Over the last four years I’ve been up and down on whether or not I had developed MS. Back in 2014 when my feet got tingly and went numb we suspected MS but then it turned out to probably be antibiotic induced peripheral neuropathy. In 2015 when we ran an extensive autoimmune panel and found I had myelin antibodies plus some new weird neurological symptoms we went back and did an MRI and, no sign of MS. I thought I’d put it to rest when in 2017 I started getting burning pain in my lower left leg. At first it was sporadic and chiropractic seemed to help so I thought it was structural. By the start of 2018 the pain was daily and interfering more with life. My ND at the time thought it was compression related so back to running an MRI to see what was going on with my discs.
More fun with Cholesterol
Back in 2015 after being on a Paleo diet for a little over a year my cholesterol was up but I wasn’t too concerned about it at the time. I kept on Paleo and even went hard-core Wahls Paleo Plus/Keto for a while last fall. In 2016 my cholesterol numbers were again high but my doctor wasn’t concerned, same thing in early 2018. Each time my values were up but ratios looked good, no inflammatory markers and I was showing low risk of cardiovascular disease on the NMR profile. Then in the late fall I started having some weird symptoms and went in for blood work. What came back cholesterol wise wasn’t too much of a surprise in the standard lipid panel but it was the new advanced markers that were a bit scarier.
2018 – Looking back
2018 was a good year but a tough year in several respects and I’m actually kind of glad this one is over with. Thanks to Lira I hiked close to 2000 miles this year and we managed to get out and do quite a bit of fishing and hunting, logging 108 days total in the water, hills or fields. I also somehow managed to build a boat for the sole purpose of taking her fishing with me since she coludn’t quite work out in a float tube. Catherine and I had a lot of fun spending many days exploring the Middle Fork Valley this year and also camping and hiking on the Oregon coast.
Chasing Chukar
This year I was getting a bit bored of spending so much time walking the wet grass and woods, not to mention getting hit by shot, at Crescent Lake and Stillwater so made a decision to get over to the dry side of the mountains to hunt wild birds more. Early in the year I got Lira out at Cooke Canyon a few days on planted chukar just so she’d have some exposure to the birds and that was a lot of fun so this fall we took up chukar hunting for real. We just got back from our fourth outing after these birds and it has been a lot of work and a lot of fun.
Adding more bird species
Up until this year Lira and I spent all our time hunting pheasants but this year that changed. Yes, we still hunt a lot of pheasant but we also started hunting frequently in Eastern Washington for other upland birds as well as spending some time in the woods hunting grouse. Trust me hunting is the appropriate word for grouse, we didn’t spend much time killing grouse. So far this season we’ve added four new species of birds to our list.
Chukar
Chukar have sort of always intrigued me as a game bird ever since reading East of the Mountains by David Guterson. Tough terrain to say the least and they are hard to hit. Early in the year we hunted some planted chukar at Cooke Canyon just to get Lira onto a new bird. While deer hunting in Ellensburg we saw so many chukar that I decided it was time to hunt them for real and have spent several days now along the rimrock and high flats searching for them. We have managed one wild chukar and that is one Lira literally grabbed out of a bush.
Stalking oneself
During this year’s early muzzleloader mule deer hunt I learned a lot about stalking deer and managed to get within 30-40 yards of a bedded down buck after a very long stalk. I had spotted this deer from over a mile away at just the time it was getting ready to bed down. I’d already blown two stalks where I only had gotten to about 100 yards from the animal and this time I was very careful and managed to get much closer. I just forgot one final part in the process of stalking a deer and took one step too many busting the deer but still it was an experience I probably won’t forget and I learned many lessons from it. I’m now getting ready for late season and was thinking back on the early season hunt and the things I need to remember later this month to be successful.
Trip to the dry side
The rains started in the Snoqualmie Valley last Thursday and things got wet fast. Friday mornings pheasant hunt was wet and windy, we got out of the woods when big branches started crashing around and we never found a bird. With the rivers rising and no end of rain in sight it was time to head east and get into a drier climate. On Sunday I packed up the shotguns and Lira and met Lisa for a 3-4 day trip to Ellensburg to hunt chukar, quail and pheasants and also, hopefully, to break my slump.
One month in slump
The last bird we took home was a previously shot one Lira recovered.
Pheasant season has been going for about a month now and I’m in a slump which I’m hoping will break soon. We’ve managed to get in 14 days of bird hunting so far and have bagged 14 pheasants but this week Lira has worked her tail off and found 10 birds and I’ve missed or not had a shot on all of them. Up until this Sunday I’d been hitting the majority of birds but now I can’t seem to hit anything. What changed? I’m still shooting my Benelli 20 gauge, still using my Carlson Early Season choke, still using my Prarie Storm FS Steel, … I have started wearing gloves part of the time and yes, a few of my missed birds were because i didn’t get the safety off, I’m also wearing a jacket instead of a few layers of wool. I think the real problem though is I’ve got myself psyched out. Shooting is a mental game for sure and I know when I’m in a trap slump it gets way worse before it gets better.
What to do? Going to mix it up and head east. Go after some quail and chukar instead of only pheasant and hit the sporting clays course. Maybe I’ll pull out my 12 gauge, my only issue with it is that we don’t seem to find birds when carrying it and am convinced it has an old Italian curse on it, Probably hitting the local fields tomorrow then off to Ellensburg for 3-4 days and hopefully bringing something home for the freezer.
Muzzleloader mule deer hunt
This year my plan was to have an easy hunt to fill the freezer with a cow elk early and then have a challenge hunt to really push it trying to get a 3pt or better mule deer buck with my muzzleloader. Well, the elk hunt didn’t quite pan out so that put a bit of pressure on the mulie muzzleloader hunt. I knew if I’d done this hunt during rifle season I’d probably be able to take a deer but really I wanted the challenge of a true stalk and having to get in close, especially since I’ve been so lucky the last several years. Given the difficulty of a buck with a muzzleloader I decided to do the hunt at Red’s in Ellensburg and got access to their 16,000 acre Mt. Baldy Preserve and was the only hunter during muzzleloader season there.
Pre-season tune-up
With hunting season starting to open up I wanted to get Lira out for a pre-season tune-up hunt over at Cooke Canyon in August so we headed over to Ellensburg on the 30th for a morning in the fields. Lira was beside herself when she saw the orange come out and as soon as we arrived in the field she began doing high speed laps in the parking lot. She was obviously ready to get out there and find some birds.
I picked Area 1 since it is the closest thing to Western Washington with some fields, some trees and brush on the borders. Lira did great, no problems finding any of the birds and had to do a bit more work than usual. One bird had basically dug itself into a hole underneath some roots and just would not flush. I finally reached down and felt what was going on and told Lira to “Get it, get it” and she did, bird in mouth and handed off to me. Another spot she found a bird deep in the willows and had to push it out to the edge of the field. The bird took flight at my feet but flew low. I missed the first shot but never had another shot as the bird headed across the open field, Lira in chase. The bird hit the ground at about 100 yards and was immediately tackled, it managed to get loose and run towards grass but Lira caught up in the high grass and came out with bird in mouth. Otherwise she retrieved shot birds well and even found two coveys of quail which were new for her.
All in all I think she is ready to roll for October though I’ll get her out at least once more between now and then plus we’ve already been out looking for grouse one morning and will get in more of that this month.