Enjoying my Dragon Con mead after spending the morning pressing apple cider . I enjoyed pressing apples a hell of a lot more than I expected . <| sep |> Entering . The caps are bad ass , wish I had bought one of the Evil Silence <| sep |> My paternal ancestors were Oregon Pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail in 184445 . They spent the winter of 1844 in Idaho where my great great great grandfather , who was 19 at the time , learned how to operate a printing press and translated the Bible into the local native language . They eventually settled in northwest Oregon and founded the town of Tillamook . William Dunson Stillwell became a charter member of the Oregon Cavalry and an Indian fighter . He got separated from his comrades when he chased after a horse that he wanted to confiscate from the Indian brave he just shot . He followed the horse right into the midst of the war party who rained arrows down on him . He took off but his horse was struck down by arrows and Captain Bill took an arrow to the thigh . He tried to run but the shaft of the arrow wouldn ' t allow his leg to move , so he reached down and pulled it from his leg , leaving the arrowhead buried deeply in his thigh where it remained until he died at the age of 93 . Meanwhile the Braves are still chasing them . He jumped down a ravine when they approached falling into some undergrowth . One of the Natives shot at him and the bullet grazed the right side of his skull over his ear . He finally was able to escape , limping , concussed and bleeding , arriving back to camp shortly before breakfast in time to hear his fellow soldiers comiserating each other over the loss of Bill . No one recognized him at first when he asked for something to eat . He got dry clothes and a hot meal then instead of travelling to the doctor to have his leg treated , he got on a fresh horse and went back to work . The reason I share this is because all of this went down in January , and I imagine this is a lot what it looked like . It makes me marvel that we made it out this far basically on foot through such an unforgiving and beautiful wilderness .