2/11/10
Well, it's been a long cold snowy winter so far and I'm ready to hit the ground running. I've been watching a lot of elk and have some antlers spotted I'd like to have. Just hope them big boys leave 'em where I can find 'em easily. I went out for a little hike yesterday and man it felt good to stretch the legs out a bit. Found 8 old deer antlers but nothing new. I did find a set of deer antlers a couple days ago when I was watching elk. I saw a deer with no horns and I could see they were laying right beside him. As soon as he fed off the hillside I walked over and snatched them up. Not very big but nice and brown and will make nice wine rack material. Oh and I'm buying a house, YEAH! I close on the 26th of this month and will be moving in all of next month. March is going to be a tough month for me. Between moving, working and hiking there will be little sleep. No worries I've had plenty and this winter gut needs to go. I've got some new antler products I've been working on and will hopefully have them up next month.
4/27/09
Well I had a great week as far as hiking goes. I got to get out and log some miles. Found quite a few antlers as well. I also managed to get three pieces of scrimshaw done as well. So all in all a great week.
4/20/09
What an antler season so far. I've logged close to 300 miles hiking and I've picked up 35 antlers so far. Not so many compared to miles walked. My body is aching from head to toe especially the feet. The hiking has been brutal but awesome. I've got plenty of ideas and now I have material to work with again. Normally I do the artwork on paper first before doing it on the antlers but I have had such a good response to the scrimshaw I haven't had the time to do the artwork twice. Yesterday I hiked 14 miles and struggled through some of the nastiest oak brush I've ever encountered. I have to admit that yesterday I wasn't having any fun. The best parts of the day were the views while eating lunch and on the way back I walked up on a bear sleeping in a small pool of water. I tried to get a picture but as soon as I dropped down and tried to get my pack off he saw me. He stared at me not sure what I was. I had an elk antler in my hand so I moved it around like an elk feeding. He immediately stood up and man was he was huge! Then I started thinking, I wonder how hungry he is and if he thinks elk would be tasty. So for the sake of safety I stood up and said " What are you doing bear" Well that did the trick, you could see it in his eyes as he lept from the pool and darted down the ridgeline, he was thinking, HUMAN, RUN! Then I yelled, "Don't go down that ridge, thats the one I have to go down"! So as I started down the steep rocky oak choked ridge I was a bit nervous to say the least. I never saw him again but did happen upon his den that he's still using. Hopefully after resting the body a few days I can get out again this week and find some decent antlers.
2/19/09
Spring is fast aproaching and I'm getting very excited to get outdoors. There's still plenty of snow to come but once February hits my body tells me it won't be long. I have gotten to take plenty of pictures of the local wildlife this winter so far and the upcoming shed antler season looks promising. I hope I find some decent antlers to do more artwork with. At this time I only have two antlers left and they are to nice to cut into workable pieces and full antler pieces are tough to do anything with as far as placement of the piece when finished.
Well It's 3 days to the end of the year (2008). This year sure went by fast, to fast for my liking. It was a busy year for me and the last 5 months have been difficult not only for me but the rest of the country as well and I'll be looking forward to a new year and hopefully an even better year. I really can't complain, I got to spend a large part of my year outdoors and that suits me just fine. I got to go back to Aaska this summer and spent a month there. Last year was my first visit there and I was there for a week and that isn't nearly enough time to see anything. We spent the first two weeks in Homer Alaska and that was very enjoyable. We fished, hiked and took a boat trip and a kayak trip. We hung out a lot and just mingled with the locals. It was a very chilly summer there, them poor suckers went from winter to a cold summer and now back to winter. We spent the remainder of our time there in a cabin off the Denali highway, you want to talk about remote, holy crap there wasn't anything around but wilderness. That part of the trip was my favorite. While out hiking one day I got to propose to My Girl out in some of the prettiest country on earth. Thank God she said yes. This summer I will take some time form hiking and get married. We haven't decided on where to go for the honeymoon yet but I'm sure it will be fun wherever it is.
Winter has set in here in western Colorado and it's starting to get real cold. I've been out a few times looking at wildlife and getting a few pictures. I set up a trail camera on a good Elk migration trail so hopefully next spring I'll have some good pictures from that. The rest of my winter will hopefully be spent here at home doing some artwork. I've had a great spring, summer and fall and the ideas are ready to be laid out on paper. I would hope that everyone gets out as much as they can and enjoys the outdoors. It sure makes a person feel a whole lot better.
This is a shot from the spot I proposed.
Some of the local Alaskan wildlife
