Where oh where have all the Gawkers gone?

Here is a picture of all the Gawkers that I saw during Elk season this year. Well, actually it is a picture from Johnny lake the other day. But it still has all the elk that I saw this year in it. Thats right, none. I was skunked. Not only did I not get to shoot an elk, I did not even see and elk. Actually, I did not see any animals other than squirrels and birds. Which brings me to the next part of my Gawkers and Runners theory.(see previous posts if you have not heard of this theory yet) I think the Runner variety of elk has intermingled with its close cousin, the Gawker, enough that they feel a need to protect them from the strange 2 legged creatures with the big sticks that go boom. They could not risk not running to save their dopey Gawking cousins, so they had to find an alternative means to warn the Gawkers and get them to go into hiding. I think I have discovered what they have done. They are paying off squirrels and birds to warn them! Every time I sneak up to some prime Gawker habitat, the birds and the squirrels start squeaking and squawking like someone just tried to eat their food, steal their firstborn and burn down their house. I don't see any other reason for this odd behavior other than to warn the nearby Gawkers that they need to get into hiding. After all this racket, you can walk into this prime habitat and find so many elk tracks you would think there was and elk superbowl going on. (I think they are getting ready to play the Clydesdales during the superbowl this year.) If you think about it, the squirrels and birds are perfect for this lookout job. They work for very little, (usually nuts & seeds) and they don't have anything else to do all day anyway. So the squirrels and the birds are diligently watching for the two legged beasts to come into the area. When they spot them the start yellin at the Gawkers telling them where to run and hide how fast to do it. Then the squirrels drag some branches around trying to hide the tracks. That usually works because the tracks always mysteriously disappear after a short distance. So now hunting is even more of a challenge. Not only do you have to sneak up on the animal you are hunting, you also need to watch out for those pesky squirrels and birds that are gonna rat you out. This is the best explination that I can come up with for why I did not see any elk at all this hunting season. I saw lots of tracks, but no elk. Those tracks don't taste any better than those big antlers! At least I got some exercise and took some cool pics. Now I just have to hope that the Deer Gawkers have not figured out how to get the squirrels and birds on thier payroll. Stay tuned.

Which way is up?

Which way is up? Fall colors are out in full right now. I was working out in the cascades a couple days ago and had time to stop and enjoy Gods creation while waiting for a truck. This picture is at Johnny Lake, about 1 mile off Hwy 20 up Sheep Creek. It was perfectly calm and the water was as smooth as glass. You could flip this pic upside down and almost not tell that it is not right side up. I was looking at this reflecting on the beauty of Gods creation and thought that this is very beautiful, but pales in comparison to what heaven will be like. Another thing came to mind also. This earth is the ruins of what God made originally. Remember that there was a flood that covered the earth and destroyed everything on it. What we see now, that is so beautiful, is the remains of what God originally made. I am once again reminded of how blessed I am to have the job that I have and can be out enjoying things like this on a daily basis.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Its hard to believe that Sarah is 1 year old today. It seems like just yesterday that she was born here in our home. She is a great blessing to our family and a true gift from God. She brings joy to us every day. She is in some ways like her sisters but is also very much different and is uniquely Sarah. I thank God for the blessings of all my daughters as we celebrate #3's 1st birthday.

Daddy, how many days old are you?

One day a few months ago, Emma came up to me and asked, "Daddy, how many days old are you?" At first I just tried to estimate, but then thought I could probably make a spreadsheet in excel that would calculate it exactly. It was pretty easy and soon we had a table with the ages of all our family on it, in days and years. Now every time that Emma wants to know how many days old someone in the family is, she can look at this spreadsheet and it is current up to the day that she opens the file. It can make you feel old though, (I am over 14 thousand days old) so don't think about it this way if you do not want to feel old. Here is a sample from the table in the excel file that I made for Emma.

	Birthday	Today	Days Old	Years Old
Sarah	10/29/2007	10/28/2008	365	1.000000
Riah	2/20/2004	10/28/2008	1712	4.690411
Evan	12/9/2003	10/28/2008	1785	4.890411
Emma	6/19/2001	10/28/2008	2688	7.364384
Aleesha	2/17/1997	10/28/2008	4271	11.701370
Daddy	11/24/1969	10/28/2008	14218	38.953425
Papa	2/20/1935	10/28/2008	26914	73.736986

The Pen

Something happened today that I knew was coming, but was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen. My pen ran out of ink! I know this happens all the time, but this pen was different. It has performed valiantly for the last 2 months without even appearing to be tired, when it looked as if it had no ink to write with. It was a great pen. For 2 months, with no visible ink inside, it wrote on, not even fading a little. For 2 months this pen has fought to stay alive and out of the garbage can. Then suddenly today, with little warning, it could go on writing no longer. It struggled to finish a small word. With the last letter, it showed its lack of ink with a faded color. It tried to continue and started the next word. But with each stroke it was lighter and lighter, and before I could finish the word, it was over. The pen was dry. I had no time to mourn for the pen as I needed to continue to take notes. So I put the faithful pen away, grabbed the spare, and continued on writing. It was just not the same. It was a little different color and not as smooth, but somehow I made it through. So now I write this to remember that faithful writing instrument that would not die, and share this last picture of that faithful pen with its replacement. Hopefully I can get used to this new pen and it will last half as long as the old one.
Okay, that's enough of the sappy stuff, time to put The Pen in the can. I need to go hunting.