Thursday, January 26, 2006

What a day!

Things have been going tremendously well at work since the start of the new year. Today was very productive. I'm not yet in a position to say whats going on, but today my boss and I were able to get some major hurdles lined up, and a few of the big ones we cleared. I haven't really been excited like this about my job in awhile, and now it's about all I think about. Hope everyone is doing well, and getting some rain.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Fantastic Weekend!!! Seems to be a pattern, we hope.

So Mary and I had been in a bit of a funk over the last week. We had gotten into a very predictable pattern of home to work, work to home, etc. So on Wednesday I confront her about this and say, you're not happy, which makes me unhappy. Lets break our routine and do something different. So on Thursday evening we go out to eat at our favorite chain restaurant, Chili's! We walked around the various shopping establishments, Target, Best Buy, and Petsmart getting a few things and going home for an evening of quality time, no TV, just us. Great times.

Fast forward to Saturday, we get up and hit the road. Mary's dear was ready at the processors so we went to go pick him up. Since we were already in Abilene we went by Mary's grandparents and visited for a little while. It was a good visit and I'm glad we stopped in. We then drove out to the processors and picked up Mary's buck. He'd been reduced to a bag of frozen steak and ground meat. We arrived back at the house around 4pm and decided to run to Fort Worth for a little while. We went to Cheaper Than Dirt and I was able to pick up some new rifle rounds for my 30-30. They are LEVERevolution by Hornady and are supposed to be the great for white tail dear. While we were there Mary checked out some compact and youth model rifles and found they fit her pretty well. She really liked a Ruger Model 77 Compact. She said the weight and length were great and she really wanted it. Funny thing is the rifle cost about 2.5 times what I spent on my Marlin WITH its scope. I guess I'll have to start saving my nickels and dimes so my honey can shoot the best. After that we went to Academy and I used my gift card to get a nice gun cleaning kit. My old one had been abused and was missing some parts so I thought I'd better upgrade while I could. Mary also checked out some rifles while were there. She found a New England Firearms single shot chambered in 7mm-08 that she liked, except it was a single shot.

We went home without making a final decision on the rifle because its only about 300 days to opening weekend. Mary decided we needed to eat some of her buck. So we had some chicken fried venison, mashed potatoes with gravy, and corn on the cob. I don't brag on Mary's cooking abilities near enough. If I were a condemned man I would request that dinner for a final meal, it was fantastic.

Sunday we bummed around the house until 2pm or so and then went to Mary's folks to borrow a couple of guns. We borrowed her dad's 7mm-08 to see if Mary found the recoil too much. She fired it 3 times in a row and said it didn't hurt her shoulder any more than my 30-30. I guess I'd better see if I can't put that Ruger at CTD on Layaway or something. While we were out shooting at her family's ranch in Lipan, Mary shot my 30-30 a few more times (its scary how well she shoots). She also got more familiar with my shotgun for home defense, as well as my .45acp. I'm proud to say she's a fair shot with a handgun as well as rifles. She had good groups on the target, and was consistently shooting left and low, but had good 6" groups at 25ft. Then she got really excited because it was time to shoot our .22lr's. She and I shot at some soda cans, and some paper targets, but she really liked our spinning targets. She hit the thing so many times it fell over.

We left at sundown after cleaning up our spent casings and targets and went over to her parents for a visit (and to return the guns we'd borrowed). We watched Chicago lose in the last minutes to Carolina (not sure who I wanted to win that contest). We got home about 8:30pm and called it a day.

I think these last few days with my wife have been some of the best we've had together, and I'm convinced the best is yet to come.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Our thankfully normal weekend.

So Friday night I get home later than usual and as Mary and I are both sick, no going out for us. I've been in a funk with being sick and everything that needs to be done around the house, so I haven't been the most fun person to be around lately. I get home and want nothing more than to turn on the TV and veg out. Instead I do all the dishes in the house and straighten up the kitchen. Oh yeah, big exciting Friday night plans huh?

