ok so the weekend trip started off ok , we get withing 10 miles of our canyon , and its like 11pm , suddenly there is a porcupine , and the silly thing is standing on a cattle guard , well at 50 mph it was hard to spot him and get stoped , but i did manage , but the truck was straddling him , i backed off , he was there , quils at attention , but he managed to get off the cattle guard after loosing ballence several times , ok cool i didnt kill it , we reach our middle of no where ranch road , go back in and make it around three miles back in , just enough to get passed the first three deep dried up creek beds , then i hear something , i didnt feel it just heard it , ok so whats up , get out and sure enough the front right wheel had busted off the rim in the creek bed we just climbed out of , oh great , well trish says lets just sleep here in the truck and fix it tomorrow , ok no prob , well in the morning i get up unload the atvs , unhook the trailer , go to get the spare from under the truck , where the heck is the crank handle to let the spare down , oh nooooooo its gone , craaaaappp!!!!!!!!! so im thinking and thinking , say screw it lets hunt ill worry bout it later , when we do come back around 4 pm , i start thinking about what i can use , ok the long fork i got at walmart to cook hot dogs , cut the end off of it , hammer it out flat and bend it over on the end , heyyyy it works , fit the crank , get the tire down , ok lemme jack the truck up now , whaaaat , oh hell no , the hydraulic jack wont raise up , it has been leaking fluid , no oil no anything to put in it , wait a min i have a brain storm , trish gimme some water , and anything u have like baby oil , she has none , she said what about lotion , what the heck give it to me , and ill be danged , it worked ,water and .lotion will operate a hydraulic jack . we didnt let that get us down , had a great weekend , the atvs didnt break down this time , did get porcupine quils in the tire though , found a few neat things , few knifes , one is really nice considering the area , couple broke points , and one decent one , a huge mano from right next to one of the huge fire pits , ill post pics tonight , so if you ever wanna have an adventure beyond just hunting , hook up with us , guarantee something stupid is gonna happen and keep things interesting lol

Your offer is appreciated but reading the story has got to be safer than actually being a part of it, from my armchair at least.

sounds like you have my type of luck. Sounds like it was an adventure anyways.

Jerry, back in the 80's when I was out west pumping wells, always had tire problems..mesquite thorns, rocks, but never got into any porcupine quills. Learned real fast to always carry tire plugs, portable air tank. Not sure if I want to come visit, seems like Murphy's Law is always working on you(haha). Might be out in your area this summer, got kin folk in Midland, hope to go vist my old hunting grounds.I'll have to get in shape to walk them cotton rows...later...

I would highly recomend 5-10 mph over cattleguards unless the digging is really that great

lol aaron , these cattle guards are very smooth , they are on the paved part of the highway , all open range where we go ,

and Rob the invitation will stay open , when you get down this way we need to hit those sand dunes around monahans also ,

and yes i know , i have a thing for picking up the pieces of pottery , keep all the broken points , and even seem to have an eye for finding crude ugly pieces lol

Jerry, you're not the only one who picks up everything, the wife's flower beds are full of worked pieces, guess in a couple thousand years they'll wonder what tribe all this stuff was from.

Be glad it wasn't a skunk. That's what I usually find driving down sendero's. Even straddling them they can still stink up a truck. I'd take a flat any day over 8 hours of skunk stench.

lmao Te funny you should mention that , here is my ride , wasnt but a couple of months ago i was coming out of san antonio , there was no way to keep from hitting that dang skunk . i had to sleep in there and smell it also , so i know where ur coming from

Don't have to sleep in mine, but truck size don't matter when a skunk is involved. I've nailed just about everything down here that crawls, runs, or flies. A puking buzzard thro the windshield and on the front seat is just about as bad as a grilled skunk. Nailed, I mean by accident, 'cept for a couple of deer. Had to get them before they jumped the fence. Still in the bar ditch when I got 'em.

Good report, Collectively neat stories from all...

Many pictures are worth thousands of words. . . .
Up until that last pic of the red wagon and crew, I had a mental immage of a Ford 150 with a tire problem !
My sympathies now lie with the poor porcupine !

