The Phesant and the Mail Lady

I was thinking of when I was younger and how important pheasant hunting was to us.  Now you have to understand it was a community event.  I remember the sports stores having longest tail feather contest.  Heck even in school we had the longest tail feather contest.  If you had the longest tail feather you got your picture taken with the tail feather and your gun.

 I think the thing that made it the best for me is hunting with my Dad.  Now my Dad had the best dogs in the whole Uintah Basin.  They could find a bird no matter what the weather or terrain. 

We would get up early opening day and get the chores done so we could start hunting at sun up.  Usually our uncles and cousins would meet us at our house.  We would start right at the house walking the ditch banks going down one then move over and up the next one. 

The most coveted hunting spot was the gulch it was full of willows and sage brush the only good way to hunt it was with dogs.  We would start at the top end right by the road and hunt down to highway 40.

I remember one year we were just starting to hunt the gulch.  It was Dad, Uncle David, Tavis, Steven and I.  We were just getting started Uncle David and Tavis was on the South side Dad, Steven and I were on the North side.  The pheasants were running really badly that day making it difficult to hunt.  We started down the gulch the dogs Brownie and Buster were working hard.  Dad said watch close they have a sent.  We were watching them closely it looked like the pheasant was running it ran up the gulch then flew.  It was a rooster.  We all pulled up to shoot but the road was right there and the mail lady.  I think the pheasant almost flew right into her open window.

I am not sure what scared her more the pheasant or five shot guns pointed at her.  She laid over in her seat but did not wreck.  After she realized she was okay she sat back up and waived.  We all looked at each other with an embarrassing look and waived back.  Dad said come on were burning day light.  We hunted the rest of the day.

It’s kind of funny now looking back on it.  I bet she thought she was a goner.