Weekend Update

Skyler was very particular while lining up her fish -- each one had to face a certain direction and the ones you see out of line -- well they did that themselves -- she was having trouble keeping up with their flopping --
NO FISH WERE HURT IN THIS DAY OF FISHIN' OR THIS PICTURE TAKING...
well, not too many anyway.

Skyler beside the trophy of fish for the day!

We had another spectacular weekend filled with family-time galore.  Saturday we decided to go ice fishing as a family and spent some 6 hours doin' just that -- the last couple hours Paul's dad and his wife Karen joined us as well.  Now, when I say ice fishing.....I mean ice fishing.  We are sitting out in the open on a lake on a bucket or lawn chair with a bunch of wax worms in our pocket -- like everything else -- we do it the old-fashioned way.  We started out with 72 wax worms and caught 172 fish (yep, I typed that right...172) -- Skyler counted every single one.  We had a blast -- we were catching them about as quick as we could pull them in!  It took us about three hours to clean all those little guys but it was well worth it and now we will have many meals of Bluegill in the Grissoms' eatin' future.  While we were cleaning fish, Skyler was dissecting what was left of several fish after the meat had been removed.  It was actually very interesting to dissect them and I think she learned a few new things. 

Sunday I met up with my friend Ali in the early morning and we went on a butt-busting hike through timber and grasslands for about an hour.  I love that she is always willing to spend time outdoors with me -- no matter what the reason!!  After I returned home Paul and I made another trek out to our property that we bow hunt and hiked and planned for several hours -- just an awesome time to be outside getting great exercise and planning some more for next year's hunting and deer stand placement changes.  Poor Skyler was down with a cold but still was a trooper all weekend.  Can't wait until next weekend!!  After work tonight I trekked with Skyler back into Milan where she and a friend are participating in a 4H weekly project series.  She is working on some very crafty items and I will have to post some pictures of her projects once they are completed.

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Family Night

Skyler climbing up a deadfall for the fun of it (and although you can't tell in the picture -- she is also throwing snow at me to make my picture taking a little bit tough.

One of the many tops that the deer were munching on -- you can see that this end has been bitten off.

Skyler making "supper" from the snow and sawdust.

Since we didn't have any plans after work last night, we decided to make a quick run to the timber for some family time and exercise before nightfall.  Skyler can make anything fun and I got some quick snapshots of her climbing a dead tree (while throwing snow at me) and mixing up "supper" with snow and sawdust.  She also counted the rings on some of the trees we just cut and one of the smaller ones was 32 years old.  We were pretty happy to see that the deer had already gone crazy for the tops of the trees that were just cut down yesterday.  There were tracks and droppings all around -- and tons of the buds already chewed off.  We got to see several deer (none of which knew we were there) and a couple turkeys.  What a great way to end our day!

Sweet Sunday

Paul is the dot of a person on the left lower corner -- he was dropping quite a huge tree...

Here is Paul doing some more of his magic!

Skyler was invited to a sleepover at a friend's house Saturday night -- so before Paul and I went to pick her up Sunday morning, we made our way out into the timber.  It was a balmy 4 degrees when we left the house.  Our intent was to create some more deer bedding habitat in our main hunting property.  I took some pictures of Paul running the chainsaw.  Now, in addition to more bedding areas, the deer can browse on the little buds that were growing on the tops of these trees -- and as we saw last year -- when we cut trees down this time of year, the deer hit it hard.  Food is harder to come by now and their reserves are down so they swarm every time we do this.  In addition, now that the canopy has been opened, this allows more light to penetrate the forest floor which allows more grasses and shrubs to grow and benefit the wildlife later!!

Skyler, her friend Alex and Barbara who they made a pillow with.

This afternoon -- Skyler and her 4H group went to Hope Creek Nursing home to make lap blankets and pillows with some of the residents there.  Skyler did a great job and really enjoyed visiting with everyone.  She has a knack for conversation with the elderly -- a great gift!!

Skyler and her friend Alex helping make a pillow.

The whole 4-H group

Back in the Swing of Things

Paul and Dan went hunting this past weekend and both were able to make perfect shots on two beautiful does -- great job guys!!

Now that the last late doe season closed on Sunday evening, we are back in the swing of things.  The timbers are ours again -- since most people who hunt will go back to their daily lives, if they haven't already, and won't spend much time in the woods again until next deer season.  We get to enter the timbers knowing that we are probably some of the few people enjoying them this time of year -- our very personal relationship with the timbers and its inhabitants continues.

