Don't rope a deer!

Why we shoot deer in the wild! (A letter from someone who wants to remain anonymous, who farms, writes well and actually tried this.)

I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up-- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold..

The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope ..., and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer-- no Chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined.. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.

I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite?

They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when ...... I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and slide off to then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head--almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp... I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope......to sort of even the odds!!

All these events are true so help me God... An Educated Farmer

Season's Greetings

"Knowledge without experience is just information"

T'was the night before elections,
And all thru' the town,
Tempers were flaring
Emotions ran up and down.

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap,
Had shut off the TV,
tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden,
There arose such a noise,
I peered out my window,
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet,
They wanted my pay
To hand out to others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money,
And quick as a wink,
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink.

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart.
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

'On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, on Pelosi'
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause,
And as they flew out of sight,
I heard him laugh at a nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!
So I leave you to think
On this one final note...
IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE !!!!

GOD BLESS AMERICA,
OUR ONLY HOPE.....
WAVE OUR FLAG HIGH!!!

Isn't it about....time?

For a new car?

We are hoping she has another 200,000 miles left in her.

Our other vehicle...

169,000

gulp

If you are a piece of paper...

Don't mess with me cuz I'm learning self-defence!

He's at it again...

Now that the weather is cooling down a bit Doran is able to run outside.

His favorite run...up the canyon and back down again. He is a stud.

I can't wait until I can run DOWN with him again. It is one of our favorite things to do.

So watch out! Keep your eyes peeled and don't run over my daddy!

Where are you from?

Last month Doran and I left for Park City on a Sunday for my work meetings. Meetings were Monday and Tuesday with a Banquet on Monday night. On Tuesday we headed south towards Taos, New Mexico. Our plan was to drive as far as we could that first night. We ended up staying in Cortez, Colorado. There was only one room left at the hotel we stayed at and it was so cute. We wish we would have had the grand kids with us....sort of.

 This is inside the fort.

 The Fort is behind the TV.

Then we continued on the next morning.

 We got to Taos early in the afternoon so we decided to stop at one of the cemeteries. The reason for the trip was to find my great-grandfathers grave and find somewhere to buy a headstone if it looked the same as when we saw it last. In 1994 we made a trip with the kids and found his grave looking like this:

I am not sure who put flowers on but with our 2011 trip we found out that Juan's sister had passed away about eight years ago. So with this information I am thinking that maybe she was the one to put the flowers on. Not sure who did the "headstone" but I was really sad to see it like this.

We then left to go find a hotel and do a little sight seeing while I was waiting to contact some relatives down there. We went to this old church, which they still use. They had just done some upkeep to the out side with mud and straw and the straw was so neat to see poking through the mud. It shimmered.

 Inside the chapel starting at the front on one side of the wall began numbered pictures. One being the birth of the Savior and on around to the back of the room and back up the other side to the front ending with the crucificion. How sad. The most wonderful part of Christs' ministry was missing. My heart fell. Where was the hope? Where was the forever after? Where was the blessings and example and service that continues on?

It was a beautiful building but the spirit was missing.

 The church was in the middle of a little plaza. I mean little. There were only a couple of shops and a restaurant. This was down an alley that lead to a shop, we think. We didn't dare go inside because it looked like a shop but also maybe someones house. But we got a picture of one of the tenants.

 This is a typical old falling down home there.

 The next day we went back to the cemetery to find great-grandpa.

 Here he is. Looks about the same as 17 years ago. He is hard to find because it is behind some other graves that have bushes growing all over and on top of the graves. He is in the middle of a couple of big graves. He is buried North & South. This cemetery is the oldest in Taos and there is no rhyme or reason to how people are buried there. We have been spoiled with a beautiful kept cemetery in our town. Sierra Vista is NOT well taken care of. They don't have a sexton and I can't find anyone that knows who is buried in here.

 Before we went down we found out that great-grandma Rosa is also there so Doran and I searched the whole cemetery. The more we looked the more heartbroken we felt. This cemetery is in shambles. There are these little critters make holes everywhere!!

 This is one sample of how/where/why you cannot find headstones. We had to move bushes and almost crawl under things to see IF there was a headstone and if there was see IF you can read it. So sad. My heart ached for all those that are buried there and have been "forgotten". The people there are buried in all different directions. There are a lot of cemeteries down there. Some are religion owned and if you are not that religion, you can not be buried there. Some are family owned and if you are not that family, you can not be buried there. You get the picture. I even found out that you can bury a loved one in your back yard. How do you FIND these people when then "next of kin" passes on?

