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In praise of Fall

165K views 2K replies 53 participants last post by  Mean Gene 
#1 ·
A disclaimer of sort.
Many of the images once posted in several of these sticky threads have been deleted by PhotoBucket, and are now held for ransom by that company.
Therefore there will be many instances where those images are missing, and in some cases where I have chosen to substitute the images no longer are the originals
Sorry, but it can't be helped.

Hurray!
July is over! Weatherwise, it was a real stinker.

August can still be quite hot, but in our part of the country, we will soon begin to see the first hints of transition into Autumn.
Very soon now, the days will begin to take longer to reach their peak temperatures, and those temperatures will drop off rapidly after sunset, making for a good night's sleep under open windows.

Those longer, cooler nights will begin to trigger a change in the animals too.
By the end of this month, the fishing on the river should be getting good for the trout, much better on average for the really big ones that often seem to go into nocturnal feeding during the hottest weather.

Some big game hunts are starting, tho taking care of an Elk in 90* temperatures would seem to be a real challenge.
More than that, there is something to be said for the aesthetics of the sport. Myself, I'd rather be skinning one out in 3" of snow!

Hey! Only gonna be two more days after today, and the first NFL preseason games will be played!
Don't care what the outside temperatures are, if there's NFL football on the TV, I know I'm going to be smiling inside. "Yup! It's almost here"

I'll be watching the gravel bars on the river closely now. Last year, the leaf change was starting well before the middle of the month as evidenced by this photo taken in town here the 15th of last August.


The wheat fields are already seeing some of the first combining going on, and all over the area we'll be seeing it in high gear by this coming week.
The air will be full of clouds of the grain chaff, and the fields full of headlights at 3:00 am as the harvest is being brought in.
The potatoes will be coming in hard on the heels of the wheat, and the corn fields will barely be cut before the local Honkers and ducks are visiting the best of those!

Just at four weeks tomorrow, the Eastern Idaho State Fair comes to town.
I will, of course, Bee-line it to the Aberdeen deep fried trout fillet booth. I usually forego the fries in favor of two fillets smothered in their Tartar sauce, a few drops of lemon juice, and a small drink of choice.
That being done, we tour the pavilions, which only slightly change from year to year, but for the photo, crafts, and the Quilting barn (hint, hint :thumbsup: for those who might know somebody interested in that!)
Historically, the Eastern Idaho State fair is also known for the transition from the heat of summer to a cool storm rolling in by the middle to end of Fair week. In 29 years I can only recall twice that it did not do so. Unless it did so beforehand!

Fair week also sees the first of the bird hunts with the opening of dove season, and the mountain grouse season, as well as a Sandhill Crane season.
I will take part in the dove hunt as always, and hopefully all the old hunting group will come together for an opening evening hunt for those, and the later post hunt debriefing, with full cups and a generous selection of tasty delicacies while the sweet, acrid smell of burnt powder is still with us! Some years this yearly tradition is conducted on the patio, but some years the evening chill descends as we pull in to the driveway, and such only serves to quicken discussions about the coming waterfowl hunts whilst driving us into the dining room table where plans are laid and endlessly altered until quite late hours, only to be altered yet again as the duck hunt actually draws near!
Wouldn't change a thing!
.

The earlier hour of sunset, the first felt chill of early evening, the quickened step of man and beast, the sense of change in the air, all this and many other things grown so familiar. There is much to praise fall for. This is only the start.
 

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#2 ·
Ah great post Fs! I've been looking forward to ditching the sweltering 90s thread. Reading this is getting me even more ready for fall. Last night I heard duck and goose calls from my sons room at 11:00 pm. His sister loves that! Then this morning I discovered that there were 6 dozen diver ducks laid out in slotted bags all over the garage floor. He's never lost the fever, but now it's catching.......
 
#3 ·
There is no better time during the year than fall. Unfortunately for us we don't start seeing the weather here turn until at least mid-September. In normal years we get a couple 100 degree days in August early one, then it goes down into the upper 80's. By early October we're in the 60's, then down to 50's in late October. By then it's freezing every night. Leaves start turning the middle of September and get better through deer season. Deer is kind of a misnomer…here they're more like large rats with horns.

