Small game gang

After a Saturday that was mostly a bust for both weather and activity, with the exception of baking an apple crisp and chicken soup, the kids, dogs and I headed out to the woods for a little hunting. The weather was great, about mid fifties and sunny with the leaves nearly 30% changed, a virtual painters palette of warm tones in red, orange and yellows. The recent rains had subsided and left an earthy organic smell to the woods. On the way to the county forest we had to first 'rescue" somebodies hunting dog. I figured the dog was lost, no collar and making a bee-line for the busy highway we had just turned off from. She was an older dog and apparently not far from weening her own pups--maybe why she was running away. She quickly came to the truck and did what she could to get into the truck. Not wanting to appear to be kidnapping somebody's dog (who was undoubtedly armed) I made her follow along side the truck for about a mile and a half before we found the women looking for the lost dog. With a wave and thumbs up the kids and I continued on down the road. We needed to take some practice shots with the BB gun before heading into the woods and just because we were on the trail that was apparently no excuse for the constant barrage of questions, singing, screaming and/or humming to stop. As always I knew I was just taking the gun for a walk in the woods and as such had chosen the lightest one I have. With enough idle chit-chat and banter on the trail to fill two church picnics I was more than surprised to look up and see a grouse looking back at me. It wasn't a sporting shot or even a long shot but it did put a bird in the Sophia's game pouch. Merrick it turns out is more than happy to carry the spent shell. Cleo, as I should have guessed, did not like the sound of the 20 gauge and high tailed it down the trail until the sight of the dead bird brought her back for some jumping and a mouthful of feathers. Tony was still just confused as to what he did to have to leave the couch. We did bump into one other hunter. Our return home was also timed pretty well as we came across the 172 bridge at the same time the f-22's were doing their fly over to signal the start of the Packers game, as such they also did a fly over of us as well. Again a pretty good fall day.