Lovely day(s)

I hope everyone had a fabulous three day weekend. I shirked all homework responsibilities and pretended like I am not a graduate student by shimmying myself up to the South Fork of the Snake River where I played outside from sun up to sun down.

See:

There's a bright golden haze in the meadow . . .

We got up before the sun to catch the mist coming off the river and snap some marketing photos. I was actually in front of the lens for most of the photos, which is not my m.o., but I was able to sneak in a few shots while the mist lingered.

And this one of the shoot in action. Beautiful place to greet the sun.

I managed to fulfill every redneck girl's fantasy this weekend: I fished, I helped hang a tree stand (which I managed to avoid sitting in -- 12ish feet up was sure to end in Disaster with a capital D), I assisted with praise and moral support in the foiled shot at a deer, I then subsequently searched for the arrows for what felt like 12 hours, I decked myself out in camouflage from head to toe, and I shot myself not one, but TWO ruffled grouse with a 20 gauge shotgun. Yes, ma'am, you can call me Annie Oakley. I think I would do quite right living off the fat of the land.

I am a catch and release fishergal 99% of the time. You can't really catch and release while hunting. My mom likes to say that she hunts with her camera lens. I get her point. However, I crawled around in the brush, over trees, through huckleberry bushes, and I earned my dinner. To say that successfully shooting a flying bird is exhilarating would be like saying I have a little bit of reading to do this semester. I nearly shat myself I was so excited when I connected with that little creature.

What was even more thrilling was eating the bird I had shot only a few hours previous. Friends, this meal was spectacular. We wrapped the grouse breasts in bacon since it is a super lean bird, plus I have been on a bacon-binge as of late. We also cooked up some taters in foil with sliced garlic and a can of cream o' mushroom soup (read that with your best redneck drawl). Food snobs don't turn your nose up . . . these took five minutes to throw together and about thirty seconds to gobble down. They were delicious.

I closed the weekend down with a Boise State football game. Yes, it was a lovely weekend.

Ruffled grouse. Tastes like chicken but better dressed.

Tuli worked hard. Amazing to watch him in his element.

Fortunately I did not have to clean the birds -- hiding behind the camera works wonders sometimes.

Can you smell the goodness?

Got to love eating outside -- notice the piece of grass that snuck on the plate?

Looks a little monochromatic. Tasted megafantastic.