I like November the best. There's usually good numbers of puddle ducks and the weather hasn't gotten nasty. This is the time of the year when we can get the 35 degree days with a 15 mph wind, low clouds and spitting snow. I live for days like that at the refuge. When we can get that the ducks will almost commit suicide to get into the decoys. I've had lots of days with great hunting for big birds in November.

Late September sees the salmon get up this high in the river. Catching your limit, whatever that might be, isn't much of a problem. They're here in good numbers until the middle of October, then this fall off rapidly. Many days I can get a limit of mallards and wood ducks early, then break out the fishing gear and catch a limit of salmon before heading home. Great times then.

The wife and I have often said we'd like to just travel around and go wherever "fall" was at the time. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
#4 ·
blackrock said:
Ah great post Fs! I've been looking forward to ditching the sweltering 90s thread. Reading this is getting me even more ready for fall. Last night I heard duck and goose calls from my sons room at 11:00 pm. His sister loves that! Then this morning I discovered that there were 6 dozen diver ducks laid out in slotted bags all over the garage floor. He's never lost the fever, but now it's catching.......



I've been exposed! And caught it many decades ago!
That must be it?
 
#5 ·
I'm pretty disappointed that bear season opens the first day of labor day weekend, that will complicate things a bit. It will also put a bunch of forest grouse hunters in the woods all at the same time that first morning. I guess at least it will get the crazy general public out of the way right off the bat this year which may be a plus in the long run. We will be hunting frosty ground most likely by August 30, it certainly was last year. August really gets me primed for hunting, it's just 29 days now and I'll be up in the high country again. I had some pretty serious health issues this summer that I'm finally coming out of and I'm getting a good old dose of cabin fever right now. I need to go stretch some fly line next week.
 
#6 ·
woodduck31 said:
I'm pretty disappointed that bear season opens the first day of labor day weekend, that will complicate things a bit. It will also put a bunch of forest grouse hunters in the woods all at the same time that first morning. I guess at least it will get the crazy general public out of the way right off the bat this year which may be a plus in the long run. We will be hunting frosty ground most likely by August 30, it certainly was last year. August really gets me primed for hunting, it's just 29 days now and I'll be up in the high country again. I had some pretty serious health issues this summer that I'm finally coming out of and I'm getting a good old dose of cabin fever right now. I need to go stretch some fly line next week.

I missed most of Dec and Jan hunts last season with health issues, but right now I feel as good as I have in several years.
Knock on wood!
I plan to do a huge amount of hunting this year, but somewhere in the back of my mind a little voice is telling me I'm not so young anymore, and I should only plan things as energy and ability allow, one day at a time. To that end, I am gathering all the easy access fields, and water holes I can. Morning or afternoon hunts, but fewer of the all day events may be the ticket from here on out.
I do this for fun, and quality over extreme quantity is a better way to go in any case.
Still, if I'm sitting in the recliner listening to Jake whine because we're seeing it spit snow thru the branches of the front yard Maple, or a driving wind is howling thru the fireplace, my heart will almost always try to over rule my better sense, and the spirit will wish me in a frozen cornfield or an ice rimmed pond. I hope that, at least, never changes.
 
#7 ·
If we're not being lied to, Weather.com's 10 day forecast calls for a very good chance of what can only be Monsoonal moisture starting Monday thru Friday.
That will be a very good mood lifter for me. I love the rain, and the lower temperatures that usually come with them here in E. Idaho. Stormy days are always my favorite, and when they come in the late summer, they are of all times most welcome then.
My outside painting chores are all done for the wife now. Not much left to do but haul in the dirt and bark dust to fill her newly created/revamped flower beds.

Wed I'll be helping a friend flock his Bigfoot heads and tails here at the house, and then I'll be working on some specialty decoys I want to utilize this fall.

