Girlie Bear and I went to our muzzleloader hunt at Fort Knox this weekend. 

The weather all weekend was fabulous.  Very chilly in the morning, but it warmed up as soon as the sun came up.  Clear skies, very little wind, and temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s.

Girlie Bear and I spent Saturday in the blind down in a draw.  Getting into the woods was a pain due to all of the fallen timber.  The area got hit hard last year when Hurricane Ike was followed up with a large ice storm a couple of months later.  My friend and his daughter hunted the adjoining spur.  Their trek was a lot easier.

We sat quietly in the blind all day, but didn’t see anything.  We still had a good time, talking quietly, reading, and watching the squirrels.  We came out of the woods in the mid-afternoon.  Fort Knox wants everyone off by 5, so there was no sense trying to hunt until dark when we wouldn’t have time to look for anything we got before we had to leave for the night.

Sunday morning rolled around very early, and after I woke her up, Girlie Bear decided she would rather spend the day playing with Baby Bear.  So I went out again without her.  No biggee.  She tried it, she says she wants to go again in the future, but she wanted to get some sleep.  I’ll take her out again later.

I went a bit deeper into the same draw, and hunted from the ground without the blind. 

After I got settled, just before shooting light at 7, I heard something crashing around in the thicket above me.  Pretty sure it was a deer, but it wasn’t acting like it was spooked, just walking around and wearing out trees.

A couple of hours later, I put my rifle down to drink some water and eat a snack.  Unfortunately, I left my gun leaning against the tree I was leaning on.  About 15 minutes later, I heard something coming down the draw behind me.  It wasn’t walking like a human would, so I figured it was a deer.  I had no cover to my rear, so if I moved, I would get busted for sure.  All I could do was sit still and wait to see what the deer did.

As the deer got further downhill, it moved closer to my position.  By the time it got even with me in the draw, it was only about 10 or 15 yards away.  I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye, and counted 3 or 4 widely spaced points on the side that was facing me. 

OK, it’s a shooter.   I eased over to get my rifle, and began to draw it across my body to get a shot at it.  I was hoping to either catch it broadside or quartering away. 

However, Mr. Murphy stepped in.  My rifle caught a small branch that was sticking out of the tree, and it swung back and forth.  When Mr. Buck saw that, he took off, and no amount of bleating or grunting on my part could get him to stop or even slow down.

I’m proud of myself for not taking a shot at a running deer.  When the deer moved, I brought my rifle up and started to aim, but sanity took over and I didn’t even look through the scope.

After calming down and sitting for a while to see if the buck had any followers, I picked up and headed up the ridge to see if my friend had any luck.  He hadn’t seen anything, but his daughter had seen a small doe for a couple of seconds right after day break.

As we walked out to get lunch, we saw the most buck sign that either of us had ever seen.  I lost count of all the rubs we saw, and there were over a dozen large scrapes in the couple of hundred yards we walked. 

After lunch, we headed back down the draw to see if anything came up as the day got warmer.  No luck, but we found even more sign and a large bedding area.  I marked that on my map for later.

So, no joy in the hunting ground, but a good time was had by all.  I plan on going back to that area to bow hunt when it re-opens in December, and hopefully I’ll get a bit of luck.  Hopefully we’ll get drawn to hunt Fort Knox again next year.  It’s the nicest area I’ve ever hunted.

On this date, in 1863, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. I will always remember this as it was read to me earlier this year by Girlie Bear when we visited the Lincoln Memorial.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate…we can not consecrate…we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Here we go.  Trying to keep my streak alive.

Miami and Carolina – Carolina
Seattle and Minnesota – Vikings
Atlanta and New York Giants – Atlanta
Washington and Dallas – Redskins
San Fransisco and Green Bay – Packers
Cleveland and Detroit – This is a touch choice.  Both teams have been terrible lately.  I’ll take Detroit, but only because of home field advantage.
Indy at Baltimore – Colts
Pittsburgh at Kansas City – Pittsburgh
New Orleans at Tampa Bay – New Orleans
Buffalo at Jacksonville- Jacksonville
Arizona at Saint Louis – Arizona
Cinci at Oakland – Oakland, but only out of loyalty.  Could you guys call the starting line up and ask them to show up to the game, please?
San Diego at Denver – Denver
New York Jets at New England – Jets
Philadelphia at Chicago – Chicago
Tennessee at Houston – Houston

Went 9 and 6 for the week.  Overall for the season, I’m 77 and 67.

This was a great weekend for football.  Lots of great, close games.  I loved watching the end of the Indy/New England game.  Belichek is an idiot, but his idiocy broke my way this time.

And the Bosnians still need a foreign peace keeping force to keep them from slaughtering each other.

The UN just approved another year for their monitoring force. 

If all of the conflicts that still ooze blood in Bosnia are miraculously solved in the next 12 months, it will be almost 15 years since we first deployed troops there. 

At what point do you just throw up your hands, make sure each faction knows you’ll be watching to kick some ass if they start something, and go home?  How much time and treasure does the world spend trying to get these groups to stop killing each other?

But it’s not French.

Saw this over at Jigsaw’s Thoughts.

The EU has decided to take English as their official inter-governmental language.  The other frontrunner was German.

Personally, I just can’t see France, England, Poland, the Netherlands, or Belgium voluntarily speaking German for official communications.  Just a feeling.

UPDATE – OK, this was a joke that I took as snark.  Must have been sleep or something.  It’s still funny.

As much as I complain about Kentucky, it sure is pretty here in the fall.

The colors are beautiful and when you get a nice soft rain in November you can smell all the spiciness in the fallen leaves.

There, I found something positive to say about Kentucky.

Currently sitting in the truck waiting for Junior Bear to finish an appointment. I’m listening to George Carlin, dialed into work via a cell card, and troubleshooting a storage issue at work.

I’m almost to the point that I could do just about every aspect of my job remotely. I just have to convince my boss that I can be as productive sitting on my couch in my pajamas as I can b in a cubicle wearing business casual.

Saw this over at Danger Room. 

… a pattern of secrecy persists when it comes to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. And unless Tehran shifts gears, “the Agency will not be in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran.”

In other news, the IAEA believes that the United States may also be working on an atomic weapons program, and Russia may be as well.  And water may be wet, and the sky may occasionally be blue.

If anyone still needs to be convinced that Iran is running a clandestine atomic weapons program, please get in touch with me. I have some magic beans they can trade for their cow.

When your toddler son points to the scantily clad spokeswoman for the cellular company during the pregame show and yells “Tata dada tata!”, you know you’re in trouble.