Saturday, 16 September 2006

• Well, I had a great post written about nutria hunting.  Then I lost it.
  
  Okay, so for all you non-Oregonians, this is a nutria.
  
  
  
  They're originally from South America and are a major pain around here.
  
  Wednesday night Justin, Travis and I went nutria hunting.
  
  We tromped through miles of cow-pie infested creek banks, and saw nothing save one nutria.  I shot at him, but missed.  It was a bit of a long shot for being in the dark with nothing but a spotlight and a flashlight duct taped to the barrel of a shotgun.
  
  So we went over to a small pond we knew of that gathered where a drainage ditch ran under Harris Drive.  Got there, saw one, Travis got three shots off with his 22, but missed.  It disappeared.
  
  So we left and trudged along more endless miles of cow-pie-infested creek.  Where the cows were, I don't know.
  
  We mighty hunters then came back  to the pond, parking our pickup a couple hundred feet away and trying to sneak up on it.  I was carrying the spotlight, we got there and I shone it down on the water.  Justin and Travis immediately started blasting away at this **** nutria, getting off at least 6 rounds before it disappeared, still very much alive.  So we trudged up and down this ditch, on both sides of the road.  Nothing. 
  
  So we gather back by the pond, when Justin the Mighty Hunter sees it.  He drills it with his shotgun from about 4 feet, and the nutria promptly sinks into the muddy depths of the pond.  This was a big disappointment for Travis; he was leaving to go back to Tacoma in a few days, and he was wanting to see a nutria close up.  Why, I don't know.
  
  So we reach into the pond with boards, trying to find it.  Nothing.  We could kind of feel it down there, but couldn't pull it out.
  
  So Travis the Brave-and-Mighty Hunter takes off his pants and wades in, still trying to fish it out with a board.  And still not having any success.  Thankfully, Harris Drive doesn't have a lot of traffic.
  
  And so I, the Incredibly-Brave-but-also-Incredibly-Stupid Hunter, took off my pants and waded in.  I felt around with my feet until I got something furry, reached down and fished it out by its ears.
  
  I'm glad I got that nutria by the head.  With a round from a shotgun in his back from 4 feet away, that nutria displayed more guts than I ever will.  Really cool if you ask me...mid-September, around midnight, weather is quite nippy, wading into a drainage ditch to haul out a nutria with a hole the size of a cheeseburger in his butt.  Wow.
  
  I found this at nutria.com: Heart Healthy 'Crock-Pot' Nutria.
  
  Ya mon
  

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