Delle lovin on Gema a bit too much..

Every time she goes by the chest freezer we have in the garage, she gives the gasket a sniff and I ask her if she smells the ducks. She loves it when I practice my duck calls. I think if she could talk, she would give me pointers.

Gema and I duck hunted on the Colorado river a few times this season. She performed beyond my expectaions, she has great genes. This was Gema's first duck, she lept off the ice shelf into the icy river like it was no big deal. I had already tested the ice shelf before I sent her out because I knew I had to grab her to get her out of the river. After that, I found some shelter along the canyon wall, dried her off with snow, and took this pic.

The terrain we hunted was in the tight South Canyon shared by I-70, the railroad, and the Colorado river. The hunt is a walk down the tracks in the narrow South Canyon - shooting towards the interstate - lol. It was pretty cold walking around in 2' of snow with trains roaring past me. The wind and rush of the river, plus the noise dampening of the snow really muffled the sound of the trains (especially the Amtracks), most engineers would sound thier horns a couple times to let me know they were on their way.

I started using steel shot and quickly figured out it doesn't work. I watch the bb mass go right through the duck and didn't phase it, weird. Can't use lead these days so I went into town and bought some heavishot- $23 for 10 shells. It's still some kind of steel so I had to stick with the modified choke. I now use Bismuth shot exclusively.

You see Gema up to her fenders here while writing her name in the snow.

Our house is at 6000' and it sits on the sunny side of the mountain. We seldom get huge dumps of snow, never enough to close the schools. This storm didn't close the schools.

We have had better moisture in the Colorado Rockies this year, in fact it's raining right now so I thought I would catch up on some pics.

I had a great time with Tim and Julianne last year, if I wasn't staying at the beach I was staying at their place in Los Gatos. Tim ribbed me for not choosing a harder design and I told him that pumkin carving was clearly cutting into our beer drinking time :)

My neighbor gave me a few frozen Teal and Mallards to train Gema. The exercise is this: I have her sit on my left, I throw out the duck (or dummy), I draw my trusty Colt Single Action Frontier Scout .22 and fire a blank, then I tell Gema to "Get It", and then she does her stuff.

I'll measure to make it official, but I think she can leap out there close to 15'. She really likes to take a running start and get maximum distance, it's an amazing thing to watch.

HK Shoulder Rig

Back to school to the little 6th graders.

Undeniably the BEST burger joint in the United States. Go by and say hi to Mr. Waylan next time you are in Miami Oklahoma.

Irrigation or is it Irritation.
Working here on installing the PRV, anti siphon, and the zone 1 valve. The pit meter is behind and to the left, already installed. The picture that got away will forever live in our memories. The story is now a week old the emotion has worn off. On Saturday, July 9, I set out on a project to remove the water meter from our mechanical room so I could relocate to a street-side pit, all in the name of irrigation. The removal went well although I couldn't sweat a copper joint to save my life. I tried twice to assemble the plumbing necessary to replace the void of the water meter, each time resulting in one or two pin hole leaks. I decided to stop the work that evening after running out of supplies. Sunday started out with a nice breakfast and a trip to Tim's Tools in Silt where I picked up 2 of everything. I arrived home and told Delle that I could do this in one shot, and I did do it in one shot - with a rain delay. As I was sweating one of the joints the compression fitting popped off the main line and we had a 100psi water feature inside the house. It turns out that our plumber failed to include a crucial part when he attached the brass compression fitting to the poly main line. The crucial part is called a stiffener and it is a short, thin stainless steel pipe that is inserted into the end of the poly to give the compression fitting a solid surface to compress upon. A responsible plumber is what we didn't have. Luckily there was a man working at the water plant located two miles away and we only had to battle the cold barrage for 30 minutes. Lesson learned: ask us who not to use for a plumber, always turn the water off before a major plumbing project.

10th of July on Colorado River at Silt.
Gema and Abby. These two have been buddies since they were wee pups. Gema played big sister and showed Abby how to swim.

10th of July on Colorado River at Silt.
Another fun day at the river, this time we have *borrowed* Abby to have fun with Gema and Sammy.

5th of July on Colorado River at Silt.
Gema's big day. Here's Sammy teaching Gema to swim. Gema caught on fairly quickly and really enjoys swimming.

5th of July on Colorado River at Silt.
Emma left, Gema right. Both dogs were identical down to the black spot on the tongue but surprisingly, Emma was 20lbs heavier.

5th of July on Colorado River at Silt.
Gema's big day. She got to meet one of her litter mate's, sister Emma on the left.

4th of July on Battlement Mesa.
I was glad I wore my boots on this mud bog day. It was a good workout and we were both sore the next couple days.

4th of July on Battlement Mesa.
We were both stuck in this mud puddle on the way up. Delle decided to jump on the gas and fly though, I was so happy I didn't have to wade in for a muddy rescue.