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The significant snow storm a couple of weeks ago really screwed up this deer season. Joe couldn't get out to his deer blind on the opening day, not right in his book, even though I cooked his favorite breaded pork "tonkatsu" the night before to celebrate the season. But first, he had to work on his little snowmobile to get it running. His new plan was to take his snowmobile on the deep snow covered road, pulling a sled with his hunting gears.
His plan worked, though so far with no luck. Besides it got warm enough to rain last Sunday, when Joe and Mark almost got stuck in the softening snow and ended up not hunting at all. Next day, my day off, I accompanied Joe to Uncle James's deer blind in the morning where we knew we wouldn't get stuck. Except, rain changed into snow while we were out there, and we didn't see any deer. Oh well. On this sunny Thanksgiving Day Joe is getting ready to go out to his hunting spot this afternoon, while I'm working till late. Double oh well.
We wish you a happy yummy Turkey Day!
Yesterday afternoon we braved the snowy roads, trying to get to Joe's deer hunting spot. We soon realized it was far worse than expected. It took us twice as much time traveling on relatively major roads, which meant secondary roads were impassable, unless you're on a sled! Snowshoeing was out of question, since we had 4-5 more miles of the road to go yet. Joe is a bit doubtful if he can get into his spot by the end of this week for the opening day. He is depressed about that. He can only remember one other year in the past when the snow prevented them from hunting in the woods.
The wind was blowing hard, as well as snowing, all the while we were out and about. The big lake appeared almost white with so many big whitecaps. As we predicted, when we got home Joe had to blow as much snow as he did several hours ago. It was just crazy to think all this snow from one winter storm and wonder how much more snow before this is over. Nothing we could do about it, so we turned our snow day together into a gyoza pot sticker making day. We even made our own wrappers- Joe rolled the dough into circles, and I shaped them with fillings. The best batch ever!!
And this morning, the sun is coming out and the storm subsided. Even so, it's STILL snowing. These fluffy snow flakes dancing slowly down from the sky. A very magical picture. Once again Joe blew just as much snow, his third time in less than 24 hours. In the below picture is our neighbor's snow bank across from us. Just compare the size of the bank with his full size pickup truck, that is the black spots!
I've been pretty happy just eating the salmon and roe that Joe caught, but the excitement of a bending fishing rod hooked to a 20-inch fish was something I wished to experience for the last two years. This evening I finally (somehow) caught a Coho salmon!! Somehow... because all I thought and felt was that I had a snag under water, a rock or a log. But instead as the fish came up to the surface, it got bigger and bigger. Well, Joe gets all the credit for actually pulling the fish on the bank to letting me hold my trophy for a picture moment. I couldn't have done it myself. Also, the salmon appears absolutely huge in the photo, but for the record it measured 19 1/4"-- yes, a 1/4" is important!
The rest of our fishing trip today was rather quiet, except I lost 1 lure and proceeded to almost lose another. I'm seriously hoping Santa will bring me another set of fishing lures for Christmas! As you can see, the fall color was nice everywhere, too.
I'm sure everyone is busy this time of a year, getting ready for the Holidays. It is just hard to believe Christmas is a week away already. Slowly, but we are crossing off the things on our to-do list. Our tree is decorated (though the tree is in no shape to hold Christmas lights); gifts wrapped; the wreath a bit more festive. 
Our greeting cards printed and mailed out; Joe's famous leg lamp cookies baked and...
Frosted!! In case we don't get to post any more before next Thursday, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
Joe just finished his first round of snow blowing for today. He needs to go out to his deer blind in woods to bait this afternoon... more like to see if our vehicle can get in to the road, let alone to his blind. I'm going to tag along with snowshoes. We'll post some more crazy snow pictures soon.
Our Halloween dinner was not something I pre-planned or thought picture worthy... a teriyaki chicken dinner turned into egg omelet covered chicken fried rice. It was actually very tasty. Trust me. We both scarfed it down. Boo!
Happy Halloween to everyone!
As predicted it just started snowing here. I have a feeling that it's going to be a cold trick-or-treating tomorrow.
Joe put his old motorcycle leather jacket and a scar drawn on his forehead as Eddie from the show... well, his distant cousin Jake happened to play that character on stage this year. Unfortunately by the time we could snap this below picture, the real "Eddie" took his costume and make-ups off. Oh well. 
Our rare wild night-out in town was complete with a quick stop at our new favorite "the Pit" to have a pint, or two. Too bad our friend Sarah couldn't join us because of her 5 a.m. shift in the morning. Happy Halloween, everyone!
As always most of the grapes were turned into jelly. The fun thing about making our own jelly is that it tastes slightly different every year. 
Besides squeezing grape juice and getting ready for deer season, Joe worked on two of our vehicles. He ended up spending a whole weekend just tackling much needed break/strut jobs on our Honda SUV. 
And I just offered a basic printing class for a small group of people. It was fun and inspiring. 
We just wanted to let you know we're still alive!
Oh yeah, and I did not lose a lure-- a very good day fishing for me. Below is the second salmon Joe caught after a bit of fight.
Both salmon were male, which made Joe happy that he didn't have to clean and separate salmon roe for me. Tonight we are having a couple of fish lovers over for a salmon feast, including the salmon roe that have been packed in sweet soy sauce. Happy autumn for everyone!
No fish actions with spinners, but Joe eventually caught his first salmon of the season on a crawler. 18 inches and almost 3 pounds. It is official that the fall salmon run has started! The trees are starting to show more autumn colors now, some yellows and reds. 
Joe's gotten quite a case of fishing fever now that he knows salmon are up in the streams. Today after work he took a quick fishing trip back to the Big Hole and was rewarded by the even larger Coho salmon on a spinner. A 22" female with lots of eggs.
As I type this, Joe is sitting at the kitchen table, tediously cleaning the salmon roe, mostly for me to be able to enjoy the delicacy so fresh. At least he is also enjoying the new Leinenkugel Big Eddy seasonal beer that Kozue would be jealous of. And I know I definitely owe Joe another nice 6-pack for cleaning the salmon roe.
Over the stormy wet Labor Day weekend Joe went fishing 4 days in a row, which was at least rewarded by the 12" rainbow, on the last day.
And as always the beautiful water and woods ALMOST let me forget about my trout fever...almost.
