ducking out

There is a little water down here. The river's blue line across the map is more thin than that drawn by the Rio Grande, but like almost anywhere else people settled in the Southwest, water flows. In addition, there are playa lakes in wet years and some more permanent ponds along the river valley. Consequently, there is some waterfowl hunting. On the last day of this last season, A, Booker and I headed out to some public access ponds to give the birds a try.



Unfortunately, the wind never did pick up, the weather was relatively warm and the birds, predictably, did not fly.





Those of us who hunt ducks learn that mirrored ponds, while photogenic, are of little help in attracting birds. Once it became clear that the wind wasn't going to kick up and the birds would not be trading around, we packed up to head out. Once I emerged from the reeds, a bird did flush from a bit further down the edge and flew, well, mostly flew, for cover. End of the season and all, I swung and fired, only to see him pitch into thick reeds where it took Booker a good fifteen minutes to nose him out.



Books did make the retrieve, though, the only one all season. I did it for the dog and, in the end, they all taste the same in gumbo, right?

"At length my dear Marquis..."

"...I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, and under the shadow of my own Vine and my own Fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp and the busy scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments...."
George Washington, Letter to Marquis de LaFayette, February 1, 1784



Already a private citizen, I'm a long way from retirement so this quote is mostly an excuse to show off our burgeoning figs, for which we have high hopes in this warmer clime. I first read the portion of Washinton's letter where he expressed his desire to return to Mount Vernon years ago and, for some reason, the bit about "my own vine and my own fig tree" has always stuck. No grapes planted, though. Melons, eggplant, green beans, black eye peas, squash, okra, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, dill, basil, thyme oregano, tarragon, artichokes, currants, serviceberries, cherries, and peaches, yes, but grapes no, at least not yet.

quail around the new digs

So, this move has brought us down into quail territory, lower & hotter than Albuquerque with more grassland and more birds.The little bit of driving around we've done, I've seen a lot of country that looks to me like it ought to be really good for blue quail (provided it ever rains).

We did get out a bit during the last season, scouting some nearby BLM and Open Gate lands. Our first foray, we found tracks near a windmill and then bumped the covey, which outsmarted & outran us pretty quickly.



Life & work intervened and it wasn't until the very end of the season that we found ourselves out again. We hit the area around that windmill again, working through a fair amount of pretty big mesquite, when Booker the Chessie disappeared and didn't respond to calls. He turned up sixty yards away having cornered a big porcupine in a mesquite bush and unsure what to do with it.



Books managed to get too close, though:



This required getting back to the truck and breaking out a pair of pliers. The quills in his chest were barely into the skin, but a couple of those in his chin were deep enough to hurt quite a bit when I pulled them out. Books didn't offer to bite, he just tried to keep me from getting at the deep ones. After a careful check to make sure we got them all and that none of the quills had broken off, a big drink of water and we were off to see if we couldn't find some other birds.



Some miles of driving and a couple of big loops walking and all we'd found were more tracks, a sunning badger, and a few antelope. We were headed back toward pavement when a covey of fifteen or so birds flushed across the road and hit the ground running. As I pulled up, jumped out, and started jogging up on the birds it occurred to me that I was all alone. Booker and A are both neophytes to the ways of blue quail and didn't fully appreciate the need to get on the birds and get the covey broken up so we could hunt singles before they all ran into the next county. I might have been a bit short in my explanation and A wasn't really aware that it's ok to run with a loaded shotgun, at least when you're trying to get a bunch of scurrying blue quail to flush. We did get them up though, and, between that flush and catching up to a couple of singles, we managed to scratch down a couple of birds and get Booker a couple of retrieves. One of those retrieves involved a leap over a prickly pear followed by a running snatch on a bird that wasn't quite dead yet. Not stylish, but exciting. The rest of the covey just melted away and disappeared, as blues are so very good at.

You can see the reason for the name "scaled quail":



On the rest of the way out we came across another covey, this one classic late season- small and wise to the ways of the world. They flushed a hundred yards from the truck, hit the ground running, split up and then flushed wild again. Good seed stock.

Here's hoping for a little rain so we have some birds for Books to learn on.

pheasant

Over 100 F today with a 30 mph wind- our part of the Southwest is a sunny blast furnace waiting for the next fire to start and looking for a little rain if we're to have any quail or a fawn crop. Work still has the best of me, but we did get out to chase pheasants last December on a bit of a whirlwind trip. Let's think of cooler times- Up to North Texas after work on Friday, back Sunday afternoon. Five hundred miles in the truck and a couple on foot. Fewer birds than last year, but good fun, family, dogs, and we found some.










