Pumpkin Carvin' Boyd Style

It's pumpkin carvin' time at the Boyd house! Now, the Boyd men don't do anything half-heartedly, and the carving of pumpkins is no exception. Be prepared to see artistry at it's finest.

Prior to the carving festivities, the boys went out to survey their blank pumpkin canvasses - as true artists would! Notice Cole's man-sized gloves for the job.

Several days passed before we moved on to the actual carving portion of this endeavor. Here are the boys in the design stage of the process; sketching their ideas before committing to anything.

Chad and Cole are like two little peas in a pod - artists that take their work very seriously.

Next it was time to hollow out the pumpkins.

Caden had his spoon at the ready.

Cole and Chase were ready too...

Once the biggest pumpkin was emptied, Caden decided to check it out. Hey, what's in there?

Well, look at that! It's Caden!!!

After the necessary prep work was completed, the serious artistry began...

This level of creativity can't be achieved without proper sustenance, so the boys got to enjoy hot chocolate (with whip cream - of course) and caramel apples. This created a bit of a sticky mess, but that's part of the fun...right?

And here you have it...the finished masterpieces!

Chad was especially proud of the spooky "Booyds" pumpkin. He truly is very creative. Great job, Boyd men!

BOYD's vs. WILD (by Chad E. Boyd)

As winter sets into the Northwest and with snow levels dropping quickly I instructed my people (my Dad) to set up another foray into the wilderness. For this trip I will be bringing along my Dad as well as my Grandpa. This trip will also mark the first for my younger brother Chase. He is destined to be a good woodsman but he has a lot to learn.

Our trip plan was to scale Rattlesnake Ledge and enjoy the spectacular views of Mount Si, Mount Washington and Rattlesnake Lake. However once we arrived at the trail head I was forced to re-think the hike. We would be covering 1200 feet of elevation over the 2 mile accent so with the thick fog and wet conditions I just couldn't justify the risk. My Dad and Grandfather would most likely make it okay but Chase is a rookie and I have to look out for the little guy.

Not wanting to waste the trip I decide to take the team on an expedition around the exposed lake bed. This would be the perfect trip for Chase to cut his teeth on.

Here Chase is examine the corps of an old growth Cedar. These trees stood for 700 years before the early settlers cut them down to provide heat or shelter. Now they spend most of their time under the water of Rattlesnake lake. However as you can see the lake has been drained in preparation for the coming rain and snow and finally Spring run off.



Here I watch as Chase explores another of the ancient giants. He's doing well on his first trip, not bad for a rookie.
Here's that same stump. I just liked this picture.

Here I am looking through one of the stumps that was still nearly totally surrounded by lake water.
I covered the perimeter and then went down into the belly of the beast to make sure nothing was hiding.
Once I had cleared the stump and was confident it was safe I let Chase come out and explore it with me.During his search he found an old tennis ball. He was really excited about this find.It was inevitable however and he soon ran out of steam. We loaded him into the carrier that Grandpa had brought along and headed back to the rig. It was a good showing from the young adventurer.

Back at the Dodge we unload the crew. A good trip in the books!

I Have A Punk-Weasel-Rascal For A Baby

I can not believe what my punk-weasel-rascal baby did today while I was upstairs doing important things (looking at Facebook). Normally if I'm going to be upstairs for any length of time, I will confine Caden to his Jumperoo because of his rascal baby ways (you have no idea the amount of ingenuity and effort this child will expend to do mischievous things when no one is looking). But since I was just going to be a quick minute, I left him to roam free. I was about halfway down the stairs when the smell of chocolate came wafting up to me. I unsuspectingly thought to myself, "Mmm, that's a pleasant smell. Chocolate-y. I like chocolate. I wonder where it's coming from." It didn't take me long to realize what had happened. Caden used his 1 minute of unsupervised freedom to yank on the food cabinet doors until the lock popped off, find the messiest possible food item, and then help himself! He indulged in an entire (brand new) container of hot chocolate. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as he enjoyed smearing the chocolate-y powder all over himself and everywhere else. Guess where he sits while I type this little tale??? That's right...trapped safely in his Jumperoo!

Caden's thought process was probably something like, "Hmm...did I do this? Well, I better make the most of it!"

Right when Caden saw me, he said very matter of factly, "Oops. Sorry, Mom." But there was no remorse in his voice.

Clearly he's having a lot of fun.

Empty Swiss Miss container!

Figure eights in the powder!

"Hmm. My hand is dirty. I hate to be dirty. My mom should really do something about this."

"Mom? A little help, please."

Sometimes as a mom these are the things that I find myself having to laugh at. I think the only other alternative would be to cry! It's a good thing the world's craftiest punk-weasel-rascal baby is also the world's cutest baby! Love you, Caden!!!

