Not as exciting as it sounds. My dad and I headed straight from Texas to Yaak, Montana to hunt black bear. My first thought when we got up on the Yaak River was “holy hell there is a lot of snow up here”.  We found tons of bear sign (scat & tracks), the only problem was it was all grizzly scat and tracks. We saw moose, elk and an absurd amount of white tails, but no black bears. It was so depressing. We would head up a logging road to scout and less than 500 yards in we would hit 3 feet of snow or a mess of fallen trees blocking the road. 

The trees were easy, I would get out and move it if I could but the snow stopped us dead in our tracks. One road was totally iced up, snow packed by logging trucks, we said screw it and just kept going. We were driving up this totally iced over logging road sliding all over the place because I don’t have chains and after almost sliding in to the river for the tenth time we decided to turn around. It was a huge bust, but it was me and my dad hanging out cooking on the tailgate and enjoying nature so it was still a lot of fun, just not bear killing fun. It all about attitude, a bust of a trip can still be awesome (see gannett peak shit show). On the way home we stopped at the old Montana prison and the Berkeley Pit (largest superfund site in North America). Hopefully my dad will be able to come back in the fall and pop a bear then.

The summer is here and that means it’s traveling season. At the end of April my family all traveled to Yorktown, Texas for the Woods Family reunion. This is my mom’s side of the family, and this reunion is the oldest family gathering in the state of Texas. I don’t know for sure when the reunion stated but the Woods family was one of the original founding families that Sam Houston took to Texas, so I think its been quite awhile. This year was special for two reasons, one sad and one happy. First my grandpa suspects this will be his last visit to Texas, for the reunion. From the vibe I was getting the family suspects the same, but he is a fighter and I give him better odds. Second our great-uncle John Allen passed down a fiddle that has been in the family for over 100 years to my sister. It was owned by my grandpa’s “free spirited bachelor uncle”, Monroe Woods. He was a character, he married a schoolteacher once but was “too free spirited for her”, and according to John Allen as long as you kept him in beer he would fiddle all day for you. He was a cowboy and would strap the fiddle to his saddlebags and take it on cattle drives. Monroe once rode into town with grandpa and said “You go to the movies and I’ll have a drink, meet me here when you’re done and we will ride home”. Well, grandpa came out of the movies, and there was a drunk Monroe and no horse. Grandpa asked him what happed to the horse and Monroe said, “I ran out of money, we best start walking.” 

Uncle John Allen gave Kat the fiddle on the condition that she learn, and play for him, The Waltz You Saved For Me. When the time came she got her violin out but John Allen insisted she play it on Monroe’s fiddle “because it has that twang”. It hadn’t been played since Monroe died and took forty-five minutes for her to tune. John Allen stood in silence while she played and it looked like he was going to tear up. He even asked my mom if she knew how to waltz because he hadn’t danced since 1964.

The next day we went to the reunion at the family cemetery. Every year the graves are decorated and we sing hymns. Kat played amazing grace on Monroe’s fiddle as generations of the Woods family sang. Then we retired to the foreign legion hall and tore into a feast of home fried chicken, sweet tea, and more delicious southern fare. Sadly there is not a full film of her playing and I don't posses a hard copy of the partial, but you can view it on my facebook. 

The semester is over! Here is a piss poor attempt to catch you up on what happened this semester.

In December Liyah slipped on some ice in front of my apartment and broke her fifth medial metatarsal! She limped around until February, which was a nightmare. The city of Billings, in its infinite wisdom, refuses to plow anything but the main roads to the hospital, mall, airport and downtown. So she had to basically skate on one foot, propelling her self with a pair of crutches. Fun right? That’s what I thought at first but 4 months later when the second cast finally came off, it was obvious she was ready.

I worked a split shift all semester, it sucked and I barley made any money but oh well, it was fun working outside even when it was -40 out. Love that Montana weather.

It looks like we are both going to be done with our bachelors degrees at Montana State Billings after next semester, yay!

Liyah and I both got jobs guiding this summer, in Wyoming and Colorado respectively. Which is pretty snazzy.

At the end of the summer we are going to climb Mount Baker in Washington State.

That’s about it, that wasn’t too exciting, but this summer I will be guiding and living out of my truck so stay tuned!