A Day In My Life

 As I drive up to a grove of pine trees on my Honda 350 four track, there are three huge trees on each side. On the left side of me is one log that is down on the ground on its side by the three trees. All the branches on the log have broken off long ago over the years. I park the Honda in the middle of the pine trees. I put the four wheeler in neutral and put the parking brake on. I swing my leg over the back of the four wheeler and get off. There is an oversized backpack on the back of the machine. It has everything I will need for today's hike. I put on the backpack, which makes me seem a foot taller.

I start on my hike. I get about twenty yards away from the machine. Then, from the corner of my eye, I see some movement about thirty yards in the distance. I swing around. A full grown 200 pound reddish-brown bear is running right at me. You might call him a wall-hanger, because he is a very handsome animal. For a hunger, he'd be a keeper. His head is down and he's in full gallop. I could never outrun him. I’m thinking this is it for me. The bear is closing in on me very fast and yet, at the same time, everything is in slow-motion. As you can imagine I’m very scared but I stand my ground. I wonder if I can fight back. I set my feet and brace myself for the impact. 


When the bear gets about ten feet from me he stops dead in his tracks and looks at me with his  beady golden-brown eyes. He's sizing me up. He doesn't blink and neither do I. I'm ready for the first blow. I wonder if I can fight back but all I have is my hands and the ability to think. The bear looks at me and realizes I'm not going to be easy prey. It slowly turns and walks away, slowly, into the trees.

I stand there, pale and trembling, thinking to myself that even though I'm the winner, I have gone through something even more terrifying than this a thousand times before, if not a million. 


That is my life very time I’m called on to read out loud to a group of people or even one person. You see, I have never mastered reading. The humiliation I feel when asked to read makes my encounter with the bear seem like a piece of cake. I want to walk away, just like the bear did, but I can't.  I'm trapped. "I can't," I say. "I can't read it."  


So I stand there in the forest, thinking to myself, where does a person like me stand in the twenty- first century. That hard work for a laborer is not enough for a man who wants to get ahead in this life, where everything you do requires reading and writing. 


I think of what I have accomplished this year: I've repaired five miles of fencing, which requires persistence and skill. I've replaced the clutch in my truck, built a garage, repaired plumbing and electrical problems for friends, neighbors and family, helped my son finish his basement, put a new roof on my house and painted the interior, gone on hunting and fishing expeditions, taken a couple of camping trips, been the head cook at family reunions, and, as I have for the last twelve years, I've gone to my weekly lessons in reading and writing. 


"You're a good fixer, Mike," says my friend who is a range rider, which means he inspects fences and herds cattle and oversees the entire cattle range. 


I've always had to be an apprentice because I couldn't read or write. I've had to do the work and please someone else. 


While other people can go home and read a book for work or school or pleasure, I look at the pictures. 

You have to be a specialist. 


You're treading water but you're not swimming, in every situation you encounter. All I can to by is what people say. People can guide you to a certain point. 




I went to fourteen years of school without being able to read or write. I could have been a high school dropout for all the good it did for me. Starting with first grade, I was so far behind I could never put it all together. Now I'm playing catch-up. 


At school, I would tell my math teacher I didn't understand the procedure needed to solve a math problem. He said, "I knew you couldn't read, because once I showed you how to do it, you could do it." He would explain the steps to me. And I would understand. 


I think back and I start looking at my teachers and I think the only ones who really taught something were the math teachers because they had to show you the formula. The others said, "read this, write it down, hand it in."


I would listen in class and memorize as much as I could. I would study the spelling words all week and do pretty well on the test, but a week later they were gone. I knew history because I listened to the lessons, and I understood them, but when it came to a test, I couldn't show what I knew. 


I was so far behind I could never put it all together. 


I watch the show, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? There's so much you should know by the time you're a fifth grader. I compare myself to those kids academically and I think I'm not even close. 


When you start to learn to read, they show you so much, you work so hard, and it has to become automatic. I have brothers in law who are great readers, yet they dropped out of high school. I've had to go in the back door to accomplish what I have, but I have done it. I have learned to read. I can read just about any book I choose to read, even long biographies and history books. I may be slower, like the turtle in the race, but I get to the finish line and I remember what I have read.  


