michael went on his inaugural pheasant hunt this month! this is a tradition that i've gladly been a part of since i was 8 years old and trudging up the main ditch-line on grandpa's farm with my dad, cousins and uncles. michael was a bit hesitant at first as you can tell from the picture above. he walked five or six steps behind me as we walked in line with other hunters. however, after i shot the first bird and told him if the bird had flown out behind us he would have been in the line of fire he stayed right near me or whichever hunter he accompanied.
we all enjoyed ourselves. back in the day there were enough native birds in the area that we could hunt freely and have enough for all. however, as the years have gone on and the fox population had increased it is rare to see a native pheasant on grandpa's property.
and there is the dilemma. how to continue a great family tradition without anything left to shoot? we purchase birds from a pheasant farm, twirl them around till their too dizzy to fly and let them free in the brush to play the game of life and death (we let the dizziness wear off before we hunt them.)
this year's hunt was much more like prior year's hunts as we had cousins jeff, brian, darin, ryan, cutler and my brother jonny. uncles doug, kelly and my dad were there as was grandpa. the big difference was that jeff, darin, jonny and myself all brought kids! (where have the years gone?)
all the younger hunters got a bird and here is michael fulfilling the duty of a ditch trudger--carrying the pheasant back to the cars.
it was great to see everyone this year!
this tradition would not be complete without driving from gunnison to cougartown for a byu football game. here you see four generations of frandsens (grandpa frandsen's hand can be seen holding the binoculars behind my pops.) enjoying a traditional byu trouncing of unlv.
it is our final year in the MWC and after some of the things coaches and school presidents from the MWC have said about us it has been nice to beat every team in the conference to this point aside from TCU and Air Force (and this in a re-building year:)some of that sentiment can be seen in michael's take on the game below...
