Friend's Adventures, Urban and Rural

Patrick Porter's survival kit for Sandy, in Natick, MA:

Cole Brooks, Malcolm's* son, takes his first elk in Montana:

"... kid drew a lottery cow elk tag for this week. Second day out at 3 in the afternoon we hiked up the side of a ridge where we'd spotted cows the evening before. I walked around a stand of trees and right into several dozen animals--maybe 50 total?--squinting into the sun behind my back. I hustled Cole into position, and with a downed tree as a rest he knocked this one down with my BRNO 7x57. 215 yards, and thank God for all that shooting practice the last six years. We spent all yesterday quartering and packing her out (including head and hide), about a mile to the truck, in wet, muddy, miserable weather...but we've got meat! Like I said to Cole at the end of it, we earned these ingredients..."

Strange to think I have lived in both environments...

* Malcolm has a book coming soon-- watch for it in this space and others...