It's Been A Few Weeks

I have been going non stop lately. That was until this weekend! I finally got an enjoyable/relaxing weekend and it was much needed! The weather here on the Oregon Coast was great! Headed for the valley Friday morning to hit up Cabelas! Got a ton of new lures, some line, and new propane burner for crab cooking and a fly fishing video (Need to figure out what in gods name I'm doing now that I've got the gear for it). Found a PINK pontoon boat that I HAVE to have!!! Was gonna get it come payday but I think I'm going to wait until Spring gets a smidge closer. Got up Saturday morning and headed up river into the boonies to try and get some steelhead fishing in! Hit a few holes with no luck but it was OK, just getting out in the woods was all I needed, the fishing was an added bonus! On the way back down the river did my first ever geo caching excursion, have always heard people talk about it but never experienced it. It was pretty fun think I'll do some more of it on the next nice weekend day! Sunday was a hang at home kind of day. I love those kind of Sundays! Got alot done around the house, which was very much needed. My OCD got the best of me and I cleaned out the freezer in the garage. I'm very glad that happened, I was beginning to think I was almost out of venison and completely out of elk. Wrong! Found quiet a bit of my venison buried at the back and a few rolls of elk burger and a steak! I also realized that the striper supply was almost gone, :(  the salmon supply is much more than I thought and that the crab and clams are starting to run low. Thankfully I will say it's only about 2 more months or so until the striper are back in the river!!!! It is hands down the best fish I have EVER had and I live on the coast so there's access to all sorts of fish. So naturally pulled some of whats left out and BBQ'd it up!!

My day up the river! I love it up here! Cant wait for this summers week long camp trip!

Time to play mom and get dinner going!

Glad It's Over

Let's just say Christmas was not my thing this year. Which is not normal at ALL. Usually I LOVE Christmas. I think with all the drama and chaos and utter disorganization that occurred this year I just had a hard time getting into the full on Christmas spirit. Despite my Scrooge type mood I did make the best of it for mini me. We baked cookies and decorated a ginger bread house as well as put up our own "girls" tree since the boys' tree was less than desirable to her. I did what I could to make it enjoyable for her and when Christmas was done and over I asked her if she had a good Christmas and with a big ol' smile she said "yes"! That's all that matters to me.

Christmas wasn't a total bust though, after opening presents at our house in the morning we spent the day with my guys' family and that is always a good time. I love his family!  I will always be thankful for the fact they make my daughter and I feel included, and that is amazing! Despite the good times and the bad moments this month has brought me I really learned who friends and family were and have weeded the ones who aren't true friends out and sadly to say after this Christmas weekend I even have to majorly distance myself from some family members. It's a sad day when that happens. But I am not going to let any of this negative energy follow me into 2012. Its a new year which is going to be a new me.

On the bright side of it all I did get myself a pretty badass Christmas gift. I finally decided it was time to quit thinking about learning to fly fish and actually do something about. I went out and bought my first fly rod and reel. Now if I only knew what in the hell I was doing. Thank god for Youtube haha, this should get interesting. If any of y'all have any pointers I would love to hear em!

The City Can Suck It

I had been looking forward to going to the city this past weekend for quiet some time. It had been almost a year since I had last been to Portland and I was starting to go through withdrawals! This was going to be the first time in over a year my guy and I had spent a weekend apart, so that was trying enough as is since I knew when it came time for bed I wasn't going to sleep that well, but I found comfort in the fact I was going to be with good friends who were almost like family, or so I thought. More on that situation in a moment. I was also secretly freaking out that I was going to come home to a disaster. Leaving 2 men, who are less than motivated to pick up after them selves, unsupervised in a house I have been working very hard to organize and clean was sure to be the end of me.

Thursday rolled around and I shipped mini me off to school for her last day before Christmas vacation and I went off to work for part of the day. Quitting time rolled around and I headed out of town grabbing little miss along the way. We were starting the 200 mile journey to the big city and at this moment I was super excited about it. I couldn't wait to get up there get a little shopping in and get some GOOD sushi which is so hard to come by around here. 1st stop when we hit the city was her dad's house since she hadn't seen him in a few months. That was bad idea #1 or at least for a few days I thought it was. Now I'm actually glad everything went down the way it did because I have eliminated some unnecessary people from my life. After leaving her dad's I was supposed to head another 45 minutes North to a friend of mines house, well after a conversation with her dad it was discovered this friend who I considered family was nothing more than a lying deceiving bitch. So I headed out in search of a decent hotel. I spent 2 nights in a damn freaking hotel, alone, not cool.

