Carving Pumpkins with Mrs.

After a beautiful morning hunt below Nick and Lisa's place, Rachel and I headed to the pumpkin patch just south of Madrid. We picked out a medium, a medium large, and a very large white pumpkin. This was something we wanted to do together this fall and I was not about to let the chance slip by.
We chose some patterns and began the process of gutting-the-gourds.

Rachel wanted the large white one and I took the two smaller regulars. We poked our patterns, cut them out, and ended up with some spectacular carved pumpkins.

 The ornate tree

 The classic buck

 and a fun one, Stewie Griffin

Dad joined us for dinner as he was passing through on business and was able to catch us at the tail end of carving. We had some great rib steaks courtesy of Nick, and Rachel made some great roasted fries from the red potatoes Laura Livermore gave us. This is turning out to be an enjoyable fall all around.



Stay Tuned for Michael Parker's guest entry: ANOTHER BIG BUCK DOWN.

Shoo-sten-fest 2014

The decision to not have all of the non-residences purchase pheasant licenses this year was again the farthest thing from a issue. As always in the past, the point is to enjoy the food, the family, and the fun, which of course is the shooting. By mid morning there was some form of shooting going on. After lunch the residents tried their luck at a bird and came up short. It's tough with habitat loss. The rest of the afternoon we all proceeded to shoot until we were honestly sick of it. There was a trap station, a .22 station, a bow and BB gun station, and the old wooden picnic table which held a lot of guns and ammo. Brian even had a case of .38 special pistol shells that were fair game. It. Was. Awesome. I alone when through over 40 pounds of bullets... And that was just my stash.
Dave even brought tannerite and we proceeded to split some logs as we did last year.

Saturday even brought on the famed venison stew.

 'Nuff said.

As per tradition we had the campfire roaring.

We even burned some old chairs.

 

The next morning was warmer and windy but still another beautiful fall day. Al and Brian took Mocha for one more walk for a rooster. They ended up walking far below, down on the public before they found one, but Mocha was a champ. Point, chase, flush, retrieve. I wasn't with them, but was glad the pup got to hunt some roosters again. 

Before our lunch meal, Dad coordinated a family prayer service in the house. It was nice to just sit down and have some reflection time. There were many reader participants and Dave and Co. provided the music. 

Another year, another successful camp!

Stay Tuned 

Last Dove Hoorah

After the wedding on Saturday, I wanted to get the dog out again without doing anything too crazy. Aaron Steffen and I went back out to "The Hill" and brought both dogs to try our luck at doves one last time before bow season starts. With another warm up, there were birds back and established around the area. Still, we went in with hopes of just shooting a few. The usual flock was on the bail when we got to the top, this time we were prepared. I doubled and Aaron zeroed out. This time we double stacked our mojo decoy and it paid off. The bird were coming in close and coming in HOT! We proceeded to do some of the best shooting of our lives. We had a pair set down just in front of our decoys. We went out and flushed them and Aaron proceeded to pull both birds down with a single shot. We had many hard cross-shots and some in-your-face-softball-pattern most which connected. When it was all said and done we ended two birds short of a two man limit; 28 total.

Again, some excellent dog work to make the trip worth every minute.



Stay Tuned

Ned and Jacque's Wedding!

In the making for way too long, the wedding was finally upon us on September 27th. The morning started with a thunderstorm. With an outdoor wedding, there were some minor panic attacks involved.

Rachel and I housed Ned overnight and Saturday morning we made him breakfast before the days chaos was upon us. Mr Jon Jones was late upon arrival but still got in on the breakfast. I told him if he got syrup on his clothes I would flat out murder him. Better me to do it than the bride...

I spent the day doing what I do best. Trying not to panic. The part of standing up front bothered me very little, but singing their first dance song was giving me the fits.

It was a beautiful wedding that went off without a hitch. The weather was perfect and we had no overly noticeable glitches.

It was a lot of fun once my part was through. And yes, I even danced.

Congrats Ned and Jacque, and thank you for allowing me to be a part of your celebration.



Stay Tuned

3rd Anniversary with my Beloved

This September 24th marked the 3rd anniversary for Rachel and myself. Not a day goes by that I am not thankful to have her as a part of my life. All of the adventures I post about are because of her.

As is our lives right now, things are chaos and unpredictable. We currently live in 2 week increments. With Rachel's rotations, that's what we have to work with, but we make it work.

We decided to not do anything over the edge or crazy but went to the Cafe for dinner. This is something we have done together since we came to Ames in 2008. 

It was a wonderful meal together that of course ended in no pics because we got caught up in the moment. We did however get a few good ones when we got home.

 

I broke the rules and got Rachel some long stem roses anyway.

Love you baby,

Stay Tuned

September Fun Cont.

On the 11th of Sept we were back out to "The Hill". Some parking division friends and I were able to sneak out after work and have enough time to try our luck again. With a recent cold front the birds were few. Of course, there was a flock on blind when we got there and were able to pull a couple out. Mostly singles and pairs, and they skirted our set most of the time, but we did shoot birds.

In the end we had a one man limit. 15 total. Nothing unbelievable but more than we expected. A lot of great dog work allowed us to collect a lot of crippled birds.

This field is absolute magic.




Stay Tuned

September Fun

As you can see I am vastly behind. I have been busy with work, started with a new company, and finally finished a side project patio.

Another piece of shit computer is behind me, and now I can catch up with a new one...


Where to begin:

A weekend back at the Freeseman Ranch. Michael and I tried hunting doves at big marsh and struggled immensely. We got one. We ended up back at the farm and shot 6.

 We decided our luck would be best at the farm after our luck on public was terrible. Not only did we do poorly the mosquitoes were apocalyptic.

  An afternoon of checking trail cams, checking the food plot Michael planted

 and trimming trees for Jerry turned to standing in the driveway or in the grove and shooting doves. We ran out of bullets! Ryker thought it was the real deal helping us hunt 'dubs'.

September is continuing its great trend



Stay tuned