Yesterday and this morning there was a crop duster working a field next to where the geese were flying out to right over my house, he kinda thew them off their normal routine, but he's finished now, and just moments ago I heard a rather large group of geese passing by very low. Seems they are back on the beam again.
Maybe 200-250 birds every morning, but a week ago it was only 150. In three to four weeks there will be close to a thousand. They are returning to their annual roost across the street, and just over the river.
The gathering has started!
 
#8 ·
Took Jake over to the 'Island' this afternoon for a swim. He needed the cool down.
But on the way back to the house, I saw this tree next to the road.
It is not dying, it is changing already!
 
#10 ·
In praise of fall, did I mention food?
Wife just served dinner, fresh corn on the cob as a side?
It ought to have a starring role! You know, fresh shucked and still white, with just that tiny tinge of yellow starting to show!
Buttered, salt and peppered! The best of it like eating candy!

Come on now! Is there ever a time of the year when better food can be got?
I'm sure from what I've seen, blackrock can attest. Smallmouth bass fillets, fried or broiled. Baked in a myriad of ways, let jdinid
add his testimony to that as well. They both just catch absurd numbers..... Wish I'd caught more. Could be I will yet!

How about an Idaho potato? Don't really need to, but there are few fall rituals so easily indulged as potato gleaning! I live in the potato capital of the world....dead center! Don't ever think a Burbank baker is always the best that can be got! There are others, and we sample them all. The wife, the Lab, and sometimes the extended family armed with orange buckets out in the field, gathering a hundred pounds at a stop, and in what seems only minutes. Then off to find another type, in another field.

Fall trout. When those first frosts chill the river's surface, the trout seem to take notice in the form of a feeding frenzy. The meat begins to firm, a 15" fall fish can fight like like a summer fish nearing 20", and the electric pulse that travels up the line to the the rod can trouble a man's sleep all winter. (Thanks to blackrock's inspiration, my summer nightmares center around shiny plugs flying back at me from leaping bass I wasn't warned about).

Now my wife and I have a membership at Sam's club, and starting in September, we haunt the frozen food freezers there.
There are never more delightful snacks, and in such great variety, as one finds in that span of time from early autumn 'til Christmas.
I know what I'll be looking for this year, but I'm not telling any of you what I discovered, as I'm buying out the lot as soon as I see them, if I have to mortgage the house to do it!

I hate Walmart, but I suppose it is a necessary evil in the land. But I will give them kudos for this, they are the first I can find on any given fall season to stock their shelves with Eggnog.
My wife loves Soco and nog. Southern Comfort and Eggnog.
I was actually glared at two years ago, for making myself one after bringing her a carton of Eggnog I'd found unexpectedly in Walmart so early, and she'd sent me to the liquor store for the Southern Comfort. Sheese, it's not like they were going to suddenly run out of the makin's for them or something! I found the fix for that tho. I make and deliver her's first!

I suppose wild game should have it's own, and separate post to deal with that subject, and then only after, or as one is indulging in same!
Soon enough i think!

Holiday food.
Everybody has their own traditions I think, but for my family, it is always Turkey for Thanksgiving, and all the usual accoutrements. Cranberries, Stuffing, mashed potatoes, olives, salads, and large pouring bowls of gravy.
There are bottles and bottles of Martinelli's sparkling cider, and Sprite and Sherbert floats for the Grand Kids.
Pumpkin pies, Lemon Meringue pies, and Chocolate Creme pies with lots of whipped cream. I like the kind out of the can best!
But...for the last two years there has been a bit of a new twist to the main dish. We only do Turkey breasts now, instead of the whole bird. We find it to be a better flavor, and far more juicy than the whole bird. Don't know why, but it has held true over those two Holiday dinners, and several such attempts thru out the last two years. Perhaps five such!