I had to go to my old faithful Citori, up there on the left, as a bit of a contretemps that ensued when Booker the Chessie lept out of the truck (& over me in the process) and jumped another dog left me with a stiff hand and made the double trigger on the LC Smith hard to manage. The o/u probably shoots better for me, anyway. More impressive was my Dad's work with his old Ithaca 37- thousands of rounds at dove, quail, & etc. have made those two a pretty deadly combination.

Back in NM and a few days later, A and I decided to see if the current trend for buttermilk fried chicken would lend itself to the wilder taste and drier texture of pheasant. Pheasant plains style, as it were:





Ever vigilant quality control:


Since we're now Southern plains, we added black-eyed peas, rice, gravy, and greens to the fried pheasant.



It all worked pretty well. The buttermilk did help keep the meat moist and the tang from it went well with the pheasant. We'll have to do it again, though likely in different weather.

not dead yet

Three months is a longer hiatus than I intended or wanted. Duck season has come & gone, quail is nearly over, and we've only been out a couple of times for short days. More on those soon.

In the meantime, the new job is good, but challenging and very time consuming.
It requires many twelve hour and longer days full of last minute developments and has led to the neglect of family, friends, the dog, guns, the blog, reading, finishing up the move and all sorts of other things. As I settle in a bit more, that time pressure will ease, I hope. In the meantime, sporadic blogging should commence.

If you really need the reference, it's here.

There'll Be Some Changes Made

I'm not too big on putting a whole bunch of personal information on the blog. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but the personal stuff (except as it applies to hunting, fishing, tramping about, cooking, reading, and so forth) isn't really relevant.

In any event, by way of explanation as to why my already sparse blogging is going to get even lighter and the context of SFA is going to change a bit; A and I are moving, transitioning from high desert to the boundary of the Southern Great Plains and the Northern Chihuahuan Desert. The reason for the move is a job, of course. I've been out of work for a stretch and hey, you go where the work is. Although headed for flatlands, we'll still be in NM and have a bit of elevation, along with living within sight of mountains (though, being NM, that can still be a good part of a day's drive away).

So, our duck hunting has been delayed a bit and, once it starts, it'll probably be on smaller waters and perhaps playa lakes. I anticipate good quail hunting.

I've had a good time the last thirty years in Albuquerque. Even though the city has grown so continuously that a lot of the fun stuff is further out or harder to take advantage of, you have to love the open space and the variety of outdoor adventures only a couple hours away.

For those visiting Abq., I'll offer a few suggestions that might not be found in guidebooks.

First, the best breakfast in town is carne adovada and eggs at the K & I Diner on South Broadway. I'm a big fan of carne adovada and try it almost everywhere, at least once. If it isn't best at the K&I, it's darned close. Plus, their coffee is pretty good.

Next, the best live music venue in the area is the Santa Fe Brewing Company. Located on the south end of Santa Fe, it's a forty-five minute drive from Albuquerque and they offer good beer made on location, good food, and host a lot of good shows, particularly during the summer and if you like Americana. If you're spending a couple of days in this area, check out their schedule to see if you can catch a show. While there, buy a growler of their Chicken Killer. Smooth, malty, dark-ish. Good beer and, at 10% alcohol the bartender will warn you to be sure to "drink it all in one place".

NM has a wine industry and many of the wines are pricey if good. One exception is Gruet sparkling wine. The blanc de noirs is a great food or sipping sparkler at any price, let alone the $11-15 you find it for retail. Their winery is located along a freeway frontage road here in town. Not exactly scenic (and the grapes are grown 200 miles south) but worth stopping in for a taste.

If it's cold, or if you have a cold, or just feel like warming right up, stop by a Bob's Burgers and get a large chile cheese fries (green). Bob's has the hottest green chile of any of the burger joints and the combination of yellow cheese, salty fries, and hot chile will soothe your throat, clear your sinuses, and bring a sweat to your brow to break that fever (if sick, otherwise, it just tastes real good).

Best gun store in town for used, antique, or really interesting is Ron Peterson's.

Northern New Mexican food in a dark bar- you can always get fideos, quelites or carnitas at Charlie's Back Door. The food isn't always great, but it's usually good and the menu is unique in this city.

Best baguette in town, and probably the state, is at Le Paris up on Eubank.

All this is purely one guy's opinion, of course, and a semi-native at that. Thinking about this stuff, I'm struck by what's no longer around town: best fish taco place-gone, best bar for live music-gone, best Vietnamese food by a mile-gone, best fly shop-changed much for the worse, best grower's market- isn't a really good one anymore; best video store-gone, the big used bookstore-gone, the bookstore that held lots of author readings-gone. Guess it is time to check out a new scene.

P.s. Title reference here.

a link

Just a quick, holiday-appropriate link.

Click here to get some nifty free content from Tor.com- the best zombie story I've read in a long time, called "Preparations" and written by Mark Mills.

no water

A few days ago, Chad Love of the Mallard of Discontent posted about the lack of water in his early season ducking haunts over in Oklahoma. Full of hubris or too cocksure, I commented that "at least our river is still flowing". I should have checked first.



That's Booker and I standing right in the middle of the main, and only, channel!
This'll be my eleventh or twelfth season hunting the Rio Grande and this is the lowest I've ever seen it at this time of year. The water will come up once irrigation season ends in November, but it's going to have to come way, way up for there to be enough water to float (or attract) many birds.



Nonetheless, we saw a few ducks on our scout and made some preparations for the season.








Duck season starts this upcoming week. It's usually slow at first, with the lack of water I'm guessing it'll be really slow, but we lucked into sandhill crane permits for later in the year and are looking forward to a chance at the "ribeye of the sky" as well as more ducks once they re-water the river and some (hoped for) bad weather up north pushes them down.

late

On one of our grouse hunts, A came across our first lobster mushroom:



As with some other first mushrooms, this guy was pretty unmistakable when seen in the flesh.



Unfortunately, it was late in the season and that guy had been up for a while; the bugs had found him first and, rather than the crisp white flesh described in the books and on the 'net, he was a soft, bug riddled mass. Still, is was great to see and positively identify a new (and prized edible) species. Further, we've duly noted the location and will give it all due attention next year.

into fall

Today is the last day of dusky grouse season in New Mexico. A couple more days spent out in the woods didn't result in any more birds for us, even way up in one spot that I've pretty much always found birds. This is the first year I've been blanked.

Some other predator got to this one first:



Steep meadows:



Grass as high as a Chessie's eye:



Our weather has turned fall-like, cool in the evenings and at night. Summer's gone and the garden is putting on a last burst. Time to really savor those last tomatoes.

Duck season starts (in the zone we hunt) in just a couple of weeks. We'll go to making game then.

scarce on the ground

We've been out half a dozen times this grouse season, with one flush (three birds) to show for it. We've found dust baths, feathers, droppings, and miles and miles of country, but can't seem to come into contact with the birds. One of the things I love about hunting blue grouse is that you do get to work for them. Down in NM, they seem to frequent high mountain meadows and parks (think 9,000 feet or so), usually in areas where there are spruce and aspen both. For me, at least, a good grouse spot is one in which I find birds one out of three times I hunt it. Some places that look like good habitat never produce birds. Other places will only provide birds occasionally. So far, we've hit most of my "good" places and many of the "worth trying" spots.

Of course, even if a spot if full of grouse, you won't necessarily find them. The birds will lay low if they can and let you walk by without a flush. Also, the country is big- no way to completely work an area that might hold birds (at least, not with a flushing dog)- so you might pass them by. As it is, this year I'm not certain if it is a good year for the birds or if populations or low. I'm guessing low, but I'm not certain.

As the season is nearing an end, we're going to make a trip up north and take a long hike up a mountain that has usually had birds on it. I don't think I've gone through a grouse season skunked and would prefer to keep that the case.

In the meantime, scenery and other photos.

First, because while it may be the law in Colorado, it's just a strong suggestion in New Mexico (sort of like traffic signals), some fall color, which isn't in full swing yet:



A late-blooming wood rose:



Merriam's turkeys. If we were turkey hunting, we'd have been in good shape this year.



Big ol' vulture sitting up on a ridge. I don't know if he had a full belly, or if the lack of wind made it too much work to fly, or if something he'd eaten was disagreeing with him, but he allowed us to get pretty close and, fortunately, I found him before the dog did. The Chessie though he needed retrieving, and that wouldn't have been a pretty scene:



The fall has been fine. Warm, our last trip was the first one cool and damp enough for the dog to have a good day working, and lovely. We've seen elk, deer, and the aforementioned turkeys and heard elk bugling as well. Now all we need is to get into a few more birds.

how's that historic?

Noticing quite a bit of smoke in the mountains to the north, I did a quick internet search for new stories on any forest or brush fires up there. I found out about the source of the smoke (a controlled burn), but also came across a news story from the past summer that made me wonder a bit. In relevant part:

"The Red Fern Fire about 13 miles east of Cuba (New Mexico) is reported at 120 acres and also is zero percent contained.
The fire is threatening one cabin and is reported to have burned a historic outhouse Thursday.
The Forest Service did not provide details on the history of the outhouse."