We celebrated having the timbers to ourselves first thing Monday by spending most of the day with frozen ice pellets covering our hats while we cut, split, loaded and hauled several loads of firewood from the timber. With the icy rain we had that day -- it made for some pretty slippery work trying to get a good grip on the heavy chunks of wood that were covered in ice -- but we got it done.  Skyler and Shadow explored the timber and Skyler made a "snow woman" with sticks for eyes and grass for hair down on the icy creek.  Pretty sure the deer are wonderin' where the snow woman came from. We also worked on butchering two deer and shoveled five driveways. It was a great way to spend the day -- getting some much-needed exercise and beginning again our regular outings to the timbers we love.  Sounds like we get to shovel all those driveways again tomorrow -- for the third time in a week -- since we have another bout of snow comin' tonight.  I am pretty sure that we will be a little more grateful than most when spring comes.  Skyler is our sidewalk shoveler and we are proud that she is also willing to give up her time to help out the elderly and sick who cannot shovel for themselves.

Here is a picture I took of Skyler and Shadow waiting for her bus to come the other morning -- I could take this picture just about every day as we all wait for her bus to come.  Shadow is pretty anxious for the bus to arrive every morning and afternoon -- not quite sure where he thinks the bus takes his best friend every day -- but he is always glad when she comes back home!

Happy New Year!

We had an awesome New Year's Eve.  There was no hoopla, no champagne or whiskey, no kiss at midnight (cuz we were asleep by then), no great pictures with friends...but what we had was better.  We were together as a family.  We wrote notes that are now tucked away to be read when New Year's Eve 2011 arrives.  We went for a family walk at about 10 pm and talked about our hopes for the coming year and expressed to each other how much fun this past year has been.  Earlier in the afternoon Paul and I went hunting...we did not shoot anything but we saw the last light of 2010 leave the sky while sitting in the timber we are so familiar with---very fitting for us.  So although we didn't bring in the new year as is customary in our culture -- we brought it in the way the Grissoms do best -- together as a family and watching wildlife in the timbers.  Hope your new year celebration was just as great!

The Grissoms' 2010 Year in Review

January through June 2010

We had an awesome 2010 -- LOTS of outdoor time and time spent as a family.  I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I love that we love to be together.  I decided to look through the past year of posts on my blog and had a great time looking over it all.  I decided to post some pictures for a fun look back - it was hard to whittle it down to even this many pictures...here's hoping our 2011 is just as great!!

July through December

Ski Trip

It is Skyler's Christmas break from school.  She already went to work with me for one day (she actually likes it there) but yesterday I took the day off so that her and I could go on our yearly ski trip tradition that we started last year and spend some fun mom/daughter time together.  Last year when I took Skyler to Snowstar, she discovered that she loves to ski and is darn good at it.  So this year, as part of her Christmas present, I took her out again.  (I will say we appeared to be the only girls there in Carhartts and Camo...)

We fly down the big hills -- she has absolutely no fear -- which scares me to death.  I used to be able to convince her to try to slow herself down while skiing, but yesterday all I could see was a little camo girl with her ski poles tucked up under her arms and body tucked to achieve the top speeds possible.  I always saw this from behind because this girl wasn't gonna do that...I guess age has made me more cautious -- I know too much about what can happen if I were to crash.  However, neither of us wiped out all day!  We had a super fun day together and if money were no option I would go with her ten more times this winter!!

Lately...

I haven't had much time to blog lately -- been busy living life and enjoying the Christmas season.  Also had another hunting season (muzzle loader season) last weekend and have been battling a pretty yucky cold for about 2 weeks.  Just to update everyone on a few of the things that have been keeping us busy lately:

Today Skyler had her Christmas party at school.  I got to go and help out and see all of her friends "let loose" on this last "blow day" before their Christmas break.  Skyler admitted they did absolutely nothing educational today -- but had a lot of fun.  Because Skyler's class has a guinea pig -- they needed someone to take care of it over Christmas break...Skyler of course desperately wanted to be the lucky "mom for 2 weeks."  We, along with 10 other parents, gave permission for her name to be put into a hat...and Skyler's name was drawn.  So we now have ANOTHER pet, but this one is only temporary.  I have to admit that "Brownie" is pretty cute.  Skyler and I have already cleaned the cage, put in new nesting material, as well as fed and watered this little thing -- however, the responsibility on this one is all hers...as she would have it no other way.

Skyler also got out of school early -- so I got to spend some extra special time with her.  As part of her Advent Calendar gifts -- today she received a Gingerbread House kit from us.  So we got to try and create it together.  It was a lot of fun and turned out great!

Because of all the show we have had as of late -- when Paul and I aren't busy shoveling out elderly people's driveways (or our own) -- we have gotten to do quite a lot of sledding with Skyler.  Skyler would rather be outside 24/7 -- but sometimes the cold drives even that little hot-blooded girl inside for a bit.  The funny thing is that Shadow also loves to sled.  He grabs onto our shoulders as we are going down and runs with his hind legs behind the sled.  We got some pretty hilarious video of this as well.

We also got to go out to cut down our yearly Christmas tree -- this is such a fun family experience!!  Although usually it takes a lot of bickering (all in fun) and about an hour of trudging through snow and hills to pick out our tree -- this time, we walked only a short way -- immediately we all agreed and it was almost disappointing to find our tree so quickly.  I am quite sure that won't happen again.

