Hunting...

disclaimer: If you aren't a hunter and are morally opposed or otherwise against hunting, stop reading now. I'm not interesting in arguing about this issue. Thank you.

Those that know me know that were getting into my favorite time of the year. I've never been into the stick and ball sports. I never really played them. One year of each sport as a kid and I knew I didn't like them. I was the kid that couldn't hit, couldn't catch, and spent the year of t-ball out in right field picking clovers without a clue as to what the hell was going on. Luckily, my Dad was a hunter. I don't know how old I was the first time I went hunting, but let's say I don't remember NOT going.

Hunting was a family deal. My Dad and grandfather (mother's dad) hunted together and I usually got to sit on the stand with one of them. My grandfather likes to tell the story of me packing 2 Hot Wheels cars (one for each of us) in the hunting bag so we could play with them in the stand. One day I'll tell more stories about that.

I've got some pretty strong feelings about hunting and the ethics involved in it. We put quite a bit of time, effort, and money into deer management out at our ranch. This involves working with local wildlife biologists and a game management program to deal with issues such as habitat, food sources - both natural and supplemental, and water. It's more than the average hunter's deal of filling the feeder with corn and sitting in a stand to wait for the deer to come.

The reward for our hard work is the ability to see quality deer. With that reward comes a few things that I view as responsibilities to make sure you are being ethical with the hunting.

My first rule is that a weapon never goes out for a hunt before it has been check for accuracy at the range. You would not believe how many people will take the rifle out of the closet and head for the woods without bothering to sight in the rifle. I've never wounded a deer or had to track a deer I've killed. I have flat missed a couple of times, but I've never wounded one. (aim at the neck - it's a small target - you will either have a clean, quick kill, or you will have a clean miss).

The second rule is that you never attempt a shot you aren't sure you can make. It's almost impossible to hit a running deer and make a clean shot, so why even attempt it? There will be another chance at another time.

I know that some people have varying opinions, and I could one day change my mind, but for now I won't shoot a doe that has a yearling with her. Some of the experts say that they are old enough to fend for themselves, but there is still something about it that I don't like.

That's some of my main thoughts. I should probably say that while I really like hunting, part of what I like is the watching. I haven't killed a deer in a couple of years now. I've seen a bunch, but I've mainly enjoyed watching them do what deer do. One of these days I'll remember to take some pictures while I'm watching them.

I'll write more on this subject in the next couple of weeks.

Is there anyone else reading here that enjoys sitting in the woods watching the wildlife do their thing?

MICE...

A week or so ago, Shelly was organizing a few things in the pantry and came across evidence of a critter loose in the house. A package of peanut butter cheese crackers had been chewed on and some little droppings were on the bottom shelf. Let me tell you, there is NEVER just one mouse when you see evidence of a critter.

I went out and picked up a couple of glue traps and put them in the pantry, baited with a piece of animal cracker and a dab of peanut butter. That should get them. The next morning, one of my traps had been successful - sort of. The trap was moved and had all sorts of mouse hair and droppings on it, but no mouse. It must have been a heck of a show during the night. I wonder what Sweetie the Chihuahua thought about it. Surely she heard the commotion from her bed not 10 feet away.

Well, I moved the traps around a little, and put one in the garage behind the freezer where there was some mouse poop. About an hour later, I had a mouse. A quick thump to the head and he was history. One down, hopefully not many more to go. Back in late 2001 we had a mouse in the house. A couple of months later, I had caught 14 or 15 mice, one rat, and one baby rabbit on my glue traps. (the baby rabbit was carefully removed and went on to be eaten by a resident owl a short-time later). Thankfully, MOST of the critters were in the garage and not in the house.

Well, fast forward to Saturday. We had gone to the College Station to see the Aggies play (that's another rant for another day). We got home pretty late and I was checking the traps. I was looking in the corner of the garage near one of my storage cabinets that REALLY needed to be cleaned out and saw more mouse sign. Lots of mouse sign. Like lots of paper and stuff that had been chewed up I opened the cabinet and saw IT. A mouse nest. Crap, those little jokers were setting up housekeeping in my garage. No mice visible, but there was a nest. I set a glue trap and also put out a fancy new electric trap I bought. War has been declared.

