Frozen Falls

These pics speak for themselves.

This is what McDowell Creek falls looks like after a week of below freezing weather. There are 2 trickles of water still flowing down the falls. One on each side of the falls. The center has no flowing water at all, just ice.

I took the pictures on December 10, 2009.

Fake deer or big fakers?

While driving through the woods the other day with a co-worker, we spotted this deer standing in the plantation about 200 yards from us. So, like we always do, we stopped to gawk at it and see if it had the gawker genes or runner genes in its blood. Since it is not hunting season, it is hard to tell because gawkers still just gawk and runners, knowing we cannot shoot at them legally, just stand there and pretend to be gawkers for us. Just as expected the deer just stood there and gawked. We got out the camera with the big zoom lens and the binoculars so we could gawk back. After several minutes of a world class stare off, we started to realize that this deer had not blinked, twitched, chewed, ate grass, turned its head, fipped its tail or any other thing that both gawker and runner deer are well known to regularly do. This deer did not move.

We began to wonder if this was one of those fake deer that game officers set out to catch those hunters that are so frustrated by all the runners running off out of thier sites before they can get an acurate shot off, that they start straying from the rules and guidelines for hunters set up by the agency that attempts to manage wild animal populations and start throwing lead in the direction of anything that looks like a deer, anytime of day, or night or from inside their vehicle or from a road.(there are laws about when, where and how to shoot at wild animals.) About this time, we notice a second deer doing the same thing. So we snap some pics and watch both of these deer for what seemed like an eternity, and niether one of them showed any sign that they were actually real deer. Finally, we came to the conclusion that these were in fact fake deer. There seems to be no way that even the world champion gawker deer could stand this still for this long and not at least need to scratch itself where one of its thousands of fleas and ticks is biting at it. The only thing we could do now was to walk out and get a close up picture of these two stuffed decoys.

So after watching them intently for over 10 minutes without any sign of life, I shut the truck off, we got out and started walking toward the fake herbivores. But to our supprise, once we hiked about 150 feet towards them, they both came to life and ran up and over the hill along with a third deer that had been hiding in the brush.

Then it came to me. These two gawkers were testing their gawkabilities against each other. The third one was judging to see who flinched first. Kind of a gawker deer world championships right here in our own back yard! I'm sure they got bonus points for convincing the 2 legged creatures in the noisy 4 wheel beast that they were not real. Now all we have to do is hope they continue this competition and forget about when the next hunting season starts. We just need to keep the ones with runner genes from infiltrating the area. So all the discouraged hunters out there have something to look forward to for next year. We have world champion gawker deer right here waiting to hold a pose for us come next October!

Things that I am thankful for from A to Z.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow. So I started thinking about all the things that I am thankful for. Then I heard this idea on the radio. Write down something that you are thankful for beginning with each letter of the alphabet. Some of the letters are harder than others. Here is my list.

A - Ability to work - So I am able to make a living and support my family.

B - Blessings from God - We are constantly blessed with much more than we deserve.

C - Creation - All of creation is so beautiful and wonderful to explore.

D - Daughters - They are so fun to have around.

E - Emma - My first born child and a great joy to watch grow and mature.

F - Free country that we live in. - Our great country that has provided up a place to live freely and prosper. We are greatly blessed with the freedoms we have in this country and that is a big part of the Thanksgiving holiday.

G - God the father - The reason we are here and the reason we are so blessed

H - Home - A warm place to live and enjoy life

I - Internet - Our only source of news and info since we do not have cable or get a newspaper.

J - Jesus my savior - Giving me eternal life.

K - Knowledge - Not that I have a lot, but I am thankful for what I have learned and the knowledge I have gained throughout my life.

L - Leah - Our newest bundle of joy.

M - Mom - For being my mom and raising me in the best way she knew how.

N - No cable TV - Canceled it after college football last January with the intention of getting it again for this football season, but it was so nice not having the distraction, that we decided not to get it again. We just have to go to someone else's house to watch the beavs play.

O - Outdoors - Its just way better than indoors, as long as it is out in the woods, not it town.

P - Physical Health - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Q - Questions - Especially ones posed by any one of little girls in our house, which either make you think, or make you laugh and wonder what their little brains are thinking.

R - Riah - She loves to snuggle up with me to watch movies together (gotta love Vegitales). She is kinda cute too, especially the freckles.

S - Sarah - Our 3rd daughter and constant source of amazement and entertainment.

T - Trials from God - Helps me grow and gain more knowledge and understanding.

U - Understanding - So we know why things are the way they are. Not that I have a lot of this either.

V - Vacation - A time of relaxing and doing fun things with the family.

W - Wonderful Wife - Loves me, takes care of me, the kids, the house, and homeschooling.

X - XXL - Clothes that fit are kinda important, right.

Y - Yesterday - Experiences had, lessons learned. All part of building that knowledge and understanding.

Z - Zion National Park - Looks like a fun outdoorsy place to go on vacation sometime.

Deer hunting 2009

Well, deer season is over for 2009. Here is a picture of what I was able to get this year.














As you can see, I did not get anything again this year. The only thing that makes this season better than last season, ( see last years post) was that, while I did not get to see a legal deer during the season, I did not put out any effort this year. I put out so little effort that if I had got a deer I would have almost felt bad about it, because I did not earn it! I did get to see some deer this year and saw some elk while taking a friend elk hunting. I did see 1 legal buck that I could have shot, but it was elk season and I was on private property. Then I did see 1 doe that wanted to get shot, but I was on the wrong side of hiway 20 for my tag, so I let her live. I am sure someone else has probably shot her by now unless she was really not a gawker and was actually a runner that knew I did not have a tag. In that case she would be able to tell if other hunters will shoot at her with or without a tag and won't stand there pretending to be a gawker.
I still have hope for meat in the freezer this winter though. I have an elk tag for January, so I will hopefully get one in the freezer. I only need 1 gawker to stop and gawk at me once the season starts, so stay tuned.

Hunting season 2009!!!

Deer hunting season for 2009 is starting this weekend. I was not really all that excited about it after last season.(see post from last year) But, there is nothing like seeing a bunch of bucks standing around asking you to shoot them to get the old buck fever juices flowing and make you forget all of last seasons woes. So now I am back in the killing mode. Have gun, tag, bullets and am ready to go throw some lead around and put some meat in the freezer. There is no way I can have 2 seasons in a row as bad as last year, right? So, after a trip to visit mom in Paisley last weekend, and seeing this

I am ready to go out and set myself up for more disappointment and discouragement. It cannot be any worse than last year though. If I just at least see a live animal running off in the distance, it will be an improvement over last year. The pictures are fuzzy because I was drooling over the deer all over my camera.(ok not really, I was taking the pics through the screen door of my moms house.)

Granted these deer are in Paisley, and I will be hunting in the cascades by Sweet Home. It still boosted my confidence that there will be meat in the freezer come November. It is amazing how seeing nice bucks this close to hunting season makes your bad memories go away. Check in later to see if I am successful at finding some more gawkers standing around wanting me to shoot at them.