 This is my dads cousin George and his wife Isabel. They are so busy with their bar that we had to go hang out in their bar to visit. We met a lot of their patrons and friends. They all consider themselves "cousins" down in that culture so I also had a lot of cousins.

 We were having a hard time finding great-grandma Rosa's grave so George called Roger, another cousin, really! He is my dads other cousin. He is the grandson of Rosa. So we are second-cousins-once removed or something like that but remember down there you are COUSINS. None of the 1st, 2nd stuff. Just cousins.

He showed us where Rosa was buried.

 While we were searching on our own we found this one and Doran tried to clean the metal plate of to see if we could see the name but the name thingy had fallen out I'm sure years ago. Anyway this is hers. Even sadder because she doesn't have ANYTHING written on hers.

Years ago when we talked about family history the story was that great-grandma Rosa was traded for a sack of flour when she was a baby. Until this trip I didn't realize that this was a common thing that happened back then in that area. Such a long story and even more I need to research but the story goes...When times got desperate the Indian tribes would go raid another tribe of their women and children when the horses ran out and bring them to Taos and other areas for trade. They were either sold/traded to use as slaves. (jenizaros) Some that were "traded" were raised as their own or had them do the work on the farm or houses. I am not sure if grandma was legally adopted or just raised by the Trujillo family. I wish I could find more information on them. The only dates I have found is a 1880 Census stating that Rosa was 8 years old. Jose Trujillo was a farmer and a widow. I am not sure when his wife, Ines Medina passed away nor do I have much info on them. So the buck stop here...er...the family line stops here, at least for now.

 So instead of buying one headstone looks like we will be purchasing two. We found two places that can order headstones but neither one of them install them. You have to do it yourself. So we need to decide whether to hire someone to put it in for us or if we need to go back next year and do it ourselves. Roger mentioned that he might be able to set it up for us. We went to a mortuary and had a metal marker made for great-grandma so for now they look like this.

On the way home we stopped off at the Rio Grande gorge. Scary! It was windy and you had to hold on. We couldn't look down and walk over the bridge or we would get sick. There was a car way down there. I wonder if they went off on purpose or just missed the turn. Then I got home and someone had said that they have been having trouble with that being a popular suicide spot. Shiver.

Hanging on!

 The sights between Taos and Durango were beautiful!

 We got to one area that had multiple, multiple, multiple signs that said...."Do not stop and get out." "Do not stop and get out." Why? Because there was a field that was an elk farm. So what did we do? We stopped but DIDN'T get out. :)

 And THESE.....were some fun signs we saw.

 And I think I should use this as my Motto! Love it!!

I'm glad we went but I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The people were very friendly but the culture is not for me. But I still need to go back when I have more time and see if I can find information at the different church's there. It would help if I could speak Spanish and keep up with the fast talk down there.

On the way home we stopped in Durango for the night. EXPENSIVE! But we did enjoy some yummy dinner including dumplings...mmm.mmm.mmm

Our next trip....CALIFORNIA & ARIZONA!!

Pay Attention...or not

What does this

And this

have in common???

Only ONE thing folks....it is a tube. The SIZE of the tube is even different. One is used for LIPS and other is used to SEAL the lips....I mean glue/seal things together.

Well apparently NOT according to Chelsea. While spending a few hours trying to catch up FIVE months worth of cards (we are still two months behind), sometimes Chelsea we forget to pay attention to what she is we are doing.

During a VERY frequent lip coating with the chap stick Chelsea does, she begins to chat away about something not even thinking and grabs the GLUE stick instead and begins to coat her lips!!

 Muah ha ha ha ha!!! You had to have been there!

Eww she yells and proceeds to wipe her lips off. Not funny.

I mean yes it was. It was so dang hilarious I was busting up! My gut was hurting and my eyes were just a streaming. I still giggle over the image I can't get out of my head.

Just thought I would share!

LOL LOL

Like I said. You had to have been there.

Lesson for the day...Pay close attention when making cards and applying chap stick

BTW...I hope I didn't embarrass her....ya right! Muah ha ha ha!!!!