Elk Hunting and First Framed Print Sold

I am writing this from Ohio City, Colorado with Spencer Nicoll and his family.  We're in a valley surrounded by sage-brush mountains and dark timber.  We've been hunting for a day and-a-half, and so far only Spencer's father Dave has managed to make a kill - a beautiful six point bull.  Granddad has been hunting for more years than I can count, and he's never managed to shoot a big bull until yesterday - at age 74.   His two sons were so excited you'd think they'd shot the bull themselves.  The photo shows three generations of their family.

I'll say one thing for elk hunting - you stay in shape!  I climbed a ridge yesterday that just about did me in.  It took me almost an hour to climb up near the top, and I had to stay in the woods to keep any elk from seeing me out in the open.  I probably stopped to catch my breath 2o times along the way.  Every time I stopped I pulled out my phone to see if there was any signal, because when we left camp Auburn was only beating Arkansas by two points 30 to 28.  I sure missed an exciting second half - Auburn eventually won 65 to 43, and set a high-scoring record for the SEC.  Anyway, back to hunting.  I sat up on the hill until nearly dark, only to find out when I got back that the elk were only one hill over from where I was - welcome to the unpredictable and often frustrating world of hunting.  This morning we went to a different spot, and after walking for quite some time I sat down to rest and wait (most of hunting is just waiting - you're lucky if you fire your gun even once).  I saw several mule deer does coming down the hill towards me, and I wondered how close they would get before they would see me and get spooked.  They walked right past me - probably only 10 yards away - and never saw me sitting in among the trees.  Too bad I wasn't hunting deer this time.  All in all it was a beautiful morning, and I've got this evening and tomorrow to get a cow elk before I need to head home for our Wednesday evening service. 





Last week I got a phone call from the office manager at Southwest Counseling Associates, where I had one of my framed prints displayed for sale.  She said a man had come in, wanted the print and left her a check - my first framed print to sell!  I replaced it the next day, but I am excited to have finally sold a print.  Maybe one of these days I'll be able to sell an original.  The timing of the sale is a "God Thing" that I will share more about in another blog entry.

I hope to have my own elk story before I have to leave.  I think I'll go cast a few flies in the river behind the cabin and see if there's any trout to catch.