Wonder if Leonard is going to chime in ? He has trained a pack of dogs to play with skunks every spring time !
[ Might be less active this year, one is on crutches ]

Guess nobody would be interested in my run in with a hedge hog while roller skating ~

When we first bought the land down in Sanderson we were stupid and drove off of the gravel road that was made throughout the ranch. Well, both front tires ended up flat, and how many spare tires does a car usually come with? Like I mentioned in the past our land is in the middle of nowhere and we were there putting deer feeders up before deer season. There usually isn't anybody around before deer season. Luckily the guy that owns land next to us was there and let us borrow his truck to get an extra tire. We had to drive all the way to Fort Stockton 65 miles away to get a tire. When we pulled up to the tire place the guy pointed to one of the back tires and said, "oh, you need to fix that flat there don't you?" we were stunned because the guys truck we were borrowing had a tire going flat. They put it to us on the price for the tire that we were getting for our vehicle. We got back and got out of the cactus infested area without getting another flat. We pulled up to the gate to go home and I heard a hissing sound. Another tire going low, but we were able to make it to town to get it patched. We've been there a hundred times since and haven't had anymore flats. Knock on wood. We've also had more roads put into our place and only use our 4 wheeler to go off road.

lol sorry Hal , no i do drive an f150 , the volvo was for te and talking about the skunk ordeal , but yea love muh f150
and dj i know the area and the cactus ur talkin about , i have slime in all the atv wheels , i thinks me needs ta put it in the truck tires also huh

Don't have much trouble with flats, 10 ply foam filled tires took care of that. Ran over too many deer sheds and mesquite thorns, so I fixed the problem. Next step is a half track. Only problem I've had while using my pickup to clear brush is getting barbed wire wrapped around the drive shaft..That'll put ya thro the windshield.
As far as skunks and buzzard, a swarm of dung beetles in the cab of a truck also makes an interesting senario. Those buggers can find some strange places to crawl while I'm driving.
Don't have porky pines here yet, but all the rest of the vermin seems to be crawling south.

Since we're talking creepy crawlies, don't know if any of ya'll have ever run across a vinegaroon. Used to see them all the time when I lived down in the Valley (RGV). Haven't seen any here in the brush country but checked on them on the internet and they range nearly all over Tx. Used to call them sun spiders. Also heard of them called whip scorpions.

Harmless little critters, nasty looking tho. Ones I used to see were about 2" long. These are the Tx. versions. Scare you about as bad as a scorp. to wake up in your sleeping bag with one of these.

hey Te , does that bug happen to have a stron vinager oder , we had some like that when we lived in artesia new mexico , they called am vinegarones , stink like all hell lol , and yea scare you to wake up with one in ur face ,

funny talking about critters , this weekends hunt was a mix of hunting and pleasure , went way back in the north end of the lake , the lake ranger told us where to find a camp back in there , did find a beautiful alibates scraper well worked , and one garza point , but i cant take pics , billie put the camera in the sack with the bottled water , and then she put that in the cooler straped on the atv , so it was kind of under water lol ,
anyway , we stoped on rattle snake hill , yup they were out , and now i keep havin this da n dream about a recliner chair someone gives me and there is a small rattle snake that keeps pokin its head out of a hole in the arm of the cair , i guess thats tellin me to keep my living room suit and not take on a chair anyone might offer lol

Yep, Jerry, that's them. Smells like vinegar. Type it into your google bar and you'll see that they're all over the US. Some are uglier then this one. Another bug we see that's kinda different is the red velvet mite. Don't see them till after a rain. Problem is, we haven't had any rain to speak of in nearly two years.
And our rattlebugs are starting to move again. Haven't seen any, but starting to see the drags.

Jerry, sure enjoyed reading all this on your posting. Having grown up in Odessa, Tx., it reminded me of many,many similar trips I made to look for caves and artifacts where similar things happened. The sand hills areas were always good places to look for artifacts, as the sands were always changing, and exposing new blow outs. Rock shelters in the sides of mesas were good also down around Crain & McCamey, Tx. Then I moved to Austin, and dug middens for 35 years, and now we have our own ranch at Camp Wood, Tx.,.....and still digging!

Giant Vinegarone or Grampus, Mastigoproctus giganteus.

Sounds like you have some MacGyver in you, great story

Mike i know the sand dunes well , esp the ones around maljamar , want to hunt the ones west of odessa , so if your ever back in the area let me know and perhaps we can get togather and hunt ,

redman , those are technical names for em , your talkin to a redneck here , we have names more like herpaghonasyphalaids lol

and janie im not sure if it was mcguyver or more this dreadful fear of oh God what am i gonna do way out here in the middle of no where lol , but i will admit i was raised having to work on everything my self ,so it does come in handy ,

Jerry, could you send me a couple of those porkypines? All the wild stories I'm gonna tell my grandkids once I have some, that would really be a good one. I've dodged japenese macaques (snow monkeys), nearly hit a buffalo on a FM road, been chased by emu's. And had a truck totaled by horses during a hail storm. They thought my truck was good protection from the hail. Everytime one got hit with a hailstone they'd kick. Bent every fender, door, tailgate on that truck. Try to explain that to an insurance adjuster.
There's already enough weird imported varmits around here, don't think anybody would notice a bristlepig or two.

