The Elk Hunt 2011

I'm sure everyone has heard how the elk hunt went. A big bust and an expensive one at that. The elk came out the winners this year, as for the first time in recent memory the Johnson's got skunked.

Here is some real bad news to go along with an already dismal hunt and a lost quad and trailer. And you think things couldn't get any worse; I broke my camera. Now what am I going to do when we all get together and I want to get that family photo? This is a sad state of affairs. Actually, it even gets worse than that. I was called to be the scoutmaster of the ward we are going to be living in. If that isn't an incentive to find a house in another ward, I don't know what is. What a year...

This is as close to getting an elk as we came. We actually found 4 different antlers. I wonder how they might taste cooked in a little grease and some salt and pepper?  This one ended up in Josh Stuarts front yard. I found one that is proudly displayed over Natalie and Jacobs home. Cade found the rack of a very nice 2 point which I'm sure is over the mantle of his fireplace by now. Haven't seen pictures yet. Not sure what happened to the little mini that was found.

Can you guess what this is? And no it is not a cat scan of anyone's brain.

Here is a look at the area we were hunting from one of the rock quarys. Mt Floyd and Round Mountain in the background.

On the last day Josh Stuart and I drove to the heart of the hunting area looking for elk. Although it does not look like it there was a road we were following. This was the last day. No wonders we didn't get anything, it would have to run over the top of you. We were hoping to exploit the white truck syndrome. If it worked the elk were froze in their tracks behind trees and were out of our view.

This was actually taken after the hunt out on the Indian Reservation. It looked cooler in real life. He was standing on a ridge, but it doesn't show to well in the picture.

Tanner's First Day behind the Cash Register at DI

I know everyone is anxious to see what Tanner was required to ware to work at the cash register at DI. They expect you to look like a professional. Doesn't he though? I'm sure you are wondering where he bought those fancy duds. DI of course, you don't think they pay him enough to shop anywhere else do you.

Many have inquired about the new hair look. He has been very protective of it and made sure his mother does not get close to his head with the clippers, which she is really itching to do. His grandmothers are pretty concerned about it also. This picture is about a month old and like Sampson no razor has touched his head since. I tell everyone to leave him alone, in 5 years they won't have to worry about it, because it will mostly be gone and if it still looks like the picture below, it will be a great comb over job.

As a side note, you may want to call Tanner and congratulate him on his new church calling. He is in the singles ward and has been called as a member of the mix and mingle committee. I'm sure you can find that calling in the hand book somewhere. Anyway, I'm confident he will do a great job.

The Round-Up

This is a few weeks old, but I was a major participant in the Johnson and Johnson Cattle round-up. It was pretty exciting. Herding cow's, loading into trailers and bringing them to the ranch (Grandma Johnson's house) for branding, worming, ear marking, de-horning, and making bull's into steers which appeared from my standpoint a very uncomfortable process. I am sure that after having a hot branding iron pressed on your front shoulder until all the hair was burnt off and a nice back to back J and J was scorched into your hide, maybe placing a rubber band on some of your private parts would be hardly noticeable. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of the two procedures so you could cast your vote as to which looked the most painful. After we were all done I realized how glad I was not a cow. That picture of cow's doing nothing but grazing out in pastures with endless amounts of food, sleeping as long as desired, and walking around smelling each others hind end (well I'm not sure that is really that glamorous) does come with a price.

You are probably asking yourself, what is this picture and what does it have to do with the round-up. Not sure other than it was taken sometime between the beginning and end of the round up. Probably wanted to show the quality of the feed the cow's have to eat or a picture taken with out my knowing it.

 Cowboy's vs Cows

As the following two pictures show, the cows lost. This little guy was really enjoying this event. I guess that may be why he was winking.... Oh if he only knew what was coming this little bull wouldn't be joking around so much. Obviously he couldn't see the blood on the panels behind him.

This little exercise is what is called "sawing the horn off a cow." The result was a little messy and the cow didn't seem to enjoy it to much. In defense of my brother who was inflicting the pain, the horn was growing into the side of the head of the cow, so in the long run it was in the cow's best interest.

Girls Home Video

There has been much clamoring almost leading to riots and temper tantrums to get some pictures or video of the home we bought to start the girls school. I took a short video of the outside and surroundings. The house is pretty nice, three stories, with a theater and shooting range in the basement. A creek running along the side, a fishing pond in the back. I'll try to get more pictures before we start remodeling things.

