Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: Ted Fry on January 27, 2009, 08:05:00 PM
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Just a heads up , We will be closed till next Tuesday, the 3rd to go on a little pig adventure in south Texas with Curtis Keller.
My son Jesse, 13 yrs old now will be using the vine maple bow he just finished, he calls Thunder.
He cut the wood for this bow last year and worked hard on this bow, what a beauty.
This will also be Jesse's first big game hunt and trip away with just dad , not sure who's more excited , him or me. Im sure we will have a great time chasing hogs and Javelina with Curtis and just a good old time together. All orders placed online will get taken care of as soon as I get back .
Thanks
Ted
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Shinin Times guys :wavey:
Eat Lots and Lots....But most of all ENJOY EACH OTHER :clapper: :clapper:
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Good luck Ted and safe travels...tell Curtis I said hello :thumbsup:
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Good luck and stay safe. :thumbsup: Look forward to the story.
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Good luck Ted! Special time for sure to be sharing a trip like this with your son. Give Curtis a big ol' bear hug for me!
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Have fun and good luck Ted and Jesse! Should be a nice break from all the snow and ice there in the Gorge!
Take care!
Chris S.
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Have a GREAT time Ted!!!!!
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Ted, good luck to you and your son!
Eric
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Tederico,
You & Jesse enjoy yuorslef.Tell Curtis I said hello.
Have a safe & successful trip
TP
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Ted you two enjoy each other company nothing better then spending time with your son...good luck and we will be looking for a little story next week...bd
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Good luck!!!! :thumbsup: :campfire:
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Have a great time guys , best of luck to you both. How bout a pic of your bow Jesse, if its the same one I saw a couple months back it was looking good then would love to see it now. Art
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Dress warm, but bring your sandals, too... Yesterday we were wearing shorts. Tonight it's sleeting outside! And stop by if you have a chance!!! :wavey:
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Y'all have a great trip :thumbsup:
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Have a great hunt y'all-it would be great for Jesse to make a kill with his own bow!
We will have to get Adam and Jesse out chasing a few critters sometime.
Hunting with sons and daughters is an experience that is hard to put into words!
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Dang it! Just kidding, have a great time with your boy. I remember those early years with Jason and every year since.
Mike
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That is awesome.Take pics and have a safe journey.
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Good luck Ted! Save some for us we'll be right behind ya.
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(http://www.tradgang.com/upload/ck/TeddyJavi.JPG)
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Attaboy Fry boys !!!! Jesse did you get to put your new bow to the test ?
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Godspeed!
Bring home the bacon, son!
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Tom, I don't want to ruin any surprises but I'll say that Jess's legs failed him yesterday along with the rest of his body. He said when he'd get up to shoot his legs kept giving out and his arms just weren't strong enough to keep his bow from shaking real bad. :D Dang what I'd give to be 13 years old again and seeing my first animals while out hunting. It's hard to remember doses of Buck Fever quite that large.
They've found a large group of javelina and went back out this morning to try their luck at getting back into bow range.
We'll be hunting hogs after dark tonight. CK
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Good luck to you Both Ted. If you go to Texas anytime after July of this Year I'll be back down there. Stick a pig or 2 for me... Have Fun & Happy Hunting.
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I am booked to hunt with Curtis around the first of June, hope you have a great trip with you son.
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Originally posted by Littlefeather:
(http://www.tradgang.com/upload/ck/TeddyJavi.JPG)
Save some of them desert pigs for me. Congrats on that piggy.
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Well we made it back , a big Thank You! to Curtis for helping Jesse and I have a great week, tons to catch up here at the store but story will follow.
I will leave off with a quote from my 13 yr old son Jesse after missing his first shot at a big game animal.
"Now I know why they call it buck fever, your shaking real bad , sweaty chills and you feel like your going to ralf"
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Well said young man! :thumbsup:
Great timing Ted, I sent an order in last night. Take your time and get yourself organized.I'll be going after those javies in 2-weeks.
Mike
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Ya know, it's always so easy for us to get caught up in everything we find negative about our jobs. It really doesn't matter what career you or I choose to follow there always seems to be those little things that drag us down. Well' I'm certainly no different. Some will always think of Outfitters as having found the Promised Land of carrers. I can personally tell you that it isn't. But, just as I say that I also find that I also have found so many blessings in this job.
There are three great benefits of this job. Guiding the handicapped, being there with a person when they shoot their first gane animal with a trad bow, and being helped to see through young eyes again by a fella breaking into manhood hunting camps.
Being there to witness the transition of a young fella into manhood hunting camp is certainly as close to a bonus as I'll likely ever recieve.
