Ruh-Row.......

I don't know what else to say..........

Spring Snow

It just seemed like the thing to do this afternoon.

Although, Casey didn't think much of the snowballs not being hers, let alone that she had to give up a couple of sticks just so it could have arms.

Casey's Birthday

OK, OK, I admit it, Casey is treated far more like a kid than a dog.  What can I say?  At least I didn't give her a birthday party!  For her birthday, I got a new camera!  (Well, I DO need a new one for the African trip after all!)  This is what she thought when I got it out and started playing with it.

Notice the curled lip......

Casey got a......

G-I-A-N-T bone!

It's too big...It won't fit!

Never mind.  I'll just lay down.

Well, maybe I'll parade around and show it off a little.

Casey's whining about this bone!  I didn't think there a single thing that was too big for her to haul around.   She finally made it into the office with me.  Sat next to me and whined.  Finally I told her to put it down if she didn't like it....she did.  Tell me she doesn't understand when I talk to her.  She was supposed to go to the vet today, she likes to go to the vet.  It might have been a better present than the bone.  I think she'll come around and decide the bones OK!

South Africa??????? Say What????????

Who'd a thunk I would be going to South Africa? Not me, that's for sure! This trip is just one of those things that was meant to be; and now that we're going, I have to admit, I really am very excited about it!

Saturday night Bill and I went into Rapid City for the Pheasant's Forever annual membership meeting that was being held in conjunction with the Outdoor Show. The Outdoor Show was put on by South Dakota Youth Hunt Adventures this year (the club I am a hunting mentor in) so at the last minute we decided to go up to the auction (benefiting SDYHA) just to see what they had in it. I know you are already thinking that wine and bourbon was involved -but NO! There was none! The auction wasn't real big and they had the typical outdoor club items, a pistol, a shot gun, a rifle, an ivory necklace, a shooting bench built by one of the mentee's in the program, but also had an African Photo Safari and an African 5 Plains Animal Safari Hunt. Nothing (we thought) was going super undervalue, but nothing was getting stupid on prices either.

The Photo Safari was relatively early in the auction, (#5 - I think) and no one was bidding on it. Finally the auctioneer said if he couldn't get $500 for it, it might be better to move it back behind the hunt and just sell it later. The thinking being that people weren't spending money on the photo safari as they really wanted the hunt.

When the hunt came up, it was the same thing, no one was bidding, so I finally said yes to $3000. Yes, I know, you never want to be the first to throw your hand at an auction, but $3K for an African Safari??????? Three of us were in on the action, one person dropping out pretty quickly. I took the bid to $5000 and was at my comfort level as there were still trophy fees, dipping fees, transport fees, taxidermist fees, etc. etc. that would have been our responsibility. (Charlie, who we were just hog hunting with in Texas just got back from African Safari in Zimbabwe and was telling us about all the "extras" associated with his hunt so I had a pretty good idea where this was headed, and truth be known, I was in over my head at the $5K!) So when the hammer came down, the gentleman that bought the hunt got a 5 Plains Animal African Safari for himself and a non-hunting companion for $5250. That's a lot of money for a working stiff like us........that's a steel!!!!!!!!!!! When I told Charlie what the hunt went for, his words were ".......what????? My passport is ready to go and so is my gun! Why aren't we going Connie?!?!?!?" I told him I'd be sure to let him know if another came up for auction!

Next the African Photo Safari came up for auction (2nd time in the line up). I leaned over and told Bill, "I should have bought it when it was at $500!" He asked me if I was going to bid on it, I said why not? You have sky miles to burn! He laughed at me and said cool! Again, it was the same scenario.......no one was bidding on this trip. People were crazy not to! Yes, I know, you never want to be the first to throw your hand at an auction, but it was so cheap, so I was the first - no one else was bidding and I thought that maybe I could at least help drive the price up a little and get more money for the club. NO one bid against me! Bill didn't realize I was in and was about to throw his hand against me but I leaned over and said "I think you're going on Safari!" BEFORE he threw his hand. (BILL......I TOLD you I was going to bid....what were you thinkin'?????) So as the hammer was coming down at a ridiculously cheap amount the auctioneer looked at me and said "Ma'am, thank you for helping me out on the hunt. Now, I'm going to help you out.....I just sold the photo safari to you." Again, Africa in general let alone anywhere specific (South Africa) has never held any kind of fascination for me, but now that I'm going, I'm excited! Of course we had to make a few phone calls to tell people our (what we thought was) awesome news....but nobody would answer their phones so we could only leave messages! LOL

