main street and we went into the many galleries they have there!

Now THIS was one of my favorites! I had suggested that we take a turn on a gravel road named "Slate Creek Road" to go see the Slate Creek Dam that was supposed to be 10 miles into the Hills. Well, we took this road, which was maintained fairly well for the first few miles where the cozy cute cabins that families were staying in were. Then we got farther and farther until we started doubting ourselves and this road! Finally we came upon some corrals with a couple horses saddled, and an old camper sat! I took a picture, which I'll add after this little story. Anyway, after about a half hour of driving curves, seeing meadows, turkeys, and now saddled horses, we found our dam! It was so neat, with a few beaver dams, and beautiful fall colors! We decided to continue on our trail we were beginning to like, and came to a pretty big opening with a creek running through. So we stopped and let the girls run. They had been on leashes every time we had gotton them out this trip, so they were more than thankful to us for letting them be dogs! We took a seat at the creek, and just soaked in the moment together. Our girls were in their own little world, and so were we. THAT memory is in my heart and mind forever, it is one of my most favorite places in the Hills! We stayed for quite awhile, and then I said, "how about we carve our initials in an aspen (our favorite), so that when we come back next time with the babe, we'll always know this is OUR spot!" So Nathan thought it was a great idea, grabbed the knife, and started carving on the back of "our" aspen tree! Nathan wrote "08" with a "W"! We had carved our initials before we were engaged over in Brookings, and some day I hope to go back East River with our family and look at it! Of course, I have pictures, but it's neat to see NW heart EA!

So here is our 2008 Wagner carving on Slate Creek Road! I just love it!

We headed back on the same path we came, even though if we wanted, we could've kept going! AND, we had to get the girls clean since they were muddy and wet from pretending to hunt!

On our way back I took a few snap shots of the horses in the corral, it was in a pretty neat place, but weird since no one was around! If you look close, there is a few turkeys behind the corral!

We got back to Hill City, and Nathan had heard that Alpine Inn was a great place to eat, so we decided to try it. Well, we got there and had an hour wait! That was fine, because after being in the Hills a couple days, and after asking ourselves, "what else do we have to do??" we had finally gotton ourselves trained to sit back, relax, and take it all in! So an hour wait...sure! We sat out on the big beautiful front porch, and took it all in. What an amazing fall night to spend sitting with my husband! Our names were finally called, and we find out that they only serve fillet minon at supper! So we had a choice of 6 or 9 oz. and what to drink, and we were set! It is European style, and we recommend it to anyone going to the Hills! We loved it!! The lights are set low, candles on the tables, and very romantic music. So romantic, that when the wedding song came on, that most weddings have their wedding party walk down to, I started crying my eyes out! It didn't help that Nathan had said some wonderful words to me, but then the music just sent me over the edge! Oh it was so nice, and another great memory to remember. We can't wait to go back!!

Tuesday came, and after getting over the fact that in a few hours reality was going to set it, we packed up and went to Rapid to do some shopping. We also hit up Spearfish, and then headed home. Oh were the girls happy to be home! Now we are looking at Thursday tomorrow, and Tom and Cullen are heading out to visit and hunt on Friday! Tomorrow I will hit the 10 week mark too! Painters are gone, or are leaving for Ames, Iowa rodeo, and the hunters who have been here almost a week will be leaving on Friday. Come Monday, things will all be back to the same! Rifle antelope opens on Saturday for the first season, and I have second season tags, so that will be here soon! October 20-24th Nathan is Elk hunting in the Hills! OH always something going on here it seems! Trapping is right around the corner, and I have my eye on some fox, along with ALL the coons around here! We're hopefully going to make some money this fall/winter with furs!

Keep following along with us, I hear back from SO many family and friends who are enjoying this! So Thanks for checking in! We've been lucky enough to be blessed with each other for 6 years already! It IS wonderful to have your Best friend with you everyday, and we are very Thankful, especially for October 8th! :)