We used to have a few of us close friends together for elk hunting on my buddies ranch. He always got a dozen or 2 depredation permits so if we didn’t connect during the general elk season we’d come back and take a few with the depredation permits. It was a damage hunt… when the elk would tear his hay barns apart we’d come over and haze them after harvesting a few and hope they’d stay away, they didn’t. We started a game where the goal of the game was to touch an elk. Usually we were lucky to be as close as 10’ but once in awhile we’d get a winner. The year I won was after a harsh eastern Washington winter with ice storms that took countless trees down and the ranch was a rutted mess. I was tucked into an old rotten lodge pole pine with buckbrush all around it. I sat there calling softly listening to the bulls return the conversation as they searched for their girlfriend. Several large bulls were moving in my direction so I stayed still. As the last bull sauntered on by I reached out and touched his left rear ham and said something like “I win”. I startled that bull which in turn startled me but I was one of the very few “winners” of that game. My good buddy was the ranch manager and he passed away shortly after that hunt and my other buddy that was an integral part of my hunting and fishing circle died a couple years later….both had cancer and died in their 50’s. 2 great conservative, God-fearing men that never met a stranger and were always happy to help anyone.
�Politicians are the lowest form of life on earth. Liberal Democrats are the lowest form of politician.� �General George S. Patton, Jr.
