We are at our home base for Nebraska hunting, we have been waiting out the weather for the last couple of days. we are going to find birds today...

Looking east from the trailer

It is getting warmer we are up to 19* at 9 am

I will post more later today

Time to get all the insulated clothes on and get ready

Last Hunting trip for this year

We have traveled to the hunting grounds ahead of the first snow storm for our area of the season.

we love hunting in fresh snow for a couple of reasons, 1) easy to find tracks and get a clue where the birds are. 2) the pheasant will "set" tighter making it easier to get closer shots.

The dogs and I are hanging out tonight warm and dry.

It is 25* outside and 75* inside

this photo is looking from the bedroom to the back of the trailer.

Photo of the bedroom from the frig area.

I store the kennels on the bed until it is bedtime, Libby is hanging out there.

Photo from the entrance door

Weather forecast for us :

Thursday...Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Patchy blowing snow in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 20s. North winds 15 to 20 mph.

Thursday Night...Windy. Snow likely until midnight...then snow after midnight. Areas of blowing snow through the night. Snow accumulation of 2 to 3 inches. Lows around 4. North winds 20 to 30 mph. Chance of precipitation 90 percent. Wind chill readings 8 below to 18 below zero.

Friday...Breezy. Mostly cloudy. Snow likely in the morning... Then chance of snow in the afternoon. Areas of blowing snow through the day. Highs around 11. North winds 20 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

Friday Night...Mostly cloudy. A 20 percent chance of snow until midnight. Lows around 1 below. Northwest winds 15 to 20 mph.

New Years Day...Partly sunny. Highs around 20.

If they are right we probably will hunt tomorrow morning, and not again until New Years Day. yeah

The lost week between Christmas & New Year

The day after Christmas and the weekday after new year is a total waste of time if you are trying to do any sales or business in our world.

Soooo, It looks like there is finally going to be some snow coming our way on Thursday of this week.
I know (those of you in the frozen north are saying) "you poor soul" we will give you some of ours.

I talked it over with the dogs :)
and it has been decided that pheasant hunting with snow on the ground is "the Best". We are getting ready to go to the hunting grounds leaving on Wednesday or Thurs depending on the road condition forecast.

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Hunting before Christmas week

We got a late start traveling out to the Hunting Lands.
You can tell that Cody is pretty concerned about it.

We arrived at the trailer about 7pm.





On Thursday we started our hunting adventure about 9:30 am.

We went to our favorite spots and started out really good, 3 birds in 4 stops.

For the day we ended up with 3 roosters and 1 quail. Quail are really fun for us, it is getting rare to find quail, when we do Libby turns into a statue when she finds them.


We stopped in the little town of Palisade Ne. for lunch

This is the only restaurant in town and is run by volunteers from the town to keep a restaurant open for the folks. they have very good food.













We started hunting of Friday morning about 10 am. ( My hunting partner Gary got a late start, his mother, 97 years old now, has been admitted to a nursing home, trying to heal from a fall, nothing broken, hurt her back, docs think she will recover and be able to return home)

I attempted to get a picture with both dogs standing next to each other but, it became impossible with Cody never stopping .

At this point we had not had any luck getting close enough to the birds for a decent shot.








We decided to do a little "road " hunting. cruising very slowly down the country roads, Libby has to get as close to the windshield as she can, she even will leave nose marks on the windshield.












Cody stands between the seats, waits for us to stop.



about 2:30 we went to one of the spots we tried yesterday,.

We shot two birds, called it a day.

Cleaned the birds



Later that night we went to McCook Ne for dinner with Jeff, (his wife was having a girls only Christmas party, so we went and had BBQ)

Mid season pheasant hunting

Well. today was 70 degrees, (sorry, those in the frozen north)

During the last trip to Neb. I noticed that we had a noisy water pump, the week before we had to replace pinion bearings in the rear differential. (noisy)

Any way, I inspected the front of the motor and found the water pump leaking, So, today with the nice weather the water pump was replaced.

The dogs and I are headed to so some more bird hunting. We left the trailer there last week.

Pheasant hunting 2010

Chris, Rob, Bailey (left), Brandon (right)
2nd week of November, 70degrees, limit of birds (9)

Libby guarding the birds from Cody (those are her birds!)

WOW
The Metro-dome collapsing

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/video?vid=ca15cffb-3b66-49a0-84ca-20ed0a175567" target="_new" title="">NFL on FOX: Metrodome collapse</a>

More Elk trip

Rob needed to get additional license, we stopped at the sporting goods store and parked behind a camper that has been dragging the sewer hose for a while.

Don't think it is much good anymore












We went into old town Fairplay

This store sell nothing but quality hats











The old time bar

The boys from Minnesota, met us at the bar in old town.






In this picture there are 3 generations of Elk Hunters.

(left) Rob Bendt

(to the right of the guy on white hat) Jim Bendt

(next guy to the right) George Bendt ( Jim's brother from Minnesota)

(next guy standing to the right) Bob Bendt ( Jim's son, Rob's father)

Time for elk hunting

10.21.2010



Left on Thursday about 11:30 to Do the yearly trek to the Mountains around Jefferson Colorado.

Got to the usual camp on forest service land and found it to be "Grand Central Station "

I decided to go further up the road and find another spot, I traveled another two miles and found a large flat area and decided it would do.

The new spot is another 500 ft higher. ( the old spot is at 10,000 ft the new spot (on Georgia Pass)is at 10,500 ft but so far very quiet. :)

I decided to go to Fairplay and fill the suburban with fuel abd maybe get a burger.

Right before the town limits of Fairplay I noticed a dodge truck on the side of the road, with it's hood up, I realized it was "Easy Ed" a long time member of the International Order of the Rocky Mountain Goats. And this year, the grand puba.

I turned around and pulled up to see what was going on.

Apparently the voltage regulator for the charging system had failed, an burnt a wire on the alternator. He had called a friend from Denver and the friend was helping to repair the truck, Luckily there is a parts store in Fairplay and the regulator was replaced.

The battery was so dead that jump starting the truck did not work.



So, we hooked up a tow strap and towed the truck the the Motel in Fairplay, where they were going to stay.

The motel had an outdoor outlet, we used a battery charger that I carry and charged the battery





10.22-2010



Woke Up this morning to a little snow



Forecast for later today is snow up to 10 inches, and 50 mph winds after midnight.

I think the windmill will get a workout.

The group of hunter that we hunt with are from the Denver area, and northern Minnesota area.

We plan to meet up tonight, to make plans for tomorrow..


We are at 10.600 ft elevation