Youth hunt, visitors, and goat heads

Last Saturday I accompanied Stacy, the person in charge of the hunts on the refuge, on her rounds for the first Youth Hunt weekend of the season.  Young hunters, both boys and girls, under the age of 16 get the first crack at bagging some waterfowl.  They all must be accompanied by an adult that is not allowed to hunt.

It was an interesting day.  I only got one picture of a happily successful young hunter.  He harvested two mallards.  Why is it that young boys always seem to have such big feet in proportion to the rest of their bodies?  I guess they’re like puppies; they’ll grow into them. 

We only found one father and son that were hunting in a closed area.  They were not from this area, and got a little turned around in the dark at 4:00 a.m. as they tried to find their ‘spot’.  While I am not a hunter, I can appreciate the contributions that hunters have made to preserving our wild places.

It appeared that most, if not all, of the young hunters were successful.  A big cookout is provided by a local hunt group for everyone, and I believe every youth hunter went home with a great prize.  Many tables held all kinds of prizes like cartridges, gun cases, duck call thingies, camouflage apparel, decoys, and even four guns. 

Today, after a dentist appointment in Klamath Falls, I had to hurry back to the rig to get ready for some visitors. 

Loree and Luci drove down from around Bend, OR, to visit Emma and me.  We have been reading each others blogs for years, and missed a chance to meet quite a few years ago down in New Orleans when I was not feeling well.  Finally, we got to meet each other.  Little Luci was not thrilled with exuberant Emma, so she spent most of the time in the car or on Loree’s lap.  I fixed New York BBQ chicken and Waldorf salad for lunch, and Loree brought a bag of home grown cherry tomatoes and some delicious pumpkin muffins.  We just ‘chewed the fat’ for about three hours before they had to be on their way back home.  It’s always great to spend some time with someone you’ve known so long in blogland.

Now for the goat heads…  This sure looks like a goat’s head to me.  I don’t know for sure if that’s what they’re called, but they are a real pain in the foot!  The area outside of my rig has a million of them.  They’re only about 1/8-1/4” wide, but those spikes get caught in my shoes and Emma’s feet daily.  I can’t even figure out what plant they’re coming from.  There isn’t much growing around the rig or around the picnic table, but I remove about twenty of them daily from my Crocs and Emma’s pads.  Nasty little devils!

I Googled ‘2015 government shutdown’ a little while ago, and it seems that it has been postponed until early December.  I guess that means I’ll be here a couple of more weeks before I head south.  I hope the weather holds out.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy