First of all, I went on a hunt close to home earlier this week. Once again I was disappointed. The dogs and I saw four single chukars and a pair. It was obvious that the hatch was a failure in that area this year. But I wasn’t too surprised. I’m very familiar with this area and I’ve seen big swings in chukar numbers from year to year. It’s private land and I believe I’m the only one that hunts it. I also do my Spring training there. It will come back. That’s my first boohoo. Don’t shed any tears. Number two boohoo came from the doctor.
I went in for a preop for surgery on my wrists yesterday. They have degraded over the last twenty years and the shots I got in them have no effect anymore. So they did some testing and found out they were in severe need of fixing. Along with that the test showed my elbows needed fixed also. At night, I have that feeling you get when you hit your crazy bone wake me up at least a dozen times during the night. I have braces for that but they even quit working. I also get the same jolt while carrying my shotgun at certain angles. It was no big deal but it has gotten pretty bad. The doctor that did the testing, by sending electrical charges through my arm, told me the operation would only put me out two or three days for recovery. Once again, no big deal. The operation was scheduled for Nov.4th. At my preop, the surgeon gave me a different time line. He said the recovery would be between one and three months for each arm. 70% of the patients in my condition take three months because they have to do something special because the elbow jumps out of joint.
He obviously saw my jaw drop. I told him I can’t be out that long this time of the year. I explained about the dogs. he said he wouldn’t advise it, but we could reschedule it later. Barb was sitting there with me and suggested I keep the scheduled date but said she would understand if I didn’t. They gave me until the end of today to decide. So, this morning I loaded up the dogs and headed towards Weiser for a chukar hunt.
The dogs were off running and I headed in their direction. I gave it my best shot. I hiked over five miles and got just short of 2000 feet in alevation gain. Pretty good for me these days. Grady went over 16 miles and Layne 22. My back hurt like hell and my arms ached some, but the pain went away after the first point and honor by the dogs. The birds flushed and I dropped one. Grady retrieved it and Layne stole it from him and brought it to about three feet from me and started pulling feathers. She never hurt the meat, just pulled feathers. I was a little disappointed but knew that was something we could work out.
There was a peak that I always strived for in my earlier years and I decided I wanted to get there. So the dogs and I hunted that way. On the way we picked up a few more coveys and the dogs did great jobs of holding them down for me. Every bird I shot was retrived in the same scenario of that first one. When I reached the summit, I called Barb. I told her to cancel my appointment and reschedule. She did, and I’m on for Feb. 3 for my first arm.
We hunted our way back to the rig in a different direction and found several more coveys of chukar and two coveys of huns. Dog work was great, except for the feather pulling. Layne has become a bird finding machine, thanks to Grady’s tutoring.
On my drive home, I was sure I made the right decision. At 75 years of age, I’m not sure of how many years of health I have. I hope at least ten more. Also Grady probably only has three more years of chukar hunting. On top of that, Layne is at a perfect spot in her learning curve. Each trip this year will make her that better of a chukar dog.
So, that’s my boohoo story. I’m guessing that over 90% of my readers would have made the same choice.
Also seeing as many birds as I saw today, made the choice that much easier.