I like to write and I have a lot of stories I want to tell, but I have a hard time spelling the words I really want to say. I'm working on this. Spellcheck is great, but you can still end up with the wrong word. So I have to depend on others to fix what I write. 


I look at what I have accomplished and I think I could have been an expert at something by now if I had learned to read and write when I was a child. I do look back with some satisfaction, even though these skills came later in life. 


I've heard that hell is like a dam in the river because you're stuck and you can't progress. You're held up and watching everybody else progress. You're seeing what everyone else is accomplishing  and you can't  do it. You're never swimming in the river. Never in the current. 


It's like a pond that wants to get to the river but it can't get into the main stream. It becomes a puddle and the grass and the flowers grow and then you look up and you think there's a beautiful flower. If you hadn't been that pond, the beauty of the meadow wouldn't be there. I have to think of myself as the pond that didn't get to go where it wanted to go, but found itself in a good place after all. 


I'd like to be in the mainstream. I'd like to be in the big river with everyone else. 


Sooner or later an athlete has to fall back on something else. They need a Plan B. They can live off the money they've earned or go into broadcasting or get a real job, doing what they went to college for. They're famous and they  have connections and most of them can find a way to earn a living after their athletic career is over. They can't depend on being an athlete all their life. If you don't have the talent to do something else you're stagnant. 


In the end, I'm pretty satisfied with who I am and what I've accomplished. 

A Day Of Good Hiking

Mother grizzly and two cubs at Yellowstone 

June 18 2009

It is a sunny morning about eight o’clock and not a cloud in the sky. As I stand at the bottom of this mountain, I have a good hour of hiking before me. I know that there will be lot of stops for rest before I get to the top of this mountain. As I look up there is a large boulder that sticks out of the mountain. Half of it is bulging out. The other half is covered in dirt. It has grass and little green bush growing around it. And the rock is the size of a Volkswagen bug automobile.

 Then ten feet above that stands a cedar tree. It has no branch the first six to seven feet off the ground. Over the years the bull elk and maybe some mule deer have raked all the branches off the cedar tree to rub the velvet off their antlers or to show how strong and fit they area to the opposite sex or to the other bull elk in the arena. This will be my first stop to catch my breath.

 As I start up the hill I have a lot of energy. I always go too fast at first. The mountain has a 60 percent grade or more so by the time I get to the first stop I need a break bad. I’m taking in air very fast into my lungs as I stand by the cedar tree I’m out of breath.  As I’m catching my breath, it’s time to start looking for my next stop. Will it be a pine tree, maybe small aspen, or another unusual rock up in front of me? I’m looking around as I’m breathing very heavily I try to spot the next destination.

 Oh there are three small pine trees. They are about three or four feet tall. That looks like a good hike to get up the hill to them. My mind automatically says go man go” but I’ve got too catch my breath and my hart should slow down a bit before I take off too fasts. I have already taken off my hat. How that I’m getting older it doesn’t take too much for the sweat to flow off my head and down into my eyes. I have a sweatband I took out of my backpack so when the sweat starts to run it will slow it down.

 To have a successful hike you should have a few things with you. So it’s a good idea to have a day backpack with you. You should have something to drink and a lot of it. Pack food like a sandwich or two. You always got too have a lot of good goodies the ones that you like a lot so you’ll stop and have a break and have something to keep up your energy. Also in your pack a small first aid kit. It is always a good idea to have something to start a fire. You should have a lot of thing like knives light weight emergency survival sleeping bag and on and on. Try to be prepared. My mind goes back in time. When I first started to hunt and hike I didn’t have a daypack I just put thing in my pants pockets or my coat pockets. It how we just did it in though days.

 As the hike goes on I stop and go this way all the way to the top. When I get to the top there is a clearing that run’s one hundred yards long. The grass is about three feet high.

It bends over as I walk through it. As I’m walking in the grass there are round circle. Some are big and small that animals have made by lying down in the grass and it has flattened it. I’m going south. Then I’ll run into a pine tree with its top gone. The pine is a large one more than four feet around. It looks like lightning took the top of it off, many years ago. As I keep walking I run into a camp. It’s an old camp. It has been there for a hundred years. There are old ashes of campfires, old buckets that are smashed, and small campfire stoves that are rusted out into little pieces and a lot of old things like glass that are scattered around on the ground.