This new electric trap is pretty slick. You put in 4 AA batteries and put a little bit of peanut butter in the trap. When Mr Mouse walks in to get his snack and steps on the little metal plates ZAP! I'm happy to report, the trap works as advertised. 2 Mousies down.

I got up early Sunday morning and started cleaning the garage. A full I have a trashcan full of JUNK that needed to be thrown out and found another nest in the clutter. In the next night or two, I'll finish the job and once again have both cars in the garage.

I wonder how many more I'll find. I checked tonight and there were no more signs (droppings) in the areas I cleaned out yesterday, so maybe there aren't too many more. One can only hope...

Preempted...

Shelly claims that she needs the computer tonight for legitimate purposes. We took a vote on whether her use was more important than blogging. Matthew and I voted for blogging. Shelly claimed that her one vote was the winner.

I may need to request a recount. Must have been some illegals or dead people voting on her side when I wasn't looking. Maybe Al Sharpton will come supervise the recount...

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow.

Pop Quiz...

ok, pop quiz time. Staci, you are not allowed to answer since I already asked you.

What's the first thing you know?

I'll give you a hint... It's not your name, your mothers voice, etc. This question requires that you think outside the box a little.

Leave your answers in comments. I turned off the comment moderation for now so it's easier for you to post. What does the winner get? I don't know, how about bragging rights? Maybe I'll let you pick the topic for an upcoming post (and I can ad lib my way through a posting on your topic of choice)


Bonus joke...

Here's a bonus joke for you. It's one of my favorites (told in my best Cajun accent).

Boudreaux, Thibodeaux, Comeaux, and Fontenot were sitting around trying to think of what the fastest thing in the world is.

Boudreaux says "It has to be a thought. When you have a thought, before you know it, there it is. Now that's Fast."

Thibodeaux says "No, man, it has to be a blink. When you blink, it happens just like that (snaps fingers). Before you know it, you done blinked and it's over. You hardly even notice you've done it. That's fast."

Comeaux says "Yeah, those are fast, but Electricity is even faster. When you turn on the light switch, BOOM, the lights are on. When you turn the switch off, BOOM, darkness. Now that's fast."

Fontenot said, "Yeah, those are fast, but the fastest thing in the world is diarrhea." The others said "You're crazy. How do you figure that it's faster than the other stuff?" Fontenot answers "Well, when I woke up this morning with diarrhea, before I could think, blink, or turn on the lights, I done crapped my pants."

That my friends, is fast.

Big Ole Bag O' Toys...

For the last several weeks, Shelly and I have been attending a parenting course called "Love and Logic". Before Matthew was born, we took one called "Growing Kids God's Way", which is supposedly similar to Babywise. Of course, being the good parents we are, we don't put much of it into practice. We have picked up a few things. This one teaches you some ideas to get things across to the kids and get them to do what you want to do without always harping on them. Not completely bad.

I put one of the idea into motion tonight. It was time for Matthew's bath and the living room was a mess with all of his toys. I told him that all of the toys he wanted to keep, he needed to pick up. I would pick up and keep all of the ones that were left when he was "through" cleaning up. A few minutes later, he told me he was ready to go upstairs. I asked him if he was sure, there were an awful lot of toys left that I would be keeping. He was sure.

Man, he's going to be PISSED tomorrow evening when he starts looking for his toys. I seriously have about 2/3 of his toys that are currently downstairs, and almost ALL of the ones he really plays with. I have a pirate ship, "Lightening McQueen", all of his tools, all of his Hot Wheels trucks, his Bob the Builder hat, and several other items. I guess we'll see if this stuff really works.

Redirected...

Growing up, my family never was into camping, but I've always thought it was fun. I camped out when I was in the boy scouts as a kid, but nothing since then. That changed this year. Last Christmas I asked for and received a tent. This isn't just any tent, it's an SUV tent.



The problem with the camping is that in the Houston area, there are very few weekends that are suitable for tent camping. It's too hot most of the year, and raining the rest of the time. But, I'm determined to take my son camping, so on the 2 or 3 good weekends each year, we'll go out and sleep in the tent. One thing I learned on our first outing... Camping is fun and relaxing, but when doing it by yourself with a 3 year old, it's a TON of work. Did I mention that Shelly gave me the tent with the stipulation that I not involve her in any of my "fun"?

