Pheasant Hunting

We have a long time friend and his son here hunting this past few days.  Glenn met Dave when he was probably about 18 when he was working on an oil rig after he went to diesel school in Wyoming.  Then Glenn & family lived in Dave's hometown of Kimball, Nebraska for a while.  Eventually, Glenn talked Dave into moving to Indiana.  Dave became a fireman and met his wife and says he's now lived in Indiana longer than Nebraska.  So it's been fun catching up with him and meeting his son.  

They've had gloomy days since they've been here which is unusual for here.  Today is their last day here and hunting and it's a bright, sunny, no clouds in the sky day like Iowa usually is.  They've had pretty good luck getting pheasants.  We've had a couple of years without many birds due to the drought and some of their nesting areas were drowned out this spring, but there have been more birds this year.  

They got to hunt with Diane's husband and his friend a couple days which was good.  Those guys are avid hunters and hunt or fish almost every weekend all year so they are good - and very organized about where they go.  Bill's dog is deaf and old, but he's been doing good.

If you don't like to see pictures of *ead birds, only look at the first two pictures!

ready to head out this morning

hunters plus Bill's hunting dog, Sam

Dave and his son.  His son LOVES to hunt pheasant, and he's good!

 

Pheasant Hunters

We have a group of four hunters from Wisconsin that come here to hunt pheasant every year. They're here this weekend for three days of hunting. Bill's mom had chili for them one day last year which was a great idea (last year we had a snow storm this weekend!).

We had lunch for them at our house today. I was really wanting to take a picture of everybody sitting around the table but some people don't like to be featured on a blog so I didn't ask.

The menu was salisbury steaks, green bean casserole, butterhorn rolls and Peggy brought frog eye salad. I tried a new recipe from the Tasty Kitchen blog called Ozark Apple Pudding which was more like cake and served it with cinnamon or vanilla ice cream.

I talked about ordering a new table here on the blog back in July or so. It's an Amish table made in Ohio and we waited about 10 weeks for it. We were able to choose the shape, style of legs, edge, wood, stain, number of leaves and chair style. We took a piece of our wood trim that's throughout the house to match the wood grain and stain color. We have the room so got six leaves while we were doing it (and so they would match rather than maybe getting more later). It'll stretch out to 11'. We went ahead and got 6 chairs (2 are side chairs with the arms) and matching counter stools. The table we had was a round maple one that I bought used for $50 from a little old lady when I was living in my first apartment. It was really nice to have everybody at one table today.

Back to the hunters, they have only seen 4 birds and got 2 of those in 2 days. The dogs are having trouble finding a scent since it's been too dry this year and there are few birds due to hard winters and wet springs. They save the tail feathers for Bill's brother, Jim, who gives them to a Native American whose tribe makes things with them.

Fun Saturday

I've had a fun day so far. This morning I went with three friends to Plover, a nearby town. The church there has a nut and bake sale every year. With it they have homemade pie and coffee and lunch. We just had pie this year because then Terri and I went on to Laurens to the Heart 'N Home store that was having a Christmas Open House today. The owner of this store did our P.E.O. wine tasting that I blogged about this summer.

She is now carrying a new line of dip mixes that we sampled along with a bunch of other little food bites and wine. Her son has helped her make some new soy candles. We liked almost every scent (not too strong) and they poured them into different glasses that they found at garage sales or auctions. I got a cranberry balsam one that is in a champagne glass. Some were in clear glass tea cups. My pictures today are not the best.

Then we checked out two antique shops and another shop in town.

Bill was going pheasant hunting today. Good thing they started early this morning. It's super windy here this afternoon. We're supposed to be having 45 mph gusts. At least the sun is shining and it's not too cold yet. Days like this we're glad to not have any big trees near the house! I'm wondering how the hunters did. Very few pheasants were seen during harvest.

Bill wants to take me out to eat tonight! The Ft. Dodge Mineral City burned down a year or more ago and has been rebuilt. Bill hasn't been there since they reopened. (we had our first date there) It used to be more rustic with a lot of wood but is now modern looking decor and has a new menu.

Pheasant Hunting

We woke up to light snow on the ground with it still coming down. The roads were a little slick on the way to church. Bill has gone pheasant hunting Fri., Sat., and today in the mornings. Fri. & Sat. he was helping train a friend's son's dog. These pictures are of pheasant hunting in 2006, taken by Bill's friend Randy. The 1st picture is of Bill and his dog, Sam. In the 2nd picture, Bill is in the foreground. His dad is the guy farthest away. We have lots of pheasants in this area. Hunters come from all over to take advantage of that! I put a pheasant breast in the crock pot early this morning to be ready for lunch. Here's the recipe:

CROCK POT PHEASANT

1-3 pheasant breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. raw rice
3/4 c. water
1/2 env. Lipton onion soup mix

Mix soups, rice & water in crock pot. Place breasts over soup mixture. Sprinkle onion soup mix over pheasant. Cook on High 4-5 hours. (tastes like chicken - just kidding!)