Best Xmas Card Ever!!!

Thanksgiving with Kids in North Dakota

The kids recently came to North Dakota to have Thanksgiving. It appeared to be somewhat a case of culture shock! From living in a city all their lives to North Dakota western culture with horses, snow, cattle, and pg testing!!!
Cowgirl Audie in training. She helped with rounding up cattle (on horseback no less) and driving them into feedlots to be 'pg' tested. She also provided excellent help in logging the test results.

Real life "World Dirtiest Jobs". Wyatt and Audie did well. Real troopers! Lauren's response was "Gross, I'm out of here!" and she did her own thing.

Horses were a big hit, but the cold weather seem to put a little damper on Lauren's outdoor activities.

Wyatt enjoys a classic buffalo rib-eye steak at Buffalo Gap. The girls just can't deal with steak of any kind. They have no idea what they are missing!

Canadian Mule Deer

As you can see there are other things besides geese in Saskatchewan. My Canadian buddy, Chris, sent this pic of a nice mule deer he recently took. The buck scored 194 (green). Congrads to Chris.

Goose Hunting in Canada 2008

David and I left Beach, ND on October 12 in the mist of a blizzard to drive to Quill Lake, Saskatchewan in order to hunt geese. We almost postponed the drive for a couple of days until the roads were better, however upon speaking with our wonderful, truthful, and trusted friend north of the border we decided to go ahead and leave (thinking we would drive out of the snow belt within 100 miles). It was based on information that it was clear with no snow in sight in Canada. Little did we know that the snow actually stopped about 50 miles south of our destination. Thus, turning a 6.5 hour leisurely drive into quite a harrowing experience that lasted better that 11 hours. Once there all was good. We even had a visit from a young Bullwinkle!! Here are few pics from north of the border.

First North Dakota Snow of 2008

As David and I are preparing to travel 460 miles to hunt geese in Saskatchewan, mother nature sprang a little travel surprise on us. The first snow of the year arrived on the very morning we were to depart. A foot or more of heavy, wet snow!!! It turned what should have been a 6.5 hour drive into a 11 hour white knuckle adventure. But we eventually made it alive.

Little Bighorn

On our return trip from Bozeman, we stopped by Little Bighorn National Park. For anyone interested in history, this battle is the 2nd most written about in American history. (The most written about and studied is Gettysberg.) It is quite remarkable how Hollywood and the PC groups have distorted the entire account of Custer and Little Bighorn. This battle was a clash of cultures and must be viewed in its historical context. History in neither right nor wrong, it is just history. What happened and when.
As the story goes, Custer's last instructions before leaving North Dakota was "don't do anything until I get back from Montana". Rumor is we haven't!

North Dakota's response to Montana: "He was alive and well when he left here."

Rocky Mountains

Last week I was in Bozeman, Montana for training on Equine Assisted Therapy. I got the chance to visit Yellowstone and a couple other sites near Bozeman. I really can't say anything other than to let the pictures speak for themselves

Just a side note: I am being forced to go back for another week in August!!! Boy that sucks!