Kyle's weekend at the ranch

This is Kyle blogging at the request of my beautiful wife.

So my company decided to have a team-building weekend at a ranch. Despite some reservations (I don't drink or hunt), I decided I would go. Well, I am very glad I did - it was a fun weekend with experiences I never would have imagined. Here is a recap:

There were a few guns...

And a few animals...

Let's just say you would need to be blind and hunting with a nerf gun to not be able to take down something if you really wanted to. The ranch is more of a preserve - they bring in good genetic stock, breed them, then set them loose on the land (400 acres) where they are fed at regular intervals. Some animals are then 'hunted' to control the population. I will say that all of those guns were for target shooting rather than hunting. The only attempt at killing anything was done with a bow and the targets were some of the older doe which amazingly did not come close enough for a shot.

The really interesting experience came when the ranch owner came over and said we could go with him to take care of an overly-aggressive elk that was attacking the other animals. The plan was to tranquilize him (the elk not the owner) from a safe distance and then remove his antlers while he slept peacefully. (their antlers are shed naturally each year and grow back in a few months).

This is the bully:

Pretty big guy. The tranquilizer was delivered by rifle - slightly off-target but it seemed to do its job:

I say 'seemed to' do its job as shortly after I snapped this photo, the elk decided it didn't feel like napping and proceeded to try to kill us all. My view of the attempted mass-homicide was through a camera lens where I barely saw everyone scatter and a mass of brown flying toward me. I managed to guess correctly which way to turn and run and avoided being shredded - no one was seriously hurt although one person got stepped on by the raging elk. We gave the tranquilizer a few more minutes to set in and then I went in to get my photo done as I had missed the first chance.

After this shot, I stood up and got ready to help remove the antlers. I stood on the bottom rack and held down the top rack. About this time, the elk decided it was time to try to kill again and lifted its head off the ground. I happened to still be standing on the antlers which happened to still be attached to his head. It lifted me a few inches off the ground while I tried to figure out how to get the heck out of there without being disemboweled. Everyone thought it was quite funny watching me 'ride' the elk. The sheer power of this creature was amazing. After another quick shot of tranquilizer, we got back to business:

And this time managed to have success:

The elk woke up a few hours later with a much lighter head but otherwise unharmed. He did however have a less than friendly welcome by his former picked-upon brethren who saw their chance for revenge on the bully who could no longer bully:

That's him on the left being chased around by the others - including much smaller red stag. They never actually fought but he did have a tough time getting to the food that night.

We also built a fire pit at the cabin:

Now Janie wants me to build one at our house - we'll see...