Bow hunting, Vacation, and being an Architect

Okay....first things first. I didn't take a shot at an Elk. I did see a fair number of them though. On opening day I would have had a shot if I had seen the Elk standing 30 yards to my left. Unfortunately, I was concentrating on the herd moving through the trees about 100 yards away and didn't even know that one was there. Suddenly as I shifted my body, it jumped, spun, and shot up the hill taking the rest of the Elk with it. Oh well.....I'll try again next year. The next outing will be for Turkey in the spring. I hear that they are all over the place now. Jerry and I saw a lot of them up in the Teanaway.

Our trip to Vancouver and Victoria was great. Between work and the long hours on the house, I really needed to get away. Our friends Marcell and Page recently bought a house in Victoria and it was fun to see it and to see areas of Victoria that are outside the typical tourist hot spots.

Work is busy busy busy right now. Most of my time is spent doing Construction administration for two of our projects. It seems like I get a box of submittals every other day. Its amazing how much coordination and information goes into a building. The key here is team work.

Fishing and Bow Hunting

This summer I took my daughters fishing. I watched the smiles on their faces, and helped Emma bring in her first fish. The sun fish and small mouth bass at Mattoon didn't stand a chance. I remember catching my first fish. I caught it in Manashtash creek by the old campground. I had had so many snags that I thought I had caught my hook on another tree root. My dad walked over and after a few tugs on my pole let me know that I had a fish on the other end. Having the opportunity to give that experience to my daughters as well as taking up fishing again has been an absolute thrill.

Having at one point debated whether to go vegetarian, it is hard to believe that I have taken up bow hunting. I bought a nice bow and set it up about a month and a half ago. Now, in a couple of days I will head into the mountains to see if I can get close enough to an Elk to take a shot.

My First Post

After leaving the Kittitas valley 14 years ago, we moved back a year ago. It has been a lot of fun being back. All of these memories from growing up here have been slowly working their way back into my mind. The first to trigger was the crisp smell of the plants in the early autumn. I was on a bike ride and suddenly the familiar smell transported me back to the thrill of game day playing high school football and then to pheasant hunting on the railroad tracks with my dad. I stopped to take a deep breath. The valley was welcoming me home.