People could think that is junk and it shouldn’t be there. But for me and me alone it is history. It makes me think a lot. About times that someone was a sheepherder or hunter here so long ago. And they’re not on this earth today. Or maybe just a hiker like me.

 When I get to this camping spot, It makes me feel I’m safe and at ease. It’s like a home base. If I run into this camp spot or the pine tree with no top accidentally I know where I am. I know which way I should go. As a young boy I never owned a compass. It wasn’t something we couldn’t afford or had to have. I have to look for landmarks like the tree with no top or a big rock that looks funny.

Something that odd will catch my eye when I see it again hiking or hunting. So I would know it if I see it again. So as I sit here in this camping spot my mind goes over the things that I saw on my way to this place.

 Something makes me smile inside. I think of the hard work it took to get here. My mind goes over and over it. As I rest at this spot, I have a good hour of hiking before me. I’m going to a tree stand. It’s been there for a good forty years. As some hunters would say it’s a “honey hole”. That means if you sit in that stand there is a very good chance that you will get your elk or deer or maybe bear or cat that hunting season.

I get up and start to my destination. It’s not like the first half. I will be walking on the rim of the mountain. It runs south for a good two miles. It will go through pockets of pines and open meadows. Some will be covered in grass and others will be dotted with sagebrush. Sometimes I will be on one side of the mountain and then on the other. That is just the way the trail runs. I will see rocks, trees, and areas that will tell me that I’m going the right way. Just before I get to the stand I will have to drop off the rim and go down a steep gully of about a hundred yards. And then I will run into some water. The water comes out of the mountain in one place. It pools about twenty feet like a stream and then goes right back into the ground. There are a lot of trees around the water.

 And that is where the tree stand is. The stand is thirty feet off the ground on one side and on the other side of the tree it looks like fifty feet off the ground because the mountain is so steep. We have built a platform on the branches. We built steps to go up to the platform. First I screw two bolts into the tree for each step. For each step I cut slots for the two bolts. So the step will slide on to the bolts. That way I can take the step off the tree each time I   come and go. I have make seven steps that I can take off the tree. The first fifteen feet the steps will come off and there are eight steps that stay in the tree permanently.

 Weeks before we go hunting we take our sleeping bags, pads and tarps. I have stayed three days in the tree before. And my friend has stayed for six days straight before. And that is a long time to be in a tree stand.

 But today I’m just going to put a camera up so I can take pictures of any animals that come by the water. I will leave the camera there for a month and come back to look at the pictures it takes. The camera will take the picture automatically when something walks or runs by it. I tie the camera on the tree with bungee cords and get it all set up to take pictures a month before the hunt.

So I can now take a break. I will eat some of the food that I brought, sitting at the bottom of the tree stand. It’s hard not to think of the animals, I have seen and taken pictures of over the years. Most of the animals, didn’t know I was even around.

It’s time to go. I can go down the gully straight or start around the mountain going north and catch the ridge and follow it straight down. It takes nearly as long going down as up, no matter which route I take. The ridge is longer but easier. Today I choose the ridge, it’s not as steep and I don’t have to crawl around a lot of logs that will catch my backpack. If I would have taken the gully there are a lot of logs that have fallen into the gully. If you go that way you would have to climb up over the log or go around it and sometimes you can crawl under the logs. It could be fun and also a lot of work for you.

But today I’m taking the ridge just because. I start back go north. There are a lot of bushes. They are small but thick, my boot catches in the little branches and slows me down a little and the hill side is steep so that also makes the going slow. But I have just a little ways to go to the ridge. That catches the mountain and goes down to the bottom.

