We got back from an elongated road trip that including stops in Mexico, California, Utah and Nevada as well as Texas for Shane. Did some dove and duck hunting and a bit of ground squirrel shooting too just to keep the eyes sharp

The FNAWS show in Salt Lake City was interesting and well attended although I'd say sheep hunters were in the minority. The SCI show was as always awesome in both displays and attendance. Our donated trip there sold well and was quickly converted to a moose hunt for 2008.

We did sellout our 2007 fall season and got a good start on the 2008 season as well. We do have a SPRING GRIZZLY hunt available

While we were away the numbers for the new B.C. provincial Allocation Policy came down. This is the policy that divides our wildlife resource between residents and non-residents. For the most part it is a negotiated policy between the Guide Outfitters Assoc. of B.C. and the B.C. Wildlife Federation but a few of the more contentious points were settled by the gov't. Stone Sheep quotas were hit pretty hard in the northeast part of the province so expect to see some strong upward movement in the prices of Stone Sheep hunts. We survived pretty well intact on sheep but will probably see further cuts in our grizzly bear allocation

Just so you know that we don't spend all our time at shows, meeting and sitting at the desk here's a sample of how simple tasks can cause a lot of work

While we were away our friend Andrew was feeding our horses & bent a hydraulic cylinder on the tractor. It seemed like a simple thing to drive to the pasture (through some unplowed snow) and replace it. Got Shane's new truck stuck so carried the cylinder and pail of hydraulic oil a mile, fed the horses and then tried to get the pickup out with the tractor. I snapped the tow rope with the first tug which went back and broke the grill on the pickup. Then I got the tractor stuck. Hiked another mile up the hill (did I mention the snow was unplowed) where my wife Joan met us and drove me to get my pickup. I bought a set of chains and went down to pull out Shane's truck. Got my pickup stuck. So we then walked back up the hill (still unplowed) and hired a big loader at $90/hr. to plow the road and pull out 2 trucks and a tractor. Got one truck out and then got the loader stuck. Tried driving my pickup around the loader and got stuck again, so walked back up the now partly plowed hill. Next day we had to low bed over a small Cat to finish plowing the road, pull out the loader, 2 pickups and a tractor. And all this just to feed our horses one time

But the horses are fed now and looking about as fat as I am so I guess I better start hiking that hill some more

We hope to see some of you at the GOABC convention in Victoria March 28-30. It will be another fun time with some great hunts available on the auction.|||||