It seemed a little weird.

Holding a hunter safety class in our youth group meeting room.

Just not used to seeing so many adults in that place, I guess.

No lek surveys this morning. Too much rain, and a slick coating of snow. Probably not enough to deter the grouse from strutting, but it certainly would have torn up the roads to try to get out to count them. So the sisters and I slept in.

This evening, I and one of the wardens were the agenda for the hunter safety class, and we simplified life by using a new video to cover the section on gutting and cleaning your game. Fairly good video, even if the boys up front snickered every time the narrator said "rectum" or "penis". I even learned something new to try next time I have to gut something. But a couple of the "secret tricks" shown in the video might only work if you can drive right to your animal. Be pretty dumb ideas if you had to drag it a ways, first.

And the narrator made one major faux pas, as far as I was concerned. In the discussion afterwards, I was real pleased (but surprised) that one of the snickering kids also caught the mistake. He and I agree.

You never, ever cut by pulling the knife towards you. Always away.

Especially if you're fifty miles out in the country and an hour from any kind of medical help.

My own presentation went smoothly enough, since I just gave it twice at the Middle School a couple weeks back. Still a few old slides that won't drop in the tray, but the bosses made it clear there was no money for a laptop and screen projector. So I can't switch to PowerPoint for this kind of stuff, and continue to snap the warped slides down into the slot with my fingernail to get them to work.

Made the mistake of mentioning, in my section about overpopulation and habitat damage, how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone is successfully improving the aspen stands in that country.

First off, I think we're still strictly forbidden from even mentioning the "W" word, and second off, I had a fellow from that country in the audience who just had to rag on me about how the wolves are decimating the moose herds.

The fact that moose herds are in trouble all across this drought-stricken state, not just where there are wolves, was irrelevant to him.

Likewise the gentleman who came up afterwards, unwilling to accept our conclusion that a common lichen was responsible for all those elk deaths this past winter. He's certain it had to be intentional poisoning by some mysterious "rancher". Regardless of the experiments with lichen, or the failure to find any trace of any commercial poisons in any of the elk.

I find it interesting, but frustrating, how some folks will never let a few facts get in the way of their own agendas.

On a more pleasant note, a woman came up and introduced herself at the beginning of the class. Seems she and her husband had been receiving my letters and tooth envelopes for years, and she was glad to finally meet, and thank me for them.

Cool.

And being from a ranching family, she knew the answers to most of the questions throughout my presentation. Her, and a little gal sitting in back with her Mom.