I still have to take breaks and catch my breath, I’m getting tired from all the hiking I have done today. I will work my way down the ridges and as I am walking I look at both sides of me. There is a gully on either side and they are very steep so I’m glad that I am on the ridge today. I keep working my way down, taking my time but I will soon be there. I get to the bottom. I will head north to get to my starting point. As I look north I have a two mile walk to the 4-wheeler. At the bottom of the mountain it has small rounded hills and more little gullies to go through. There are some long stretches and round knolls. There are a lot of old pines trees. The grass is very short because cattle have mowed it down to the ground. The trail shows up real good since the vegetation has also been eaten down. 

I have to return to where I stared because that’s where my 4-wheeler is parked. I’ve done two things at once: I’ve been in the outdoors and I’ve prepared for the hunt.

I get to the 4-wheeler and I’m tired and exhausted from all the walking I have done today but it has been fun in its own way. I have walked a good ten miles today and that’s not too bad for a guy my age.  I stop and have a candy bar and a good long drink. The ride back to the truck and camper is a good eight miles. And that is a fun day in the outdoors for me. It’s funny how the work of hiking is all done, that you can forget it so fast.

                                                      

A Ruff Day on the Fenceline 2

Ruff Day On The fencing Line

    It’s been a hard week of fencing this spring. It has rained off and on the whole week. The snow is melting; the rivers are all at least three feet over their banks. It is so high the water is going over the tops of a lot of the bridges. The fences that are by the roadside are broken about every ten yards, there are four wires that are hooked to the fence and in most places all four wires are broken. The   

snow has been so deep this winter so that puts a lot of weight on the wire. You wouldn’t think that snow would break the wire. But it puts a lot of weight on the wires and breaks them. Most all of the fence has wood poles. Then you nail staples to the wood poles that hold the wire. They put around 200 new treated poles in a year.

The going is very slow and now that I’m getting up in age and have a bad back it’s that much slower for me to get it done. I’m helping the range rider fix fences. There are around sixty miles of fences to work on before the cows come. It is a little bit of fun and it gets me out in the outdoors and helps work off some of the winter fat that always seems to come my way now days. And if I help out I can hunt on the land this fall.

One day this week I got up at 5 o’clock in the morning. I fix breakfast for me; I always cook ham and eggs and hash browns. I have orange juice and milk too.

Then I take off fencing.

 This morning I’m going to the other side of the range. I will go across the river three times. It is running very high like I said at the first. Some other workers come back and said that they couldn’t get across the river but I knew that I could.

 So I take off. I would like to say I jump on my four wheeler and take off. But no, I slowly climb to the seat and take off. My four wheeler is a Honda. It is called a 300 four track and it is in four wheel drive all the time. It not a fast machine but it gets me to where I would like to go. As I slowly go down the trail it bumps me all over the place. And at the end of the day I can hardy move. I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck and been beaten on. But I must like it because the next day I’m on the ATV and going again.

 I arrive at the river and start crossing. The front wheel drops into the water. It is a little muddy so the wheel drops more. As I go forward the water gets higher and higher and colder and colder. It is so high my boots are on the top of the seat. If it gets too much higher the ATV will start to float. That would be the end of getting across the river because I would be floating down the river. By the time I get to the other side I’m standing on my seat. I made it. I knew I could do it and I did it I showed them.

 Off to the next river crossing. I have to stop and open two gates. They are made out of bob wire and three or four wood poles from one end to the other. You staple the wire to the poles about every three feet and tie the wire to one end of the fence line and at the other end you make a loop at the top and a loop at the bottom and hook the pole in the loops.

    I drive down the fence line looking around at the fence to see if the wires are broken. I also have to look in front of me to make sure that I don’t run into a hole or something else. You have to be on your toes at all times. If the front wheels hit a bump or a hole it could send you into the fence line. The barb wire will catch you and cut you up all over. The barb wire has two sharp barbs about ever eight inch along the wire.

 Or you could go the other way and flip the ATV on you and either way it’s not good for your body. There is scenery that always to look at too. You start out looking at grass that’s running south and north. It runs about 14 miles from one end of the ranch to the other end. The grass on west and east run about four miles across. There is a river that runs in the middle of the ranch, with pockets of willows that grow along the river sides. Also there are plenty of creeks that run into the river along the way. Coming out of middle of the grass is rolling knolls. Scattered in the knolls is sagebrush and grass. Coming up out of hill sides is maple trees and aspen. Higher up the mountain you run in to pines.

