Hunting season took over our January

If you don't approve of hunting, stop reading now.  But just so you know, we don't do it just for sport, we do it to stock our food supply.  The DWR issues extra hunting tags to help control the herds that are destroying ranches.  We were lucky enough to get one of these tags. 

This picture of Tad by camels is important for later on. :}   We went to the zoo one day while daddy was at work. 

On Fred's days off, the 2 of us would go hunting.  We have a family sheep ranch and I grew up hunting.   It's been fun to share with Fred.   I was glad my parents were available to watch Tad each time we wanted to go.  
This is the view from the opposite side of the ranch.  Looking down towards the freeway.  If you look close you can see a blue barn and a white ranch house.  This is where my mom grew up (during part of the year).  There is also a cave along the red rocks (Cache Cave) where the pioneers would "Cache" food for the next group coming through.

 Fred and I took the truck up the first time and found we needed the snowmobiles, it didn't look like a lot of snow, but it was.   The snowmobile gave us a few problems and we ended up just having "picnics" on the end of the trailer because we spent more time working on them than riding them.  :{  
After taking one to the shop, we finally had a few good days riding them.    It was beautiful up there.  

If you look really close you can see some tan spots in the trees.

Finally, after several days AND weeks of hunting.  We heard one of our cousins had got their elk.  We followed their tracks a few days later and found a herd of 25.  (Everyone else said they'd seen 50-150 in the herd.)  Fred decided to hike down the hillside and get closer.  I stood on the one side and played with my camera lens.  :}  As soon as he was about to go through the trees to where he could get a shot, they started to move.  (How did we ever hunt without walkie talkies?) 

 The Saturday before the end of the hunt, he took my cousin Yance with him.  They met up with another cousin and managed to fill both tags!  As much fun as it was to have "dates", I was glad that we were done.  

Tad was so excited about daddy's new animal, from a distance.  :} 

When we went to grandma's house, Tad told her that "daddy got a big camel".   (The elk's teeth did look a lot like the camel's teeth that we had just seen at the zoo.)
Tad eventually would stand by dad and the elk, but not touch it.  
As Fred and my dad were working on the elk.  They put their knives down and Tad immediately picked one up. (We caught him before anything happened.)   He watches EVERYTHING we do and is too observant.  The other day he played "hunting" with dad, looking for elk, and jumping out of his pretend car to shoot it.  He knows he's only allowed to pretend to shoot bears and elk.  :}  But I still wonder how he knows about hunting, he never went with us. 
I'm very grateful for the added food supply and it's been delicious!