Dec 3, 2011

Deer Hunting and The Ranch

When I was really young I was always very jealous of the older boys who got to go deer hunting with dad and my uncles and cousins. I just couldn’t wait until it was my turn to start going. Well, finally the day came and I got to go with them to the ranch where we all slept in the cabin in Indian Canyon. We ate supper there and cleaned and prepared the rifles and sharpened the hunting knives and basically just had a good time. I was probably 8 or 10 years old, I really don’t remember for sure. Anyway I got to sleep on the floor and didn’t really sleep that well. It was 4 am when everyone started to get up. It wasn’t really too hard for me to get up then considering I had been too excited to sleep all night anyway. We had breakfast and that was a treat in itself since the cabin only had a wood burning stove and I got to see Uncle Mont get that ready before he could cook.

After breakfast we all went out and saddled the horses. We went across the road and rode up into the hills while it was still dark outside. The gorses were really good at being able to see their way so it was almost like everyone went back to sleep while on the horses. I am sure they were not asleep but that was the feeling I got because we rode along in such silence. I was on the back of the horse behind dad and was going to be with him all day. It was fun but we didn’t see any deer. The thing that I remember most from that day was when it was noon dad decided to stop riding and to sit under a pinyon pine tree for lunch. I have no idea where anyone else was but knew that we were on the edge of a hill and there were pine nuts right there where we were eating lunch. Dad then following lunch laid down under the tree and went to sleep. I wanted too but was still too excited to do it. So I sat there listening to the quietness of the day. We had heard rifle shots earlier in the day but even the rifle shots had ended. I suppose that is because everyone else was doing just what dad was doing and the deer for the most part settle down at that time of the day as well. 

It wasn’t but maybe a half hour though that dad had been asleep when I heard rocks sliding on the hillside just below where we were staying. I jumped up and ran over to where I could see what was causing the noise just and saw a deer going across the rocks below us. Apparently someone had started to move and caused it to move as well. I ran back and woke dad up but by the time we were back to the spot the deer had disappeared. I don’t remember getting a deer that day and I don’t think that dad was too disappointed about it either. I had fun though and the fact that I finally got to even see a deer was pretty special. The best part though was spending the entire day with my dad. I was really sore that night from riding on the horse so long but that didn’t even matter either cause now I had been on the deer hunt for the first time.

Dec 2, 2011

Ben's pizza delivery, riding on the car engine

When Ben was in high school he got a job with Slice A Pizza delivering pizza’s for them. One night he called and said that the car, the family car, was running at top speed and he couldn’t get it to stop without turning off the car. Marie and I went over to see what we could do. I am no mechanic and that night only proved it again to me but I opened the hood and knew enough about cars that I could take the idling arm and push it to where the car would not run full blast. I then sat on the engine and Ben and Marie drove the several blocks to Max’s car repair where we would leave it so Max could fix it the next day. That was one interesting ride since Ben had to look between the crack of the hood and the engine to see where he was going and having no control over the speed since that was what I was doing  on the engine. We arrived quite safe and to my surprise Max and his son were there working on some cars so his son came out and took one look and freed the spring that controlled the cruise control. He then disconnected the cruise control and we ran it that way the rest of the years that we owned the car.

Dec 1, 2011

Kidney Disease and a trip to St. Marks Hospital in Salt Lake City.

When I was 10 or so years old, I don’t remember specifically, I was out in the barn and had to use the bathroom so as we always did when out in the barn yard or camping I just went number one in the gutter where the cows always let go while we were milking. I was scared this time though because it came out red with blood. I told mom about it and we were soon on our way to the doctor’s office in Roosevelt. It wasn’t long after we got there that I was then admitted into the hospital in Roosevelt. I was in the hospital for several days as various and sundry tests were ran and with no closer clue as to what was wrong. I didn’t have any more issue of blood but they were running tests none the less. Finally it was determined that I would need to go the Salt Lake City for more tests since their equipment was much more up to date. So on a Wednesday night I spent my last day in the hospital at Roosevelt before mom and dad would come get me to take me to Salt lake City. I was asked by the nurse that night what I would like to drink and my answer was the standard “7-Up” since I knew Pepsi and coke had caffeine in them and mom had always taught us not to drink them for that reason. The nurse however informed me that I had had 7-Up all week and it was time to have something different and so she brought me a Pepsi.  I obediently drank the Pepsi and then tried to go to sleep but instead all I could do was vomit all night. I am sure that it wasn’t caused by the Pepsi but rather my mind, however, it left such a lasting memory that I have never been able, nor even tempted, to ever drink either of them again. Well my parents came on Thursday and I was taken home. I remember it was night and I anxiously looked for the lights of the house as we rode toward Duchesne on Highway 40. It was really a special moment when I could see the lights from the front porch.

