We spent the cold morning hunting duck. Sounds vicious huh? We got up early and arrived at the pond before the sun came up. Trevor and Jake set out the decoys and got us ready for the blood bath that was about to begin. Just kidding. We saw about 7 fly in, I was the first to shoot, I missed. Jake joined in, he missed. We fired about 5 or 6 rounds at 7 birds and they all got away. They were the lucky ones. Maybe 7 more flew in, we all stood up shooting up a storm, 3 down ducks, victory! A couple hours later and we only had downed one more duck. So we decided to try our luck over at the creek a couple miles away. We piled in my truck and headed off.
Now to set this up, I have had a bit of bad luck with seeing deer out in these parts. I have been out to the deer blind several times in the past couple months and not seen a thing. However Trevor has seen Bucks ranging in size from time to time all over the place. So we decided that I should start bringing my rifle out on the duck hunts just in case we see a buck wander into view. Our first morning, I brought the gun, but left it in the truck and saw a big buck right in front of us. This time I brought it but didn't see any deer at the pond. Well, on our way over to the creek Trevor spotted a deer feeding off in the field while he was riding on the tailgate. We stopped and got out. I tried to get my rifle out and kept falling over and acting very clumsy due to excitement. The deer just kept standing and staring at us. I could see antlers but could not see what they were till I looked through my scope, "a spike"!! I said, and handed Trevor my rifle. He looked and said he sure is you can shoot him if you want. I said I sure do. I took aim on the base of his head so I could hit him in the neck, it was about 200 yards or so we think, and squeezed the trigger.
The video was recorded with a cell phone. I was not aware it was being recorded until after the shot. That it why it is a little fuzzy. I am grateful our friend got the shot and everyones excitement, it helps put things into perspective.
The shot was pretty far, we don't know how far. There was some doubt I could make the shot, only because shots like this, I think are not common here. Anyway, I put my scope on 9 and aimed at his jaw. Afterwards we found it had dropped about 6 inches or so. When I shot him he dropped to the ground, as you can hear from the video. a few minutes passed as we cheered and got ready to go get him. He began to struggle and started lifting his head up like he was trying to stand up. I took aim again from the truck but because he was lying down I wasn't sure where to aim. So we headed over and he got up and ran toward, and tried to jump a fence. He smacked into it a couple times before making it over but his back legs were caught. I took a knee, still a ways away and trembling with excitement,"click", no round. I loaded one and missed. I loaded another and proceeded toward him. By this time he was standing on his front two legs looking around with one leg caught in the fence. Without getting too close to spook him too much more I aimed again and shot the last shot.
The reason I shot such a young buck is because in this particular area the regulation states that you must shoot only spikes and mature bucks having an inside spread of 13 inches or greater. Our season ends Jan. 4 and I am running out of time. This opportunity came along and I took it. I have heard people say that spike meat tastes better, some say there is no difference however. But I am completely satisfied with my first deer.
Playin some B-ball with the bros.
This is my Brother Dave and his son Luke. Dave's father in-law provided us with the boat, very generous. We had a great time.
John and I went for a ride on his quads up in the hills above ma and pa's house. Awesome!
Playin pong. Layin the smack down! Throwin up the paddle. Actually I was getting my butt whooped. I forgot my game, but it eventually came back and I was a fair match.
More to follow...
Here is Hunter with his Dramatic "hand on the forehead."
Here are his two, little feet.
And another profile shot, what a cute little nose on a big ol' head.
The first item on our show is a lawn mower we bought at a yard sale the scouts were having in our Ward. We bought it for $60 with no gas in it. The guy that donated it came from overseas and had to empty it. So when I got it and put gas in it and it started leaking out the two big cracks in the tank, I was quite upset. However, now I had a project; it also ran horrible, it hardly ran at all. So a new air filter, a cleaned spark plug, a new section of hose, a $26 gas tank and the thing runs great. The other guy there is our new weed-eater. Don't know any specs off the top of my head, I got one of the better ones without paying too much. When it comes to these sorts of things, you get what you pay for. I wanted a nice, powerful one that will last.
This was my other project. I built this work bench and shelf, each taking an evening while bobbie was at work. It is so nice to have everything organized now. All I need now is a bigger garage that I own. And more toys to fill it up.
This is our newest purchase. We spent some of our tax return on this beauty. 20" screen, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HD. I LOVE this computer. It is smokin fast. I have been transferring my pics and such the past few days. I can't get over how big the screen is. When I am sitting in front of it I have to turn my head slightly to navigate the screen. I wanted the 24" but that tacked on another couple hundred. Maybe next upgrade.
We went down to Austin for our anniversary and spent a couple days. We had no intention of buying this when we went in the store. Bobbie went in to look at sheet music. She got her sheet music, I guess we figured she needed something to play it on. They had a really nice sale going on and we had a really good salesman. We got this beauty new with a 10 year warranty among other tasty little treats. It sounds great and I am now taking lessons from Bobbie, seeing as she is a very experienced pianist. It's great taking lessons from your wife, I pay her with kisses instead of cash.
The reason I shot such a young buck is because in this particular area the regulation states that you must shoot only spikes and mature bucks having an inside spread of 13 inches or greater. Our season ends Jan. 4 and I am running out of time. This opportunity came along and I took it. I have heard people say that spike meat tastes better, some say there is no difference however. But I am completely satisfied with my first deer.
This was our first stop. We did not realize how pricey trees had become.
Bobbie was quite fond of this one. She stayed this way while I looked around at all the other trees. Just kidding, she drug it around with her.
People were standing in line at Lowe's to have their tree cut, then wrapped in mesh. What in the world for. It takes like thirty seconds to cut it yourself and if you get it wrapped you have to fuss with getting that crap off once you make the 10 minute drive home. Makes no sense. Nice garage eh?
Here is Bubbs getting decorations out. And you'll notice this is one of our MANY living room alterations. We spent over an hour moving our couches and piano around trying to figure out how to fit our tree in there. We finally took the love seat out.
Energy rations for festive activities. Mint chocolate, dark-mint chocolate, peanut-butter chocolate cups, and peanut M&Ms. We washed this all down with some homemade hot coco.
The Tree.
It's been awhile since I handled lights. Bobbie left me unsupervised for just a minute this is what happened.
She straightened me out.
The finished product. Magnificent!
