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September 2007 Archives
September 2, 2007
Congratulations Bud!!
New hunting record for our party. The first time that anyone in our hunting group since we started bear hunting has ever shot a bear on opening day! Good job Bud! Brian had a bear come into his site and looked right at him and went running into the woods. The rest of us didn't see anything. Hopefully our second day will bring more good news.
No, this is not a cub, and perfectly legal so quit your wisecracks. He's heard all of them already!
September 3, 2007
My tag is filled.
I got a bear last night at 7pm. Jeromy, Brian, and Bob are still working on theirs. This is the first time I shot a bear opening weekend, and the first time I shot a bore. Bears are truly amazing animals. I know that may sound crazy to those who do not hunt animals. But it is possible to enjoy hunting and have absolute respect for the animals you are hunting.
Brian had a bear about the same size as mine come into his bait. He saw a bigger one the day before and decided to wait to see if he would come again. He said it was so awesome just to sit and watch.
Hopefully, everybody will fill their tag this year, but if they don't, at least we are having a good time trying.
September 4, 2007
deer track in the mud with a worm trail.
Seasons changing.
Stinky roadkill. Jackson asked if we could bring it home and skin it and feed the guts to the ravens. Boys. We let it lay there so the animals of the forest good enjoy a good meal and took pictures of it instead.
September 5, 2007
Crumbling rock in the woods.
Fragments of wildflowers. What's left of the Indian paintbrushes amoung the forest.
A giant mushroom growing out of the gravel road.
I SPY A...........
The kids and I had, "An adventure!", as Charly cheers. Today while bear baiting we were able to snap some shots of things we found along our trail. These are what we spotted.
Not long after this shot, Jackson said, "Oh she is so heavy. My arms are starting to hurt!"
Queen bee (cat) on '57 Chevy
We've been letting Ashley's cat go outside every now and then. For some reason, the last couple of times, she has plopped herself on top of the neighbor's '57 Chevy "lawn ornament". She must have a good visual of her hunting grounds from there. Or likes '57 Chevy's!
Today I spy a painted turtle!
Jeromy took the kids today and I made him bring the camera. They found this painted turtle crossing their trail and had to jump out and say hi.
Jackson had his orientation for preschool today. He was gung ho on being there by himself, until we showed up. His shyness came back and his seperation anxiety kicked in. My poor little guy. I have a hunch that will pass very soon. He has matured so much this past year and really tries to be strong and tackle things all on his own. Even if you can tell it is absolutely killing him not to have someone hold his hand all the way through it.
Tonight the kids and I were sitting at the table. I was reading the local realestate ads while the kids played with their playdough. I was reading an ad for a home on the lake by our home. The owners are asking $699,000.00 for their home. And it was just another stupid rambler. I say stupid because that is the home we live in. We bought the place for the land, not the home thinking we would be improving the home immediately, but hasn't happened yet. Anyway,I blurted outloud, "Oh my gosh! Six hundred and ninetynine thousand dollars?! Wheewwww." Two seconds later, Jackson replies, "Mom. You are annorring me." I said , "Do you mean I am annoying you?" He said, "No. You are annorring me." So of course I explain what the definition of ignore and annoy is and ask him if I was bugging him. He nodded yes. So I then told him I was annoying him. His reply, "No. You are annorring me." He'll get one day.
September 6, 2007
We want YOU. To have a very happy day. We love you!! Mom, Dad, Ashley, Jessica, Charly, Moose, Cally, Boo-boo.
Happy 5th Birthday Jack!!
September 10, 2007
Either he felt bad for her or just couldn't take her crying about it and said, "Here Charly, you can open my last present for me."
Harsh reality for a three year old child I guess. Charly was so sad that it wasn't her birthday too. Especially when it was time for Jackson to open his presents.
Happy Birthday Jack
What a day!! Jackson was quite a trooper about the events that happened on his birthday. He had told me he wanted a blue cake this year with blue frosting. He settled for a chocolate cake and told me to surprise him.
It started when we went into the woods that morning to bear bait. We got stuck in a pretty bad storm that scared us pretty good. After we made it home, we found the ground flooded around the house and the power out. No power, no running water. I forgot about the no running water part and hopped in the shower and soaped up real good, put the conditioner in my hair, and then the water stopped.
I was supposed to pick Ash up from school and take her to a Dr appoint 45 minutes out of town.
I call my aunt and ask if she has power if I can come over and rinse the conditioner out of my hair. She said no problem, the kids and I pack it up and hop in the car to see we are on empty. I had forgotton to gas up in the morning and figured I'd hit the station on our way out.