Christmas,
Some years Turkey, and some years Prime Rib on the Traeger pellet stove. All the other standard fare to go with it.
But we have settled on the Christmas Eve dinner everyone approves of every year!
We have great platters heaping full of Snow Crab. Really piled dangerously high. Bowls of melted butter, Mushrooms, twice baked potatoes, and salads.
But what would Christmas be without homemade candies?
My specialty is old fashioned fudge. You know, the soft ball kind. Cooked down, and tested every three minutes until perfect!
Then stirred hard until ready to pour with walnuts added.
Divinity also. Got to be careful with that!
The wife comes into her own with cookies. Filbert crescents, and sugar cookies stamped out in trees, bells, and snowmen and what all, I can't remember!..... Homemade Turtles with Rollo candies and Pecans. Queen Anne Chocolate cherries, and Chocolate covered Macadamias.
We have smoked trout from the Snake river, and loads of beer boiled hot sausages. Extra Sharp Cheddar cheeses, and Pepper Jack, and always a large box of Hickory Farms. Love to slice and nuke their summer sausage over Triscuits and sliced cheeses.
Did I mention the cups full of Soco and Nog?

Yes, we love our food! We all have our favorites, and what better time of year to fully enjoy them all?
 
#11 ·
Ahh, food. Subsistence living. I just remarked today to my wife how cool it is to walk right past the produce section in the store. Fresh veggies from the garden, fresh bread from the oven and meat gathered from the field. The last category will expand this year. It speaks to the soul. I still appreciate Freddy's but my monthly fuel discount is dwindling. :)
 
#12 ·
what I'm looking most forward to in the fall is the return of my wife who works in Alaska every summer for 5 months. She is on the management team at one of the lodges owned by Princess Cruise lines. For the past three years she has worked at the Mckinley princess wilderness lodge near talkeetna, Alaska. We've been married for 34 years and the last three have been the toughest yet. Some financial issues over the past 5 years have made it necessary for her to go back to work and a job in Alaska allows her to make more money in 5 months than working full time in Boise would afford in a year. We are hopeful that this will be her last year working up there. We both lived and worked in Alaska when we first got married in 1980 and we swore we would never go back, but there is still a chance I guess if they offer her year round full time, but I hope not.

September means the return of my wife and an end to a lot of lonely hours puttering around the house and the shop with no one to talk to but the dogs. In 50 days she will be back home and that will be when I praise the fall.
 
#13 ·
woodduck31 said:
what I'm looking most forward to in the fall is the return of my wife who works in Alaska every summer for 5 months. She is on the management team at one of the lodges owned by Princess Cruise lines. For the past three years she has worked at the Mckinley princess wilderness lodge near talkeetna, Alaska. We've been married for 34 years and the last three have been the toughest yet. Some financial issues over the past 5 years have made it necessary for her to go back to work and a job in Alaska allows her to make more money in 5 months than working full time in Boise would afford in a year. We are hopeful that this will be her last year working up there. We both lived and worked in Alaska when we first got married in 1980 and we swore we would never go back, but there is still a chance I guess if they offer her year round full time, but I hope not.

September means the return of my wife and an end to a lot of lonely hours puttering around the house and the shop with no one to talk to but the dogs. In 50 days she will be back home and that will be when I praise the fall.
Wow! I guess so!

I left Alaska in 1980. Eight years there. Single. Had my own planes. Cubs.
Flew all over South Central Alaska. Kenai. Alaska Peninsula, Nome, Circle, Macarthy. Everywhere!
Ever heard of Libby Riddles? First woman to win the Iditarod Sled dog race.
We shared my cabin in Anchorage one summer and fall on weekends. Strictly platonic. She was nobody then. As big around as a Coke can.
Had I her energy, I'd be famous too!
But you know what? I like where I live now as well as anywhere I've ever lived. Good place to be!
 
#14 ·
Rain!
Ah yes! This is good rain, and lots more forecast for not only today, but even more than this for days to come!
Temperatures forecast for this rainy period are going to drop nearly 15*s. Mid seventies. Much lower than they were saying only a day ago!
I'm sure the farmers are hating it, as it comes just as the wheat harvest is ready.
The Elk hunters on the big desert hunt are catching a break with this. Easier to take care of a big animal in the cooler temps then the mid 90*s I've often seen in past August hunts.
All this rain is going to kick start the leaf change up at elevation, and even those trees here on the Snake river plain that change early anyway.

