I just wanted to share a hardy breakfast with everyone.

One of the blogs that I read frequently is The Survival Mom. This blog is full of useful, helpful tips and ideas for being prepared for an emergency situation.

The Survival Mom is giving away an Emergency Zone Survival kit on her blog.  This would be a great kit to have to help you get prepared for an emergency. Winter is fast approaching and no matter where you live in this country there is a chance of severe winter weather knocking out power for an extended period or of any of us getting caught out on the roads for a while. This kit will help you get by until things are back to normal. Take some time to check out The Survival Mom’s blog and enter to win, you might just learn something.

Whether hunting public or private land, the fundamentals of calling elk remain the same

By: Michael Waddell

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Now that Mike Vick is out of jail and back in the NFL there is a lot of talk again about how much punishment he should get. My take on the situation is that he should not be punished by the NFL.Mike Vick was convicted for his crimes. He was sentenced to prison and he served his time. Mike has paid his debt to society. Did he get off with a slap on the wrist? I think he did, but that is how our judicial system works. If you don’t like the fact that the more money you have the better justice you get then change it. Get involved in your local politics and elect representatives that stand for the the same things you do. Tell your county, state, and federal reps what you want and expect from them and hold them accountable for it. If they do a good job support them. If they do not do the job you elected them for then vote them out and put some one in that will. We have all been  a part of creating this judicial system that Gave Vick such a light sentence. Lets change the system so it never happens again instead of crying about how unfair it is that he is now back in the NFL making millions of dollars a year.

I am not a fan of Mike Vick. I think he is a complete waste of Human skin. I will not be cheering for him, and probably will not even watch any game he is playing in, but I support his right to earn a living in his chosen profession. The day will come when he will have to answer for what he has done and when he stand before the pearly gates on judgement day there will be no high priced lawyers to manipulate the system to get him off easy. He will pay for his sins then.

IF you don’t think he should be playing football now then don’t watch him. Don’t buy the NFL merchandise or tickets to the games.

I keep seeing and hearing about all these actors and other Liberals pledging to serve the President. I think it is time I make my pledge clear once again. Here is my pledge.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of  THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands, one nation under GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

That is all the pledge any of us needs to make in this country.

I have been an outdoorsman my whole life. I grew up hunting and fishing. I still have the old 8mm home movie of me catching my first fish at 2 years old in Wisconsin with my Uncle Harold, Dad was running the movie camera. I have always tried to promote all aspects of the outdoor lifestyle in a positive way. I check the game department web sites for not just the state i live in, but all the states that i spend time in the outdoors in. I read the news releases. I leave comments on the issues they are requesting public comments on, and I go to public meetings when I can. I talk to my senators and congressmen about the issues relating to the outdoors and let them know my views and what I would like them to do on each of these issues. I am a member of a number of web forums that are outdoors related. i have a blog that is mostly aimed at my outdoor activities and I write recipes regularly about wild game cooking for Clique Clack Food. I also read as many outdoor blogs as I can and post replies to them and I promote many of these blogs on my own blog and through  the web forums and twitter. I spend more time on the internet promoting the outdoor lifestyle than I do actually outside enjoying it. It seems that every day our outdoor lifestyle is under attack from a new direction. There are so many environmental and animal rights groups attacking our outdoor lifestyle in the name of saving the environment or the animals and yet they have no clue what their actions, if fully implemented, would do to the very things they are trying to save.

I grew up in the heart of Western Washington logging country. Every one I knew growing up either worked in logging or in support of logging. Logging is what opened up so much beautiful timber country for everyone to enjoy. It was the logging companies that built all the roads into the mountains. Yes they built the roads so they could go in and log the timber, but after a unit was logged a new patch of timber was planted in its place. An old forest was replaced with a new young one. Trees are like any other crop. They have a finite life span. They grow, they die just like all living things on this planet. If we leave the life cycle of the forests to mother nature the cycle is very slow. It can take hundreds of years for an old forest to be replaced by a new one. If we allow logging to go in and harvest the ripe trees. Use them to produce building materials and paper for our society to use and then replace those trees taken out with new ones that cycle can be accomplished in twenty years. Should logging be monitored and controlled? Yes it should. If there is no control then the old trees will be logged off at a faster rate than the new ones can replace them. This has happened in our history and we need to properly manage the forests as the resource they are. With proper management we can create good sustainable jobs, a healthy thriving industry, and maintain quality habitat for all the forest creatures we care for.

As far as the animal rights groups that want to stop all hunting, I would really like some one that represents one of these organizations to explain to me just how they would suggest the animal populations should be managed. Hunting is the only effective management tool we have to maintain healthy and sustainable herd numbers. These groups are all quick to point out that we should be using science to manage the animals and not money. Well were do they think the money that is being spent on wildlife management is coming from? The federal government, the state governments are not spending their budget money on wildlife management. That is funding by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and tags. This billion dollar a year industry is the reason we have the vast populations of healthy wildlife in this country. Yes most states do try to maintain a trouphy hunting environment to help draw out of state hunters to their state to pursue game, but this just adds to the management of the wildlife.