We get to town. The whole town is out of power, therefore nobody is getting gas. I drove home and filled a gallon and a half in the tank that we had on reserve for the International as that gas gage doesn't work. Wheehu! We made it. We were a little late picking up Ash, and she missed her appointment but we were able to take Jackson out for dinner and pick up a cake and some ice cream.
We came home and lit candles and wished him happy birthday in the dark. I am just so thankful that I didn't have a cake in the oven or company coming. It is really nice to have a toilet that flushes if you have company!
He was so good about everything, and really didn't even seem to care about running around so much. If anything, I think he liked the fact that there wasn't a big hoowah for him.
My little man is at preschool today for the first time. He feels so good to grab a backpack and head into the school and say goodbye to Charly and myself. I, of course, am trying not to well up in tears when I think about him and how big he is now. I'm getting beter though, fourteen years ago when Jessica set off to preschool I blubbered like a big baby! Darn kids. My cup runneth over!
See the little tree coming out of the rock?
That's where the kids sat for our Christmas card a couple of years ago. The river is so high from the bad storm we had last week on Jackson's birthday.
It hit about 1:21pm and the kids and I were driving through the woods with trees falling down all around us, water flying everywhere as if we were in a hurricane. At one point I couldn't see the end of my hood and the road was washing away. I pulled to the right a little and stopped and prayed and prayed and prayed! One minute later after being thankful that our vehicle didn't get swooped up into the air, I am able to see in front of my car and see a tree fell one foot in front of us!
Ten minutes of sheer terror and then praying the road stays in tact until I get us home. I had a kids movie going for the kids and tried to be strong and calm so they wouldn't freak. But I definitely felt like we were on our way to heaven that day. I am so thankful we made it home safe and sound!
I didn't check the weather that morning, and the sun was shining when I left home otherwise I would've never gone.
The power ended up being out until the next morning just before 5am. I was told that lightening struck a substation near our home and that's why everyone was out of power.
Our basement leaked a little, okay, maybe a little more than a little. One television fried, and there was a little bit of a mess in storage and our room, but we will survive!
September 11, 2007
This shot was after class. I asked to take a picture but he had to tell me everything that happened right away. He made a gumball machine for his first project.
It was so darn cute to watch him stand in line and wait for his teacher to instruct him to come and greet me. Big school boy now!
Gung-ho and ready to get to class! Chilly Charly wishing she would have put a jacket on when her mom instructed her to. As the rangers say around here, "That'll learn ya."
"One more shot by the school!" Jackson was like come on mom, I just want to go to school.
First day of preschool
Can you tell his lips are turning purple? I had told him to get his jacket on right before we headed out to the car and he said he didn't want to wear it. So I thought, whatever, we'll just put it in his backpack thinking it was going to be a warm day and the sun was just starting to come up.
We get outside to the morning chill and I said, "Let's take some shots real quick before you buckle up." He stood there, started to shiver, said he was cold as I'm saying just say cheese and we'll go. Poor guy. Took a couple of shots and put the jacket on and off we went.
On our way to school he asked me to help him find the coat hook with his name on it. During orientation day, the teacher had all the kids find their hook so they know where to put their things when they arrive. All of the kids were already in the coat room as the teacher had called Jackson in and put him on the spot to find his name in front of everybody. He found it but I could tell he was extremely shy. So it was cute that he was worried about it.
We got to class, he hung his stuff up, washed his hands, the teacher told him of the special order of cherry playdough she had made knowing how much he likes playdough. He stood there and looked around at all of the kids playing and I said to him, "Well Jackson, I think we are going to be leaving now. Are you going to be okay?" He shook his head yes, like no problem, and reached his arms out to give me a hug and a kiss. What a big boy, a total 180 from orientation day when the teacher had told us we will work with the seperation anxiety thing! Guess we smoked her yesterday!
We are so proud of you Jackson!! You are growing up so fast and becoming so smart and such a nice young man. Excuse me, you're right, you're not a man, a nice young kid!
September 12, 2007
Hope you feel special today because you are so special to us! We love you so much!
Where has the time gone?
Happy 18th Birthday Jessica!
Doesn't seem like too long ago that you were only this big.
Happy Birthday Uncle John!!
We hope you have a wonderful day today Mr john Law because we think you are pretty wonderful too!!
Jessica's birthday
I still can't for the life of me believe that I have a child that is 18 years old! I feel old.
Anyway, Jessica's "cake" this year was chocolate dipped strawberries in the shape of a cake. Last year was a pineapple. She keeps me on my toes..ALL OF THE TIME!
I stopped by Jessica's today to drop off her cake and wish her a happy birthday. Here are shots of her and cake and boyfriend, Eddy. Finally I got a shot of them together.
