Stone Cold Killers and Pink Polo Wraps

Despite it being a chilly weekend around these parts, our family got outside on Sunday to enjoy some of Idaho’s winter splendor.  After a lovely holiday dinner with friends and neighbors on Saturday night, Annabelle and I met up with our friend Kristi on Sunday morning for a nice ride in the Eagle foothills.

We saddled at home before we left, and Annabelle made sure I wrapped Grumpy in his new pink polo wraps that she had received the previous evening from friends Shawny and Sierra.

They looked splendid.

Kristi shot this picture as we walked along the sandy trail toward Rocky Canyon.  Then she posted it on Facebook.  Then I liked it so well I stole it for my blog banner photo.  Thanks Kristi.

Yes, that would be snow on the side of the road.

When we got to Rocky Canyon we all posed for a quick picture before heading back down toward the trailer.  Those polo wraps really stood out in the great outdoors. 

Isn’t Kristi just the cutest?

Of course I made Kristi take a picture of me and  my little girl.  If we look cold that would be because we were.  Our ride took us about two and a half hours, and we were plenty ready for some hot chocolate and a late lunch at Bardenay after we finished.

In the meantime, back on the flatlands, Desperate Hubby and Batman had a little adventure of their own. 

They went hunting.  And got a beautiful rooster pheasant.  It looks alive in this photo, but it was actually dead. 

By then, anyway. More on that to follow.

Batman insisted on carrying the rooster in his “bird pocket” all the way back to the car.  DH said he was sure that the bird weighed nearly half as much as Batman did.

DH told a really funny accounting of the hunt, featuring a lot of anecdotes about hunting with two geriatric dogs (Maddie and Toby), who are both hard of hearing and don’t see too well either.  The dogs kept running off in the wrong direction, and DH would have to chase them down on foot since they couldn’t hear him calling.  At one point Maddie left with another hunter because she thought he was DH, and my poor hubby had to chase her down for about 200 yards to get her back with the right group.

Batman told a story himself, but it was disturbing in a certain way. 

He said that Toby had chased the pheasant out of the bushes, then daddy shot him.  About this time in the tale he started laughing so hard it was difficult to understand him.  The bird, he said, was not dead yet.  Toby eventually decided to bring the bird to daddy, and when daddy finally got the bird out of Toby’s mouth it was still alive.

Batman did a little demonstration of a clacking beak, and he said it seemed like the bird was trying to bite them.  He was still laughing pretty hard.  I said “Well, what did daddy do then?”  Batman doubled over  with laughter as he said “MOM, DADDY took the bird’s head and TWISTED it.  It made a crunching sound, and then the bird was dead!!!”

That sounded a little gruesome to me, but then I’m not that much of a hunter.  I said to my precious, sweet little four year old boy, “Wow.  That sounds pretty intense.  Was it gross?” 

To which he replied “NO, MOM IT WAS TOTALLY COOL!!!  I WAS REALLY EXCITED!!!”

I didn’t have any further questions after that.