COLUMNS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
A7
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
Finding the right elk hunting buddies
G
ood friends, I must admit
that I am pessimistic when
it comes to Oregon public
lands hunting. I will be the first to
admit that I am not the best, most
dedicated hunter to have roamed
the wild woods of Eastern Oregon.
For me it is hard to keep motivated
when, during a long-awaited draw
hunt, one has a better chance of
seeing more hunters than animals
actually being hunted.
To this end, I have decided to
focus on meat and damage hunts
locally to help soften the damage
done by winter herds to our local
ranchers and farmers. One such
friend and rancher has been “unfor-
tunate” enough to have need of a
few people each year to “scatter
the herd” to encourage the local elk
to move away from the lower ag
lands.
This past season was my first to
only apply for point savers on most
game species. Deer, elk and ante-
lope preference points can be saved
up to focus on applications in bet-
ter-producing public land units one
might wish to hunt in the future.
Therefore my family and I
decided to only hunt damage
tags this season for elk. Elk are
not small critters, and having one
dead on the ground is only the
very beginning of the work that is
entailed in securing the meat for
the freezer.
Now to the point
of this rambling:
picking the right
hunting partner. This
has to be a person or
people that are will-
ing to share in all the
Marc
joys and hardships
LeQuieu
hunters face out in
the wild in pursuit
of game. I have, like many of you,
spent most of my life hunting with
family predominately, but as I age
along with my traditional fam-
ily hunting partners, I find that our
party size is dwindling fast due to
age, availability and health. Not
that my abilities are remotely what
they were 10 years ago, but find-
ing people to share in the “expe-
rience” of hunting is one of the
most critical choices hunters must
make.
It is not easy to find a per-
son or group of people that hunt
in the same style, or same pace
that you do. It may be that some
hunting parties focus on traveling
open forest roads looking for fresh
tracks, or some people like to back
country hunt where they carry
every necessity with them on
their backs, or even on horses and
mules. No matter how you choose
to spend your time in the woods,
finding someone with the same or
similar hunting styles can make
party hunting more pleasant and
Contributed photo
Columnist Marc LeQuieu and Don Speakman pose after a successful elk hunt Nov. 29.
relaxing for everyone involved.
There are few things as frustrating
as trying to integrate into, or inte-
grate someone else into, a group
of people who have hunted a cer-
tain way for years, only to be sad-
dled with a member of the party
that simply has done things differ-
ently when in the woods.
I was fortunate to find men and
families through working connec-
tions that started as professional
associations. These relationships
morphed into friendships that
eventually developed to be trusted
enough to share the hunting expe-
rience over time. You see, hunting
is a very personal activity, and it is
emotional as well.
Hunting partners need to share
the same value for the game and
value for the time spent together
in camps and woods living as part
of the natural world. Giving new
people the opportunity to share
these experiences takes a bit of
faith and some trial and error, but
the rewards are lifelong.
What are your experiences, tri-
als and errors in your search for
new people to share our outdoor
heritage with? Write to us at shoo-
tingthebreezebme@gmail.com!
Marc LeQuieu is a former
wildland firefighter and African
hunter turned gunsmith.
GUEST COLUMN
Dutch oven dumplings and dilemmas
I
tom of
the starter
dropped out
and scat-
tered hot
coals over
the cook-
Jean Ann
ing area. We
Moultrie
bumbled
through the
rest of the evening and man-
aged to produce edible, if
not on time, food.
Later a son invited me to
join his family for a camping
trip in the mountains.
“Let’s try camp Dutch
oven,” he suggested.
I brought pots and a
metal cooking table. My
son ventured into berry pie,
and I stirred up a stew. In
my quest for cast iron, I’d
unearthed a cast iron waf-
fle maker. Trying out the
gadget, I turned out nicely
toasted waffles. My son
aimed his camera to capture
my culinary triumph.
I tilted the plate for-
ward for a better view,
which resulted in the waf-
fles sliding off into the for-
est floor duff. The increased
activity of ants indicated
they’d given me a 10 for
presentation.
Months later my son
called and invited me to fly
out to his home for a visit.
“Mom,” my son said, “I
entered us in a camp Dutch
oven cook-off contest.”
“YOU MUST BE
OUT OF YOUR MIND!”
I calmly said. “I’ve used
camp Dutch ovens twice,
and you’ve baked with
them once. Besides, I can’t
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fly with cast iron pots and
a cooking table that weigh
as much as much as a small
Volkswagen.”
