DryBuck and Hunting

Tren has been up in DryBuck hunting for elk since Sunday morning. He is with his brothers in-laws and his brother. They go hunting every year together. Tren has never killed an elk, yet. This year, Belle and I went up for one night and came home for work and school. Everynight I would talk to Tren and no one had killed anything. They only had seen one buck but it was a long shot so they didnt get that one. Then, Wednesday night I was on the phone with Tren on my way home from work and he was out "scope-ing" and seeing if he could spot anything. Nothing. Later that night, I got this:





F.I.N.A.L.L.Y!!! He got one! Here is the story: He was sitting there in his truck, and he had just gotten off the phone with me. He was about to head back to camp and glassed the side of the mountain one last time. When he pulled the scope down from his eyes he saw this big boy standing there. He was so excited he honked the horn while grabbing his gun and it startled the bull a bit, but it didn't run off. So, he took his shot and nailed it! He drove back to camp and told everyone he shot an elk and they all jumped on their 4 wheelers and hauled back to the elk. Everyone was so excited and worked together to get it back to camp.

Now there is an elk head in my back yard and a body at the butcher. Tren is so excited and I am so happy for him. It's been a long time coming. I know the picture is dark, but you can sort of see this is a nice opening where he killed it. He didnt have to haul it up some steep mountain side or anything.

Such a lucky guy. Congrats, Tren!!

Oh Henry!!

I have been thinking about getting another Boston. I know... why the heck would I want to do that? I think Rooster would enjoy a play buddy and we have just always wanted another one. I didnt really want a dog when we got Rooster. I couldnt have a dog in my apartment and it just wasnt a good time. I knew nothing about potty training and kennel training. But then Tren saw the little lady and showed me a picture of her and we couldnt turn her down. It has been a wild ride with Rooster and she bugs the sanity out of me at times. But she is a part of our family and we love her. Rooster is probably Belle's best friend. Well. Two weeks ago Rooster's mom had babies. 8 of them! 5 boys and 3 girls. Lots of them had the same little spot on their heads like Rooster's. I have been dieing to see the puppies and choose which one I wanted. We went up to Elk Camp this weekend and all 8 of the babies were there. I picked out the one we are going to get. Cassie (the dog owner) told us that there was one dog that was a bit larger than the other ones and one that was starting to look like the runt. She said she sometimes will have to "take the fat one off and put the runt on". When we chose the one we wanted it happened to be the fat one. We didnt really notice how much bigger he was than the others, untill we compared it to the runt. Then she reminded us that Rooster was the fatty of her siblings and then she became the runt as an adult. So, we'll see if this one will be tiny, too. We are naming the little guy Henry. We will call him Hen for short. Then we will have a Rooster and a Hen. he! He's so cute and I can hardly wait for 4 or 5 more weeks till we can bring him home. Belle will NOT stop talking about him and all the things she has planned for him. I can only imagine. :)

We snuck a picture holding him so we could get a better view of his face. Love him!

Swine Flu

Monday morning Belle told me she had a sore throat. I thought this was completely false because she wanted to get out of school. She managed to miraculously memorize my phone number and kept telling Mrs Montgomery to call me so I could come pick her up. And then she would ramble off my phone number. Mrs Montgomery told her she was fine and that she didnt need to go home. Well. Tuesday morning around 3am, Belle came in and woke me up saying her throat hurt. She sounded awful. Some mother I am. I gave her some Tylenol and sent her to bed, where it took her until about 4:30 to finally really fall back to sleep. I decided to stay home from work and let her sleep. At breakfast, she said to me "Do you think I have the swine flu?...It's going around, you know". (Something I'm sure she heard at school.) I told her I doubted she had swine flu and that it was just a silly cold she had. She was seeming fine and playing and acting like her throat was fine. So, around 11:30 I dropped her at her dad's and went to work. After work I decided we would go to Joann's Fabric and get the fixin's for her Halloween costume, since she could be there with me and have a say in what we did. We got to Joann's and figured out what we were going to do (much more than I had planned on) and we went up and waited for our turn at the cut counter. It is finally our turn and at this point, Belle has started telling me she "feels like crap" and wants to just go home and relax. I felt so bad for her. We get up to the counter and I start handing the lady our fabric and Belle leans over the counter and says "I have the swine flu" to the lady. Her eyes get wide and she steps away from Belle and looks at me and says "Oh boy,... that doesnt sound good" and I told the lady she has a cold and they've been talking about swine flu at school so she's paranoid she has it. The lady cautiously cuts our things and off we go. As we pull away from the cut counter Belle hollers back to her "I hope I didn't give you my swine flu!". Lovely. I hope we are still allowed in Joann's.

Box Tops!

