ROOSTER!!

Howdy! I?m going to talk about my trip in a little more detail today and show you some pictures too?don?t worry, I?ve got some knitting pics to go along with the hunting pics?P.S. Jacob took every picture on this post except for the ones he's in...so you can thank him for the nice shots!

This is how pheasant hunting works. We had five people. Two of us (usually me *check out my gear!*
and Jacob?s mom) would jump into the back of a pick-up truck with our guns and drive to one end of a field (usually corn, or some kind of shrubbery, or a patch of trees.) We are the blockers. The blockers stand at one end and make sure that no birds escape through our end of the field. (Yes, that means shoot them.)

The walkers then walk around to the other end of the field (and these were HUGE fields!) and trudge through the field, towards me and Annette, with the dogs. (By the way, dogs LOVE this.) The dogs would flush out the birds, which means to nudge or scare them until they fly up. Then, the birds fly up. It?s a male pheasant, somebody yells ?Rooster!? and anyone who has a shot takes it. Pow. If it?s a female pheasant, somebody yells ?Hen!? and NO ONE can take a shot. It?s a big bad deal if you shoot a hen.

Then, we get the birds we shot, load back up in the truck, and drive to another area to see if we can get more. Easy, right?

NO. It?s so hard, especially walking through snowdrifts. I was a blocker most of the time because I?m in such bad shape, but the two times I walked, I was about to fall over out of exhaustion. (Note to self: New Year?s Resolution will be to get my heart rate going at least three times a week?.gee, how many years have I made THAT resolution?) The boys (Jacob, his dad, and his granddad) were all really good shots. I sucked, of course, but it was still a lot of fun. Annette was definitely better than me, but she didn?t get to take too many shots?the hens liked her! We got 34 birds altogether.

Of course, as hard as it was, it was still beautiful. Look at the landscape
we were hunting on?you can see for miles and miles in South Dakota, and it?s so QUIET out there. One time I was blocking by myself at the end of a field and it was DEAD SILENT, and three deer galloped by me. No kidding. It was like a freakin? Disney movie! {I guess I was the villain:)}

The little town we stayed in was pretty cool too. Burke, SD ? we could walk to the grocery store and the one restaurant in town. The house we rented had some really groovy 70s d?cor going on, complete with crazy lamps and a velvet painting. Oh, yeah.

Now, since you read all that, you get to see some knitting pictures! Here is what I knitted for myself on the way up there?gotta keep your head warm. I made Jacob this one
to go under his bright orange toboggan, and he wore it all week. And finally, I made this scarf
on the way home when we were stranded in Alabama for 3.5 hours....

I also have pictures of Jacob's new and improved birthday hat. Go check out the finished projects page to see the results!

Posted by Carrieoke on December 3, 2003 2:08 PM | Permalink