When we left the Show Saturday night, literally the only thing we knew about what we'd just bought was that we were going on Photo Safari in South Africa for 6 days. How crazy is that!?!?!?!?!?!? Sunday we'd already made plans to go back into the show with our neighbors (we didn't have time Saturday to look around at all) so while there we found the Safari Club International guy (that is who donated the trip) to try to find out a few details. Brian (SCI) had already been looking for his flyer on the trip and couldn't find it but did tell us the game preserve we are going to http://www.zulunyala.com/ . 

When we got home, of course the first thing we did was get on line and look this place up! I think it will be a great trip! We still don't know which property we will be going to, when we will be going, what the cut off is to make the trip or any other details, but at least now we know WHERE we are going! (Just another adventure in the life of Bill and Connie!)

Bill has been telling me to decide where I want to go so we can use all his sky miles up in one fell swoop....I think I found the spot! Delta fly's into Johannesburg with a direct flight from Atlanta. I checked the difference in charges if we drove to Minneapolis or Salt Lake, and it's actually a little more! Guess what? We'll be flying from Rapid City!

Again, now that I'm going to South Africa, I AM excited about it! So much for my trips to Hawaii, the Caribbean, Alaska, Australia or anywhere else cool.....but I'm going to get to see zebra's and lions and tigers and cape buffalo and elephants and, and, and, and! In person even! We've already decided that we are going to do as much as we can afford to do on this trip (after all, what are the chances of us ever doing it again??) and looking at trip advisor, the possibilities are endless!

Now, that camera that I've been putting off buying......well, I'm now seriously camera shopping. Any input will be greatly appreciated from anyone! Curt and Renan (friends from Pinedale) have already been to South Africa so were a wealth of information on the phone last night and have the information on what book we need to get for identifying all these animals we'll see that we'll have no clue what they are! Got to find a place for Casey to stay while we're gone. (Yes, I'll miss her, but not enough to NOT go!!!!!) Carolyn up the road has already told Bill that she will be inviting him over for dinner a few days before we are scheduled to leave and be sure to make him to sick to travel so she can just slide right in in his place! :) Need to get in touch with the guy that bought the trip 2 years ago and find out everything we can from him. A friend we met pheasant hunting opening weekend was at the auction and JUST got back from photo safari so we've already made plans to have dinner with he and his wife when Bill gets home from work to pick their brains.

Do you think it's time for me to get some additional details on this trip????? :) Did you hear???? I'm going to South Africa!!!!!

Clarification

Sarah, my sister, just sent me an email not quite understanding the rules on licensing for hog hunting.

Hogs are viewed as pests and are not native species.  Licenses are required by the state of Texas, but because they are not a native species, as a non-resident the license is an "Exotic Animal" license.  There are no bag or possession limits; this is simply a way for the state to make money off the sport of hunting them.  You can hunt/shoot as many as you want; the landowner makes the rules on how many you can harvest in a day. 

Hope this explains better!

Texas Hog Huntin'

For whatever reason, I decided this past year that I wanted to go hog hunting.  I'd never done it, Bill has in Mississippi, but I'd never done it and I just decided it was time we make this happen.  We have a friend that lives in Nacagdoches, Texas and so I started talking with Charlie  about hog hunting near him and within a few weeks I had a hog hunt put together for the three of us.  When we left here, it was  -12*, with the camper in tow.  It was so stinking cold, the heater in the camper wasn't able to make any difference in the temperature.  Basically, we were putting stuff in the refrigerator simply to keep it from freezing and stuff in the freezer to just keep it contained while traveling.  The roads were pretty slick which made for slow going so we only made it as far as York, Nebraska the first day and the local temperature was no improvement.  The next morning, until the wind came up anyway, was certainly an improvement; and by improvement I'm talking it was probably around +15*.  Hey that was a +27* difference.  THAT'S a HUGE improvement!

Second day we made it as far as Denton, Texas where the grass was green and the trees were trying to bud out!  Time to get the flip flops out!  When we arrived in Nacagdoches on Sunday the temp's were in the mid 70's and life was REALLY good!!!!!!  Perfect weather for a margarita and those rib eye's Charlie was grilling for us! Casey was an excellent traveling buddy the whole trip, although once we finally reached Charlie's, it was definitely time for us all to get out of the truck.  As I was asking Charlie if it was OK for Casey to get in the pond, she found it and splashed.  It was just the ticket for her!