I have never met a hunter that wanted to kill every last member of a species, nor have i ever met a logger that wanted to cut down every last tree. Those of us that live an outdoor lifestyle are the true conservationists. We want to maintain healthy forests and healthy  populations of wildlife to continue our lifestyle. Our society has gotten so polarized over the years by our two party political system that we no longer work together as a group to solve a problem ,but try to fight each other over our beliefs. I am as guilty of this as any one else. I have spent too much time ranting against the likes of PETA and Earth First rather than tryingto engage them and work with them to resolve our differences and find common ground that we can work together to improve our society and our planet.

Until we can set aside our difference and focus on the common ground we will never get past this adversarial relationship we have with those that do not live our lifestyle. This will ensure that the battles will continue and the politicians will be able to maintain their power over our country. We as American citizens need to stop this fighting. We need to come together and work together to do what is right for everyone.

If we all pull together we can save the environment, the animals, the country and our planet. If we can not pull together then that task will be left up to what ever political party is in power and their primary goal will be to  save their political power.

It is time we stop fighting and band together. It is time we tell our government leaders enough is enough. We hired you to do a specific job. If you can not do that job then we will fire you and give the job to someone that will.

It is Friday June 5, 2009. I had plans this afternoon to make the trip from Idaho to Washington to spend the weekend with my wife. I got home from work at about 1:30 this afternoon and let my Bassette hound Bo in the house. I realized that he was not quite right. He was not his usual chipper self. He had not eaten any of his food today, and he did not want his usual dog biscuit treat. He walked slowly in the house wagging his tail and looked up at me. Then he painfully climbed in the recliner and laid down. Not even close to his normal behavior of running in, jumping on me, running around the house and then eating his treat nd wanting to play.

Instead of making the trip to Washington I took bo to the vet. After the doctor examined him he said that he was running a fever and was slightly dehydrated. He thought it might be a stomach issue and that he would like to keep him over night to rehydrate him and run some blood tests.

I left him there to get the tests. I will find out more tomorrow. It is going to be a long night for me. I am worried about him and I will worry about him until I hear what is going on. I will post more when I find out more.

