I can’t believe we’ve lived here in Medicine Lake for one whole month already! (I also can’t believe we are at the end of October already!). I am in LOVE with our new house. It’s got a basement (I’ve never had a basement!), a huge master bath, new washer, dryer and dish washer, lots of big windows including big back bay window that the dogs love to look out of, and a really efficient geo-thermal central heater. Our front and back yard weren’t finished so there is just a sheet of hay woven into plastic mesh. We’re told we will get sod in the spring. The front of our house faces the lake and the back looks at a shelter belt of trees where we’ve seen pheasants, deer, and birds of prey taking refuge.When we got here the weather was beautiful. Warm in the 70’s during the day, down in the 40’s at night. But winter is quickly coming and we are expecting snow tomorrow!
The front of our house which faces the Lake.
The view from our front yard looking out over the Lake and the Refuge.
The view from our backyard looking at a small shelter-belt of trees.
Our master bathroom. I LOVE that tub!
Our first week was a bit boring. Drew worked for 1 day and then got furloughed. Our moving truck hadn’t arrived so we were sleeping on air mattresses and eating on paper plates. We couldn’t even drive around the refuge because it was closed!
Bogie didn’t mind the air mattress.
Finally at the end of our first week, our truck arrived! No more eating dinner on an ice chest. But more importantly, our hunting gear got here! One of the first things we did when we went into town was get our hunting licenses. There is so much variety in the game here! We weren’t eligible for a lot of the big game tags which sold out earlier in the year, but we did manage to buy 2 white-tailed doe deer tags which will fill our freezer nicely.
Montana hunting licenses.
Our second week was spent doing a little unpacking and a lot of hunting. The open seasons for this week were duck and grouse so that’s what we chased! Earlier in the week I drove to Williston, our closest “big city” (read: has a Walmart) to attend a job fair. On the way home I spotted a tiny little pond that was full of ducks in some land that was open to hunting. Since the refuge was closed, that was our first spot to try to duck hunt and it really paid off!
Our little honey hole.
That was the first time I successfully scouted a hunting spot so I was pretty happy about it 🙂 There were a lot of firsts this week:
Our first Montana hunt!
My first Gadwall.
My first teal (Green-winged).
Drew’s first Grouse (sharp-tailed)
Drew’s first Blue-winged Teal, in a mixed bag.
Drew’s first Canvasback
I’ve really had fun duck hunting these past few weeks. The ducks seem to come in waves and right now there aren’t many here. We are patiently waiting for the next group! They tell us it gets really good once the snow starts!
Beat Up Road Sign 