Anybody miss me?

I went out to a friend's "camp". He has 3000 acres, and once a year we get together in the fall for some ruffed grouse hunting. It's mostly drinking beer and talking, along with gourmet meals, but there are some other things we do too. He's been harvesting some timber, and Bob has helped him with the timber marking and management plan.

Here's the guys discussing some logging areas:


Here are the birds I got yesterday:


Here's a picnic at my friend's lake:



It was a great time and we had lots of laughs. It's a wonderful place- he has two lakes, a trout stream and pond with a waterfall, and a pretty rustic cabin that we stay in. It's such a rare treat to be able to have all of that wide open beautiful space to yourself to roam. We're so lucky he's been having us over for years. He and Bob became friends in high school, and remained good friends all these years. It's about a 4 hour drive for us, so we don't see him as much as we'd like.

Looks like a wonderful time!

Congrats on your successful hunt!

3000 acres is quite a chunk of land, too. What lake was that?

I've got a buddy who has a lake cottage and a camp near Curtis, but I can't remember the name of the lake... We've hunted grouse there, hit the sauna, and, of course, tossed back several homebrews. Good times.

TB

Tiber_Brew said:

Congrats on your successful hunt!

3000 acres is quite a chunk of land, too. What lake was that?

I've got a buddy who has a lake cottage and a camp near Curtis, but I can't remember the name of the lake... We've hunted grouse there, hit the sauna, and, of course, tossed back several homebrews. Good times.

TB

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His property is northeast of Curtis. We had dinner in Curtis Thursday night, then headed back to camp. He has two lakes on his property, but I don't remember the actual names of them. We call them the "north lake" and the "close lake". That property has been in his family for three generations, and it's near the Two Hearted River. They may be putting it on the market in the next year or two, since the taxes are incredibly high and half of the "kids" want to get their share of the money out of the property. It's really priceless, but of course there will be a market price on it. If I had an extra $5-10 million, I'd be the first to buy it!

Looks like a great way to spend an autumn weekend.
Did you guys cook up the birds too?

Mermaid said:

Looks like a great way to spend an autumn weekend.
Did you guys cook up the birds too?

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Yea, the birds on those spits look a bit like hot dogs

Lovely looking land. We don't get those colors down here.

I embarrassed myself once with a shotgun and clay pigeons. That's a lot harder than it looks. And to think I was an expert rifleman in the marine corps.

passedpawn said:

Yea, the birds on those spits look a bit like hot dogs

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Very funny. For your information, they were brats! You can't have a picnic without a wood fire and brats. It's like, Un-Yooperish, or something.

Bob got a couple of birds on Friday, and I got two yesterday. We didn't hunt very long or hard, just an hour or so after lunch both days. We're going to have two for dinner later this week, and two will stay in the freezer for a few weeks. My friend Steve (who owns the camp) makes a wonderful stewed grouse and dumplings recipe, and I may do that. One of the meals will be braised grouse with ****ake mushrooms.

Edit- I cant believe that s h i take mushrooms got ***'d by the profanity filter! Haha.

passedpawn said:

I embarrassed myself once with a shotgun and clay pigeons. That's a lot harder than it looks. And to think I was an expert rifleman in the marine corps.

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I'm actually a really good shot, surprisingly. The idea is to kill the bird with one shot, and not get any pellets in the breast. One of my birds had one pellet in the breast. Not too bad on a long shot, really!

Mmmmmmm brats. Spicey brown mustard and I'm in heaven. Much better than wild fowl.

passedpawn said:

Mmmmmmm brats. Spicey brown mustard and I'm in heaven. Much better than wild fowl.

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Exactly how they were served! Bloody Marys with beer chasers, bean dip, pumpkin cookies, asiago cheese and crackers, and veggies and dip filled out the rest of the picnic menu.

The color here is all gone, as the leaves are down, but those young beech trees hold onto their yellow leaves a long time. It really is a gorgeous place. He has large hemlock stands, some hardwoods, some aspen, etc, and it's really great wildlife habitat.

He has a trout stream, with a wide pond, and in the evenings you can stand on the dock and watch the brook trout dart about as the water is ultra-clear. It's awesome.

Looks like a great time, my kind of fun. And wow, 3000 acres! That is just awesome.

Welcome back!

Damn you and your autumn leaves make me so jealous. We don't get color changes being a resident of N. Cuba.

Looks like a great time and a fantastic place.

Love the sweatshirt, too.

Hugh_Jass said:

Looks like a great time and a fantastic place.

Love the sweatshirt, too.

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I also love the sweatshirt! It's a very old shirt, and says "Central Division" on it. I have had it for about 35 years or so, I'd guess. For a while, when the Browns didn't exist (I will NOT bring up Art Model), I kept it in a drawer. But I've been wearing it again for quite a while!

Sure is pretty country there. I wouldn't mind seeing those colors more around here!

absolutely awesome! Now I want 3000 acres... preferably not the barren tundra that is Canada ha!

I'm petty jealous! I'd love to have even a small portion of land up there (or down here) that would be good for hunting and just walking around on.

Nah, we didn't miss ya'...who are you again?!?!