I asked Eddy and his friend to sing happy birthday with me but they really weren't kean on the idea. A gave Eddy a tap on the arm while singing happy birthday and got him to say Jessica at least. What a trooper.
They are going to the casino tonight and celebrating with Jessica. Hope she has a good day.
September 14, 2007
This is the direction I found the camera dangling from one of the two wires still on the tree, cover of the box opened, and a scratch on the front of the cover, not sure if scratch is from bear or wire used to hang camera to tree.
I think this shot was taken as the camera swung from it's position, assuming this is where the bear came after it.
You can't see anything in the shot but I'm pretty sure the bear was in front of the censor and was coming after the camera after the flash went and took a picture of him. He also might have smelled a little scent of bear bait as I had a little mollasis and fry oil on my hands from baiting Jeromy's site when he was climbing in his stand.
Trail cam action
More trail cam shots. I put the camera in a diffirent spot this time, same bait but diffirent tree. I had just come from baiting Jeromy's site as he climbed in his stand.
Now I've heard stories about bears smelling bait scent on trail cameras before and coming after them and destroying the camera, but didn't think much about it because I hear a lot of things. And if I lived my life according to all of the freak stories I hear from people, I would probably never leave the house. And that's not a way to live, even though on occassion it is a good thing to once in a blue moon curl up and snuggle in a cozy bed with a good movie and just take a break. Been years since I was able to to do so, but I'm sure it'll happen again before I die. I love you family.
Anywho, I came to the bear site the next day and found the camera was only attached to the tree by one wire and the cover on the box was opened. My first thought was maybe the weather had been bad during the night, and then I thought again on how secure I wrapped the wire and realized it was hanging due to a bear. Not just bumping it by walking by too close, but probably coming after it.
When I got home and uploaded the pictures, I saw this. The first shot of the bear eating the bait. The camera took a picture. A minute or so later, the camera took another picture and the bear was probably in front of it but didn't get in the shot.
The third picture I think is from mid-swing of the camera being flung from part of the tree.
Last shot is showing the direction the camera was facing when I arrived the next day.
Please excuse my french
My husband, god rest his soul, at times, tends to speak before he thinks. Sometimes, it's a good thing. And sometimes, well....., not so good. Like this morning.
Is he in fact due for an ass whoop'n? I have a hunch at least two other people than myself would agree.
He called home to say hi and goodmorning as he's on the road to work. He aked what I was up to and I had told him how I was putting the bear trail cam shots on the blog and how I like to add stuff often to change things up a bit, if given the time. His reply? Mind you he has just become addicted to reading three blogs every morning while he drinks his coffee. Our blog, and his sister's family, lifeupnorth.com. And his brother's family, zabud.com. Which are usually posted by myself, his sister, and sister-in-law.
His reply? " Yeah, you need to get on that because I like to see something diffirent. Like this morning I hopped on to enjoy my cup of coffee and see that there's still the same stuff on there, you guys are getting lazy." my reply, "EXCUSE ME?!" my thought, post your own damn blog if you want more variety. Like to see that happen. No really, we were half kidding, at least I was.
You be the judge, is he due for an ass whoop'n or does this fall into the "poor Jeromy" senario?
Snow already?
Our poor garden. Jeromy said it snowed a little last night. And our weather report claims we will have another chance of snow showers today. It is cold enough! I'm not ready for winter.
We planted our whole garden from seed this year and then it rotted from the abundance of rain we recieved in spring. We have such a small amount of time to grow a garden as it is but always manage to get something out of it every year. So we picked up what was left of starter plants late spring and gave it a shot. Things started to come in about a month ago. We are hoping that the weather won't be too cold this week and that our garden can finish it's growth before the frost sets in for good.
The last couple of nights we have put sheets on our plants, what a pain that can be. Every year we take another chunk of our sod out and make our garden bigger and bigger, so you can imagine how many sheets we end up laying on the plants.
Just hold off a little more Mr Winter!
Logs in front of the garden? Jackson and Charly's bear bait pile. Not really, I put the kabosh on that because as it happens every spring if we leave the bird seed in our feeders, I really don't want the bears coming into our yard. The kids will have to be deprived and pretend with pine needles and pinecones and rocks for pretend bait.
September 15, 2007
Congratulations Brian!!
Brian's tag is filled. It weighed in at 62lbs, the exact same weight as my bear this year. And it is also his second bear, weird huh. Now it's just Bob and Jeromy's turn. I think there is only two weeks of hunting season left. Tick tock.
Good luck to Jeromy tomorrow night. Hope he doesn't freeze as much as he did tonight. And hopefully he doesn't get too many grouse hunters walking his trail as it is grouse opener tomorrow too.