  The roaring of the motor drowns out every other sound. And in the back of your mind you’re always thinking “I’d like to see a deer or elk or maybe a moose.”

   I come to other river crossing and I drop the front tires into the water just like before and start across. I drop the ATV into first gear and go. Just like before, by the time I get to the other side I have my feet on the top of the seat.

   Two more gates to go through and one creek to cross and then I’ve made it. Then I can start to work on the fence line.

  I approach the creek. It’s not very wide but it is moving very fast and swift. The bank on the other side of the creek is a little steep. But I think I can make it ok with not too much trouble.

 If I could only have seen what was to come, this next mishap wouldn’t have happened to me. And it is bad.

   I start across in first gear. The water is very swift and I hit the bank on the other side with my front tires. Then I start to go up the steep bank but it is too steep and I start to spin out. I’ll just back up and try again. I put the ATV into reverse and I start backing up in the water. It is too swift. It catches the front of the four wheeler and swings it around. I’m in big trouble now. The ATV is a boat now and down the creek I go. You have heard “down the creek without a paddle “or up the creek without a paddle.” Well that is me right now. I start to look for a place to get out of the creek real fast. But over time the creek has made the side too steep and the creek is a lot deeper than it looks from the bank.

   My mind starts saying “keep the motor running.” So I try to keep the four wheeler running and that is going good until the creek gets narrower and the ATV gets stuck on both sides of the creek banks. The ATV is like a dam now. And I’m in dam big trouble. And the water pouring up over the machine and around it on both sides of the bank.

The motor quits. Knowing I’m going to get wet. I take off my backpack my coat gloves and though those on the bank so they will stay dry.  I jump off the machine in the back, thinking maybe I can push it. The water is very cold. It is like ice. But all I can think of is that I’ve got to get the four wheeler out of this creek. So the cold water is the last thing on my mind.

 Getting behind the machine − that is a big mistake. The creek is lot deeper than I think it is. The current tries to take me under the ATV, so I get out from the back of the machine in a hurry. That could have been the end of me. I was just lucky the creek wasn’t a bit swifter.

  I start working on the front of the ATV. Where it is stuck on the sides, in the grass that is growing along the sides of the bank. But I’m in luck. The creek has washed the dirt away under the bank. So I find a good strong stick and start breaking the grass off the side. It works but the sad thing is that I have to do it all long the creek. To get unstuck I goes 20 to 30 yards and get stuck again on the sides. I work at this for a good hundred yards. Just as I get to the fences line there is a place I can get the ATV out of the swift water. It is still in the water and I got to get it on top of the bank. Over time the water and cow have wide the bank sides away. And it has small rocks in the bottom of the creek so the wheels won’t sink. To get it to the top the four wheels has to run. It is too steep to push it up on the bank. When the ATV first starts down the creek I knew that I had to keep the motor running to keep the water out of the motor. The motor stop a long time ago. So it is full of water. There is a tool bag in the back of the four wheeler. I have to get the water out of the air cleaner first. It is under the seat. I start to work. The box the air cleaner is in is full of water. I drain it out. I take the air cleaner off. It is a foam rubber air filter.  The foam has a light coating of oil on it. I shake most of the water off the foam and sit it on the bank to dry. The cylinder is full of water to. I take the sparkplug out and start to pump the water out of the cylinder. The starter still work so I true the motor over and over pumping the water out. It working. It takes a long time to get all the water out. But I did it.

  I start to put it all back to gather. The motor starts. And I ride it to the top of the bank.

  I’m soaking and wet. But to get dry clothes I will have to drive all the way back. And I not go to do that. It took to mush time and effort for me to get here. I’m out in the middle of onward. So I start to take my close off. I took off my coat and glove at the first of my wild ride. I go back and pick them up. I put them on. The boots I have on are rubber. I take my sock off and hung them on the fence with the rest of my closes. So now I have my sock pants shirt hanging on the fence. I’m in my underwear and coat boots and groves. And take off fencing. I’m got to be quite the sight. It is noon. So I take the rest of the day to work on the fences line. And the clothes work on drying.