The next afternoon we traveled to Salt Lake City. It took forever at 50 miles per hour to go from Duchesne to Fruitland to Strawberry Valley and then Heber and finally down the canyon into Salt Lake City. I recall that it was in October because I counted over 250 cars and trucks, mostly trucks, going up the canyon out of Salt lake as men and boys were headed to the mountains for the start of the deer hunt the next day. I was admitted to the St Marks hospital and remember being in a room where 8 beds were set up. I was the only one n the room. The next day I was not alone as the room was filled with boys that had been involved in various accidents while deer hunting, a couple of them had been shot with 22 rifles. Monday morning they came in at 7 am and started giving me drugs to knock me out prior to some exploratory surgery on my bladder. I was brought back to me room to wake up and I still recall how puzzled I was in the fact that The Lone Ranger was on TV so early in the day. It was always 4 PM or later out in Duchesne. Little did I know until I looked at the clock that I had been under all day. That spinning of the room that occurred just before I checked out had put me to sleep for an entire day. I don’t know if they ever figured out what was wrong but it never happened to me again for which I have been very grateful since it really hurt to do a number one after they had finished their exploring that day in the hospital.

Nov 30, 2011

Crossing Palisade lake on a raft

I have written about my cooking experiences at Palisade Lake in the Granddaddy basin of the Uintah National Forest and this story is of another exiting adventure of that week.  Scouts are prone to get into trouble given a chance and well we were given a chance. We spent a lot of time that week running around the lake and fishing and playing. Someone at one point decided that we, and there were four of us, needed to return across the lake to camp and I thought we would be going back around on the shore but his idea was to go across on a raft. Now of course we had nothing to use to build a raft so we went back around the lake on the shore and over to where we were camped on a flat area above the cliffs which were on the one side of the lake. However a seed was planted and we just had to make a raft after that.

So we gathered up rope and went down by the water and gathered up logs that would float and then tied them all together with very sloppy pioneering lashings but it worked and we set off around the lake. Now I wasn’t a swimmer by any stretch of the imagination and still had visions of almost drowning in Moats pool so how they ever got me on that raft I don’t know. But I must admit that despite my fears I had a great time sitting on that raft and paddling the little thing, which barely held all four of us, around the lake. It was fun that is until it started to come apart and at that point I made sure I had a good strong big one that I could hang onto as I cautiously made our way back to shore so we could repair it. I think Brother Hansen found us at about that time and stopped us from going out on the lake again with it.  It was fun but I know the bottom of that lake was a lot further than one could reach on his tiptoes while holding the raft and for part of the time that was exactly how we did it on the shallow side of the lake. Yes, left to their own devices, boys are their own worst enemy.

Nov 29, 2011

Coyote Hunting

I had never seen a coyote in the wild especially around Duchesne until I was in High School. I knew they existed but didn’t know they were anywhere near the farm. Then one day as I went up onto the hill to go rabbit hunting as I quite often did since the black tail jackrabbit were a major problem in the fields and we had to keep them under control. As I got over to the oil well road, which ran down from the bench onto the east side of the farm, and I saw my first coyote near the farm. I had my .22 rifle with me and was actually a pretty good shot or so I thought until I shot at the coyote. He went down as soon as I shot and so I figured I had him but when I got close to where I had thought he should be and couldn’t see him then I began looking around and sure enough about 100 yards away I could barely see him sneaking through the brush. I fired again but the bushes were in the way and thus I couldn’t hit him. I only saw him one more time up there and had the same results.

Later that year as Harold and I were deer hunting up in Four mile canyon in the right hand fork of Indian canyon we spotted one that looked very sick. We kept hiking and also kept watching it. It became quite apparent a little later that he was stalking us and had no intentions of leaving us alone. Harold and I both shot at him and yes you guessed it had the same results I had when hunting them near the house. We continued hunting that evening never seeing him again but always wondering if he was just watching us from a little safer vantage point.

So even though the coyote pelts would have brought money from the government those critters wasn’t going to let me make it by selling their hides. They truly are a very elusive creature.