Last night while we were doing a walk through of the house, your mom spotted two bucks running across the hill on the back side. Then while we were in the drive way visiting a Buck came walking down the drive way. I guess next year the area I put in for will include the back porch of the house.

Click on link below to watch video.


Girls School Home and Surroundings

Catching Up

So much is going on it is almost impossible to keep up. I am feeling the same pressure that I had when we were in Ireland. Just not enough time.

I have became so bored that I have started working with Bevin and Dale building block walls and chimneys. I did take a few pictures of the chimney we were working on on Kolob mountain. BTW, we saw a huge bull elk up there, but did not get a picture.

Below you will see a few pictures of a building a rock chimney. Actually the chimney is built, we are just putting the stone on it. If you look really close you will notice that I am manning the sky lift and my brothers are working from it and on a very steep roof. My job was to raise Bevin and Dale up to the chimney and because the lift had a slow pressure leak, I would need to raise it occasionally (about every 15 minutes).

Not captured in picture or video are my brothers fighting over who was going to work in the very safe bucket that I was controlling or working on the very steep, snow covered and dangerous roof. I could tell they were both concerned about the others safety and insisting that the other stay in the bucket. It went something like this. I very carefully raised the bucket up (you have to remember this is my first time working one of these machines, but hey, how hard could it be?) to the chimney, they kept yelling and waiving frantically at me. Of course that did no good, because I could not hear anything over the sound of motor and was mostly focused on which lever I was supposed to push, pull or move side to side. I didn't have time to focus on their arm waving. I am guessing the ride up was not quite as smooth as a well oiled elevator in a five star hotel, but again for the first time I thought I did pretty good. They did mention something about a one inch sway down where I was sitting equated to about a two foot jerk up at their end. I was glad when they finally quit waiving their arms, in what appeared to be an effort to be funny or distract me, and just settled in and showed some real brotherly love by hugging each other and wrapping their free arm around the railing. Even though I could not hear what they were trying to yell at me I knew they were happy with my ability to smoothly raise and lower the boom because as soon as I had it close to the very unstable scaffolding we had nailed to the chimney they both happened to jump out off the safety cage almost at the same time. I could see they immediately became concerned for the safety of the other because once they realized they had both jumped they began to shove the other one back in to the safety of the cage, quite vigorously I might add. I have never see a display a brotherly love for the safety of the other. I could tell by their actions one was willing to sacrifice his life by working on the rickety scaffold all for the safety of the other who would be in the safety of the cage which I was controlling. When it was time to come down they did yell down the chimney at one of the carpenters who may have run this rig a few more times than me, to come out and bring them down. This didn't hurt my feelings since I felt I had mastered the controls when I raised them up. 

Here is a picture of my brothers working at the top of the chimney.

Here is a picture of me, probably showing off a little by having time to pose for a photo while raising my screaming brothers to the chimney.

Fishing at Panguitch Lake

Here is a couple of tough fisherman, fishing at Panguitch Reservoir. Tina had already headed back to the car by the time this picture was taken. By the way, you know the old saying "The worst day fishing is better than the best day at work." Well I have found that their may be a few exceptions to that rule, one would be depending on how cold it is and how hard the wind is blowing.

In this picture Grandpa Ewell is reeling in a nice fish. Notice the bend in his pole. Notice how red my face and hands are. It is not sunburn.

Here are a few of the fish we caught. The smallest was over a pound. The snow was convenient for keeping them on ice. We caught probably 10 or 11 all together, but they have a slot where you have to throw them back (14-22 inches). That only applied to cut throats. Grandpa smoked the big one.

Some Good Ol Southern Utah Scenery

I went for a little drive on Saturday around Sand Hollow Reservoir. Pine Valley Mountain in the background.

Here is a shot of the leave changing colors in downtown Toquerville. Don't you wish you were here?

A picture of the antlers of the deer Tony got this year. Kameron accused me of having Nikki holding them to make them look bigger. We did have that discussion when we took the picture, but Tony wasn't home. It was still a pretty nice set of antlers.

You mom and I went out on a horse ride last night. Out to, you guessed it, the Lone Tree (Which really doesn't exist any more. It died in the drought) It was pretty nice ride. I may make a cowboy out of your mom yet.