Woke up Friday thinking that it would be better than Thursday had been. It was already off to a rough start because of my lack of sleep in a super uncomfortable hotel bed without my guy. BOO. I figured some retail therapy might make me feel better. I headed for Fishermens Warehouse. I was almost positive I would cheer myself up there. I was on the hunt for a nice rod rack for the house, red power line in 30lb test, some new saltwater grade bombers for striper season coming up, and some 1/2 ounce pink rooster tails. Fishermens Warehouse ended up being a HUGE disappointment, they only had my power line. So I was 1 for 4. Next stop was what used to be the Sportsmans Warehouse and is now something like Wholesale Sports or some shit like that. It turned out to be strike 2 with nothing I was after.  What in the hell is going on here. I was sure a big city would have what I wanted but it had almost NOTHING. Of course I found things I liked so I got them but absolutely nothing I needed. Grrrr. It only got worse from there. As I get out to my truck the guy next to me rolls down his window and says "Sorry but I ran into your truck when I was pulling in". HOLY SHIT are you kidding me? At this point I have had it with the city and the shit going on, I wanted to dive through his window and strangle the dude. Instead I acted more responsibly, got his information and called on it right then, no way was I letting this guy out of my sight without having verified his insurance was legit. After all with my luck he would have left and everything he gave me would have been bogus. After that fiasco I decided I was done with the city. I remembered why I only came up once a flipping year. Let me tell you what I am in no way eager to go back up there. Shit the guided fishing trip I bought on the Columbia up there I'm about to have refunded back because I don't want to go any where near that god forsaken hell hole.

I am so glad I decided before going up there to only stay until Saturday because if I had to spend one more day up there chances were I would have committed homicide. That would not have been good. The only good thing that came out of it was a conversation I had with my Ex's dad which unfortunately I have to keep hush hush about for now and that my daughter got to have a mini Christmas with her dad. But lord was I happier than a clam at high tide when I finally got back home! I dropped my daughter at the babysitters, picked up my boyfriend and we headed for our friends' Christmas party!

Saturday was very much needed after the hell I had been through. It was about a 25 mile drive up the river to our friends place and along the way what runs out in the road, a coyote!!!! He dodged up an old dirt road and we took off after him, ran him quiet a ways trying to tire him out and get a chance at a good shot. Well he most definitely got tired but we never got a chance at a good shot because the road was so bumpy. We finally rounded a corner and he had a clearing to dart of into. Bummer. But the chase was fun. We turned around and headed back up the river. Spending the night with a good group of friends, drinking, bull shitting, and belting out songs like friends in low places and boot scoot boogie in a giant group huddle was exactly what I needed. There is nothing better than a down home redneck party!! And were doing it again NYE this time at my house! Watch out were going to rock the neighbor hood!

Lures and Love

You Know Your A Redneck When...

So I had the bright idea this morning to clean out my truck. I cant believe I let it get this bad. I have severe OCD about organization and how things should be and the mess in my truck was seriously getting to me. Once I walked out the door though my idea wasn't such a good one. It was freezing! Being the trooper that I am though I went through with it, it needed done but I only cleaned the inside out. Theres no way in hell I'm washing it, it would have turned into a frosty mess but it does nee it I cant remember the last time I washed it. As I was cleaning out the contents of the cab I was becoming more and more aware that the contents of my truck could tell someone who doesn't know me just about everything about me. I actually started laughing as I continued to pull stuff out. It made me think of Jeff Foxworthy and his "You Might Be A Redneck" lines. So I decided I would come up with my own based on what was in my truck this morning.

You might be a redneck if you get excited about finding the 1/2 rack of Keystone Light you forgot about in your back seat under your hunting bag!

You might be a redneck (girl) if you pull a camo gun case out from under the back seat and it contains a pink rifle

You might be a redneck if the pockets on the back of the drivers seat contain a bass pro shop and cabelas catalog

You might be a redneck if you find .22 rounds in the door of your truck and you leave em there cause you might just need em some time

You might be a redneck (girl) if your steering wheel cover and floor mats are realtree camo with pink accents!!!

You might be a redneck if in the middle of cleaning out your rig you find your Browning knife you tore the house apart the night before opening day looking for

You might be a redneck if 90% off the actual garbage that came out of your truck is empty boxes from buying new knives the night before the opener, empty fishing lure packages, and empty boxes that at one point contained 500 .22 rounds

If it wasn't for the pink stickers on the back window of my truck and the pink accents on my floor mats and steering wheel cover based on what I pulled out of my truck this morning you'd think it was a guys truck.... 

After the truck I decided to also clean out my purse this morning. Lord all mighty it was just as bad as my truck. And the contents were just as hilarious!

What was in my (camo)purse:

2 different wallets, (why 2 idk) both camo of course!

