cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Squaring Things Away for the Trip Last night I watched 'Labyrinth' with Ida again. I have decided that the best song in the movie is almost certainly 'As the World Falls Down,' by David Bowie. That is the song they used for the hallucination/dream sequence where Sarah is dancing with David Bowie at some sort of weird masked ball. 'Magic Dance' being a close second place. Now then; the obligatory 'my weekend' entry. On Saturday I got my hunting license for this year. $50 even. Ouch. That's for the basic license, the big game stamp (turkey, deer and bear), a National Forest permit and the state waterfowl license. I still have to go pay another $9 or so at the Post Office for the federal waterfowl stamp. I ran into Farrell and some of his friends at the gun store when I was getting the license. I also fell in love with an old Stevens double-barreled side-by-side 20 gauge shotgun that they have on consignment for $250. It is certainly the most aesthetically pleasing object I have handled in the last few months. Oh, I should buy it. I don't have the money though. Even if I was going to buy a shotgun I should buy something that I actually need. That Stevens would just be another dove gun and I already have a very nice Remington 20 gauge pump for a dove gun. What I really need is a decent 12 gauge with a synthetic stock and removable choke tubes that I can use for pass-shooting geese. My only 12 gauge at the moment is this stupid, rattly old Mossberg 500 with a stock that's an inch too long for me and it doesn't take replacement choke tubes. I don't know what the hell I'm going to bring on this scouting trip in 2 weeks. I fucking hate that 12 gauge but the 20 gauge doesn't have the reach for geese. Anyway. When I got home I sealed all of the seams on my new tent with silicon so that it won't leak in the rain. That took several hours. On Sunday I went over all of my gear for the trip. Found every last little thing and completely packed my old external frame pack to make sure it would all come together properly. The only things I'm missing are an extra maglight and my poncho. I have bought at least 20 maglights over the last 15 years and I just don't know where the fuck they all disappear to. The quality has really gone to shit over the last few years and I doubt that I will ever buy another one. One after another has just mysteriously stopped working on me. All were flashlights that I bought in the last 5 years. I remember when I could drop those fuckers off a cliff and the most I'd have to do for them was maybe replace the bulb. I am guessing that the beginning of the end was when they started selling to Walmart. Every year Walmart demands that it's vendors cut prices a little more and a little more. It's rarely long before quality goes to shit. Bob is not getting a waterfowl license but he will get a fishing license. So he'll be fishing and I'll be hunting doves and geese. Hopefully between the 2 of us we can come up with dinner. My only concern going into this thing is Bob's tendency to seriously over-pack. All of the camping he's done for years has been out of the back of a truck. We were over at their house last night and he was showing me this fucking huge storage container that he planned to take the food in. Along with a cooler. And he and Trish's mother were advocating that we bring a 5-person, 2 room tent that it 6 and a half feet tall in the middle. Argh. This is not pulling up to a campsite in a park with picnic tables and bathrooms. We have to paddle this shit across a mile or 2 of lake and then might very well have to pack it another mile or so inland from that point. Why bring a 20 pound tent when a 5 pound one will do? The way we got everything settled, we are each bringing our own small tent and we're bringing our own food as well. If we can supplement with fish and wild game, so much the better. Hmm. you know what would be a fun trip? A week long solo backpacking trip in November where I only bring a day's worth of food. See how well I do as a hunter-gatherer. November would be good because all small game is in season for hunting. There are fewer wild plants to eat at that time of year but plenty of meat. I'd probably just bring my .22 pistol. Maybe the 20 gauge. The George Washington N@tional Forest would be a good place for that. I've done some hiking there years ago. I'd just walk the ridge the whole way. Wildlife is sparse at the top of a mountain. Compared to the valleys. But if there are oaks and hickories then there will be squirrels. And some wise, cautious old deer. Probably some turkey near the passes. 12:15 p.m. - 2007-08-20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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