“I’ll get the supplies,” he
said.
When I arrived at my
son’s home, he tipped up a
flat sheet of metal the size
used in road construction
for vehicles to navigate over
holes.
“Don’t look,” he said.
I thought he meant at the
futility of the project. He
meant don’t look at the arc
welder flame as he welded
pipe legs to the metal to
construct a table strong
enough to hold the cast iron
pots.
We practiced fixing our
dishes that afternoon. I
worked on a pork loin fileted
out to a flat slab, then stuffed
with butter-browned apple
slices and chopped and
toasted hazelnuts. I rolled up
the pork, tied and browned
it and baked it in the camp
Dutch oven. My son per-
fected a blueberry cobbler.
Admittedly, we didn’t fin-
ish until well after dark,
the area illuminated by the
light of floodlights my son
rigged up. Afterwards, my
son soaked the smoldering
briquettes so no spark could
ignite the deck.
The next day at the com-
petition sign-in, the coordi-
nator announced eight teams
would compete. The other
contestants donned their
matching aprons and oven
mitts and hung vinyl team
signs and banners.
My son pulled out our
matching outfits we’d got-
ten “on sale.” The aprons
sported chrome-yellow,
suede leather — welders’
aprons enhanced with red
leather welders’ gloves. I
pulled mine on and felt like
a farrier on his way to shoe
a horse.
A team next to us went to
work on paella with enough
seafood that would sink
our budget. Another team
backed up a trailer to their
site and set up a four-sided
kitchen complete with sink!
The husband mentioned
they catered reunions and
wedding receptions as he
unwrapped a trophy-sized
salmon.
My son and I unloaded
supplies from brown grocery
sacks, cardboard boxes and a
cooler. I spread our 99-cent,
red-and-white plastic table-
cloth across a picnic table
and unpacked my journal
notebook and pen I carry for
entries written “on site.” My
son hung our butcher paper
team sign decorated with
crayon flowers courtesy of
grandchildren.
We muscled the metal
table into place and tried to
start the briquettes. I burned
all the newspaper and still
couldn’t get the briquettes
to glow. Perhaps the bag
got damp from the previ-
ous night’s fire prevention.
We turned to burning strips
of brown paper bags and
chunks of cardboard and still
fell short.
“What’s Grandma
doing?” a granddaughter
asked.
“She’s ripping pages out
of her journal to keep the
flame going.”
Judges armed with clip-
boards and meat thermom-
eters in pocket protectors
circled our cook site like
wolves circling a wagon
train. Lacking an official “lid
lifter,” I hefted a hot lid with
the claw end of a claw foot
hammer.
The announcer notified
teams that, at the end of the
cooking time, contestants
were to bring their entries to
the judging table in sched-
uled five minute increments.
A five minute window? I’m
pleased to have food finished
the same day I start.
Thanks to my jour-
nal, we ignited briquettes
and I cranked up the heat
on my stuffed pork roast
high enough we could weld
should the need arrive.
With seconds to spare, we
turned in apple and hazelnut
crusted pork roast reclining
on a bed of kale and a bub-
bling blueberry cobbler.
While we waited for the
judging, a crowd gathered.
Our family goal — not come
in last place.
We didn’t place last!
Then, seventh place
announced — and it wasn’t
us. Then the hope — we
might win! Top prizes con-
sisted of camping equipment
and gift certificates.
“Placing number six,”
said the announcer, “the
Moultrie team.”
That’s what happens. We
fervently wished not to be
last, we become greedy and
then experienced the crush
of disappointment at sixth
place. We claimed our prize
— water bottles with gas sta-
tion logos.
Ultimately, we were
beaten out by seafood paella
with the grand prize going
to cedar-planked smoked
salmon garnished with
asparagus tips, and a mile-
high chocolate cake.
My son and I resolved
never to enter another cook-
ing competition. We kept the
resolve.
The rest of the fam-
ily clamored for a camp
Dutch oven dish at a family
reunion.
“This potato soup is deli-
cious!” a daughter said at the
end of the reunion meal.
I whispered to my son,
“Let’s not tell them we
intended to cook scalloped
potatoes.”
The author is a freelance
writer in Grant County.
2019 TIMBER
TRUCKER
PARADE
MERCHANTS
1809 First Street • Baker City • (541)523-5439
S161110-1
first met “Ol’ Dutch” at a
cooking event in a park.
