Hunting in Glasgow

On Wednesday my dad, Amy and I headed up to Glasgow, MT for a hunting trip. Small amounts of snow fell the night before and we were able to get some beautiful pictures of the scenery.
This first picture is just past Island Park, ID. It is in the direction of the Tetons.
This second picture is driving through Big Sky, MT. Unfortunately, I was too slow to catch the picture of a flock of swans flying by. It is amazing to see one swan in the wild, but a flock of swans is something completely different.
About an hour or two out of Glasgow we drove past a wind farm. The windmills are massive. There were deer in the fields around the windmills, so it seems they are adapting to them just fine.
When we arrived in Glasgow, we immediately went out to the farm to hunt. I have never hunted from a blind before. We were told there was a nice flat layout on top of the hay stack hidden behind the bails. When we made it to the top, there was nothing but two rows of hay. All three of us had to squeeze down between the bails. It was quite uncomfortable, but it left us something to talk about. Here is Amy on the end of the stack squashed down in.
This is my spot. Amy is laying down behind me. I was in the middle of the three of us. This was a picture just after my shot.

This is dad on the other end of the stack. It took him a while to squish down into the stack, but in the end, he had the most comfortable spot.

Amy was the first to be successful. We climbed out on the stack about 12:30 and she had hers down by 2:00. It is a very symmetrical 5x5 buck. She was using a 270 WSM.

At about 3:50 it was my turn. Out of the forest came another nice 5x5 buck. Amazing that two beautiful bucks came wandering out within hours of each other. I was using a 308.

Dad was quite jealous of our bucks and didn't have much success getting one of his own on the first evening. The next morning he and I got up at 4:30, ate, had a cup of coffee, and climbed up into a different blind by 6:00. It was still dark when we climbed up in. At about 6:30 we could make out several deer out in the field. We were certain that two were bucks, but didn't know how many points they had. By about 7:00 we knew that one was a 3x3 and the other a 5x5. At 7:10 he had his on the ground...another 5x5. He was using a Winchester 300 Ultra Mag.

All-in-all it was a fabulous trip for the three of us. The amazing thing is that we all shot very symmetrical 5x5 bucks. All scoring within seven points. Couldn't have asked for a better trip.

HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween came quickly. Hannah was more than ready to go trick-or-treating. We had to go the store to buy candles for our pumpkins first. Again, Hannah was so excited to go around the neighborhood that it was near to impossible to get a picture with her holding still. She is about to run right off the step.

Here is a good look of the pumpkins with their candles and no flash on the camera. They turned out very nice. Hannah was so proud of her pumpkin. Everytime we walked past it she would say "that's my pumpkin" and smile widely.
Sadly our pumpkins didn't last long. They made it through Halloween night, but quickly found their way to the concrete. It was interesting how it happened. It was about 2:00 in the morning when Holly woke up and let out three deep barks. Our dog has a very deep, mean sounding bark. Ed immediately woke up and turned on our bedroom light. He swears he heard footsteps, but wasn't completely sure. In any case, he waited about fifteen minutes and then went back to bed. When we woke up in the morning we looked outside and saw what we had feared. Ed's pumpkin was completely smashed on our porch. I believe that is what woke up Holly. When she barked, I think she scared the culprits away. My pumpkin was untouched and Hannah's pumpkin was in the middle of our yard. It was apparently going to be the next victim, but was just dropped and split in half in the yard. When we looked up and down the street we saw every single pumpkin smashed in the road. Explaining to Hannah (who was so proud of her pumpkin) that someone "broke it" was extremely difficult. It makes you think back of all the things we did as kids. Amazing how the tables turned.

Boo at the Zoo

On October 30, Ed, Hannah, Gama, and I went to Tautphaus Park Zoo for "Boo at the Zoo". The zoo decorates all the animal cages with pumpkins and decorations for the kids to enjoy. Also, throughout the zoo there are little booths for the kids to trick-or-treat at.

When we arrived at the zoo we were lucky we bought prepaid tickets. The line for those without tickets consisted of hundreds of people. Here is a picture of the first ghost we saw once we entered the zoo. It was still light when we arrived.

Throughout the zoo we ended up with three toothbrushes, a snake bracelet, and several pieces of candy. On our way out we stopped by the three ghost blow-up for a picture. We actually caught her looking at the camera.
Good-bye from "Boo at the Zoo"! Tomorrow we go trick-or-treating!