How much wood...

can a Dick Chuck chuck, if a Dick Chuck, could chuck wood? Well, today we found out!!! Rich headed out with Chukar at 4:15 AM (yes, AM...and I was the good wife that packed him a thermos of coffee at 3:30 AM) to the Naches area to get some firewood for the fall. I think this was more a "Manly use my chainsaw adventure"...than a real practical one...but if the boys had fun, then SO BE IT. I'm happy if they are happy...and I'm pretty sure they had a BLAST!

A little shot of the area where Rich decided to forage...YES, he had a permit, and NO, they don't take any living trees!
Holy smokes...that is A LOT of work for one person...and I'm pretty sure that he is feeling the pain right now!

Chukar had a great time too...Rich would let him range out and then have him come in about every 20-30 minutes...we definitely have ONE tired pup on our hands tonight...plus, a few battle wounds from his adventures too!

All loaded up and ready to come home....I guess a DICK CHUCK can chuck WOOD!!!
(For any one who doesn't know, Dick Chuck is for Richard Charles...and of course, my nickname for my babe)!Before heading back home...Rich let Chukar have a little more fun and let him swim in the Little Naches River...
So proud of my boys...but the work doesn't stop here...no he has to split and stack all the wood...any volunteers because I think I'm getting SICK...no, I mean my back hurts....oh heck, I just don't want too!

September came and went...and we even had some celebration of birthdays for the ONE AND ONLY Richie and also his Mama D! Happy Birthdays via the BLOG...even though the celebrations have been made! On to October, and decorating for Halloween, and fires, and books on the couch, and of course COLLEGE FOOTBALL!

Girls Weekend in Portland...

While the wife is away.....the husband will be super productive....and have lots of fun! This past weekend, I headed down to P-land to visit a dear friend while Rich and Chukar stayed in....

I think that Rich would admit that he had a successful weekend that involved...

Fishing with Adam and Lippy and catching this awesome Pink!
Painting the downstairs....
and also taking Chukar out on Sunday to go check out the birds and meet him Mama for lunch...this is the delicious sandwich he had that made me SO JEALOUS...but, of course, I'm still stuffed from my adventures!
After work on Friday, Sarah and I met up with Kaylin and headed down to Portland to visit Kristin...we ended up getting into town pretty late and just hit up a local late night Happy Hour and headed back to the condo to catch up on girl time!

Saturday morning...we headed out to Pine Street Biscuit for the MOST AMAZING and GLUTENOUS Breakfast I have ever had....

Fried Chicken on a biscuit with cheese, bacon and gravy...and yes, my arteries are still screaming for MERCY!

After breakfast...we did some sight seeing, shopping, and more dining...

Kaylin, Kristin and I....spanking the bum of the statue!
Next up...it was ladies night out...Kristin and Kaylin...
and Sarah and I...
Round 1 before dinner....
Then it was time for dinner ....MOST DELICIOUS SUSHI EVER!

And, another round or two or three of cocktails!
DINNER!!!

Sunday morning...it was time to head home...but we got to meet up with Janna...another friend in Portland for breakfast before heading back!Such an amazing time...it's been a hectic September here...with work being busy...the dog being sick and life just getting crazy with football...this week doesn't seem to let up either...with birthdays for Rich and Denise, class starting for me, getting to meet Miss Emily and then of course, camping this weekend.

I'm bushed...time for dinner!

Grouse trip gone wild!

It's not very often that a blog comes from Rich's point of view...but since he posted it on his hunting website, i decided it was a must post!!! Enjoy our Saturday morning adventure!

We headed to Kennewick yesterday, we decided to stop off and get some grouse hunting in for the first time this year. We decided to hit up a spot in LT Murry that I've ran into them previously.

We got to the trail and I noticed right away that spring run off had decimated the trail, basically we had to walk up a creek bed full of rocks and boulders. We get about a half mile up and I here THE sound, I jump five feet in the air and I yell SNAKE as my wife is trailing 5 yards behind. I froze to get my bearings, make sure the dog stays away and find exactly where the rattler is hiding. I make I contact with the serpent, walk around and decide to shread it as it was right in the middle of the "trail". My wife has the dog and I blast the snake with 2 rounds of 20 gauge 6 shot. I break open the gun and start to remove the spent shells and reload. As I do this, I turn around and my wife is sYing something about getting stung... From there it is a blur, she was getting attacked by yellow jackets. As soon as I realized what was going on, I started getting bit/stung, they were all over us.

I start screaming like a girl and begin running down trail to get away from the swarm. As I was "running", I threw my gun and hat off. I made it to a spot I thought I could get away, but I tripped, landed smack dab on a big rock with both knees taking the brunt of the force. Meanwhile, my wife has started to make her way down the trail towards me. I was still on the ground writhing in pain from the bites and the fall. She makes it down to me, she grabs my banged up gun and muddy hat and we decide to get the heck out of there after less than an hour of "hunting".

Not 10 minutes later, near the beginning of the trail, another snake...I scream and hold back the Fam. No rattle this time, I think it was a big bull snake. After that, we scurried down trail and back to the truck, never to return, ever.

I ended up getting bit/stung 8 times all over. My wife got bit/stung 6 times, not sure if the dog got any. My O/U got some pretty good scuffs in the wood and a couple scrapes o. The bluing, but it cleaned up and now has some extra character.

The moral of the story is, watch yourselves out there when hunting early down low...the snakes and bugs are out to get you!

Funny comments from others:

Sounds like a great way to introduce the wife to hunting.

Takes a big man to admit to that.  Especially the part about just running off and leaving the wife as bait!

After the stings heal it will make a great story to look back on.  Too bad you didn't have some video of it as well!