Tales of the Hunt: The Abandoned Wife

Bevan left on Friday with his "masculine" relatives on the infamous deer hunt. Their tags were for south-east Utah (Huntington Canyon / Fairview area). I opted not to go at the last minute because I still had to work. Last year they were up Wolf Creek Pass (very close to the cabin) so I could've easily stayed the weekend, but Emery and Sanpete Counties were just too far. Bevan's last day on the saw crew at Deer Valley was on Thursday, right in the nick of time. He's been gone now for several days and I don't know when he'll be back. The hunt in general ends Wednesday, so that's some sort of deadline. I really don't know what to do with myself. So, this weekend I went to my parents house and hung out with my brother Paul. We went to the BYU game in the snow on Saturday and had a blast.
I hurried back to the cabin Sunday morning in time for church, only to find out it was stake conference. Tom, Kim, and the kids aren't back yet either, so I've had to entertain myself alone at the cabin, grateful that I did not spend the entire weekend here. I walked the loop this afternoon, scoping the hunting situation. I was kind of disappointed. No echoing gun shots, no big game strapped on 4-wheelers, no groups of orange vests camping out. I saw 2 jeeps (a little ways away from each other) with men inside just sitting. Just sitting? Do they wait for the deer to come to them? Sure they were overlooking the wilderness up by the Doctor's cabin, but is that the essence of deer hunting? I also wanted to tell them that I just saw several bucks on the hillside behind the cabin, right in the middle of all that private property. The deer aren't stupid. The back country is the LAST place they want to hang out this weekend. The deer are all roaming around the neighborhoods instead.

Exciting News!

This is the moment I've been waiting for for the last 6 months, and it has been confirmed today...

no I'm not pregnant.

I passed the first half of my L.A.R.E. (landscape architectural registration exam). The picture is us celebrating at the Spring Chicken Inn Cafe in Wanship. It took 4 hours to get through to the scores because the website was bombarded with young bucks anxious for their scores as well. They should just send you an email with your scores on it, but instead they send you an email saying how to get them instead and print them out yourself. It was nuts. Anyway, now all that is left to do is to study for the next (and harder) portion in December. This is when they give you several sheets of paper and tell you to design something. Basically to test you knowledge of "accessibility" meaning ramps, handrails, retard parking, sidewalk widths (so two people in wheelchairs can pass eachother with ease), how big letters have to be on signs, etc. etc. etc. Sad thing is that they don't make you do any planting design, which is the fun part. We'll see how good my crammin' skills are. Won't find out about being a "legit" landscape architect until sometime in February. We should have some awesome snow this winter for skiing... because I'll be stuck inside all winter studying. Blah.