Shelly is not a camper, especially not a tent camper. Unfortunately, more deluxe camping accommodations (RV, etc) are not in the budget, and apparently never will be while she is involved with our finances. Have I mentioned that she has the initials CPA and CFP behind her name? Needless to say, that argument is pretty much done - no RV for this camper.

As of last weekend, the plan for this weekend involved loading up the camping gear and a certain 3 year old for a trip to the local state park. The weather is perfect, the Chamber of Commerce would be proud of the weather we are having. Mid 80's during the day, high 50's overnight. You couldn't order up better camping weather. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Apparently, there were many chores for me for this weekend that were deemed more important than camping with the little guy.

What's so important? I think it must be nesting. Most pregnant women supposedly go through it at some point. Well, she's jumping in with both feet. A professional organizer spent part of the day at our house on Friday to help Shelly figure out how to best deal with the mountain of stuff that is our kitchen. This spills over into the pantry and laundry room since they are all in the same vicinity. The time with the organizer was a gift from Shelly's mother. Unfortunately, the $200 trip to The Container Store last night wasn't included in that gift.

So, instead of spending the afternoon in communing with nature, I hung up all manner of racks, sorters, broom hangy things, etc, etc. Really, that was just an hour or so. I also mowed, edged, weed-eated, trimmed bushes, took the truck for an oil change / transmission service (wasn't in the mood to do it myself), and had both cars washed. After that, I went to the grocery store, cooked dinner, then cleaned up after dinner. Yes, Shelly was busy today also, but this is my blog - if she wants to talk about her busy day, she can get her own blog.

The consolation - Shelly has agreed to go camping with Matthew and me in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how that goes when it happens.

In other news today - the Aggies beat Nebraska. Ok, so Nebraska sucks this year, but at least it wasn't another loss for the Aggies. Yes, Katie, even with the win, Fran should still keep working to find a good realtor. Maybe he'll even sneak out in the middle of the night like he did for you guys. I still say it's pretty sad when our 300 lb running back has the 2 longest passes this year (50+ yards each) and our QB has the most rushing yards on the team.

Frog Hunting...

I guess it is the unusually wet spring and summer we have had, but we have a TON of frogs. As a matter of fact, we had just over 5 inches of rain at my house Monday afternoon. The frogs seem to keep themselves pretty well hidden during the day, but at night they are pretty easy to find. They seem to mostly hang out around the edges of the flowerbeds, near the stone borders, and along the edges of the sidewalk, right where the grass meets the concrete.

Several weeks ago, I took Matthew out with a couple of flashlights and we went "frog hunting". Well, the kid now loves frogs. He insists on frog hunting almost every night. He stalks the frogs with a flashlight. Once he finds one, I shine my light on it and he puts his light next to the frog and the frog. After holding it for a second and laughing, he places them in the grass.

Last night, he picked up a little frog. just before he put the frog down, I heard "hey, the froggy tee-teed on my hand". That was pretty funny, especially coming from a kid that a few months ago hated to have dirty hands. Yes, I did teach him that we have to wash our hands good with soap after handling frogs...

Well, tonight, Matthew wasn't having any part of missing out on the frog hunt, so we grabbed our lights and hit the sidewalk. After finding several, I sent him in the house while I retrieved a few items from my car. As I walked in the house, Shelly was leading Matthew out saying something along the lines of "I don't allow frogs in my house". Evidently, Matthew faked dropping the last frog and carried him in the house.

Yep, he's ALL boy. I guess now we'll have to start checking his pockets to make sure no critters get snuck into the house.

Comcast Sucks...

We have been sheep for many years. TV from the local cable company, high speed internet from the same group. Phone has always been with BellSouth, AT&T, or whoever the local remnant of what once was Bell Telephone is. When you do it that way, you likely pay more.