“Here he is,” said the
camp cook. He hefted a cast
iron pot with three stubby
legs and a lid with a rim.
“My camp Dutch oven can
fix anything you can bake in
an oven.”
The cook served up sam-
ples of chicken and dump-
lings and a cherry pie.
“Don’t mix up a camp
Dutch oven,” he added,
“with a stove Dutch oven
with no legs and a rounded
lid. They’re suited for
kitchen cooking.”
The camp Dutch oven
club provided a demon-
stration to the public. Club
members offered food tast-
ing and invited the public
to join them for their next
cook-out.
I signed up and per-
suaded a niece to join me.
The pros had pots with
smooth, clean interiors they
wiped out after cooking.
I scavenged up a couple
rusted pots. First, scrubbed
with suds, rinsed and dried.
I read that to obtain the non-
stick properties, I needed to
“season” them which con-
sisted of oiling the Dutch
ovens and heating them in
a hot oven. Smoke poured
from the house and drove
mosquitoes from the neigh-
borhood. Not that hot of an
oven.
At the next club cook-
ing event, my niece and
I unloaded supplies from
brown grocery bags, card-
board boxes and a cooler.
We chose to cook stir-fried
chicken with fresh vegeta-
bles spooned over Jasmine
rice and topped off with a
dessert concocted from a
cake mix and a can of 7-UP.
Club members unloaded
wooden camp boxes from
trailers and pulled out more
cooking accessories than I
had in my kitchen. I poured
briquettes into the top of
my metal charcoal chim-
ney starter, and crumbled
newspaper into the bottom.
The starter directions read,
“Light the newspaper and
zap — hot coals in about 15
minutes.”
I lit the newspaper and
zap — hot coals in 15 min-
utes, at which time the bot-
S145885-1
Stylish 10 - Stephanie Parsons
Bank of Eastern Oregon
Gardner Enterprises
O’Rorke Ranches
Whiskey Gulch Gang
Malheur Lumber Co
City of John Day
Bar WB
Old West Federal Credit Union
Oregon Telephone Corp
Iron Triangle Logging
Blue Mt Hospital
Hutch’s Printing
Radio Shack
Len’s Drug
John Day Video Shoppe
Blue Mt Chiropractic
Murray’s Furniture of Hood River
Snaffle Bit Dinner House
Timber’s Bistro
State Farm Insurance
Les Schwab Tire Center
Ed Staub & Sons
Chester’s Thriftway
JD Rents & Power Equip
Grayback Forestry
Ted and Mary Ferrioli
Brett Morris Forestry
H & R Block
John Day Elks Lodge 1824
Melissa Pettyjohn at Polished
1188 Brewing Co.
Tidewater Contractors
Land Title Company
John Day Auto Parts
Front and Center Salon
Dairy Queen & Benny Santos
Russell’s Custom Meats
mas
k Christ
boo
A Story
Parade Announcer
Mark Bagett
Dinner MC
Kelly Workman
Thank you to our awesome Timber Truckers Committee. Without all of you, this Parade would not be possible! Thank you
Leslie Traylor, Brenda Mosier, Chantal DesJardin, Savannah Stout, Dan Bishop, Lucinda Harper and Emma Winkleman. Love, Tasha
Greg & Melody Jackson
Grant Western Lumber
Mary Ellen Brooks Ranch
RJ Post & Pole
Pioneer Feed
Jerome Natural Resources
Doug’s Repair
Gibco Ag & Industrial
L & L Excavating
Huffman’s Market
Grant County Chamber of
Commerce
Wild Horse Casino & Resort
Frontier Equipment
KJDY
Nydam’s Ace Hardware
Roan Coffee
A Flower Shop ‘N More
Oregon Trail Electric
Blue Mt Eagle
Chuck’s Little Diner
D.R. Johnson Family
Velvet Touch Car Wash
Mill’s Bldg Supply
Hair It Is Salon
Kathy Bishop
Town of Canyon City
Eastern Oregon Realty
Rude Logging
Andy’s Plumbing & Sports
Better Blooms & Garden
Solutions CPA’s
Michael B. Desjardin Dentistry
Grant Co. Fair Queen Court
Berry Creek Ranch
Ty’s Mobile Welding & Repair
Tanni Wenger Photography
The Ugly Truth
John Day Golf Club
The People Mover
1st Choice Auto Body
Java Jungle
John Day River Vet
Outpost Restaurant
S159604-1