top) philip with squirrel

bottom) justin with prairie chicken

here is our new friend, the bear.  we (philip, river, justin, clifford and i) were moose hunting on shore, and i guess we spooked him. at first we thought he was a moose, but either way he took to the water, and we followed in our boats. pretty great. i had never seen a black bear swimming. 
at this point i am literally two feet away from him, but driving a boat and focusing the camera was a challenge. he was pretty calm about the whole thing.
philip and clifford almost hit it.philip apologized.
he made it safely to the other side of the river.

above) i took a picture of the blue runway markers, because i liked the way the blue runway markers looked

top) magnum with my birds, but i will admit he does look better. so g.

bottom) me with some birds i got out on the islands. i roasted these with bacon, carrots, mushrooms, turnips, stuffed with onion and garlic.  these birds are super tasty, they have a fresh/spruce-like flavor.  when you are cleaning them there is a little pouch on top of their breasts that holds a bunch of whole spruce needles.  people tell me they used to dry that spruce pouch out and make rattles.  

top) outside/out front of my house: the back of the school and computer lab. this must have been morning, but can't remember which day.

middle) god's lake.

bottom) god's river.

top) my first prairie chicken in fish lake.

middle) we stopped on shore to make tea and i shot three more. they are hard to see in this pic, but they are there.  to me, it looks like i have joined a northern chapter of the taliban here.

bottom) wayne with his one of the day that he got with his shot gun while taking a leak.  notice how it's leg is blown to bits.  note to self don't use a shot gun for prairie chicken. 

top) god's river from the river.

middle) the lodge's "free to use" cabin on fish lake, and award for best use of a hudson bay blanket.

bottom) cabins at 20 mile.