Inside 1 said wallet which is actually more like a clutch is a camo Browning beer coozie!! Hahaha

Check book (this is normal)

Some receipts (again normal)

Tons of lipglosses (normal again)

Day planner (normal)

Lottery tickets (should prob check those)

Fishing and Hunting Licenses

An empty 30-06 casing (not normal)

The knife I skinned my deer with a few wks ago (def shouldn't be there and idk why it is)

A fishing lure I bought last week and forgot about!!! Score!!!

Alright ladies whats in your purses?

Based on the contents of my truck and my purse eeither I'm not very girly, have a drinking problem (1/2 rack in the truck, coozie in the wallet), an over the top obsession with camo and firearms or Im just a badass. Im going to go with badass!!!

Cheers!

Fish On

I love living in Oregon, we've got it all! Living on the coast is even better! I've got the dunes, river, mountains, and a handful of lakes all in my back yard! I can fish and hunt within minutes of my front door step!!! And this weekend Fall weather was at its finest this weekend! Clear blue sky, sun shining, no wind and the water was calm! I took full advantage of the weekend and went fishing Saturday and Sunday morning. There's something very peaceful about being out on the lake just before sun up with the water smooth as glass and the birds chirping and an occasional frog croaking! Sun up and it was fish on! Weekend tally for myself 4 salmon landed, 1 lost, 2 trout, 2 large mouth bass and a perch! The boyfriend went out 3 days this weekend, lucky sob has 3 day weekends. He landed somewhere around 10 salmon, a couple of trout, perch and a large mouth. Mini me went out yesterday with us and she reeled in a large mouth for me then she hooked into her own trout and hooked into her first salmon, she lost it right at the boat. She was so bummed. shes wanted to catch a salmon so bad. We didn't let her salmon fish on the river this year it was just to hard. We figured when they moved into the lake we could get her one, so when she heard he had caught some Friday she told him to knock it off and leave some for her. She cracks me up. She was less than pleased when I went Saturday while she hung out with grandma and found out I had caught some. So Sunday morning it was up long before sunrise to beat the crowds to the boat launch. Getting the little one up that early when its the weekend is not always an easy task but when you say it's fishing time she flies out of bed with energy I wish I could posses even after 3 cups of coffee.

I was excited when we got to the boat ramp and there was only one other person there, Saturday was a completely different story, it was insane, there was no parking left you had to find and make your own spot along the side of the road. It soon became apparent why, there was a bass tournament going on, the lake was packed. It was almost like fishing on the river with all the "flat landers" people from the valley with their big expensive boats who have no common courtesy and think they own the river. They are such a**holes! I don't know how many times I have watched them just plow through and cut peoples lines. HELLO there's a whole other side of the river for you to motor back up AWAY from all the rest of us still trolling down. Ugh, I could rant on and on about how I feel about "flat landers" and the way the fish the river. The bass boys really pissed me and the beau off Saturday. They apparently have no respect or know what common courtesy is either! Oh wait that's right cause their "flat landers" too. We along with quiet a few others would be fishing in one of the arms of the lake and it was fish on! They'd be biting left and right, someone was usually landing a fish that was until a bass boat would come flying up into the cove wide open and scare everything off. It'd take an hour or so before anything would bite again and just as the action started back up again here comes another damn "flat lander".  I'll get off my soap box now.

Sunday was great, no bass fisherman, the water was calm, it was still dark when we put in, and it was blue sky and sunshine once the sun rose. Fish were biting at sun up!  It was great getting in good fishing with my loves! I love watching her fish and the excitement she has for it! When she hooked into the her 1st fish she was so excited she started reeling and reeling and when she got it in and realized it was a trout she was still just as happy as when it bite and she thought she might have a salmon. She unhooked it and threw it back, put her line back in and within a few minutes had another fish on. It gave her a bigger fight then the last so we got excited realizing she had a salmon on, she fought it and got it up to the boat when it popped off the hook. She was bummed she didn't get it in but still stoked she had one on. So she set the line back out and said she wad going to catch it again. Some time went by and nothing, then I hooked into a fish got it in and it was a salmon. She wasn't pleased. She is convinced that it was the salmon she had lost earlier and wasn't happy I caught it. Ooops. She hates loosing, and she hates being out fished. It got to the point when I was with her dad they'd leave me at home and go fishing because they'd never catch anything and Id have fish after fish on!!! I've got quiet the competitor on my hands, I hate to see what happens when she gets into sports and looses. Lord help me.

Early morning out on the lake! And just behind the fog bank and over that ridge is where I got my deer this year!

Fishing at 7am like its nothing!

Mini me and a large mouth!

Proud of her trout!

Perfect Fall afternoon on the lake!

Fish on!