Our new smoker!

Clint is such a handy guy!!!

Our old smoker was huge and not very efficient. It worked fine when we lived in Oregon, but once we moved to Montana it was hard to get it hot enough when we smoked stuff during the winter. So, after smoking the meat outside, we would have to bring it inside and bake it to ensure it reached the right internal temperature! Though the old one worked, it was inconvenient and kind of a pain in the butt!

So, Clint took iniative and built us an awesome new smoker!

Below are some pictures of it with the very first batch of jerky! The smoker worked beautifully and the jerky was absolutely delicious!!!

Fishing with the Dilley family!

We met some friends out at Wadsworth today and had a great time. They brought their two awesome kids, the weather was phenomenal, and the fish were biting so we couldn't ask for anything better.

Clint's helping the kids take a fish off the hook!

Shalin and Chaz proudly holding up their catch!

Bones also decided since there were no birds to retrieve, fish were the next best thing!!! He would carry them from the tip-up back to the sled. He got so excited about it and even though the perch were alive he seemed not to be bothered by the spines and would deliver the fish still flopping!

Here's Otis with a nice perch!

Otis and Kim were nice enough to bring a little bar-b-que and they grilled burgers and hot dogs for us on the ice! It was a great treat compared to the cold sandwiches we usually pack! As you can see we had quite the spread with the chairs, sleds, cooler and bar-b-que!

Lake Francis Fishing Derby

Yesterday was the annual fishing derby at Lake Francis. It started out as an awesome day, a little chilly but a great day to be on the ice. At about 1100 the wind picked up and that took a little of the fun out of it! We had arrived nice and early so we had already caught a fair amount of perch and several small Northern. None of the Northern (Pike) were big enough to keep, but some of the perch were nice sized. When we left our biggest perch weighed .64 lbs and the biggest one that had been caught during the derby was 1.3 lbs. That is a HUGE perch! Needless to say, we didn't win the derby!!!

We were lucky enough to have a couple that we know from Conrad join us midmorning. (Cal and Sandy) The perch were still biting so they were able to catch some and I think they had a good time. I know we enjoyed getting to see them!

These first two pictures show all the people. Many of them have ice houses that they set up and leave out on the ice for the entire season. Even though the ice was thick we don't ever drive out on it, but many of these people have no qualms at all about driving all over. (Crazy if you ask me)

Here is Clint with one of the nice perch we caught on a tip-up.

This is me and Clint with several of the nicer perch we caught. They don't really look that big in the picture, but I promise that they are decent sized for perch!

Here are Cal and Sandy with some of the perch as well!

Snow on the property

This was from a couple days ago, but as you can see we had some good snow. This is one of the best winters we have had for a while and the mountains are getting a great snowpack to get us through the summer!

Clint and Bones are putting together the baby jogger that we got from Bill and Sheri! It looks great and we can't wait to use it with Dane!

Caught a few perch!

We ventured out to Wadsworth this morning and caught some perch. Some of them were smaller than what we have caught out there in the past, but they were biting good. We also caught our first walleye out there... But it was so little we had to let it go!!!

Clint caught the biggest perch of the day!

I only could catch little ones... But, it was a great day to get out. As you can see it was sunny, but as usual the wind was blowing so that made it cold.