Tuesday - Day 3 (A Week In Our Life):

Tuesday - Day 3 (A Week In Our Life): 

4:00-The alarm rings (yuk) because Paul is going to call turkeys for another one of his buddies.  I know my tendency that if I get too awake I will never fall back asleep so I wake up just long enough to tell him goodbye and then I go back to sleep.

6:00-Now my alarm rings and I am up.  I go let my chickens out for the day and start getting ready for work.  I throw another load of laundry from the washer to the dryer and from the dryer to the bin to fold. 

I eat my breakfast: oatmeal w/blueberries and cinnamon/sugar and milk.

7:00-Wake Skyler up for her day. 

We practice more of her spelling words. 

Skyler was one of the top 6 in her school spelling bee so today Skyler and 5 other classmates are going to Andalusia to compete against them.  I know she will do great!

8:15 - I am off to work again.  It was another super busy day at work.

At lunch I ate my rice cakes with natural peanut butter -- something I regularly eat for lunch and something for which I am regularly razzed about because it is such boring food…that’s alright. J

3:45 - Sky and I both arrive home.

Skyler had the day of the spelling bee wrong…it is actually Friday -- darn it (however, she pretends it was today and says she won…which I, of course, believe…and then she laughs cuz I am so gullible)
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We got a call that one of out extra eggs hatched!  As soon as Paul gets home we go to pick up our newest little chick.  When we place her under our hen who is raising our entire batch of chicks, she notices this new little one and immediately begins to PECK HER TO DEATH!  So we try to keep the chick warm until the chickens all head to bed -- I got a picture of Skyler sitting by this poor chick in the warm mulch (Skyler is complaining she is too warm, hence the look of her in this picture).  We finally snuck the chick under our chicken once she was settled in for the night and she didn’t seem to notice.  We will have to see if this poor little thing is still alive in the morning.

Skyler sitting beside our new little chick

This little thing is sleeping on the warm mulch next to Skyler

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Paul works on turkey fans, I hoe up the rest of my garden and plant all of my corn.  We all play dodge ball in the back yard -- my goodness I live with a relentless pile of people!!  I do some vacuuming and fold 2 more loads of laundry.

Paul and I take an evening walk while Skyler cleans her room -- what a beautiful night.

I study bones, muscles and digestive tract with Skyler some more for her competition at Rivermont tomorrow.

Put Skyler to bed with our regular prayers, hugs and kisses.

I read a few pages of “Run Like a Mother” until I fall asleep.

Monday - Day 2 (A Week In Our Life):

Monday - Day 2 (A Week In Our Life): 
Today it is back to school and work for all of us. 

6:00 I am up and start getting ready.  Wake Paul up.

Get Paul some breakfast (toast, some leftover sausage and Dr. Pepper)
Make Paul’s lunch (sandwich, grapes, banana and pretzels).
6:30 Paul is out the door for work.
Waking Skyler (this is a chore in itself…the girl hates mornings)
I get my shower, eat breakfast (Old Fashioned Oatmeal cooked on the stove with blueberries and cinnamon & sugar) and drink my green tea.
Braid Skyler’s hair.
Listening to Dwyer & Michaels while we get ready (those guys crack us up)
I pull some of our turkey meat out of a brine I put it in and get it ready for supper tonight.
7:30 - Skyler’s bus comes and she is off to school.
Get dishwasher loaded and start the wash.
Pack my lunch (sandwich, grapes, and granola bar) and snack (apple) for the day.
Get ready for work.
8:15 I am out the door headed to work.

3:45 - Sky and I both arrive home.
I immediately start cooking supper.  We are having turkey on the grill tonight (wild turkey of course).  I also pull together a wild turkey casserole for tomorrow night's supper and put it in the slow cooker so that our supper for tomorrow is already made.
Unload dishwasher.

Eat supper and clean up.

6:15 we are out the door and headed to Reynolds for one of Skyler’s 2 weekly softball practices there.
We practice Skyler’s words for her upcoming spelling bee on the way to practice.
6:30-8:00 I run 8 miles around the town of Reynolds while Skyler (and Paul, since he is one of the coaches) practice for her softball games.
8:25 we are home and I go close up the chickens for the night, give them fresh food and water, Paul makes an adjustment on the coop to make it a bit more “coon proof,” fold 2 loads of laundry while we watch the last part of The Voice.  I wash all of my pans from supper.  Showers and we get ready for bed.

Sunday - Day 1 (A Week In Our Life):

Sunday - Day 1 (A Week In Our Life): 

This is a fun challenge put on by Ali Edwards (which I have done 2 or 3 times before) where I record my daily, sometimes mundane, activities for one week preferably with photos.  I love the challenge as it encourages me to take more pictures throughout my day and it forces me to put to paper diary of sorts that we can look back on. 

