Stories I don't want to forget

Piper and Gypsy at the Madison River

I seem to be doing good if I get one post a month here, but my personal blog isn't getting much attention either. Anyhow, let's do some catch-up with Piper.

My first story is from early December. It's not exactly for the faint of heart and shows you our sense of humor may be a bit demented. This is also a story that Piper will probably have to wait until she at least a teenager to hear.

Mike is a hunter of all things, well maybe not all things, but lots of things and most of these things I will eat. This particular day in December, Mike and our trusty(?) bird dog Gypsy floated the Madison River in his kayak hunting for ducks and geese. Mike had shot 2 ducks and a goose. With geese, they don't usually die immediately from the shot, so you often have to break their neck (For those of you people that may be offended by this, unless you are vegetarian - all meat comes from somewhere and at least this goose had a real bird life before it died). I wasn't made aware of this practice until later in the day, but I am getting to that part of the story.

In Mike's words, the river that day was like a slurpee. Needless to say, it was cold. The birds he had killed were nearly frozen. Piper and I had to go pick him up late in the afternoon and shuttle him back to the car. I tried to keep Piper from running off (above photo) while Mike loaded the kayak onto the Jeep. Once that was done, we started up the road to retrieve the Subaru. The Subraru was about 12 miles up a washboard dirt road. It's getting close to dusk and we are in a river bottom. In Montana, this means slow down or you are guaranteed to hit a deer. So we are cruising along up the road with Sam(the dog that doesn't hunt but is along for the ride) groaning her excited dog groans because we are on a dirt road. Dirt roads generally mean excitement in the near future for our dogs and Sam is quite vocal in expressing her excitement. Piper generally laughs during all of this from her car seat and sometimes joins in with her own little howls and woofs.

Not long after Sam finally quieted down, resigned to the fact that we weren't stopping anytime soon, I hear a pathetic, muffled honk from behind the passenger seat. I immediately recognize this as the call from the poor goose we thought was dead (not to mention frozen). Now the aforementioned goose was thawing out and evidently being roused back into consciousness by the cozy warmth of the Jeep. Mike had wrapped the birds up and placed them in a large garbage sack before putting them into the Jeep. His waders and such were on top of that. I knew it wasn't loose in the vehicle. At this point, I was a bit freaked out. It was just a little too disturbing.

We heard only one or two muffled honks in the next few minutes and then it stopped. Mike said we could pull over and he could put the bird out of it's remaining misery. He said he broke it's neck, but somehow it was still alove. With all of the energy and commotion that that would take versus just driving another 5 miles when we were really pushing time to make it home to feed Piper on schedule (just like her mom, she can get a bit cranky when hungry), I decided to drive on trying to forget that I had a dying goose in my backseat (dead is much preferred over dying when it comes to wild animals inside my vehicle). A few minutes after that the goose really started at it. Then Piper started to howl and woof because she thought what she was hearing was Sam. At this point, I couldn't help but laugh. My daughter is talking to a dying goose. It was disturbing, but also so absurd in a way that I had to find humor in it. It was either that, or freak myself out some more so I went with the humor.

After that little episode, the goose finally quieted down and shortly thereafter we were back to the Subaru. Mike said he put the birds in the Subaru so I didn't I have to hear it driving home. I asked him when he thought anything else was an option. The poor goose is now temporarily residing in our freezer.

Snack du jour when Dad babysits.
He sent this to me as a picture message when I was at work.

Story #2 was told to me by Mike and took place one day while I was at work. Leaving the house to go anywhere can be a little too much excitement at times, especially if you are Mike. As you already know, it has been hunting season and one of our dogs is a hunting dog. Anytime Mike appears to be going somewhere that Gypsy thinks may involve birds, . A similar scenario takes place when we tell Piper we are going somewhere and we are not quite ready to leave. She flips out, whines, is at your heels everywhere you walk in the house, won't let you out of her sight because she might get left. Did I say similar? I guess I should have said that they do the same thing.

Mike was out of potato chips. This is not a good situation for Mike to be in because Mike really loves his Lay's potato chips. He realizes he needs to go to the store, but he doesn't want to get Gypsy and Piper all worked up until he is ready to go. Fortunately for Mike, he has learned to think ahead (because life with Piper is really much easier if you are anticipating her needs and wants vs. reacting to fits). Mike had a plan.

First, Mike tells Piper and the dogs that he is tired of wearing his pajamas so he had better go get dressed. He explains this to them so they don't jump to any conclusions about him leaving. A few minutes later he tells Piper and the dogs that his feet are cold so he had better go pt on some socks. The dogs and Piper are non the wiser. A few more minutes pass and he tells the dogs and Piper that he needs to put on his shoes so he can go out into the garage to get some wood. Putting on shoes almost always raises someone's curiosity (especially if it is me because I never wear shoes at home). Mike manages to put on shoes and go into the garage without Piper or the dogs batting an eye. While he is out there, he pulls the Jeep out of the garage to warm it up. Once he comes back in, he is still convincing because he DID bring in some firewood. At this point, he is able to get Piper ready and is able to leave immediately after without any of the usual excitement. This story really made me laugh because Mike is not normally so creative.

There are a couple of other funny things Piper is doing now. She now calls her dad "Hon", especially if he is out of the room because that's what I do when I call for him. She also learned to scowl this month. It's almost a little creepy because she looks like and evil doll with her sweet little face when she scowls.

OK. Hopefully it won't be a month before I post again.