I don’t know how I managed to lose the Squatch but I did. I sat there on the hillside, not moving, for hours waiting for them to pick up my trail and come out into the open. I finally headed back to the cave. I got to the cave just before sun up. I was exhausted. I checked the trap for signs it had been messed with and then retreated into the cave to rest. A shrill scream woke me from my sleep. It was a scream of sheer terror. I had never heard a Squatch scream like that. Where was it coming from? I grabbed the Winchester and crept to the cave mouth. I looked out across the valley and the big male was there. He was looking at the cave. Lying on the ground in front of him was another person. Where did that guy come from? The Squatch kicked his hostage and the man screamed again. He was too far out for a shot with the Winchester, but I thought that if I could at least get a bullet close enough i could get the Squatch to run off into the brush and give the guy a chance to get away. I moved to the opening to get a good rest to try a shot. The Squatch saw the movement and reached down and grabbed the hostage around the midsection and ran off over the edge of the ridge with him.
I could not believe my eyes. They had actually gone and captured another human to use as bait. This was a standard practice of these creatures in the future I came from, but all of what we thought we knew about them in this time line said they were not capable of this type behavior. It would take me several hours to get over to where the Squatch had been and pick up his tracks. He would have plenty of time to set up his traps for me. It is looking like this is all going to come to an end soon. As I turned to go back into the cave I heard the man scream again. I got extra ammo for the Winchester and the Ruger out of my pack and put it in my pocket. I would not be taking the back pack with me this time. I would need to move fast today and did not need the extra weight to slow me down, or restrict my movement. I headed out of the cave to go find the Squatch and there hostage.
Once I got to the spot I had seen them disappear over the ridge I easily found their tracks. I would hear the man scream every so often. I guess they were making sure I did not forget they had him. I knew there were a lot of places that you could set a trap for someone along the trail they were on so I moved off the trail and continued on parallel to the trail. When the trail turned to run along the base of a shale slide I climbed up the hill to the top of the slide. I checked closely to make sure there were no Squatch on top of the slide and then looked down over the valley. There at the base of the slide was the man. There were no squatch around him that I could see. It was not the best place to set a trap. the only spot where they could hide close enough to attack me when I came in to rescue the man was a small spit of timber that stretched out on a small bench just above him. If they were hiding in there I would be able to sneak up on them and take them out. If they were not in there they would be over 30 yards away. I would be able to easily shoot them as they charged out of the brush from that far away.
I backed into the timber and climbed down the hill. When I got to the timbered bench I started towards the shale slide.
I stalked slowly deeper into the timber examining every bush, stump, windfall and root wad to make sure there were no Beasts lurking there. When I reached the shale slide I could see no signs of the beasts. What the hell are these buggers up to? I could see the man sitting there and could not figure out why he did not run away. Why did they just leave him there? I slowly moved out of the edge of the timber to a game trail that led down off the bench to where the man was. As I started around a rock into his view he screamed “NO! RUN AWAY” at me. I felt the slightest give under my boots. The sudden crushing, cutting sound of the jaws of that big bear trap snapping shut on my legs told me the mistake I had made. The pain was intense. My vision was blurred. I could see movement across the clearing as the Squatch swarmed out of the timber and ran towards me. I went to raise the rifle only to realize I had dropped it. I pulled the Ruger Redhawk .44 magnum from the holster. i aimed as well as I could and fired. I saw one of the beast stumble and then I felt something hit the back of my head.
I don’t know how long I was out. As the light started to return to my eyes and my hearing went from a loud ringing to a almost chanting sound. I heard the man moan and cry. As the focus returned to my eyes I could see the large male squatting in front of us and the three females were sitting off to the side. The male looked at me and then grunted.
The three females suddenly lunged at the man. He began to scream and flop around as the beasts ripped his clothes off. Once his clothes were off they began to rip his flesh from him. He tried to fight back but was no match for the three Squatch. As they were ripping pieces off of him they were eating them. There were pieces of flesh and blood all over the place. The three Squatch were covered in the aftermath of their feeding frenzy and looked even more evil than they normally looked.
When they had finished there was not much more than bones left. While all of this was going on the big male had stood towering over me staring at me. He never moved. He never made a sound. He just stood there staring. as the females sat there picking pieces of the man’s flesh off of each other and eating it the male walked over to me. He reached down and grabbed onto my ankle. My eyes blurred again as the pain that was already nearly unbearable increased even more. He twisted and yanked and my leg just below the knee where the trap had broken the bone came off. As he stood there looking at me holding my leg in his hand he began to eat the flesh off of the bones. I looked on in horror as he slowly ate my leg down to the bone.
The pain and the blood loss were starting to take there toll. I was having trouble breathing. My head was beginning to spin. I could tell that I was getting very close to passing out. The male, having finished eating my leg threw the bone that still had my foot still in the boot attached behind him. He reached down and grabbed me by the chin pulling my head up and looking into my eyes. He grunted softly and I saw all three or the females jump and lunge towards me.

The End

An hour before dawn and I moved to the mouth of the cave. I looked for any signs of movement near the cave. I slowly moved out onto the ledge and headed down to the timber. The cave was easy to defend, but it was also hard to sneak in and out of. They are out there looking for me and I want to make sure I don’t walk into an ambush. I headed back to the small clearing where they had gathered yesterday. I found the big males track and started after him again. He was the ring leader of this bunch and if I could take him out the rest would probably be confused long enough for me to take them out. I lost his tracks at the edge of the river again so I started moving down stream looking for his tracks or a place to cross the river. I found his tracks about a half mile down stream. He had crossed the river and then come back to this side there. I began following the tracks north. The going was slow. The brush was thick and I was being extra cautious. When the tracks came to the edge of the timber I stopped and looked out at the open hillside. I could see the tracks continued on a good trail that cut across the face of the ridge and worked down to the valley floor. There was no cover so I did not want to follow. I backed into the timber and crossed over the ridge. I had to drop all the way to the bottom of the valley to find cover and then walk along the bottom of the valley and around the end of the ridge to get to the valley the tracks were in. It took me three hours to get to the valley and find the tracks again. He was headed towards the area where they had tried to ambush me yesterday.
I continued to follow the tracks. I found the spot where they had all grouped back up and headed off as a group. That’s good. If I can jump all of them in a group I can take them all out at once. I followed the tracks deeper into the Forrest. It was late in the evening when I came to a large cave. I could see three of them sitting in front of the cave. I guessed the other four were in the cave. I moved closer to the cave and into a position that would give me a good shot at them. It was starting to get dark so I was trying to hurry and yet not give myself away. I eased the Winchester up on the rock in front of me to rest it. I pulled back the hammer and lined up the sights. I was only fifty yards from them so this would be easy shooting. I lined the sights up on the one farthest to the left and closest to the timber. I fired and hit the first one right between the eyes. the Squatch didn’t even flinch. It’s head snapped back and then fell forward to it’s chest. the other two were stunned and sat there looking around not sure what to do. I shot the one on the right side next. that one slumped to the ground. The one in the middle suddenly jumped up and started to run. I put a round in the middle of that one’s back and dropped it. I turned the gun on the entrance to the cave to wait for the others to come out.
I hear a twig snap in the brush to my right. I looked quickly in that direction. It was so dark in the timber I could not see much. then I saw a large shadow move about ten yards out. I grabbed my rifle and ran back into the timber.
when the big Squatch got to the spot I had been shooting from and found that I was gone he roared. then I heard the other three roar too. they were spread out in the timber behind me and moving my way. I ran as fast as I could through the dark timber. Now I needed to get to the open slopes of the ridges so I could see what was coming at me from where. The three smaller ones were gaining ground fast trying to cut me off from getting to the open ground. I was not going to make it to the open ridge. I knew that if I turned and ran away from them I would end up at the edge of a cliff in deep dark timber. That was not a place I wanted to make a stand and fight with these buggers in the dark. Instead I turned and moved towards them slowly. If I keep low and move slow I might be able to get behind them and then head for the open hillsides. I ducked behind a log, stump, or bush at every little sound. I felt the breeze lightly brush across my face and could just make out the scent of one of the Squatch on the breeze. I ducked down under a windfall and waited. The Squatch ran past me still heading for the cliff. I waited until I could no longer hear them and then headed for the open ridge face as quickly and quietly as I could. Once I was in the open I ran as fast as I could back towards the cave. I knew that if they came out of the timber chasing me I would have no chance. My only chance was to get enough distance between me and them so that I could see where they were and wait for them to come into range of the Winchester.