Watching Teds boy Jess find all the unknowns in a foreign hunting land like Texas is simply an honor. I suppose some of my fondest memories ever created were in these type environments of my early years. After what I saw Jess experience in just 4 short days, I have no doubt he'll find himself remembering details even as an adult. He's living in those special years right now, around age 13. I just hope his adult memories of being this age are always as bright as mine. I'm pretty sure he'll always remember the sound of pigs in the darkness, the scurry of armordillo's, and the horrible shaking that can occurr when in close proximity to your quary. I sure hope all you guys with kids this age are experiencing the magic through their eyes too. Sometime I love my job! CK
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Well put Curtis,
Jesse will remember this trip the rest of his life, hopefully hunting will still be around so he can share times like this with his son or daughter.
Well we made the long day trip of leaving Hood River early in the dark hours of the morning headed to Portland for our departure to places south and warm , San Antonio was the destination to pick up our rental car and make the hour and a half drive to Curtis's hacienda and our bus guest quarters, just before we turned down the last road to the house a herd of pigs crosses the road in the headlights, Jesse was ready to go, he was about as fired up as a young man could be, like a Jack Russel on a blood trail, it had been a long day so we crashed early after greetings form both Curtis and Debbie. Sorry guys hate to do this but more tomorrow
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:thumbsup:
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The day dawned cold and clear with a bit of a south wind blowing hard enough that the bus was moving with each gust, I stepped out the door only to see Curtis holding a fresh pot of coffee, now that service! After visiting with Curtis and Bill from Eagle River Alaska , who was also hunting at the same time as Jesse and I , I woke the tired 13 year old boy from his nest on the couch in the back of the bus, lets go hunting was all I said and boom up and ready he was.
After a short run to town for supplies we drove to a small ranch that a friend of Curtis's owns near his house. Seems a small herd of Javelina has taken up residence on this ranch.
At the back side of the ranch there is an old 3 room homestead that is all but fallen over , this was to be our blind, to pass the time while hunting Jesse and I nick named the the Hotel Javelina and made up verses to go with the old Eagles song Hotel California, ah the mind of a 13 year old.
After sitting for a couple oh hours the first Javelina decided to show themselves, with me filming Jesse got ready for his first chance at his first big game, up till now his only quarry was grouse and squirrels.
The Javelina worked there way toward out hide out, we felt like two outlaws hiding out in an old building in a Zane Grey novel while the sheriff and his posse were working there way in.
They got halfway to the shooting lane and decided to vanish to our left, they popped out again only much closer this time and Jesse was ready, not sure if it was his heart I heard thumping or the clunking of the windmill to our right. His arrow was actually bouncing up and down along with the shaking of his knees while he waited for the closest Javelina to turn broadside, gotta give it to him he did wait for the perfect broadside angle for what seemed like an eternity, finally the javelina turned and Jesse drew his Vine Maple bow, the one that he spent many hours crafting from a vine maple tree he found while out helping me cut yew wood last year, 40#@his 24" draw and backed with snake skin, he calls the bow Thunder as my favorite hunting bow is named Lightning, and he decided like himself following me , thunder followed lightning.
As he came to full draw I could see the excitement and feel the energy of what he was doing, he released his arrow and saw it stick in the dirt right behind the target as they all turned to run.
More later as I have to go open the front door and fill some orders.
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Busy day Ted? :thumbsup:
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Say hi! We look forward to more. :campfire:
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Yeah Paul, always busy coming back.
Anyway as we left off, Jesse just missed his first shot at a big game animal, other than feeling a little sick he handled it well.
After about an hour the herd of Javelina came back into our area, as they moved closer I said to Jesse " get ready here they come" . He replied that in no way was he ready and for me to go ahead and shoot this time, I hadnt planed on shooting one but thought , this will be good for him to see as well, so I got ready.
As they moved into my comfort zone I waited for one to turn, I prefer either broadside or better yet quartered away, when that happened I drew and shot. The arrow zipped right through and stuck in the ground on the other side. The Javelina went about 4.5 yards and tipped over . Wow was all Jesse could say, that happened fast.
After pictures and back slapping we headed back to the Kellar Hacienda, there Jesse retold his exciting day as I skinned the Javelina and got the meat hung.
Tomorrow would be another day of hunting for Jesse.
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Awesome Ted, What a time you 2 had!!
Eric
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Great stuff Ted! Those are some memories you both will cherish! :thumbsup: :archer:
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Oh what memories this brings back of hunting rabbits with my Dad at 12-13 years old. Just great & keep it coming...Doc
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Hey Ted, good stuff, thanks for taking us along. Keep it coming.
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Ah, this father-son stuff that I will never know firsthand...I get such a smile from the scripted taste of it though!
Thank you for sharing. I put myself in that blown-down house and tried to come up with some lyrics. Rewriting lyrics to songs was one of my first hobbies! Wish I could have been there, but that would have diluted the moment. And without feeling the dust, the weight of the history of the place, and the very prickliness of the landscape, I could never come up with words as perfect as those shared between a father and his son.