I almost forgot to put a picture of Grandma Ewells Veterans Day display. Not sure if Grandpa helped with this one or not. That is the moon up in the right hand corner. If you look real hard you can see the little American flags on each gate post.

As a parting note. I would like to thank Caryn for posting her surgery pictures on her blog. They really got some good ooooh's and ahhhhh's (not sure if the spelling is right on those two words, but you get the drift) not to mention it ruined some appetites (looked at them during dinner time). We do hope you are recovering quickly.

Also, it was reported to me today that Logan has two new teeth. Good for him, bad for nursing mothers...

Deer Everywhere

This morning Dwane, Grandpa Ewell, Tina and me went fishing at Panguitch lake. As we were leaving Toquerville we spoted a heard of deer in a field. It was early in the morning so the pictures are a little blurry, but I think you will appreciate the rack.

News Flash - Deer Located in Unit 6B

You may recall from my last post that I portrayed a somewhat negative attitude toward hunting unit 6B, but as of yesterday my attitude changed a bit. It appears that Cade located several bucks and one was big enough to call Sam at school and have him drive out to make a quick drive in the area that Cade last seen the deer.

Here is how it happened as explained by Cade. I'll just quickly catch you up to the point of interest, that is when the buck was spotted.

Cade and Sam go out before dawn to hunt deer, none seen before Sam has to go to School. Cade continues to look for deer, spots a nice buck, size unknown and a decent two point. To far up a canyon.

12:44 PM - Cade text dad, "My heart wants to, but my legs tell me otherwise (I assume hike up the canyon).

Cade drives back road in opposite direction from Friday. Climbs hill and spots nice 3 point buck trotting across a flat. Calls Sam to get out there as fast as he can. Cade calls dad to tell him he called Sam to get out there as fast as he can and report his finding (a 3 point buck).

He said the buck trotted across this big flat, Cade claims he could have shot at it at least 100 times, this may be a slight exaggeration. First, I don't know of many people that would have that many bullets on hand. Second, it also assumes that you never hit the deer. I don't see the point of continued shooting when the deer is down.  At any rate the deer came a road and again in Cades words, "looked both ways to make sure there were no white trucks coming." The Johnson legend is that white trucks freeze big bucks. I have personally witnessed two occasions where that was the case, once with Kameron (the deer had time to write his will before Kameron could find his bullets and get out of the truck and shoot the deer) on the Kaibab and this year with a big deer Bevin shot (It stood and watched him get out of the truck, put a bullet in and get a rest on the door). Back to Cades story, once the deer determined it was all clear to cross the road it did so then went up into some tree's. At this point the deer may have been out of the 100 shot range as Cade reported that he now had to use his spotting scope to see the deer. He said it just grazed around, scratched himself, went to the bathroom, for over 30 seconds and maybe a full minute before disappearing into the trees. The bathroom thing may be some type of ritual that deer do when they sense death is close. Interestingly enough, with humans it is the smell of smoke. My brothers have had a few brushes with death and they claim they always smelled smoke.

That was the end of our phone conversation, other than I think I did say something like "keep me up to date on what is going on".

1:44 PM -  Email from Cade with distress message, "Deer down, Deer down!"

1:48 PM - Received email with picture attached.

Some time later received a couple more pictures.

Here is a picture of Sam sluffing 6th hour.

The hunter, the hunted and the scouter. I wonder where a person can get a pair of those red gloves they are wearing. 

Pretty impressive deer. The report is that the rack is 22 inches wide and a 3x3. Pretty casual hunting gear (Sam does claim to be wearing his hunting boots). I guess Sam posted up on a hill and Cade drove through the trees that he saw the deer go into. He drove it right to Sam, about 30 yards, and Sam nailed him with one shot. Way to go Sam.

A final note. The deer is now cut up, thanks to the help of Fred Najera and safely stored in Cades freezer. Anyone worried that Caryn will hog it all up for herself? Hummmm, probably not, gums to sore.

We are still hoping for a speed recovery for Caryn. Cade reports that she is doing well and reported that she did try and get pictures for us to see, but they turned out fuzzy.

Weekend of Hunting and Snow

This weekend we had an enjoyable time out doors for the purpose of hunting non existent deer in unit 6B. In two days we saw only 1 doe and 1 fawn. I was the only one that saw them so if we take the number of people that were hunting (4) and the number of deer we seen in two days (2) that would be an average of 1/4 deer per person per day. Now to be honest there are not to many 1/4th deer running around out there.

