High Desert Flier: August 30, 2020

Sunday, August 30, 2020

August 30, 2020

It has been a hectic August. First, I signed up to be an enumerator for the census. That should have began in early summer, but due to Covid did not start until Aug 4th. Then around the second of August my plane electrical system went bat #$&^* crazy while Connie and I were over some of the most unforgiving terrain in this area. I decided to ignore the many warnings that my engine information system was telling me, and fly it till we either got home or it froze up from the raging temps that the warning system was telling me was happening.

It all began when I switched fuel tanks and the switch that allowed me to read the levels in the tanks. Needless to say, we survived, and with the help of a friend and fellow pilot we traced down all the weird and seemingly insignificant little issues that were the "final straw" for my information system.

I have had two flights since, and things seem to be working well enough that I will at least be able to do some flights during our upcoming fly-in.

https://vimeo.com/452694666 password owyheeflyer (Wildcat fire)

https://vimeo.com/452953545 (Down the River with Roger)

Roger came over this last Sunday and we have been hustling ever since, also accomplishing great things, for me at least.

Antelope season began last Saturday, and I had drawn a tag finally after 17 years of trying. I stopped working for the census, temporarily while hunting season and fly-in's are going on. Will try to continue after every thing settles down.

Saturday Connie and I trundled off to a waterhole that I know of, and settled down to wait for a victim. After 6 hours in 91 degree sunshine, I decided that we both needed some shade. Of course we spooked the Antelope that had almost arrived at our location.

I decided to check out some of the other water holes that I knew about, and show Connie some of the High Desert that she hadn't seen. I was using my truck and I had loaded the quad in the back and had a "cargo carrier" plugged into the trailer hitch. My normal stinger has a pin with a lock on it,(so that it doesn't walk away) I used a tractor snap clip to hold the pin in. One of the roads that we were forced to travel was under some kind of construction and they were hauling 3 inch rocks , apparently for a base, with these super large dump trucks, and the washboard surface was murder.

I managed to get confused enough that we took the wrong road, and missed the original purpose of our drive. It was getting a bit late, so I decided to use my GPS and just go home. 18 miles of really bad road later, I had to open a gate. I found that my cargo carrier and ice chest was no longer with us. Sigh! 30 miles of back track and it was sitting in the middle of the road, no worst for wear. At that point I remember which road I wanted and we began our trip back home.

I had just got through telling Connie that she could relax as I had never seen Antelope on this section of dirt road, when I saw an Antelope Buck that was sleeping a couple of hundred yards off the road. He really didn't have much for horns, and apparently he thought that no one wanted him since he was a lot less than trophy material, so he continued to lie in his bed to watch us. Unfortunately for him, I am not a horn hunter, but I am highly motivated to eat wild game. I have to say that he is just about the tastiest critter I have ever had the pleasure to eat. At least one day and half processing Antelope.

Roger and I went to the river to see if we could catch enough fish for a "Fish Fry" during the fly-in. We ended up with about 5 lbs of filet's, and while that was nice, we have since decided that we just might have to go to another spot to see if we could get a few more to make sure that we have enough. Yeah, I know, it's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

We have also been pulling some of the much too plentiful "Tumbleweeds" on the tie down's, and while doing that I ran across this little guy. I was surprised at the colors on him.