CouesWhitetail

LOL!! sometimes I think the same thing!! I can tell you we earned it this time though! Lots of hard hiking. Right now I am working on how we will get into some of the remote territories. Definitely will be a backpack trip for a couple days.

I hope the hummingbird made it too. I didn't get any photos of when we released her, but she looked 1000% better by then, so I was encouraged by that. I spent two hours reviving that bird! At first I thought maybe some rest in the shade would help, but she didn't seem to get any better, so then after unsuccessfully trying to get her to voluntarily drink something, I pretty much thought it was over. But then I decided I should just get aggressive and force her bill open, which was difficult to do without injuring her tongue or bill. But that made all the difference because she was able to take the fluids in and I could literally feel her heart rate speed up in my hand. Then I could feel her grip getting stronger and she started keeping her eyes open and moving her head. Then she could perch on my finger sitting upright and drink on her own. We let her stay on my finger until she decided she could fly away. I know we gave her a fighting chance and there was no way she would have survived without being force fed.

Adding two more: Ilene and Roger - 2 So if I am adding things up right, we just have one space left at the table. Unless of course we go for filling four tables, which would be great!

Ok, I think I fixed all the buttons. Make sure you refresh the page in your browser so that it gets the most current version. Let me know if you see any other problems when ordering. thank you!

We saw a lot of bear trails (in fact most of the time we were so thankful to the bears for making good trails that we could use), but no fresh bear sign. I was surprised. Not sure where the bears were...

Adding two more to the third table, so only 3 spaces left David Frank - 2

I love it! Great young fishin' buddy you got there!

SirRoyal....did you have an easy way to gather all the guesses to add them up? If not, next time, send me an email and I can send you the spreadsheet so you can run whatever numbers you want. I hate to think of you entering in all that data. here are some more facts on the contest that JavaCowboy sent me: Number of guesses: 187 Number of duplicate guesses: 54 The low guess is: 124 The high guess is: 156 4/8

Now that would be a fun contest!

Ok, so for the third table we have: Mark and Kathi - 2 Tony and Ellen - 2 Keven - 1 We have space for 5 more at the third table. Come on everyone, let's make a great night of it! It will be good food and good items to win/buy.

Ok, I guarrantee it tony!!

Awesome! Hunting turkeys in the wind can be very depressing! Congratulations on your beautiful bird. loved this quote: It's not everyday you kill a goulds turkey with a shotgun and a release on your wrist Hehehe!

Congratulations to you SirRoyal for going out on a limb and guessing so close that you were in the top 3! I personally wouldn't have guessed it that high, but then, I would have been wrong

Wow, that's terrible when this kind of stuff touches your family. Prayers for your loved ones in this difficult time.

You got it! thanks for your service

Ok, thanks for the heads-up...I fixed some but not all. Will finish fixing it tomorrow.

Are there any members who are active military or who have served in the past who would like to attend? As I did last year, I would like to offer free tickets to any military personnel as a small thank you for your service. Just let me know if you would like to attend.

Ok, here is what I have so far: Chef - 3 Phil Cramer - 2 TJ - 2 Elkster - 2 TAM - 4 Cactus Jack - 1 AZbowhuntr - 1 Linda D - 4 AjoHunter and Bonecollector would have been four more, but they can't make it So we have 19 so far, plus me which would make 20. Tickets are $75 each (since we get a table plus raffle tickets, which we will split), I will buy the tables up front and then if you guys can pay me at the banquet that would be great. Tickets will be in the name of the leader of the group who signed up for them. Mark and Kathi, let's try and fill another table of 10... You guys can be the first two. The ADA could really use the support guys! If you think you want to come, please let me know.

Yeah, I wish I had been there to try it!

Thanks for checking the numbers. It could be people see that a larger buck has already been posted and so they don't share theirs since they don't think they can win. A lower success rate can make a big difference when there are just a handful per category. Plus fewer people are hunting in Mexico due to the violence. Having no pre-registration was intended to make it easier to enter, but it's seems to have had the opposite effect. I thought the prizes offered were very good.

For those of you that have used Wilderness Athlete products, let me know which ones you like so far.

Here you go: Wilderness Athlete Products Page

I am now a dealer for Wilderness Athlete Products, so you can purchase them right here on CouesWhitetail.com. Just added the products to the store today. I have used these on some hard backpack hunts and found it really made a difference in my stamina and recovery time. I particularly like the hydrate and recover mix, the energy and focus mix and the performance bars. Wilderness Athlete Products Page

That's our favorite recipe for game sausage that we use in spaghetti sauce. We make it almost weekly since it's my husbands favorite meal! Only I use twice as much fennel and more oregano than it calls for. I originally got this recipe from your sausage making class at BOW (when I stepped in to help teach it while you were fighting fires)! I usually use 2 lbs game meat and 2 lbs pork shoulder/butt (and skip the fat this recipe calls for).

I think the change in the way we did registration was the main thing. People didn't have to pre-register so then it just seems like fewer people are involved because if they don't kill, they don't contact you. And maybe like elkhunter said, success rates were down. There are several people that usually submit something but they didn't get deer this year, so that leaves them out. what were the actual numbers of people who submitted photos/stories this year compared to last year? was one category down more than usual? Didn't we have more youth entries this year?