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4:30 a.m.  Wake up worried about my chickens (we had some sort of animal trying to dig under their fence last night…and I set the live trap last night hoping to catch the culprit before he can eat my flock -- I say “he“ because no “she“ would do such a scandalous act).  So since I was awake I decided to go out and check the trap and my chickens.  Nothing bothered the trap or the chickens - whew.  But I was surprised to hear my rooster crowing at 4:30 in the morning!!  Seriously?  There was not a stitch of light in the sky.  I think my hens must hate him!

4:45 I head back to bed to try to sleep a bit longer…but can’t fall back to sleep. 

5:30 I finally just get up instead of laying awake in bed.  I am careful not to wake Skyler (although I don’t think a freight train would wake her) who decided to have a girls sleepover with me last night.  Paul stayed in a buddy’s cabin last night as he was going to call turkeys for him this morning.  The fun thing about that is that Sky and I got a “mom/daughter” night last night.  We turned in pretty early due to waking up at 4:00 for turkey hunting that morning but until then we just had a relaxing night hanging out. 

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So this morning I spent time:

*typing up our turkey stories from yesterday and got this “Week In my Life” bloggin’ started.  Since I know time will be short I have actually typed in what I already know we have scheduled for each day to make it easier to fill in.

*Go out and let my chickens out for the day.

Here is Popeye crowing this morning.

*Do chicken chores (fresh food/water).  My chicks are only 6 days old today.  Their mother hen  is actually one of the chicks I hatched out this past summer, so pretty neat to see the circle of life as far as chickens are concerned.  I have 3 more eggs that Skyler put in the nest 5 days after my hen started sitting on her eggs.  So once she was done incubating her eggs, we brought those eggs to a friends incubater to finish “cooking” for about a week.  Those eggs should begin hatching possibly as early as today.

*Cook up my oatmeal for the week (I make a huge batch of Old Fashioned Oats and refrigerate so I can quickly warm it up during the week).  It is my very cheap, very healthy breakfast.
*Eat breakfast (cooked oatmeal with blueberries, honey and milk).
*Get some laundry goin’.
*Wake Skyler up and get her a bowl of cereal.
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8:00 Hike w/my friend Ali for 1.5 hours.  Ali and I have a standing Sunday morning date of hiking through her property for about an hour or more.  We are pretty dedicated about meeting each other no matter the weather.  Skyler and Fran choose to hang out at the house while Ali and I sweated it out.  So fun to get exercise while also catching up with a great friend (Paul calls it layering when you are able to kill 2 birds with one stone).
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When we get home, Sky and I go and play with the chicks.  I also start planting my tomato plants.

10:30 - Paul is home!  He did get two birds called in for his buddy, but his friend missed L 

I cook up some breakfast sausage (venison, of course) and toast for Paul for a late breakfast.

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We mow our Milan yards (I push mow while he trims for about 1.5 hours)
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Once we get home we relax for a bit.

I finish planting more tomato plants and some herbs and water the whole lot.

Play with the chicks some more.

I help Skyler fill out her College for Kids application which we are mailing in on Tuesday.

I cook a quick supper, Venison burgers tonight.

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6:45 - My friend Megan Klauer came over for a 6 ½ mile run.  I am so excited that she has taken up the sport of running!  We have a great time running together and are training for a variety of races this year (Megan will be running her first ½ marathon in the end of September -- I know she’ll do great -- she’s a natural!!)  The races I plan to run this year include:

Quad City Classic (13.1 miles - ½ marathon on Mother‘s Day)

Race 4 the Cure (3.1 miles - 5k)
Firecracker Run (6.2 miles - 10k on 4^th of July)
Bix (7 miles)
“Mud”venture (a 5k run through the mud (w/obstacles?) just as the name implies)
Quad City Marathon (13.1 miles - ½ marathon)
Governer’s Run (another fun run with mud, creeks, rope swings, etc…this one is in November  however and although super fun has the potential for some VERY cold creek crossings: 4+ miles)
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After running with Megan, Paul Sky and I play a couple of card games and just hang out as a family before getting ready for bed.  We all turn in a bit early to try to make up for our early mornings lately.