Well, we pay in the $90 range for the basic digital cable and broadband internet. They were through Time Warner, but Comcast recently took over. It's not a good change. The price of the cable boxes went up to $7 each, and the sports package is going from $4 to $8. They are also starting to charge a rental fee for the cable modem, which was always free from Time Warner. Basically, nickle and diming you to death.

They have been really pushing the VOIP phone deal, and have been advertising a $99 deal for digital cable, cable internet, and the VOIP phone deal (Phone over the cable internet). Shelly called and held for over 20 minutes. when the guy finally answered the phone, he told her we were not eligible since we were already customers. It would cost us about $130 or so. No negotiation, no customer courtesy adjustments available.

Looks like Direct TV and DSL are in our future. Shelly writes the checks to pay the bills, and they pissed her off. Basically, they bit the hand...

What do you want to bet that they kiss my butt 9 ways from Sunday and offer me the moon when we call to cancel?

(un)SCREWED...

Last night, after dinner, I heard Shelly in the living room "Where do all of these screws keep coming from?" There were 8-10 little silver screws on the living room floor. She found a few more the day or so before also. After investigating a little, I noticed Matthew playing with Felipe'. For the parents of little kids, that is a character from Disney Channel's Handy Manny. Felipe' is the Phillips head screwdriver. Ok, he has several toy screwdrivers, etc, but somewhere he had found one of my real screwdrivers.

The mystery was starting to come together... Now, where did the screws come from? Was our house about to collapse from missing fasteners? It IS a Pulte home... After a quick check, it was discovered that a couple of his toys had empty holes where screws once lived. After a good laugh, and banishing Felipe' back to Daddy's toolbox in the garage, we could once again say "This Mystery Is History"

Blaming the dog...

While I was out of town for the weekend, my parents kept Matthew so Shelly could get a little rest and get caught up on some stuff around the house. Matthew had a ball, especially since my sisters daughter that is about the same age was also there with him.

At one point on Saturday, Matthew and Allison were playing in the sandbox on the back patio and Matthew had to use the bathroom. Of course, for him that means stripping from the waist down and peeing off the edge of the patio. That's my boy. Even funnier was that earlier in the day he had done the same thing, and Allison also stripped down and was trying to pee off the patio like Matthew did. Poor thing. Mom had to explain to her that little girls couldn't do it like that. Matthew had announced several times this week "Only boys" when asked about "tee-teeing in the grass".

Well, this time, Matthew needed to take care of a little more than just whizzing off the patio. He announced that he had to poop. Before Mom could tell him that they needed to go in the house, he turned around, stuck his behind out a little and dropped one right on the patio. My parents didn't know what to think. Of course, they called me and gave me a hard time about raising a kid that would do such a thing.

Now, the question is - Where on Earth did he learn such a thing?

I blame the dog. She does it all the time.

Whooped...


That's Southern for TIRED. Or is it whuped?


Bro-in-law and I headed up to the ranch Friday evening to get things ready for deer season. The guy that looks after things at the ranch for us took care of the food plots for us. I think he planted 2,000 lbs of oats, so our food plats are going to be pretty nice this year. With that done, all we had to do was was fill the feeders and check all of the stands for wasps. Sounds easy, huh? Well, 1300 lbs of corn, 100 lbs of milo (for the wild turkeys), a bunch of grass cutting, and several cans of wasp spray later, we're through.


Thankfully, the weather was near perfect. It was in the lower 80's with a decent breeze, and it sure felt good to be working outside. We started early Saturday morning, and knocked out most of it by around 2:00 or so. We stopped, had a sandwich for lunch, and then turned on the Aggie game. Man, what a disappointing game. The Aggies stunk up the place. You sort of expect more from a team with a $2 mil per year coach. Too bad we can't send him back to Alabama.


Of course, I forgot the camera, so these are pics from a few months ago.

It's that time of year again...

Fall is in the air. We have a few weeks of college football under our belts(Gig 'em Aggies), and it's time to start thinking about heading onto the woods. Folks, it's almost Hunting Season. Yes, I know dove season, and numerous other seasons have already opened, but I'm talking about Deer Season.