So, how does one find an outhouse historic? Someone famous used the facility? Died in there? I don't think there were ever any battles in the Jemez Mountains for an outhouse to have survived or been utilized during. Darn it, now I'm going to spend hours trying to figure this out.

back alley

Scene-
A residential alley in a large Southwestern city. Not scary, but not the best part of town.



Back fences, the spoor of the bum:



Looking into the back yards, some of these primitives even have animal parts on their fences.



Earlier, a couple of shady characters headed down that alley. What were they up to? Why the leather gloves, empty beer flats, and tongs in their hands? The answer is in the bottom left corner of the first photo. Let's look closer:



That's it, nestled amongst those spines: tuna. Now you can see the reason for the gloves and tongs. That fruit has stickers of its own:



Sure enough, those early morning skulkers came back with pounds of prickly fruit:



Said fruit was peeled, cut up, then boiled.





Once softened, the tuna was mashed, then the juice strained from the pulp. A closeup of the seeds might make a good Halloween poster: eyes......magenta eyes!



Let us repair to a recipe. After the addition of lemon juice, pectin, then sugar, the prickly pear juice gets cooked into jelly:





Skulkers' purpose revealed, mystery of the purloined cactus resolved.



Growing up in West Texas, we picked a bunch of prickly pear tuna, burned off the spines, then my mother made them into jelly. I recall glochids in fingers (actually, cactus spines in fingers was a pretty common experience for anyone spending much time outside around there), Mom being disappointed in the resulting jelly, and eating said jelly on peanut butter sandwiches for a good long time. Recently, talking to Mom about that experience, she recalled that the recipe came from Texas Parks and Wildlife and that the texture of the jelly wasn't great, nor the flavor particularly strong or notable. I remembered the taste as being good, but nothing about the texture of the jelly. Immature palates and all that.

The last year or two, I've been meaning to try making prickly pear jelly myself. People come to the Southwest and plant cactus. Why, I can't imagine except for naivete, or the specific purpose of keeping folks back from your fence or yard. Even then, you have to put up with cactus in your yard. In any event, tuna is all over town and no one seems to do anything with it- you can see it falling and rotting all over the place. Last year the season got away from us, but this year A and I did a little gathering around our neighborhood and put up two batches of jelly.

Tasting this jelly, I remembered that other from childhood. The flavor is also reminiscent of Jolly Ranchers (that is to say, the original Jolly Rancher that was a sort of a bar, and came in two flavors, as I recall- kinda apple and kinda watermelon-dang, I quit eating candy for twenty-some years and everything changes). The jelly tastes of watermelon and a bit of strawberry, although there is a green, earthy note on the finish that the candies can't boast. Not the best jelly in the world, I'd happily trade it for rose hip, which is going to be a real favorite. Still this is better than most anything commercial and might really appeal to folks who like subtle jelly. Further, the price of the fruit was right and it adds some nice variety to the pantry.

Taste aside, it is one of the prettiest jellies I've ever seen.

Sidetrack

We recently went looking for grouse in Northern NM. Didn't find any, though we did run into some gallinaceous birds- the common New Mexico blurry turkey:



Even though we couldn't come up with grouse, I saw a couple of feathers and a dust bath at our first spot. The road into the next spot, always bad, was much worse after a month or so of rain. Because it was so slow, we were getting toward the evening hours and, on the way up, were passed by a couple of bowhunters headed up, no doubt to those same meadows we were planning on trolling for grouse. Two sweaty bird hunters and a hundred pounds of dog racing about are not conducive to elk coming out at dusk. Also, it was opening day of their season, so I felt a little bad about going all the way up there and hitting those meadows. Consequently, when we went by a bunch of wild roses sporting large, ripe rosehips, we took a few minutes to gather a quart or so of the hips in order to make jelly, then headed down the mountain.



We relied on two different recipes in our jelly making, using the extraction technique from the first and, as they agreed on about everything except pectin as far as the ingredient list for the jelly, the pectin-utilizing technique from the second.

After cleaning off the stem and flower ends and any other detritus, we boiled the hips in water and then let them steep.



After steeping, we mashed them up with a potato masher, then extracted the juice (and quite a bit of pulp) through layers of cheesecloth set in a sieve. We'd have gotten clear jelly by using more cheesecloth and letting the juice just drip, but decided that we wanted the pulp for body (and Vitamin C, we hope) rather than trying for a prettier, clear product. Once we'd extracted our juice and pulp, in went lemon juice and pectin, to be followed by sugar.



The jelly ended up this rusty orange color:




The flavor is good- much like oranges, but without the bitter note you get in marmalade, and with a woodsy undertone. It came out a nice, tart jelly. Rose hips are supposed to be very high in Vitamin C as well, so it's good for you to boot. Definitely worth doing again.