This is the first of a two-part series about a four-night stay at Cottage 4.

Hunters are big in the game of conservation. Not only did they self-impose a tax on many outdoor related items, such as on firearms and ammunition, to benefit wildlife, but many attend the annual conservation banquets held throughout the Columbia Basin. These include Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, National Wild Turkey Federation and Pheasants Forever.

My wife, Garnet, and I have been attending these banquets for years. We enjoy a terrific meal, with prime rib being the most common meat on the menu. Plus many of our friends attend, so the events become a chance to visit with people we haven’t seen for up to a year, which was the last banquet.

The conservation organizations raise money from the price of admission, but also from the silent auction and the live auction. There are also several gambling-type games attendees play. The raffle offers gobs of items if your raffle ticket is pulled from the bucket and attendees can purchase as many raffle tickets as they desire.

Prizes include fishing rods, guided hunting and fishing trips, clothing, firearms, binoculars, ammunition and much more. The Pheasant Forever and Ducks Unlimited banquets are fond of offering a young hunting dog for auction.

The live auction at the annual Potholes Ducks Unlimited banquet in 2007 listed a chocolate lap-a-dor as the banquet dog. A 2-pound brown Chihuahua was taken from a small kennel when the bidding began. On impulse, Garnet asked me to bid once. Our 4-pound Brenda Starr has been living with us for seven and a half years now.

One Turkey Federation banquet offered a Mossberg 500 youth model Bantam 20 gauge. Garnet won this firearm.

She saw a square box, about 3-inches wide and 3-feet square with doghouse written on the side. Several of her tickets were placed on this item. She won this item, which turned out to be a Doghouse Ground Blind.

On the way home she asked me if a 20 gauge was legal to hunt turkey. I was shocked, as she had never shown an interest in hunting. She explained deer and elk hunting was not to be, but she was required to butcher chickens when growing up, so shooting a turkey shouldn’t be much different. Thus began Garnet’s turkey-hunting career.

At a Pheasants Forever banquet we won a two-nights stay in a luxury park model cottage at Mar Don Resort. At a Ducks Unlimited banquet a month later we won the same prize.

A call to the resort confirmed we could stay at a cottage for four nights in a row, instead of two trips of two nights. Last Sunday, Easter, we checked into Cottage 4, which has a terrific view of Potholes Reservoir.

We asked Jim Hergert, Dani Nugent and her mother, Lori, to join us for an impromptu Easter dinner at the cottage. The menu included a three-bean salad, slow cooker with deer stew and a 16-piece order from Kentucky Fried Chicken.

We had a great meal and visit. Sometimes great company begs for a repeat visit. Thus plans were started for another meal on Tuesday evening.

Monday evening, Garnet and I relaxed and enjoyed the view, whitecaps on the reservoir this evening, with no chance of building a fire in the outside fire pit. Using the barbeque was also impossible because of the wind.

We enjoyed an evening meal of filet mignon, baked potato and green salad. The inside electric fireplace provided additional ambiance.

The following e-mail was sent to our friends after supper:

OK, here’s the way I see Tuesday: Garnet and I are planning an evening of grazing on wild fish, birds and game. This will give me a chance to try some recipes I’ve wanted to put together.

Appetizers will include walleye wings and deer summer sausage. Plus half a quail breast, wrapped in bacon and either fried in a skillet or cooked on the BBQ.

The pressure cooker will be used to cook a small elk and deer roast. A slow cooker will be used to cook a quail breast, one for each of us, and two wild turkey thighs, in cream of mushroom soup.

A chinook salmon fillet will be cooked on the BBQ, wrapped in foil with garlic, butter and lemon. A deboned rainbow trout will be fried in a skillet.

One batch of walleye and salmon will be breaded and deep fried. Another will be cooked on the BBQ in the same manner as the salmon.

This may sound like a lot of food, but it really isn’t. Well, OK, Dani, I’ll make sure there are enough leftovers for you to take some home. Best, Dennis

Next week: The final two nights at Cottage 4.