I'm leaving tomorrow after work for the ranch. Bro-in-law (Shelly's brother) and I are heading out to filler feeders, ready stands, relax a little, and perhaps shoot at a few doves. Of course, we also have satellite TV up there to watch the Aggies and the NASCAR race. I promise, I'm not completely redneck. I still have all of my teeth, and Shelly and I were not related before we got married. Hey, I live in the South, what do you expect from me?

I'll try to take the camera out there and snap a few pictures, then I'll explain my deer hunting "style" to you. I get picked on by friends and family, but hey, you might as well enjoy yourself when you are sitting in the woods - who cares if you never really kill any deer...

In the coming weeks, I'll wash all of my camo clothes in scent free detergent, hit the rifle range, and generally be useless for anything else. Sounds like fun to me.

Physical training starts tomorrow...

I opened the e-mail and got the message I've been waiting for. It's an invitation to join in a charity bike ride benefiting the Make A Wish Foundation. It's just less than a month away, so intense training has to start soon. I plan to start training tomorrow morning.

Of course, this deal isn't quite as big as some big name events, like the MS 150 or the Kyle Petty Charity Ride, but everyone can't participate in every event.

No, friends, this event is different. It is tailored to a different crowd. It's a bike ride like no other (Along the same lines as Frank Costanza's Festivus for the Rest of Us. - something for everyone else).

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Tour de Donut. Imagine the idea behind this deal. You hop on the bike and ride down the road. Before long, you come to a checkpoint loaded with as many donuts as you can cram in. Each donut you consume knocks 5 minutes off your ride time. Think of it... If you play your cards right by riding fast and downing donuts like that Japanese kid eats hot dogs, you could actually finish the race before you started.

How will I train? Will I drag the bike out of the shed, air up the tires, put on my little biker shorts, and strap on my helmet? Not me? I'm driving my happy butt down to Shipley's and working over a few hot glazed.

BIG NEWS!!!

Several posts back, I opened up about a little of the trouble we've had this year. Well, Matthew is happy to announce that there is a baby sister in Mommy's tummy. Actually, we're not sure what it is because it's still too early to tell. Matthew's request for a baby sister has been duly noted, and hopefully we are able to give him what he has asked for.

We're only 10 weeks along, but at least we made it past the psychological point of 9 weeks, 3 days that our 1st miscarriage took place. Of course, there is still quite a ways to go, but the doctor had a pretty good round of tests done a couple of weeks ago, and everything was good so far. There is another appt next week, so keep your fingers crossed (and keep us in your prayers also). We are excited, but there is always a little worry in the background.

The good news (sort of) is that Shelly has been pretty sick for the last several weeks. We take that as a good sign since Shelly was pretty sick for the first several months she was pregnant with Matthew, and not so sick for the 2 pregnancies earlier this year. I guess it's good that she has evening sickness instead of morning sickness, so getting up and starting the day isn't too bad for her. The flip side is that she's pretty grumpy in the evenings and doesn't feel like doing much besides going to sleep. Man, our house is starting to look a little rough inside. Maybe I can con my one of Matthew's grandmothers into coming over one day and doing a little laundry and perhaps cooking a little dinner (Mom, a roast with rice, mushroom gravy, and purple hull peas would be excellent...)

Oh, I almost forgot... In addition to the "baby sister" in Mommy's tummy, Matthew has also reported that he has a Clifford in his tummy. That's Clifford as in Clifford the Big, Red Dog (Google it if you've never heard it). We have no idea where that came from, but it was pretty funny at the time. Kids can come up with some pretty funny stuff.

I'm BAAACCCKKKKK!!!!

Man, it has been quite a while since I've updated. Hopefully all of you find this post before too long. I think I had a few regular readers before I started being a bum and not posting. Leave a comment so I'll know you folks are still around.

What's been going on with me to keep me from posting? Much the same as always, just pretty busy in the evenings for a couple of weeks there. The problem with blogging is that if you don't keep up with it, it's hard to get back into it. I've not really know where to start because there is so much to talk about. I'll catch everyone up on what's been happening over the next week or so. Some of it involves pictures, so of it just involves a little typing to work the stories out. Sit back, and hold-on, because the next week or so might be a little busy. I promise, there will be a few good stories, and maybe a laugh or 2 along the way.

Next Post... Big news...