And now the party is over...

...but it sure was a good one.  I had much anticipation for the holidays this year.  I knew they would be focused around the celebration of family and a wonderfully stocked larder.  Sausage making and duck hunting with Pop Pop, helping the Mini-HHMM reel little perch through an icy hole at his feet, and even some duck hunting.  We had a joyous new year party where we shared a multitude of laughs and hugs with extended family in Missoula, which I do consider to be the center of the Western Universe.

This time of year is always a little tough for me.  Days are short and the weather is often dreary.  If I am going to get out on more duck hunts, I know at this point how many there will be and I know it isn't more than one.  The end of duck season signals the end of the hunting year for me, and I can't help but be a little melancholy about it.  My bride is in charge of the vegetable portion of our locavore diet, and I am in charge of the meat portion. My job is done for a while.  While I am highly satisfied that our freezers are full of wild meat, I will miss chasing those critters in the canyons, mountains, farms, and rivers of my beloved Idaho... at least for a few months :)

To celebrate the pending end of the hunting year, I will tell a story in pictures of what has to be the best sporting fall of my life.  There were many firsts... First spey cast, first steelhead on a spey cast, first Idaho mule deer buck, first elk with a muzzleloader.  Emily killed her first Idaho deer and first deer while hunting solo.  Jocko retrieved his first goose.  I do try to avoid turning HHMM into a brag board, and I try to remember to write a guide of sorts for others to follow, but, hey, I have a beautiful family, live in a spectacular place, and do unbelievably cool things.  Once in a while you gotta let go... and crow....