It has been a hard cold winter. Luckily spring is starting to show itself. Good thing too I am getting cabin fever. Time to go hunting. I grabbed my pack and my Winchester and headed out the door. The snow is still deep enough to use the snow shoes so I strapped them on and headed for the big valley to the west. The Elk show up early in that valley and the Squatch seems to spend a lot of time in it too.
When I topped the ridge I noticed fresh tracks in the snow heading to the east. they were a big set of Squatch tracks. I followed the tracks down the ridge and up to a ledge on the cliff above the cabin. There was a spot in the rocks where the big male had bedded down right above the cabin. It was protected from the wind by the rocks. Why would he bed there? I looked down at the valley. I could see the cabin and everything around it. Was that big male watching me? Why would he be watching the cabin? I continued following the tracks down through some thick timber and windfalls. As I approached a small opening I could hear noises. I stopped and took off the snow shoes. Then I crawled up to the edge of the ridge and looked over. There in the small clearing were ten Squatch gathered in a circle. The big male looked like he was giving them orders. his arms were flailing around and he was making all kinds of grunts and growls. The others were looking at him and occasionally at each other. This little pow wow went on for a good ten minutes and then they all got up and headed off in different directions.
Two of the smaller Squatch headed off in the direction of the cabin and the large male headed down towards the river. I waited for all of them to leave and then headed for the river. I lost the big males tracks at the river. it looked to be too deep and fast for him to have crossed but with out tracks to follow I was lost. I headed back and went after the two small ones that headed towards the cabin. I caught up with the two about half way to the cabin. They were meandering along at a slow and noisy pace. I have never seen them act like this. I have seen them run at full speed through the woods and make less noise. What is going on? I moved to a spot where I could get a shot at the two Squatch. I waited as they moved out of the thick brush into the open timber. just as the two were about to move out of the thick brush they stopped. I kept watching them, ready to shoot. Suddenly the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Something was terribly wrong. I did not move, but I started looking all around me with just my eyes. I caught a glimpse of movement to my left. I looked to my right and saw movement there too. It was a trap. The two moving through the thick brush were bait to get me to follow them. This was an old Squatch trick. they would either try to jump me or herd me to the bottom of a cliff where one or two of them could crush me with rocks from above. the quickest way out for me was to the right. The ridge was steep, but once I reached the top the trail down was easy to move fast on and free of snow. I could get back to the cabin quickly that way. I waited until I saw where the one to my right was and then I turned and shot that Squatch. I ran quickly for the top of the ridge. About half way up I spun around and could see four more coming after me. I shot two more and the other two ran for the cover of thick brush. I ran to the top of the ridge. I stopped long enough to reload the Winchester and then sprinted down the trail.
It took me a couple of hours to get back to the cabin. I ran in and gathered up all my ammo, my extra revolver, and clothes. I then crammed as much of my food as I could into the pack as well. I went out to the back of the cabin and brought the big bear trap into the cabin. I set the trap right in the middle of the cabin and covered it with a blanket for camouflage. I shut the door and headed to the North. There was a small cave with a narrow trail leading to it about half way up a sheer bluff. There was only one way in and out of that cave. They would not be able to surround me and attack from all sides there. I grabbed the bear trap from the edge of the woods and took it with me. I would set it in the entrance to the cave just to be safe.
I made it to the cave just before dark. I put my pack in the cave and then went and grabbed some small branches. I set the trap and then covered it with the branches. I settled into the back of the cave for the night. Tomorrow I will go after them. i have to be very careful now that they are hunting me.