April Camping

Sunset on the lower place. Stunning vistas of weather, color and DEER! Jon said he saw deer everywhere he turned.

 Love spring over here in Eastern Oregon. Everything is colored in stunning shades of greens and up in the hills there are only a few flowers blooming. Next month, the  hills will explode with the other colors.

 Jon was amused to find a previous camp site under water. This one was from a few years back when Tony was home. Jon was going to use the rocks for a new spot, but they were really slimy.

 Jon did get stuck more than once. This was his 'first' mud run. Not too messy, just pretty wet.

 Jon noticed there were frogs everywhere this trip. He recorded a short video of frogs peeping. It was so loud and there were so many, it sounded like one noise!! This frog looks like his black markings are a smile!

 Jon really tried to pose some of these frogs. But, staging a frog shoot  needs cooperative frogs. Which, they weren't.

 Here is Jon's Bronco on its last camping trip before Kodiak (the newer brown one) is released from the shop. Jon effectively buried the front end deep in the water and mud. Thankfully, Steve was able to release it from the murk in about 30 seconds. Which made everyone very happy!

Early June on the Mtn Ranch

Jonathan and Steve have been doing fences the last few days. However, Jon went up alone one day with the camera and took some amazing pictures. I chose a few of the over 100 to share!

 I love all the flowers blooming up on the mountain during the spring. Yes, it is still spring up on the ranch. The fence of wild roses is rather stunning.

  Deer playing peek-a-boo!

Things you find in the pond-A GREEN dragonfly, a snail floating on the ceiling of the water, and polliwogs! 

This snail Jon took several photos of-finally, he saw it tilt and realised it was a snail underwater with it's foot on the bottom of the surface of the water~which is really strange. 

 At this time of the year, the pond is green and not full of pond weed, the cows have not torn up the edge of the pond, and everything is peaceful. I only hope the killdeer nest hatches out its babies (it was near the pond!).

 As Jon drove home, he captured the ranch in his mirror and camera (my camera). I think this is one of my favorite photos,.

Hiking with Guns, continued.

Monday after school. It was just barely 4 o'clock and here he is hiking away into the grass. At 430 I heard two shots. Several minutes later I saw Jon hiking back, almost running. Sans coat, hat, gun, and with a huge grin. Yup, he got a deer!

However, it was a bit of a ways away and in a gully. He did drag it up from where he shot it, but it was still on a hillside. The first photo shows about the location of the kill. (the lighter green bushes near the darker ones by the taller lone bush..kind of in the upper right of the photo.....got that?) He did say it was a 'Forrest Gump shot' and he managed to avoid all the guts. He thinks he is going to write to Remington because their core lok bullets don't expand when they hit bone, they explode. Which did ruin a bit of meat, but not much. They did find one fragment.



The deer was, they think, an older one. Steve says it was a 6 by 4, including the eyegaurds, and the antlers were thick and spiky. The ears on the deer were notched in at least 3 places by what we think were previous fights. It was a pretty big and heavy buck.

This was the first 'knot' made to haul it the rest of the way out of the draw. Things actually went more downhill from there. It didn't take long to get it cleaned out (via cell phone instructions by dad), but the hard part happened when we tried to get it in the truck. We used several methods and ended up calling for dad again. We were planning on meeting him partway and dragged the buck several hundred yards through the grass. However, we hit a snag. Well, more of a ditch than a snag. And since I am the mom, I had to check out what happened and fell in the ditch also. By this time, it was dark. If we had gone 6 feet on either side of the ditch, we would have been fine. But, we didn't.


As you can see, it was a bit of a jarring experience for all involved. The tire is off the ground and the truck was sitting on the bumper and the leaf springs. The driver's door would not open because the cab itself slid forward on the frame. Other than that, they were able to dig it out and it drove home fine. But apparently, getting stuck on the ranch is a Hansell tradition. So, Jon has officially joined the club.

The deer is now hanging and Jon plans on putting this European mount (he wants another one) opposite the one in his room with the coyote tail hanging from its antler. Go Rednecks! We were all pretty sore on Tuesday and my ankle is swollen, but on the whole, it was an eventful afternoon and evening that we will never forget!