Bullwinkle

Here's the moose I did for our doctor.

And another Crocodile

Here are a few of the many animals I've completed recently.
Bushbuck and Nyala

Stone Sheep

Crocodile

North American Sheep

Last week I mounted all four species of North American Sheep, the Dall, Stone, Rocky Mtn Bighorn and Desert/California Bighorn. Here are the pictures of the Dall and Stone Sheep, the others have not had the finishing work done yet.

There's more antlers laying out there...

Well, I got up at 3 am Saturday morning and headed up to the valley for one more trip. It was a beautiful day and I started hiking about 6:30 am. As soon as I got to the first clearing it happened. No, not an antler, but billions of mosquitos! I was swarmed and had no repellant. I did not retreat though. I had just forced myself to get up early and drive 3 1/2 hrs to get here and I was not leaving. So I endured the attack but had to put my t-shirt sleeve over my head, my hat on and my sweater with the hood on and constantly wave my map to keep the mosquitos off my face. Talk about determination! It got up to around 70 degrees and with little or no wind the mosquitos and heat were my constant companion. I hiked over three ridges to my planned destination and managed to find 3 brown elk horns along the way. I had hoped to look for sheds longer, but the heat and mosquitos kept getting worse through the day so I had to head back even though I had plenty of time to look. On the hike back I took a different path so I wouldn't cover the same ground twice, but instead of an easier hike I ended up going through lots of downfalls in the timber. Despite my pants being ripped up by the trees, I made it out in one piece and I managed to find two more sheds, a big older elk horn (that the chizzlers also found) and the remains of a moose shed. I made it back to car around 2:30pm and got everything into the car as fast as possible so the mosquitos couldn't get in. And even after I was in the car and driving they were still swarming all around the outside of my car. Although this was a very physically challenging hike it was the most mentally challenging hike ever because of the mosquitos. I also found 5 ticks on me while hiking but that didn't bother me like the mosquitos. All I can say is that I'm glad I was able to find some antlers, but there are plently still on the ground and I hate leaving horns behind. Next year I will have to plan my trips before the mosquitos hatch.






Here's what I looked like:

Utah Taxidermy Competition

I got a second place in the professional division with an elk. This was my first time ever competing and I enjoyed seeing other taxidermists work and meeting them.
At Cabelas:

At Kerri's uncles house (although it is Kerri's grandfathers elk from 2007).

A good day for elk sheds

This past weekend I was able to go to the valley again. Here's a few photos from the hike.

First Trip to the Valley

Jeramy and I hiked for six hours the other day and had not found single shed. It was a beautiful day, everywhere smelled like elk and we had already watched three smaller bulls still packing antlers. Finally Jeramy found a fresh six-point elk shed. What a thrill and relief! We weren't skunked! We countined looking around a starting finding shed all over this little hillside. Within an hour Jeramy had found 7 sheds, but unfortunately had to head home. I stayed a little longer and by the end of the day had found 9 sheds. It was a brutally long hike out, but worth every step.






A cool droptine elk shed.








A really old deer shed

David, Sarah, and Zach came out to visit us, so I had the great idea of taking everyone for a hike to find antlers. Everyone did great, and they all made it to the top of the mountain, but we needed to go down a canyon to where we would find the sheds. Well, it was pretty cold and Sarah, Zach, Kerri and the girls were freezing and tired. So they decided to go back to the car and head to Jackson for the rest of the day while David and I went to look for antlers. David and I found a few antlers including a year old elk set and a fresh moose paddle. Later we watched a herd of elk feeding in a meadow. It turned out to be a nice day and everyone had fun.