2012 grouse hunting first three nights.

The view from where we grouse hunt.

So here in Washington State September 1st is opening grouse hunting and the start to my crazy busy hunting seasons.

This year the 1st, 2nd and 3rd I had to work till 5 and drive 40 minutes home before I could go hunting.  I told my wife that she needed to have herself and Maddy ready to go when I got home so all I had to do was change clothes get in the jeep and go hunting.

Of course when I got home everything was good to go and we went hunting.  We got up to where we go hunting and there was a log across the road. So since we did not have the chain saw with us we parked and walked the rest of the way.

Remi started getting birdy and I sent her up onto the hillside. Remi flushed a grouse which we heard but did not see. My wife went up the hill to see if she could find it in a tree. Remi went up with my wife and Lily and I continued to walk down the road. Lily then got birdy and led me to a wide spot in road and a grouse flushed from behind a log. I shot the grouse and hit it and it continued to fall about 100 yards over the steep hillside.  The dogs and I walked down there and we were unable ti find the bird after about 15 minutes of searching, which did not make me very happy. I hate wounding a bird and not recovering it.

The rest of the night we saw 7 birds and were not able to get a shot at any of them. 

On night two of course I had to work again and of course when I got home things were ready to go hunting. As we pulled out of the driveway  the jeep had a strong pull to the right and i knew right away something was wrong. I got out and of course my luck we had a flat tire. After changing the tire we got back on our way a bit late. I did not see one grouse the whole night.

Day three while sitting at work all I could think about was "I DON'T HAVE A GROUSE YET!"  Then of course there is my 10 year old nephew with a picture on Facebook holding two grouse. This was just not going to do. Then I get a phone call from my wife saying "UMMM A bunch of fire trucks just went speeding up the creek." So i called and got some info..... Just great a 1 acre fire burning about 4 miles up the road from my house. (PEOPLE!!!!!! When an area has not had rain in over a month and 90+ degree temps you do not need to have a camp fire.) So for the rest of the day I was worried that there would be a major fire event at my house.

As I got off of work I could hear on the radio that some of the fire trucks were clearing the scene, which means they had it under control.

I got home and things weren't as ready as normal but nothing I couldn't handle.  I helped get my daughter ready to go and loaded up the chain saw for the tree in the road. We left the house and I felt good about my chances. We get to the good area and the log I mentioned earlier had a freaking grouse under it. I got out and got it just as it ran off the trail. Then another one flushed and went into a tree and a third flushed and sailed over the hillside. The one that went into the tree was just right for my wife to shoot.  She was out with her gun ready and POW limbs and sticks fell from the tree minus a grouse. I tasked my wife uhh can I shoot it now? She said no and then lost sight of it while I was watching it the whole time. It is amazing how time slows down when you think a grouse is going to leave a tree when you are watching it. Finally my wife sees it again and POW............. And the grouse flies down the to the canyon. This is not normal for my wife, I don't think I have ever seen her miss one in a tree. But i do know that my wife will be very upset at herself over this so I need to try and stay calm. So I tell her no worries there will be more. Which I am sure doesn't help her frustration.



So I cut the tree out of the trail and get going. A few corners later i see another grouse run across the road and then fly into a tree. Of course I load my gun get ready and let my wife take a crack at it. As my wife was getting her gun loaded I could see Remi and hard point over the hillside. As my wife shoots and gets the one in the tree and second one flies from about 2 feet in front of Remi into the same tree as I get ready to shoot it I hear "PLEASE , let me shoot it." So I lower my gun and let my wife shoot the second one which she does like a pro. We don't see anything for the rest of the night but it is ok because the weight has lifted.

Spring food plots

So I bought a bag of throw and grow off of Amazon. I had different ideas of where I wanted to plant it. I have two other plots one of timothy grass and one a wildlife mix of grasses and other plants.

The trow and grow says you don't have to disc your soil for it to work. I decided to disc it anyway just for best results. I pull this old discing system with my old jeep, works great. I decided to plant it on the side of my property where I already have irrigation sprinklers to water. I also picked a spot like my other plots that you can see from the house

Since there is a 60 acre alfalfa field next door I am trying convince the deer to come to my property because I have better food than alfalfa.

I also decided to plant now because we are expecting some rain which will help grow the new seeds of clover, brassica and rye grass.

We just saw our first buck of the year last night running through the alfalfa with small velvet spikes, which I hope turn into a large 5X5.

I still have one more plot to plant. I normally plant sun flowers for the birds but I can't decide what to do this year.

Maturing of a growing hunter (Part 5 16 Years Old)

Part 5, 16 Years Old

I met my friend Goeman in 7th grade; he was the first friend I made who actually hunted. We had always talked about going hunting by ourselves. Well, in high school once I was 16 and had a driver’s license and a Jeep it was GAME ON. He had been telling me of a place called Twisp where he went deer hunting and said there is a lot of grouse. So we loaded up the Jeep Thursday before Labor Day weekend, so all we needed to do is stop at home to grab our guns after school and leave for the weekend.


Goeman and the first grouse of the trip,
 we couldn't decide if it was a
bush are a grouse. 5 minutes after shooting
hours on the first morning



I am sure that our parents were nervous about the weekend's hunting and camping expedition. There is a famous quote between Goeman and his dad saying "If you two had half a brain between you, you would be dangerous." and Goeman replying "We don't have half a brain between us and we're still dangerous."

On friday, school was taking a little longer than planned so we wrote fake letters saying we had late afternoon doctor’s appointments and skipped out from school early. We had to write the fake notes otherwise the school would call home saying "Your student missed one or more classes". And of course our parents would not have let us skip out early.

Our friend Daniel who was not hunting decided to join us as well.

We all jumped in my newish Jeep Cherokee and away we went, starting a weekend chalk full of gas station food and I believe a playboy made it along for the trip too, nothing like some classy reading to pass the time. The next four and a half hours flew by and before we knew it we were in camp. Since it was early September we could not have a fire without the risk of starting a forest fire. I laid down my tarp after flattening an area to sleep on the ground.  Goeman pitched his tent and Daniel slept outside as well.

The weekend was full of shenanigans and jokes, such as throwing fake spiders in Goeman's tent and jumping up in the middle of the night saying coyotes were surounding the camp.  These stories have turned into stories that will be told to our grand children. That first weekend we shot 15 Grouse and a few rabbits, it seemed every corner we went around had some grouse sitting there.

We took some pictures on a disposable camera, which at the time seemed like a good idea and now I look back and think, did I really have hair like that?! We were young and dumb and full of piss and vinegar.  It was one of the best times of my hunting life.

Part 1 (Before Memories)

Part 2 (5 Years Old)

Part 3 (10 Years Old)

Part 4 (12 Years Old)