Dating Alaskan Style

Keith and my first date was not the typical first date. You see Our first date was to Bass Pro shop. Keith thought this was Great and Cheap! He thought since I was a girl that I would rather go shopping at a clothing store or some other "girlie" store. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE shopping at girlie stores and getting to try on new clothes but there is one store that I LOVE even MORE! BASS PRO SHOP. I could stay there for Hours and spend LOTS of money. And Keith walked right into that trap when he suggested we go to dinner and then go to Bass Pro Shop. After we were married I heard him comment to someone " I would save more money if I let Tabitha take my credit card to the mall then to ever let her take it to BASS PRO SHOP." Yes he learned his lesson! Our other dates involved dinner, movies, and other normal dates and Keith saved more money that way. =) hehehehe

If we lived somewhere else and Keith told me he was taking me on a date I might think ooooohhhhhh baby sitter, candle light dinner, romantic music, good food, shopping, Bass Pro Shop or something along those lines. In Galena, when my husband says "Love I got a babysitter so we can go out and have a date" this usually means we get to go out and hunt something. Sunday Keith, told me he got a babysitter so we could go out and shoot some Ptarmigan. Ptarmigan being a beautiful white bird that is very tasty. I was excited since this was my first time to go shoot some Ptarmigan. It was a beautiful sunny day and the temperatures were warm. We drove the snow machine out of town and had a nice drive. We found some birds and got 15. Little did I know the difficulty in getting 15 birds. You see they are WHITE and hide in the snow. When you shoot them, you have to memorize where they fall or you will loose them in the snow. Did I mention that there is about 4-5 feet of snow on the ground. Once you step off the snow machine you drop into the snow. I don't think I have ever had to work as hard as we did for our dinner. I must have burn a few calories climbing up the river bank. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that part of the story. We were driving along the river bank but the birds were up on the drop bank about 6 feet higher then the river, this made it where when we shot we had to climb up the drop bank with 4 feet of snow not helping. It was definitely a challenge, but we had a great time. I am glad to be able to say I provided dinner for us. And I am even more blessed with a hubby who doesn't mind cleaning the birds and not making me do it. What a great Alaskan Date!=)

Me with the 15 birds.
Notice how hard it is to see them in the snow behind me.
See if you can see all 15. It is quite hard to see them.