On Friday we did have a little mishaps with the white truck. Sam was driving back to school. He had to take a test. Cade was came over and he, I and Sam's friend Josh Stuart planned to keep hunting, or probably a more appropriate event was one of site seeing with guns. Shortly after Sam headed back to school he called and told us something was dragging under the truck. I knew exactly what it was, since this would be the third time I have been told that something was dragging under the truck. The bracket that holds the shock to the frame of the truck tears out. When we got to Sam and looked under the truck, sure enough that is what happened. He was parked on this sand hill on Bill Gray road.  We didn't have any tools and Sam had called Tina to come and get him so he could get to his test. We went to town and picked up some wrenches. We went back to the truck and Cade and I crawled under it to unbolt the hanging shock. You may remember that I told you Sam had parked on a sand hill, but what I didn't say was the wind was blowing 100 MPH, or there about. I kept telling Cade to keep his mouth closed because I could see his open mouth was preventing most of the sand particles from getting past his face and funneling in his mouth, but he insisted on smiling or maybe he was actually grimacing trying to get the bolt undone. At any rate it was creating a sort of red teeth grin that was starting to scare me. Also, with his mouth open it seemed to be creating a swirling motion between us and even though my face was not facing the wind, I couldn't keep it out of my mouth either. So we both were doing a pretty good job of chewing sand. It kind of reminded me of that gritty stuff the dentist use to polish your teeth, minus the mint flavor of course. We finally got the shock off and got back in Cade's truck. Finished polishing our teeth and went back to what I keep referring to as hunting.

Friday was pretty much a bust, but Saturday was a little better. Not in seeing deer, but going into the snow and did see about seven elk and one coyote. It did seem more like hunting weather though.

Here is a picture through the front window of Dave Stuart's dodge truck on one of the roads we were driving down. As you can see it was really pretty and of course no deer in the picture.

Here is a picture from the top of the switch backs looking down into Oak Creek Canyon

Here is a nice picture of Sam and I pretending to hunt deer.

After an unfruitful attempt to find deer in unit 6B Tina and I went over and stayed at Cades and Caryn's house. We went to church with them. Seen an old friend Bill Baily. Forgot to say that Sam had to shoot 500 baskets Saturday night because he missed basketball practice.

Sunday night Tina and I drove back to Hurricane. Hit a pretty good snow storm on the Kaibab. Here are some pictures.

Here is what it looked like when we stopped.

Here is what it looked like driving into the snow.

Anybody miss Bell?

This has nothing to do with anything, but if you have been wondering what Grafton looked like a hundred years ago, here you go.

On a parting note, we are all eagerly awaiting the story and pictures of Caryn's recent surgery experience. We do hope she is doing well.

Halloween

We survived another Halloween. Not that we do anything that would jeopardize our lives, unless it was eating to much candy.

Grandma Ewell gets really exited about Halloween. She decorated her yard and dressed up to greet the kids at the door. Grandpa Ewell thinks it is a pagan holiday instigated by the devil and refuses to help or be any part of it. Tina and I took the middle road. Didn't to to much to help, but did eat the candy. We are just trying to keep peace in the home and make sure everyone is equally happy. Tina told me she will help take down all grandma's decorations this morning.

For your mom's and mine Halloween celebration we were going to watch "The Changeling". I mentioned that it was rated R. She informed me that it was R in 1980, but would only be PG now. We tried to down load it off the Internet. In the end we couldn't do it. I went to HULA to see if they were doing any Halloween movies that were free. They had several. I suggested the movie "Halloween". I heard it is pretty scary. Your mom told me that it was rated "R" and we couldn't watch it. Hummmm...Made in 1979. Anyway, she fell asleep and I started to watch "Ghost Busters II", but about 20 minutes into it the movie stopped with a message that the free time for the movie had expired. Must have hit midnight on the East coast. I decided to just go to bed. So that was our exciting Halloween night.

Here are a few pictures of the yard. Looked better when it was dark, but couldn't get good pictures.

Here is a long picture of everything Grandma Ewell decorated. It may look a little strange because the picture is one of those that does a panoramic view and is supposed to piece it together. It is together, but looks a little odd in some places.