Very dark outside now, even though it's nearly 8:00 AM. This rain means I catch a break from my outside chores today, and back to the garage to finish up the last bits left to do on the decoys.

Expecting a shipment of G&H decoys to finally arrive.............I'm hoping!
 
#15 ·
Great posts guys! It's a glorious morning, rain finally. Driving to SLC for a Dr. appointment, and the misty clouds are hanging below the cliffs on Haystack, beautiful! Amazing how a cooler cloudy day with some humidity makes me feel better. Staining the deck yesterday in 97 degrees with the hot planks scorching my legs is now a distant memory. Even the sage looks better with a little rain. Now if only I were out traipsing through it instead of going to get CT scans. I think maybe I'll hit the river tomorrow, it's been a few days. All those posts about autumn and holiday meals are making me hungry. I'm not going so far as to plan the feasts yet, but I have been diving into the freezer to partake of last years bounty. Buddy loves the fried venison (sometimes with Cajun blackening) and those crispy fried Idaho potatoes in a cast iron skillet. I also dug out some of the tasty tuna we caught off Oregon last year. Very good sautéed in olive oil with garlic. Sometimes I blacken that as well, then we make tuna salad over toasted bagels with cheese! I'm seeing the wheat fields edging the ridge where I used to hunt mule deer as a kid. That brings back some memories. Especially the one where one of the biggest bucks I've seen stood just up the ridge 100 yards away in a blinding snowstorm, looking downhill at me trying to get the snow out of my scope for a shot. He drifted up through the sage and disappeared into the blizzard......
 
#16 ·
Mild, but soaking rains today.
Schnauzer's mad at me now. Put him out this morning for just five minutes just before the heaviest rain came! Went in to shave and didn't hear it.
Badly soaked dog. Now he's pouting.
Love this moisture. Lots of good soaking rain.
 
#19 ·
Red Letter day today!
Got out and about to visit farmers I've been trying to track down.
Result- More corn, more wheat, more water..........Lots!

One farmer's words "Lots of geese"

That's all good and well. But I'm not done yet.
 
#20 ·
Fsbirdhouse said:
Red Letter day today!
Got out and about to visit farmers I've been trying to track down.
Result- More corn, more wheat, more water..........Lots!

One farmer's words "Lots of geese"

That's all good and well. But I'm not done yet.
Outstanding. :thumbsup:

I'm going to be working 16 hour days in dispatch for the forseeable future, so hearing about what is going on out there in the real world is great. You guys up there have it great with the ability to get permisson to hunt. Here it takes an act of congress to do that. No-one lets you on their land for any reason. Hasn't always been that way, but with all the idiot ruining things now it has become a way of life. Bright side is there's lots of public opportunity here.

Keep it up fellas, until suck a time as things slow down all I'm going to see during my waking hours is the inside of a building.
 
#23 ·
looks like you guys in the east are getting hammered. I haven't seen a real rain in 23 years since we left Kansas. My dad is always telling me about getting 4 inches in a couple of hours and how water is 3 feet deep over the pasture below the house. I don't really miss those torrential rains and I certainly don't miss the tornados. I've been through several of those of course, the path of one small tornado went behind the house about 20 yards took much of the roof off of our 125 year old house, tore a path through our pecan orchard spinning the tops of about 80 trees and continued a path for 30 miles, all in farm land. Had my wife and two very young sons in the stairway or our stone basement. I really appreciate living in Idaho it is pretty sweet, I like the rains here although they are too far and few between. My wife and I both have recurring nightmares about being forced to move back to Kansas. I love it here and this time of year is certainly my favorite.
 
#25 ·
Just about done with my flocking job this year. Just a few small details here and there on a couple.
But for most part I'm finished!
Now I'm going to spend the fall hunting over these.
(Posted this picture in Duck decoy thread as well)
 
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