Bill, our friend Charlie, and his friend Sandy

Casey was on duck patrol while at Charlie's.  It was great entertainment watching her chase this duck around the pond!  She kept it worried the whole time we were there; you'd have though it would have gotten tired of being chased and left but it never did.  I only thought Casey was legged up when we left, after days of swimming in the pond, now she's REALLY in shape!

I got my first hog!  A sow in the 120 pound class!  This has the Russian Boar characteristics, the real long snout.  Casey didn't get to go with on the hunt, but she got to go with to retrieve it.  She was a very happy little dog playing in the creek and trying to figure out what this 'thing' was.

Bill asked me if I wanted to have the pig tail taxidermist'd so I would always have a pig tail.  (Not!!!!)

I was surprised at how thick the hide was.

Sunset our last night at the hunting shack.

Hogs are very destructive animals.  I knew they tore the ground up, but I truly had no idea how bad!  This was all fresh rooting that the rancher didn't know was there.  Once the grass starts turning green, they don't much care about the corn but are far more interested in digging for worms and such.  This picture really doesn't show it, but the ground was really tore up!  No wonder folks that live where the hogs are think they are a pest.

Find a hog in this stuff!

Bill got a shot at one our last morning but it went into this kind of stuff.  To say it was thick is an understatement!  He knows he made a solid hit, but we were unable to recover it.  The cover they live in is so thick, this happens sometimes.  When you hunt in this, it's far easier to move around on your hands and knees.

I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but look at all the thorns on the branches.  This is what we were 'walking' through hunting.   We also had lots and lots of cardinals around - so many so that I don't think I'd ever seen so many!

Back in Nacagdoches, Charlie had some work around his farm that he needed a little help with. 
I guess I've brought to much firewood in over the years......it really pained me to see such good wood burned in a bon fire!  Pine trees are what he needed cut down and people down there only buy oak for firewood so a bon fire is the only option for getting rid of it. 

Uncle Charlie gave Casey a giant bone for the trip home....and y'all think WE spoil her!

She LOVES her bone Uncle Charlie!!!!

And this is what we came home to.

As far as Casey was concerned, if she couldn't have a pond to play in, a snow bank was the next best thing!

Now that we have gone hog hunting, and I realize all the damage these animals do, I understand why they are viewed as pests.  I have to admit, if (when) they make it to South Dakota, I won't be real happy about them tearing up our place. 

I now have a whole new respect for these animals.  I truly didn't realize that we would really be hunting; all the hog hunting you see on TV is done from a stand.  We could have done this, but chose to use the stalk method instead.  (To me, sitting on a stand is boring.  There is certainly a time for sitting and watching, but to make that the entire hunt - just not my thing.)  Even in that really thick stuff, once you get in it, they have worn trails that are practically highways!  Again, they are very abusive to the land. 

Our second morning I had the opportunity of shooting a very large boar, probably in the 350+ pound class.  (It was big enough we thought is was a cow!)  Again, these are very tough animals.  It was eating on some corn we had thrown out the night before and had no idea we were there.  Even though I made a solid hit, it got down over the edge and we had a hard time finding a blood trail.  I finally picked it up when I was literally on my hands and knees trying to get through some trees.  Charlie and I decided to just leave it be and not push it hoping it would just lay down and we'd come back for it.  (When they get that big, they aren't worth trying to eat.  They have a trophy value, but mostly ranchers just want them taken out as, again, they are very destructive animals.)

I hit this boar hard enough that Charlie found a piece of rib bone while he was tracking it and Bill found a piece of lung while he and I were on the opposite side of the creek tracking it.  We tracked it for at least 400 yards before it made it over onto the neighbor's place and we weren't able to track it any farther. 

These really are big and tough animals.  Again, I have a whole new respect for just how tough they are.  We had a really good time and I'm looking forward to doing it again.  I think next time we will go a little earlier in the year and maybe a different spot so we can see some different country.  If you are interested, I've made a public link on my face book page at https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33641&id=1728739403 if you would like to see all the pictures from our trip.  (Just click on the link and it should take you directly to it.)