Belle's school is collecting Box Tops. Please collect them and help her class win:

250 - Sucker Party and Goody Bag

500 - Cookie Party and Goody Bag

750 - Popsicle Party and Goody Bag

1000 - Pizza Party and Goody Bag

Thank you!

Today at 3:53pm I got a phone call from a 208-365 number that was not a saved contact in my phone. I didnt answer and figured Rooster was out terrorizing the neighborhood. I googled the phone number and at the same time my search result showed "Emmett Bus Garage" I got a voicemail. I thought maybe Belle had left her backpack on the bus or something. So, I listen to my message... "Hi Emmy, this is Shawna from the Emmett Bus Garage and Belle apparently forgot to get off the bus at her stop. Her supervisor is following the bus right now and she will be dropped back off at her stop as soon as possible. If you have any questions, you can call me at ... " So, I call my sitter. She answered the phone "I'm on my way to get her...." and we laugh and I apologize and thanked her. Then she called me back around 4pm saying she has Belle. She told me "Belle claims she fell asleep." School is out at 3:27. I would think the bus leaves ButteView around 3:35. They head to Carberry Elementary (which is RIGHT by my house) to pick up students there and then stop at our subdivision to drop off Belle and the other kids. If I remember right, when I signed her up for the bus, they told me she is dropped off around 3:47. How does she fall asleep in that short of time? I couldnt wait to hear Belle's version of this story.

Belle told me she got on the bus after school and fell asleep. Then her friend said "Belle, this is your stop!" and she woke up and saw the bus was driving away from her stop and yelled to the bus driver "Hey! That was my stop!" The bus driver told her to come up front (because she was in the very back of the bus) and asked what her name was and she told him "Bellami Bea Bare" and he asked her mom's phone number and Belle said "I dont know, but we live on Gem Stone Way and thats right back there... my mother's name is Emmy Bare." He told her she would have to wait and be dropped off in a bit and then he got on his walkie talkie and told someone she was still on the bus. Kim Webb from the bus garage personally dropped Belle off back at the sitter's house.

Belle wasnt scared and didnt cry or anything. We have been practicing my phone number all night. Im just glad she knows our street. She told me that her regular bus driver was on vacation today. I think if he was driving, she would have been woke up and got off at her stop. We also talked about her not sitting clear in the back and sitting next to the Brown boys. They looked for her after they got off and then the bus drove away and there was no Belle in sight. They ran home and told their mom that Belle didnt get off the bus and she immediately got on the phone to the bus garage.

What a ride!

28th Birthday Piggy-Q

W.A.R.N.I.N.G!!! This post is about cooking a pig in the ground. If you do not care to read about it, that is fine and I completely understand. I will not post any "graphic" pictures. If you want to see those, let me know and I can email them to you.

I have always wanted to do a "burried" pig. When Tren asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday this year, I told him I wanted to have a bon fire. Well, the bon fire turned in to a burried pig party. This was just fine with me and I was very excited for it. Tren has many friends and without all these friends, this pig cooking would have been EXTREMLY difficult. Friday the 2nd, Tren was out and about getting pineapple, banana leaves, firewood, the pig, and salt. Later that evening we went to his friends house where the pig would be cooked and the party would be. One friend used his backho to dig a pit for the pig...

Once they had burned all the wood, and it had burned down to coals, it was time to prepare the pig. I have never seen anything like this! It was like a crime scene. First, they laid out a wire fence sort of thing. Then a burlap sack was laid, opened on the fence. Then the banana leaves were opened and laid on the burlap. Then the pig was laid on the banana leaves. Then pineapple and salt was poured in to the pig. Then the leaves and burlap was wrapped around the pig and the fence was wired shut. Snug as a pig in a burlap sack:

Then it was lowered into the coals, shielded with tin and burried:

The next day was the big party! This piggy was cooking from about 9:30pm to about 6:30pm the following day. Conveniently, it was pouring rain when everyone was showing up to the party. The pig was still burried and I was getting anxious and very hungry. Finally, Tren went and hopped on the backho and dug it up. He was soaking wet from being out in the rain. They got it out and set it up on a table and started cutting the wires and pulling off the banana leaves and BAM! there was the pig. Since it was so cold outside, it was steaming (and steamed for most of the night). This made for a great show! I was up taking pictures of the pig being unveiled and some guy I dont know, grabbed a piece of the meat and said "Try this!" and shoved it in my mouth. I then watched him grab another piece FROM THE KNEE and try feeding it to someone else. I nearly lost my appetite then. But! I managed to keep it together and eat more pig later.

Here are some pics of the bon fire:

The pig was a hit,... I don't think I need to do it again. There was a lot left over and it was a lot of work and preparation and very expensive. I had a great time at my party, though! Once the pig was out of the ground, it stopped raining and the fire kept us warm all night. Thank you to everyone who helped out with the pig and side items.