Saturday morning I unload the dishwasher and Mary and I finish straightening the house. She made me a very yummy breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, and biscuits (I DO have such a wonderful wife). Somehow, Mary and I manage to waste an entire day. I mean yes the laundry was done, the dishes were done, the house was cleaned, but we didn't leave the house one time or even want to. We both played on the internet, played ZUMA (and don't start that game unless you have lots of time to waste, because you'll be wasting alot of it). It was just one of those days you have as you're getting over a bad cold. You don't want to do anything, you don't want to eat anything, you don't want to go anywhere. Starting at 6pm and running till 9:30pm the question of the moment is "what do you want for dinner?" Followed quickly by the response of "I don't know, I'm not hungry." When one of you is diabetic the option of not eatting is non existant. So I think we both had peanut butter and crackers, and an orange. Thus ends Saturday, one of those that when someone asks what you did all weekend you just reply "nothing" and don't dwell on how you shot an entire 24 hours of your life.

Sunday was pretty cool. We are both feeling better today, although my chest congestion is quite nasty (can you say Bronchitis? 'cause I sure can't spell it). Mary got up and went to Church with her mom, and I played heathen and stayed home playing Halo2 on XBOX Live. Sad to say some pre-pubecent children slaughtered me mercilessly and called me all kinds of names that while I don't know quite what they mean, surely weren't intended to be kind. So my morning was actually pretty good, I killed more often that was killed and am so glad for highspeed internet. Mary came home, followed shortly by her parents. We had Chicken Express for lunch (oh dear Lord they make good tenders) and were off to Fort Worth.

If you know me, or have read any prior post you'll know that I have discovered that I enjoy hunting. And for those of us that enjoy hunting, there is a pilgrimage that must be made periodically. Thats right, the four of us were going to (cue choir, lights, and trumpets) CABELA'S! Prior to the holidays they had sent my wife a $10 gift card with the intend of enticing you into driving to the store and spending more. We were at the store for four hours looking at everything, (that's not being fair, you can't really see half that place in 4 hours, but I digress) clothes, boats, boots, guns, mounts, and of course the bargain cave. Mary and I bought a duffel bag, was $23.99, now only $9.99. With tax we had to use our card plus .81 so we thought we did well. My father inlaw had his gift card plus one his wife bought him. They got a shooting bench, a couple of shirts, and a duffel bag of their own.

The weekend started out sorta blah, but ended on a high note. Right now Mary's at her laptop and I'm typing on my PC, the cats are hiding in the bedroom (which is how God intended) and the dogs are asleep at my feet (which while probably not intentional is pretty dang cute). Hope everyone's weekend was fine, and we all have a good week ahead.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

My wife the deer slayer part 2

Ok, here's the pic of my brother inlaws 11pt buck. Beauty isn't he? I think that made the 4th deer for him, he'd shot a nice little 6pt buck earlier in the season but I won't post pics since he was a bit embarrased by it. This season we were issued land management tags for 10 bucks and 20 doe. I haven't heard the final tally but I think we have only used a couple of those so far. The tags don't expire until the end of March but I doubt my wife and I will shoot any more deer. We have a freezer full of venison from the 3 deer I shot (2 doe and 1 buck) and her first one, and yes I'll finish telling the story of her first deer soon enough. So on Wednesday morning my brother inlaw and I pack up and ground hunt. I've always hunted from a blind and am in bad physical shape so I didn't do so well. We scouted several areas on the lease that haven't been hunted and found many game trails and good blind locations. All said and done I think we'd hiked at least 3.5 miles by the time we got back to camp. My knees were hurting pretty bad so I took it easy until my wife came in that afternoon. We loaded up that afternoon and drove to a good box blind on the back side of the lease. I had made a mistake on the way to the blind and we came out of the woods about 75 yards to the right of the blind instead of right behind it. So we were caught in the open and had to stalk over to the blind without spooking any game. I was very proud of my wife. She didn't make any more noise than I did. We saw a covey of quail under the feeder and were able to get up into the blind and get settled and set up without spooking them off. We didn't see anything that night and went back to camp for dinner. Mary had brought in some venison cube steak and we grilled that on the open camp fire. I was in the kitchen baking the rolls, heating up the beans, and putting the fries in the oven. We ate about 8pm and it was fantastic! I hate to brag too much but we ate better than most that night. So about 10pm we decide to call it a day. Mary and I are sleeping on a futon, which it latin for torturous night. We didn't sleep much at all. My back was aching and because the futon folds the way it does we kept rolling into the middle and couldn't get away from each other. When Mary's dad woke us at 5am we got up, got dressed, and got moving to get away from that futon. After a breakfast of eggs, sausage, and biscuits we left camp headed for my brother inlaws blind on a hill near camp. Mary and I hiked up to the blind, and she wasn't too happy at this point. The hill is steep and covered with loose stones. We finally got settled in the blind and whispered back and forth for about half an hour. At 7:30 I pointed out a yearling buck down at the feeder. The distance from out blind to the feeder is about 135 yards. I gave Mary the binoculars and she watched him for awhile. I asked if she wanted to take him, and she said "oh yes". The buck walked in and out of the brush several times without presenting Mary with a good shot. After about 5 minutes he turned broadside to us and Mary made the shot. She put the rifle back on SAFE and handed it to me saying, "I missed". I let her know I thought she'd hit it and we'd go down and check after at least 30 minutes. While we waited I spotted 3 deer moving across the valley about 330 yards from our blind. That is well outside the range of my .30-.30 Marlin, but I enjoyed seeing them moving. A nice 8pt, followed by a small 6pt, and a nice doe were headed into the brush. At 9am we decended the hill and went to the feeder. I spotted the blood and Mary took the lead. She trailed the buck about 30 yards to where he lay. Her shot was perfect, piercing the heart and both lungs, killing almost instantly. The buck was about 1 1/2 year old, field dressed at 84lbs, and was 5pt. I am very proud of my wife and look forward to hunting with her in the future, I'm such a lucky man.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

