Saturday, January 31, 2015

More organizing and cleaning

The pictures really tell the story of what went on around here during Christmas break and beyond...

Since that time, I have sold nearly everything that I've cleaned out of drawers and all of Hailey's old clothes and toys.  Nothing feels better than getting rid of stuff that is no longer needed.  The extra cash is always helpful too! 












Saturday, January 3, 2015

Last day of Hunting :(

View from our tree stand
Jeff got us a two-person tree stand so that we could both be up there at the same time.  He installed it at the top of the mountain, so we took the 4-wheeler up most of the way. Both mornings that we made it up this week it was chilly and a little windy.  We were up in the stand by 6:00 or 6:30 and it was still pretty dark.  


My camo pants, thanks love ! 
The first day that we went we saw 6 does around 9:15 am.  It was my first day out and first opportunity to shoot something so between my nerves, the shadows and then the deer seeing us, I didn't get a shot off.   However, I saw a coyote for the first time and lots of woodpeckers.

Jeff keeping an eye out
The second day that we went hunting we didn't see any deer, but we did see a family of raccoons running around.  There were 6 of them!   It was a like a raccoon gang coming through the woods, noisy little suckers.  I was making up voices for them in my head and could just imagine them talking to each other with northern accents like they were part of the mob.  Doesn't everyone do that?  I tried to take some pictures, but they were moving all over the place and I didn't have a good camera.


View from my side of the stand
Shortly after the raccoons left the scene, I saw a bobcat cross the path in the same place that I saw the coyote. We were able to watch it with binoculars for quite a while as it moseyed through the woods.  It looked to be 20-25 lbs, a big fellow.  It was really cool to see one since most people don't get the opportunity.


Our cozy space
Besides freezing toes, it wasn't unbearably cold either day.  I'm lucky that Jeff made sure I was outfitted in the all my gear before we ever got out there.  The jacket my dad got me for Christmas worked great under my camo.  It would have been even better if I hadn't forgotten it the second day!

You can see three of the six raccoons walking down the hill in a line.  

Friday, January 2, 2015

Happy New Year

 Jeff and I spent New Year's Eve with both girls.  We picked up some KFC which neither of us had eaten in years, made some tiramisu for dessert and then sat down to watch a movie while the girls played.  They were troopers and stayed up until midnight.  Hailey was so tired that she started crying and laughing at just about everything.  

We had front row seats to some nice fireworks that someone at the airport put on. We ended 2014 with a bang, literally.


Two peas in a pod, looking for the fireworks

Running around in the cold watching them
Back inside to watch the finale
Jeff and I had New Year's day to ourselves.  We cooked some stewed tomatoes, black eyed peas, cabbage, cornbread muffins, and instead of corned beef we had turkey.  It was quite yummy.  We called it an early night so that we could get up for our last day of hunting season!