False Alarm

Some of you know that I thought my chickens had miraculously began to lay eggs - 3 very clean eggs in fact - all strategically laid in the nesting box where my chickens are supposed to lay them. However, these were not laid by my infertile chickens as I had hoped, but by some person who shall remain nameless. Maybe he was trying to give my chickens a little more time before I decide to cook them up for supper, or maybe he wanted to let me know how wonderful I will feel when my chickens do in fact, if ever, lay eggs. To this nameless soul I have but a few words - what is that old saying????. . .hmmm????. . .paybacks are hell??? - yep that's it.

Another Halloween Bash

One of the reasons I like Halloween is because during Halloween -- the deer hunting gets real fun, real quick. Halloween almost always brings big bucks in our garage. Fortunately for Skyler, my motherly duties take first place, so Sky and I will be trick-or-treating during that awesome hunting night - but I'll have my phone nearby to hear all the stories from the lucky hunters.

Sky and I had fun with our friends last night - - take a look at some of Skyler's friends' costumes in this group - - the Mad Scientist is my favorite! (Skyler is 2nd from the left - she is Cruella DeVille - however her costume doesn't show very well in this pic. I will get better costume pictures on Halloween night when she has the full costume on.)

October Challenge

Run on over to Christine's blog for a challenge with a chance to win a great prize pack!! Thanks Christine!

Congrats Megan Klauer

Megan would probably never tell anyone - but I will. :-) Megan easily took first place in the bow shoot competition that we were in this fall. She consistently whooped the rest of us! Great shootin' Megan!

Jason and Amanda Soseman of Aledo, Illinois, have their property dotted with 3-D targets which they move around every week to keep us on our toes. There are long shots, close shots, shots from treestands and every once in a while shots you don't even want to take because arrows cost too much and the target is strategically placed with only a very small opening in between trees where your arrow needs to go - but that is what makes it fun! Every week for 6 weeks in both the spring and fall a bunch of bow shooters from many different towns around Aledo and the Quad Cities invade their lives. We all have a great time! Thanks to Amanda and Jason for putting on such a fun competition. They give away awesome prizes to top individuals and top teams, both men and women. The spring competition will begin on April 21 - so if you are interested, give them a call or contact me and I will put you in contact with them.

For individual women the winners were: Megan K - 1st place. Kelli Weeks and I had a shoot off to decide 2nd place. Kelli, very pregnant with twins, shot great and got George Washington in the head before I could - I guess maybe if she gets pregnant with triplets, then maybe I'll have a chance :-). So, Kelli Weeks got 2nd place. I got 3rd place and my partner Lisa Acker got 4th place. (Great job to Lisa especially since this is her first year shooting sights on a compound bow!! For years she shot instinctive - but I think she is now a convert).

And for women's teams, the winners were: Megan K and Kelli Weeks - 1st place. Lisa Acker and myself - 2nd place. So we were all lucky enough to be teammates as well as the top shooters so we all won money and gift certificates to Griswold Archery in Galesburg, Illinois.

There were top men shooters - but I can't remember the order and don't want to leave anyone out - so I won't post them here.

My first bow deer of the year - AND SKY'S TOO!!

What a weekend!! This was the youth deer season weekend - so Paul, Skyler and I all went hunting together today and yesterday for a total of 11 hours in the stand. Now, I don't know many 9 year olds who will sit up in a treestand for 11 hours, unprotected from the elements, and wait for hours for that one opportunity to pull the trigger. Skyler had great patience and is pretty tough - we all sat through some snow (it was into the 20's part of the weekend), rain and wind as well as some beautiful sun - - we got it all. Skyler and Paul sat in the buddy stand together (which, let me just say, you better be REAL good buddies to sit with someone in it - 'cuz it is close quarters). I settled for sitting in a stand nearby enough to hear a shot if she got to take one. However, shooting a deer wasn't in the cards for Skyler this weekend. :-( It is always fun to go into the timber as a family, but it is extra special when we are hunting. Each time when I would separate from them to go toward my stand, after we said our goodbyes, Skyler would start walking away and turn to blow kisses and give me a thumbs-up. Life doesn't get much better than that!

Skyler is the epidime of a true hunter. She has put the hours in that makes it so. Skyler has spent - not only the hours in the stand this weekend - but also hours shooting her muzzleloader, preparing for the possibility of a shot. Skyler also went out in the timber with Paul and I almost every time we worked on her food plot so has also had the opportunity to observe and learn about the deer where they live before going out to take one - - so to say the girl deserved a deer is an understatement. If all the people who DESERVED deer got one - and the others who hadn't spent hours ahead of time preparing didn't get one - well, let's just say things might be pretty different - but I'm not in charge on those things :-)

Last year I had put a lot of pressure on myself to wait it out for "the big one." This, ultimately, didn't make me a better hunter and only resulted in my feeling bitter at the end of the season. I shot deer with my flintlock last year, but didn't get the job done with my bow last year - I walked away empty handed and realizing I needed to change something. Letting all those deer walk by isn't as fulfilling as I thought it might be - not at this point in my life when I don't have a ton of bow deer under my belt and am, therefore, still building up confidence in my abilities as a bow hunter. Also, I limit myself to a 15-20 yard shot which, when deer are that close, you can hear them breathe - so it is quite difficult to get drawn back and in position under situations like that. So anyway, this year I went out with a new attitude. I wanted to shoot the first deer (or turkey or coyote), other than a fawn, that gave me a chance. I was honestly hoping it would be a doe, but this guy won the pot. This buck was the 9th deer I saw tonight and he came in slowly from my right giving me time to stand up and prepare for the shot each time his head went behind brush. Finally, he was passing the last bit of brush when I drew back. Then, he turned toward me rather than staying broadside as I'd hoped. So I held the bow at full draw and waited for a better shooting opportunity. It didn't take him long to turn to a quartering away position and I knew it doesn't get any better than this. I let the arrow fly and saw it hit its mark. I was blessed to have such a wonderful opportunity and so glad everything worked out like it did.

The odd thing is that Skyler and Paul had seen this deer earlier in the evening and Skyler wanted to shoot "her perfect buck" so bad. However she wasn't able to get a shot and it sauntered over my way. Had I known all this, I know I would have let him walk. However, I didn't know, and am glad I didn't. As it turns out, Skyler was literally thrilled when she saw I had shot "her buck." She told me it is still hers and asked if the antlers can hang on the wall in her bedroom - - of course they can. What a great daughter! Here I was worried she would be disappointed, or even mad - and she showed me what a great heart she has when I could see there nothing but pure joy in her heart. So here is a picture of my 126# 6 pointer. Skyler wanted to take a picture like this to show that she was saying "oh well, I tried." :-) We had a great time as a family taking pictures, gutting and dragging this guy out. Skyler helped me gut it and skin it. I will say she is a VERY good skinner! Hopefully Skyler can get a chance at a deer with her muzzleloader during the regular gun season!

Latest Etsy Sale

Here is a picture of my "Sound of Music" coasters that sold on Etsy today.