My wife the deer slayer.

Thats right, my wife went hunting with me and got herself a beautiful little buck. It was probably the best day of hunting I've ever had, but I'm getting ahead of myself. My wife and I went to my parents place,
Little Lodge on the Lake, on Monday afternoon and drove to the deer lease in Buffalo Gap. It was a very nice drive and we had fun chatting and her napping. We arrived at the lease around 3:15pm and were met by her brother. He helped us unload the car and then he and I left to go hunting. Mary drove on home by herself and was going to come back on Wednesday to hunt with me. That afternoon I didn't see a single deer but heard quite a few wild pigs. They got between myself and the truck so I got out of the blind early so I didn't stumble on the pigs in the dark. The next morning I hunted a hill near camp where Mary's brother had put up his blind. It wasn't too cold and I enjoyed myself. Around 9:30am a small doe came in. She wasn't very large so I passed on her. I had already taken a small doe and a decent buck from this blind and was hopeful of seeing more deer. She was the only one I saw, although I did see a nice large bobcat off at about 180 yards. I haven't seen one in about 15 years so I was pretty pleased to have seen one. That afternoon I hunted the same blind with less success. In other words I didn't see anything. So I hiked back to camp and figured on a nice cold sandwich and an evening of goofing off. My brother inlaw came in shortly afterwards and appeared to be a bit aggitated. He kept going on about the largest buck he'd seen on the lease, buck fever, and "God I hope we can find him". So after a quick dinner we all loaded up and drove to the blind where he'd been hunting that afternoon. The signs didn't look to good. We got our flashlights and started tracking the blood trail. It was very faint and very spotty. We lucked out and found a good spray of blood about 60 yards past where the buck had been shot. Only 15 feet past that we found a very nice 11 point buck, about 2 1/2 years old, who would dress out at 104 pounds. While not the biggest buck shot on the lease, it was the buck with the most points shot on our lease. I was so glad we found this buck, I'd lost a nice one a few weeks back. I'll post more pics and finish telling about the last trip to the lease this season on the next post.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

well that was neat

So my wife and I finally stepped into the 21st century and got high speed internet installed from unite wireless. We found them on
google and after a total of 16 hours of highspeed we are very pleased! Of the 16 hours we've had this service I think we've been using it for 11. My wife and I are still trying to puzzle out html, and so far are meeting with marginal success. Still we've decided to try this out if for no other reason that to learn more about the internet (and learn how much we don't know). I'm going to have to learn how to post pictures pretty soon. Mary already knows how but I'd like to learn on my own so it sticks. Today we're thinking of going to my sister in law's house for a Star Wars marathon (my geekiness quivers with anticipation). Anyway, I'm going to dig into the html code for a few hours and then dig into the dishes for an hour or so.

Ok, so all the dishes are done and we are headed to the inlaws for some movie watching fun. When I get time tomorrow I'll post some pics from deer camp and my wife's first buck.

Oh where do I begin

Ok, word of advice for those of you who are thinking of starting a blog. HAVE SOMETHING TO POST! Alright, I don't really have anything to say at this point other than "happy new year". Now I've just got to go find some of those little "under construction" pics for this thing...