3 Turkeys in One Morning

Turkeys All Around

Saturday was the first day of the 2^nd Season for turkeys here in Illinois and all three of us had tags to fill for the season.  With lots of good scouting on Paul’s part and great calling abilities, all of us were able to fill our tags that first morning.  Skyler had her tag filled by 9:15 with a great shot from the blind (which I got on video).  It was fun to use our new LCD hen decoy.  Every turkey that saw it came RIGHT up to her -- hens and toms alike.  After Skyler’s successful hunt, Paul and I decided to go to another farm and see what we could find.  After some searching we heard 2 gobblers respond to Paul’s calls on another ridge.  We rushed to set up on the same ridge as they were on and got into position just before they came out to see us.  Unfortunately, where I was sitting did not offer me a lot of clear shots and it was a painful and long wait for both of us before I got a clear shot on my bird (both of us were in odd positions trying to hold our guns in a shooting position for what seemed like an eternity).  I finally found an opening, shot my bird and then Paul shot his bird for our first husband/wife “double” -- shooting two birds in one set….woo hoo!  The turkeys’ meat is now in our fridge and freezer…soon to be in our bellies  J.

Turkey #1 - Skyler's Youth Season

We had a wonderful Easter weekend chasin' turkeys!  Skyler had great success bagging this 25# bird w/10 inch beard and 1-1/8" spurs...quite a large bird for those not familiar with wild turkey sizing.  We all went out in the bright moonlight of the early morning on Saturday morning and hunted from the blind positioned near many birds that Paul had meticulously scoped out in recent weeks.  However, unfortunately the only birds who would come close were 5 jakes that were acting as a gang literally chasing other toms out of the area...(We finally stuck our faces and hands out of the blind and scared that gang of birds away hoping the big toms would return - but they didn't) 

We all quickly got restless waiting in the blind and decided to hoof it for a while.  So after much hiking and sweating (and a long story that I don't have time to type) we got set up on a bird, Paul did a few calls and when this tom was 32 yards away Skyler pulled the trigger and he was down.  I will say that we may have to reteach Skyler her left and right...but that is a whole 'nother story  ;)

Congrats Skyler -- and Paul, great job callin' him in!!

Squirrels and a Coyote

Here is Paul with his latest trophy that he got on Sunday evening while I took Skyler to a birthday party...Paul connected on this female with a beautiful coat!  Keep 'em comin' bud!  We went out and did a couple of coyote sets on Saturday afternoon and got skunked -- but can't beat the time in the timber...

Here is Skyler with her trophies from this weekend.  It was so nice out and the season is winding down so Skyler was so excited to get to chase squirrels with us on Sunday morning...congratulations sweet pea!

Another evening hunt...another coyote

We have gone out for a quick set the last 2 nights...and last night I connected on my second coyote of my life -- a beautful female.  We are lovin' this new-found way of hunting.

And this little guy was feasting on a deer carcas we have up in one of the trees in our woods in the backyard...just couldn't resist taking a few pictures.  Although he might be a menace when he is older...this time we just let him enjoy his supper.  Didn't know a possum could be so cute!

Wow - Can You Say FOUR Coyotes??

Paul is on a roll now...although I hunted with Paul on all his sets except one on Saturday...this weekend he had all the luck.  Paul hunted almost all weekend and Saturday he had 'em rollin' in and got 4 coyotes in one day for his trouble.  We had a great time getting to hear the coyotes howl back at the call and getting to see more coyotes than I think either of us have seen in our life.  I think we have a new passion (and respect) for this animal that many seldom see.  Great job Paul!

Coyote Hunting

 I haven't done a post in a while.  Just so happens that this past weekend Paul and I had a great time coyote hunting.  I got my VERY FIRST COYOTE and got to see and hear a ton of fun stuff while we were out!  I gotta say...I have hunted for coyotes many times but seemed to have nothing but bad luck in that regard...whether I hunted alone, with Paul, with friends -- no one seemed to be able to break the "curse" I had with coyotes.  But I got one, the curse is broken and I got the fever!

Paul got a coyote as well this weekend -- a beautiful black phase coyote (although hard to tell from the photos).  I usually have to BEG Paul to get him to coyote hunt with me...just wasn't something he enjoyed.  But after this fun weekend he is as hooked as I am and I see a lot more coyote hunting in our future!

 Here is a fun pic I took of Skyler the other day when her and I were sledding...she had plowed into the snow and her face was covered with snowflakes and droplets...

 And here is my very first coyote...  :)

 Sky and I had a fun time shooting with my dad this weekend.  That is Skyler's shooting a .357 -- she is pretty brave!

Here was a fun coon hunt we had that I don't think I had posted about. 

Paul's Doe with his Flintlock

I got to go out with Paul during the most recent late doe season.  We had a great time in the stand even though the weather wasn't ideal.  He connected on this beautiful 132# doe using his .54 Flintlock.  I brought the camera thinking it might be fun to get some video of one of our hunts -- but in the intensity of the moment I got nothing but these pictures afterward.  A great hunt, great shot and a great doe for a great guy!!  Congrats bud and thanks for the fun time in the timber!