lmao Te . you reminded me of something i saw a few years back . we were on our way to lubbock , getting on the loop , all the traffic was stopped , i got out in time to see a friend of mine , right up on the loop throw a rope around an emu's neck . that **** bird kicked his azz , by the time it was finished it had ripped his clothes off and he was bleeding and beat the heck up , i laughed at him for a year over that , asked him what he was doing , he said i saw it by the road and wanted it lmao ,

oh and i do get myself into alot of procarious situations , but if you think im gonna tangle wiff a porcupine , yea ok im some dumb not plumb dumb lol

Jerry, you're supposed to sneak up on it. That's what I do to catch skunks. When you sneak up behind them, they'll never see you coming. Then just throw a gunny sack over them. Gotta be real fast. Better yet, take a friend you don't like that much and let him do it.

now ur talkin , hmmm i wonder if i could talk my lil blonde into it lol . and by the way Te , i want a baby skunk real bad , but first i need to find someone to de bag it , and i heard you have to have a fur bearers lisence to have one

One of my old bosses (#10 or #11) wanted a bobcat kit. Was gonna pay me $100.00 for it. Found 2 of them in a culvert under a ranch road. Mama cat was about 100' away. Got down there to grab one, back of my head has never been the same since. Didn't think mama cat could move that fast. Never got the kit or the hundred dollars. Easier to catch stuff that ain't got claws. All them critters are cute when little. Even coons. Half grown pet coon in a bar is a sure way to get the crap beat out of you. Specially when the dang thing slapped somebody I didn't know. All I have now is a few scars, fond memories and a nice coon skin cap.

I though I had a little Mac Gyver in me one time turns out that is was a bad idea, my dad had a flat bottom boat, its one over the long sits 8 people kind of thing, anyway it was upside down (off the trailer) in the yard (my brother painted it and left it there) so my dad who has a bad back called me from work and said he would turn it over and load it up when he got home, bright idea I am going to do it! I go out there and 2 hr latter I get it turned over, Now this thing is heavy so I stand on the end of the trailer to hold it down and pick up the boat when I have the boat in the air over the trailer I jump back so the boat would bounce over the trailer and I did this for about 3 hr until I dropped it on my toe which I did not move fast out of the way and broke it in 2 places. But its for dad so what you going to do, I finally mange to pull it up on the trailer and then have to find a way to pull it across the yard to park it. Will I crab the neck and start pulling **** it was hard I would pull tell I fell on the ground and do it again about 100 yards. So I am done and dad gets him and I am ready for the pat on the back right…. Wrong I tell him the hole story in great detail with movements and everything and about the now black toe that looks at any moment it will fall off. He says with the look of tears in is eyes that I am thinking is the pride he has (turns out he trying not to bust out laughing in my face) Now Janie Sue why did you not use that come long on the front of the trailer!!!!!!
The Mac Gyver inside me died that day

Jerry, I use to hunt artifacts in the Monahans sand hills before it became a state park, and found good stuff, but of course its a no no now. Speaking of Maljamar,N.M., did you ever run across the abandoned Titan missle base out there? We used to stop there on caving trips to the Guadalupes and do rope practice by rapelling into the missle silo! Lots of good dune hunting there too! I haven't been back to Odessa in probably 20 years (don't miss the sand storms).

Janie Black Toe ! Thats a heck of a good story. Glad you lived through it, lessons that are hard learned are the best in the long run. You'll probably never again wrestle a boat again as long as you live !

Good job

u know we come from the Black Foot Tribe so that should explain it all.... I am always coming it with some thing. I dig r flint garden up the other day and screened all the dirt in the frount yard u shuld have seen it.. with the wiggle pick and all it was like my on little dig site and I found some point ill have to post the video on photo bucket.. we live on the main hwy so u know them people passing by thought I was crazy

ok janie welcome to my world , ok so ill admit one for you now , remember the one a month ago where all three atvs broke down , well mine was the last to go , so we ended up pushing them all close to two miles id say , up hill , down hill , around bushes , well before i admit this u need to realize id only had this one for a week , i hope that excuse works lol , anyway when billies broke down i turned the key off on mine and went over to work on hers , now i can pull a head , do a valve job , rings whatever , but the reason mine broke down was , well i turned the key back on , but ill be danged if i looked to see if the on off switch was on or not lmao , push that two miles lmao

hey mike , those sand dunes on the north side of I-10 are in the state park , the south side are open , four wheelers and rail buggies go all back in there , i have not hunted them , but i hear people find good stuff in there all the time ,

as far as a missle siloh i have never found it , heard about though , BBBBBBBBBBBBUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTT you could do one of two things ! you could take a lil trip and go with us back to the Guadalupies and take us cave hunting , or invite us down to one of your hunting grounds , Hey sounded like a plan to me lol.