Good hunt, guys. I enjoyed it!
Killdeer-in the mist, a wistful miss. :wavey:
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:campfire:
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:goldtooth: Two nights to go. Pigs, owls, armordillo's, opossum's, and a host of other unknowns that lie in wait in the shadowy haze of moonlight as the mild breeze carries our imaginations on the wildest of rides. Jess's anyway! I think I fell asleep under a tree. :D CK
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:clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
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OK figured I better get a few photos along with the story, here's Jesse in front of the Hotel Javelina.
(http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x295/photos4work/P1100004.jpg)
Here;s one of the view from the window, where we shoot from, every day at 3:00pm an Armadillo would cross this road like clock work, gofigure? (http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x295/photos4work/P1100011.jpg)
This one I know he learned from me, what every good hunter does on stand or in a blind
(http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x295/photos4work/P1100012.jpg)
This one is Curtis and Jesse checking out the lion tracks on the side of the road near where we are hunting. (http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x295/photos4work/P1100031.jpg)
Then Jesse and Curtis hanging a stand in the creek bottom for Jesse to night hunt hogs from.Notice the two foot deep dry leaves , even the little critters sound big at night in this stuff (http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x295/photos4work/P1100019.jpg)
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This one is Curtis and Jesse checking out the lion tracks on the side of the road near where we are hunting
:scared: :scared: :scared:
They make me scared of the dark. :readit:
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Great stories! My 10 year old son and I visited Curtis last April and really had a wonderful time. I highly recommend Curtis' guiding services for a weekend getaway with a son or daughter.
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Ted sounded like a great time.Spending a week with Curtis is an experience in it'self.Better get back to work, youv'e got a business to run.congrats on the javie.
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Curtis just loves those big kitties!! ;)
Just think bud, that's only a few miles from home.
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Thanks for taking us along Ted. That boy of yours has sure grown in the last two years!
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Sorry guys , guess I should have tackled this
later , been a busy week here.Well lets see , we left off with Jesse retelling his story and skinning Javelina.
The next morning we were back at the Hotel Javelina, Jesse was hungry to redeem himself.
About 2:00 pm we saw some Javelina moving our direction on the dirt road but as they crossed the road the vanished for the rest of the day, we left about 5:00 as we were going to try a new style of hunting, night hunting for hogs, boy this was going to be different, I for one have not sat out after dark in south Texas, man the world comes alive when the sun goes down, armadillo , possums and raccoons everywhere, even the little guys sound big in the hardwood grove of two feet deep dry leaves.
It wasnt long and we began to hear hogs moving as well , they dont go far without some kind of a quarrel in the bunch Reeeet! snort , snort then back to foraging for food.Suddenly to my right I heard a rustle in the leaves, I slowly turned to see a possum walking up the log I had my back against, he got to within two feet and I decided to whack him on the head with my bow, off through the woods he went. The next thing I knew an Armadillo was crawling over my boot, I could hear coyotes and hogs all around but could not see them. The first night seemed to end just as we had seemed to get started but with no shots fired.
The next day found us back at the Javelina digs hoping for Jesse to get another chance, as the day progressed it was obvious the Javelina did not want to play.
No worries however after the fantastic meal of some of the best BarBQ the three of us were back to the pigs in the creek bottom for another night of Hog hunting.
Jesse was sett up right where he was the night before, I was across the creek from him covering another trail and Curtis was set up where I had been the night before.
The coyotes seemed to be quieter and the night was still as the sun set, the wind was a little mixed so we would just have to hope for the best.
When the evening air settled in the dry leaves you could smell the moisture mixed with decaying leaves and the settling of the days dust, the moon was a bit more tonight , about 1/4 full and the woods seemed a bit brighter as well, I could see just fine with out the taped on hog light on my bow, hopefully The hogs would come by Jesse rather than me as he was set up in a prime spot on one of the main trail on the corner of the wood lot.
We heard a group of pigs working their way from the south of us along the tree line and I could feel the excitement building, I knew Jesse was about to explode. The hogs moved off to the left of us across the field and toward the water hole the went to every night about this time, right into the Lap of Curtis, but I will let him tell his part of this.
After awhile they moved back toward us but you could tell there was an urgency in their pace,
Closer they came, we couldnt see them yet but the noise they make while traveling made it obvious they were en route to where Jesse was set up.
I could just make out their forms moving across the field, Jesse could see them well. Unfortunately they decided to take another of the many trails through the woods and across the dry creek bottom, you could feel the let down in both of us.
On the walk out of the creek bottom back to the car Jesse put his hand on me and said " Oh well , thats hunting, thanks Dad".
A big heartfelt thank you was all the trophy I needed.