Here is your cousin Ben and his wife stopping by to pick up some good candy.

A picture of the mastermind who put the decorations together. She was really proud of the little green faced guy next to her and wanted to make sure is was in the picture.

2011 Utah Deer Hunt

Warning...Warning...Warning

I should warn those viewing the following pictures that some may not be for the weak stomached. There are pictures of dead deer from being on the hoof to having no hoofs...

I should also note that I promised pictures of the fancy outhouse we built. Forgot to take a picture. Maybe next time I get up there.

Here are some of the deer that we got this year. Some I was a little late getting pictures of so they are mostly in the buff.

Golden got a small two point (Not pictured) on the first day. Golden likes the security of a getting a deer. He just can't hold back, he has to shoot the first buck he see's. He was sitting on a tank and the deer came to get a drink. He watched it while it got a drink, trying to decide if he should shoot it (only the first day). He waited until it was done drinking (nice easy shot) let it trot back and almost disappear into the tree's and then decided to shoot it (level of difficulty had increased substantially at this point). He made a nice hind quarter shot (blowing up both) as it went into the bushes.

Here is Bevin's Deer

The deer on the right is Dale's and the one on the left is Randy's. Tony got a big one on Saturday but I have not got a picture of it yet.

Driving Through Zion Nation Park

On our way to deer camp we went through Zion Park. Here are a few pictures. Easy to confuse with Sedona.

Below we are about to enter the Mile Long tunnel. This is where as kids we used to go tunnel running. Actually I didn't ever do it, but your law breaking mother did (it was illegal). You would run until a car would come and then jump in one of the indentations in the wall.


Zion has not been a good experience for your Uncle Dale. He has had several run-ins with this particular park ranger. He refers to him as the big fat park ranger, jerk and other unmentionable names. Any way it all started when he was driving the dump bed truck through the park and the above mentioned park ranger stopped him to measure the width of his truck. (7' 10" is the max). Anyway the truck was one or two inches to wide. If your vehicle is too wide it requires an escort through the tunnel and and extra $15. Dale thought the guy should cut him a little slack, but the ranger wouldn't. Of course Dale wasn't going to pay the extra money so he turned around and went back through the Colorado City way. Anyway it did not improve Dales love for government employees.

I could add one more incident of Dale vs. government, but will save it for another time.

Here is a picture of one of the Mountain Sheep we seen on the road. This one was funny because it would not move nor look right or left. Every car had to go around it. Last we seen it was still standing there and looking straight forward. There was a huge ram off the road eating that I did not get a picture.

Another mountain sheep eating along the road.

This picture is an eye tester. Can you find the big Ram mountain sheep in this picture?

West Zion

Bevin and Dale have bought an acre each up on West Zion. By owning land up there it gives them hunting rights for that area, about 10,000 acres plus the BLM land. There is one acre left next to theirs that would be nice to buy. When you buy the land you also have access to their miniature golf, swimming pools, spa's, basketball and tennis court and access to the monster bucks that run on the Ponsigont (not sure how you spell that. Just think of the place where the big buck roam).

Unfortunately at this time I do not have the $12,000 needed for the property. Anyone interested? I know what you are thinking, I don't live in Utah and probably would never use the land. This is not true. Think of the great family reunions we could have here. The back fence is Zion Canyon and with all the modern convinces everyone would enjoy it. Anyway something to dream about.

Below are pictures of the Buffalo herd that is just down the road from the property.

The video is the to great, but all those little black dots are buffalo.

It is sure nice being only 20 minutes away from the temple. Tina and I went after we got back from helping Bevin and Dale build an outhouse on their new property. I wish I would have taken a picture because it is one of the finest outhouses you have ever seen. Next time I am up there I will get one for everyone to admire. The following picture is the St. George Temple not the outhouse.

More Whitney Reunion - Little Finland

Aside from the Zipline event the rest of the reunion was pretty uneventful. We did go to some pretty neat places. One was called Little Finland. I'm not sure why it is named that other than it is quite a drive to get to it and maybe the people that discovered it thought they had traveled so far they were in Finland.

Here are some photos

If you look real close you can see the indian writings on the rocks

That is your mom playing King of the Hill. No one went up to challenge her. So I guess she is still king of the hill.

I need a vote on this rock. Doesn't it look like a cow about about to eat your mom? She doesn't see it.