Although many will spend hours upon hours shopping for those perfect gifts, even more time wrapping those perfect gifts, hours spent baking goodies and cooking the perfect meal -- Remember that Christmas isn't about presents, it isn't about Christmas trees or cookies, it isn't even about those dreaded family get-togethers that everyone is supposed to enjoy so much...Christmas is about a small child named Jesus who was born long ago in a manger...may we all take longer remembering that than all the time we take focusing on the other "stuff" that doesn't really matter.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

#22 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

#22 (yep, I skipped a few) of 30 - ok, I am starting to lose steam on this 30 days of thankfulness, so this will be my last post.  I could post about so many things such as my chickens who lay the eggs we eat, our outdoor cats who have NEVER allowed a mouse in our house, food in general since I love it so much (Paul knows that from the minute I wake up I am thinking about what I get to eat today), my heritage, my contacts that help me see, my garden which provided us with the carrots and onions in my wild turkey and noodle soup I have in the slow cooker today, etc...I have had fun thinking upon all that I am blessed with and now I am moving on...
So anyway, on to today's last thankfulness post, above is a picture I took on Saturday afternoon while Skyler and I were on stand together.  You can see Skyler is reading her book while her rifle lays on my lap waiting for an unsuspecting deer to walk by.  So I am thankful for the countless pages Skyler was able to read to help her pass the time when the timber was movin' a little slow.  But in between those pages Skyler was able to take in many sights that so many children today will never expeience.  Those pages helped her to sit for approximately 17 hours this weekend and she was able to see countless deer, squirrels, turkeys and birds for her patience.  And although we weren't able to get a deer to come close enough and stop where she had a clear shot -- we know that each hour in the timber she is growing and learning what hunting is all about -- and that is that hunting most of the time isn't actually "hunting" at all.  Hunting to us is learning how the deer move, to watch the little signals they give which allow us to know when they are calm, when they are nervous, when they will continue to feed or when they are tricking you into thinking they are feeding but they are actually about to snap their head up to try to catch a hint of movement.  We learn the signals they give which indicate they are not alone and it might be worth waiting for a buck to come sneaking up behind them.  We get to hear the way they communicate, anything from a stomp of the foot which sends vibrations of trouble through the ground, to a contented soft grunt which sounds more like a purr, to the flicking of their tails which on this occasion might be the "it's all okay sign" but a bit different flick signals that "something is not as it should be here and we have got to go."  To have the deer so close to you that you can hear them breathe and you worry that they will be able to hear your heart pounding from the adrenaline rush that closeness brings.  To the contentedness you feel when you are able to see a deer, allow it to come into range, know that a shot would have been easy but allow the deer to walk because today just wasn't it's day to die.  These are all things that cannot be learned from hunting videos or from hearing other's stories -- they are something that must be experienced and we are so fortunate that Skyler loves to experience all of those things with us.  So I'm thankful for Skyler's books, but on a deeper level I am really just thankful for what those pages in the books allow us to let Skyler experience -- and that is a good life  :)

My Buck for the Weekend

This weekend was shotgun season.  During this season we get to take our flintlocks out to the timber.  I was able to make my one shot count on this 9 point buck by pulling off a tough, quick shot behind me at about 70 yards.  For those of you familiar with a flintlock, the charge in the pan needs to ignite so that its heat can set off the main charge in the barrell.  Because I was in a tight spot my mitten was too close to the charge in the pan and when I shot it actually started my mitten on fire!!  I now have a hole clean through my favorite pair of mittens, but it was worth it!  Paul always keeps track of our stats and apparently this is a landmark deer for me -- my 25th deer of my life.  So now I am on the road to 50...

I had a great time on stand with Skyler at different times during the weekend as Paul and I traded off putting our rifles down and sitting with her.  Skyler loves to watch the Nuthatches and all of the antics of the local squirrel population.  After hearing them bounce around in the leaves for hours Skyler decided someone needs to invent a "squirrel bomb" to kill all of the squirrels so that we will be able to hear the deer coming easier.  I think I agree with her  :)

And finally Sunday afternoon Paul and I got to just hang out in a stand together.  It was one of our first opportunities to be alone the entire weekend and we had a great time watching deer and getting to reminisce about this weekend's happenings.  We always get to laugh a lot while we are jammed into this 2-person stand which is actually a better fit for one.  Good thing both of us are on the slim side -- I can't imagine being any bigger and fitting us up there.  Paul, I am still pretty sure you weren't scooted all the way to your edge...  :)  We had deer we could have shot but we were both just happy to get to watch the deer.  All but one of the deer we saw were actually calm and acting like deer when they came through which is uncommon this time of year.  Since both of us seem to enjoy "watching" and enjoying the deer more than just the shooting part that topped off my weekend and made it absolutely perfect.