Wilderness Adventure 2009 (by Chad E. Boyd)

My Dad, my buddy Josh, and myself had been planning a week long hunting trip into the back country of the Sawtooth Wilderness for a good 20 months. After those many months of planning and waiting, the day was quickly approaching for us to start the adventure. Then just one day away, we recieved a call from our guide to tell us that due to the snow he was not able to set up our camp. He was calling to talk to us about a camp that was about 4 miles into the wilderness. Now our planned camp was over 18 miles in, and so we told him that we wanted to go at least 10 miles in or not at all. The guide had another camp to put in that day so he said he would call back in the evening and discuss our options. Luckily some rain reduced the snow on the ground and the weather warmed up, so our outfitter agreed to take us as far as we wanted to go, short of hurting the horses and mules. Good enough! And so at 2:30 am on Friday 10/16/09, we left Kent to meet with our guide at the trailhead 4 hours later. Soon after arriving at the trailhead, our outfitter (Brian) and his son (Dylan) arrived and started to saddle the horses and load the mules. Josh and I looked over the potential mounts and discussed which steed would best serve us. Of course, we had no knowledge of what would make a good horse and were no part of the decision on which horse we got, but it passed the time.

Here is Josh atop "Griz"

My Dad and his horse "Jess"

Finally me and the Montana born "Hopper"

Here is a shot of Dylan on his horse "Cowboy" and the mule "Old Tom" that carried our stove, tools and snow shovels. The shovels are for clearing the trail if the snow has drifted over and the horses or mules can't pass.

The first leg of our trip ended with a stop at Eagle Lake camp to pick up the stove that would keep us warm for the week. Here are the horses tied up while we loaded the stove onto Old Tom.

Eagle Lake from the trail

This is a close up of Old Tom.

Now we had everything and were on our way to "North Fork" camp. Due to the snow and the fact that our tent never got set up at our planned camp, we were headed for a three wall cabin that was constructed in the 40's as part of president FDR's "New Deal". The cabin was about two miles from our original camp so all of our planning and maps were still useful.

Another shot of Dylan on a switchback ahead of me. You soon learn that there are only two directions in this country, up or down...and it's all steep.


More shots of the trail in to camp.........




After about six hours in the saddle, we arrived at camp.




We performed a few blue tarp "renovations" to the cabin and settled in.....Home Sweet Home!!

Now this is really my wife's blog so I will not defile it with actual hunting talk. The problem is that we spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday climbing all over the mountains around camp. We would leave camp around 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning and get back an hour or two before dark. We saw nothing! No deer, no tracks, no signs of deer beds, nothing!! No real hunting to talk about!

However here is what I did see.....enjoy the views, however pictures never do it justice.

Surprise Lake

Muleshoe Meadow

Now 4 days into the trip it's late Monday. I was coming back to camp after checking out the area around Surprise Lake when Josh reports on the radio that he had cut several fresh tracks in a basin below Bernice Lake. We made a plan to head into that basin Tuesday morning. We spent all of Tuesday covering this new area. Josh and I cut several tracks that all looked to be made in the last few days, but no deer. Josh could have easily climbed the two miles and 2000 feet of elevation to the Bernice area every day we were there. That's because Josh is 50% mountain goat and 50% robot. I am neither. I quickly decide that I will make the trek only one more time and since we had already planned to do a "spike camp", this was the perfect time. Wednesday morning we all packed our sleeping bags, a small tent, clothes, etc and headed up to Bernice to set up the spike camp.
Here is Bernice Lake and yes, that is ice on the lake.

Josh and my dad around the camp fire.
My dad and I in the two man tent, and Josh in the one man bivy. Tight quarters!!

Around 2:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday, Josh radios in that he had jumped a deer. He was not a trophy, but at this point our standards had come down considerably. Josh went ahead and harvested the deer, and my dad and I brought out the pack boards to haul the meat back to camp.

Dinner that night at spike camp was fresh grouse, trout and venison cooked right on the camp fire coals. So tasty!!

We got up Wednesday morning before the sun, but the fog had also rolled in during the night along with a fresh layer of snow. We hunted all morning, but the visability was never more than a hundred yards and walking up and down the steep slopes with a fresh layer of snow was a bit defeating. Finally around noon we decided to break camp. The fog was still heavy and if we got another deer we would certianly have to make two trips to get all of the equipment and meat back to our main camp. As it was, our packs averaged around 60lbs for the snowy trek back to camp. Thankfully it was downhill 90% of the way.

We spent Thursday relaxing, and harvested a few grouse for dinner. Then Friday around 10:30 the calvary arrived for the trip out.

Packing up Friday morning.

The pack train arrives!

Dylan and Ray packing up our gear.

All the gear packed and ready for the mules.

Dylan loading up for the trip out.

THE END