Trying to get my hands clean in dirty water.

Well, an old friend of mine, Jared, is getting married on Saturday... Funny he finally gets to do this. I just bought my ticket. Be there Saturday afternoon. Crazy.

Backpacking Hunt Lake

Shooting 38's at 50 feet

Out Of Practice

.357 Magnum

Chris playing spooky!

Night

Our Destination: Just to the right of the little notch in the top center of the picture

On Our Way

Brother and Hiking Buddy: Chris With Mount Roothan

The Trail

Rocky Road

Big Rocks

Finding My Way

This seemed More Like Climbing.

Almost There: The Pond Below Hunt Lake.

Almost There 2

Hunt Lake

The Saddle To Fault Lake

Cooking Dinner

Bear Grass

Fishing

Cut Throat Trout

Heading Out

The Backside Of Chimney Rock

Feeling Small

Headed Down

Relaxing in Priest River

Having forgotten how good draft rootbeer is. . .

Well, having taken Friday and Monday off I am starting to get excited about the trip this weekend. That is, Chris and I are going to hike in to Hunt lake and camp. I anticipate a 2 hr or so hike over the boulder field with all the camping gear in our packs. Perhaps we will continue up around the saddle of Gunsite to Fault Lake. There is also the possibility of hiking Mt Roothan or even Chimney Rock. Should be a butt load of fun.

I think I may just have to get fat. . .

Prepped Gazpacho fixins...

Getting my grind on...

Game hens in a 3 hour bath of rootbeer, scallions, cinnamon sticks, corriander seed, ginger and garlic.

Cucumber and onion salad with red pepper.

oiled up, rubbed and ready to go.

Oh look his beer fell out of his hand.

Finaly ready. . .

The Golden bird of tasty goodness.

Time to get my eat on...

My Brother - cleaning up a little mess

The remains of the day.

Death and the dying

Well, my Black Ghostknife died today or last night actually. To bad really, I rather liked that damn fish.

To be home and lost

As she came out of the water
Matt Bauer "The Island Moved In The Storm"
comes out September 2nd.
Look for it.

Mackinaw

Well, this last weekend I went to Priest. . . Caught a nice mackinaw. 5-1/2lbs. 24 inches. A nice trip truth be told.

The Robots

Well, what you have here are a couple of newish toys. I am still way back at the begining in regards to learning to play these bad boys but they sure are fun/aggrivating. I guess the difficulty lies in the split hand technique with one hand trying to keep up with two. I will get there i'm sure. just give me six months. . . or better yet, ten years.

The beauty of a whiskey and cigarette beatdown

So Sunday, Chris and I decided to hike up tower mountain not far from my house to the towers. . . Well, it was an amazing hike. It was not to bad in the begining and it was fairly easy to find a rhythm. Further along it got quite a bit more strenuous. Humorous when you find yourself taking ten steps, resting, then repeating for say the last 100 yards or so only to wind up at about 3800 feet. Not far from the top we spotted a Moose. He was kind of rusling around and then bedded down in a thicket. Soon, we were at the top. I found it rather funny that these giant towers come down to a point on what appeared to be about an eight inch circle. The other weird thing is when you stand at the base and look up it really seems like the tower is leaning over you. I am pretty sure that is some sort of optical illusion. Well, we hiked all the way down the ridge past quite a few towers until we stumbled upon these huge rock formations on the south side of the ridge looking out over the Palouse. I was later told these are the rocks of Sharon.

We looped around till we found another ridge running back north and made the full loop back around to where we parked the car. All in all it was a great hike and I would gladly do it again. I myself returned tick free but Chris brought home two of the little vampires. I am still amazed that I have lived near here several times during my life and I have never known about this place. Crazy.

A Sip Of Wine, A Cigarette

Well, quite the weekend. Spent it listening to Leonard Cohen "Ten New Songs" on vinyl. And Throwing three hell of a bar-b-ques. Yes three. See the highlights below.

Smoking the day away. . .

How about a little mop sauce, This one has rum in it.

Eight hour Turkey Roast. Tender enough to fall apart.

Hows about a little Pork Butt?

This damn beef Brisket is bigger than my microwave! It ended up on the Bar-b-que for 11 hours on Memorial day. Wow. To die for.

Host Organism. . .

Funny, I guess the reasoning behind this is the fact that I am making Kombucha on top of the fridge. and I guess also that I regularly drink Kefir as well. I do find that I feel better when I do, so most likely I will continue to drink this stuff pretty regular. But yes, people have taken to calling me Host Organism, so that humorous or not is the reason behind that. I have a 11 lb beef brisket, a 4 lb pork butt and a 4 lb turkey roast I will be smoking this weekend. MMMM. perhaps more on that later.

Didn't know yet what I'd know when I was bleedin'

Well It has recently come to my attention that my favorite slurpee has officially changed. The reigning king is no longer frozen Dr. Pepper. See, after spending a portion of the day experiencing the joys of yardwork, I had the distinct pleasure of taking a break and riding to the local Shell station where I found a new taste sensation. All hail the new reigning king and its name is a tasty little thing called "Orange Mango".

In other news, a little while back I purchased a new barbeque grill. A "Char-Griller Super Pro". I must say it is absolutely amazing. I am very impressed. It even has cast iron grates. Now, I just need the smoker box attachment. My brother Chris and I have essentially been living off the grill. Beer can chicken, Smoked pork loin and last night, Smoked trout. I have three kinds of wood for smoking. I am using Alder for fish with Mesquite or Hickory for the balance. There really is nothing like kicking back with a beer to keep your hand cold, putting your feet up and watching the smoke roll out the chimney. Yeah, things at my place are pretty rough.

Another excellent dinner

Eating like a king... at least for the moment. Some "srimp for strenth" with a little cajun shake,
Steamed baby reds with balsamic, grilled asparagus, Ball tip with punjab piledriver and one little lobster claw, top it off with a alaskan amber and it is not a bad way to wrap up a day of fishing with your brother. . .

Troutacos

Step 1. Lubricate

Step 2. Find ingredients / lubricate
Step 3. Chop (tomatillos) / lubricate
Step 4. More chop (serranos) /Lubricate
Step 5. More chop (scallions) /Lubricate
Step 6. mix (Cumin, Vinegar etc...) / lubricate

Step 7. Stuff (salt, pepper, lime and cilantro) / Lubricate

Step 8. Grill (fire) / Lubricate

Step 9. Eat / Lubricate