another beautiful morning...

well, i've been on 3 turkey hunts this spring season and have come away successful on 2 of them. as you may recall from my previous post i told you about all the crawling i had to do. not the case this morning. this mornings hunt could not have been scripted any better. i got into the woods a little early, which is a great thing, because that gave me a little more time to get my decoys set up and my ground blind set. i got nestled well before daylight and as the sun started to kiss the sky i gave a few hoots with no response, i was kinda surprised. i later heard the real hooties belting a few notes and still heard no respose, and i was starting to get a little nervous thinking our gobblers had relocated somewhere else. by this time the sun was well on its way to lighting up the world and i decided to let out a few yelps to wake those birds off the roost. i really only heard a hen or 2 and maybe 1 gobbler a couple hundred yards to the south. after a few minutes i saw a hen fly the roost directly over my head, land in the field, and continue south right out of the field i was in. about 20 minutes later a saw what looked like a big dog, but turned out to be a doe getting her morning meal, it was a beautiful sight. i then got to see a hen make its way towards me to within about 20 yards, then turn south and exit the field. i later heard both those hens yelping and cuttin' back and forth so i decided to join the party and then the gobblers decided it was time to talk. i heard a gobbler about 200 yards directly in front of my but had no visual. i gave a few more calls and before i knew it i saw 4 tom's walking directly at my decoys, which were set up to the right of where i was sitting. i give another real soft yelp to make sure they know i mean business and they just keep right on tracking for my decoys. i let them get to about 30 yards and decided that was all my heart and nerves could take. i pulled the trigger and down he went, what a beautiful sight, and it was only 6:30. i really enjoy being able to get outdoors of a morning and see all of God's creation come alive and take it all in and then get to use my skills against that tom's and see if i can trick him into thinking i am a real turkey. well, today i won, but i know it won't always be that way so i will take 'em while i can get 'em.

bear grylls...

no matter what you think of the guy, he is crazy. we've all seen the footage of him on the volcano and how close he was to a major highway. none the less, you still have to check his latest blog...

bears latest blog

gobble gobble...

as you can see from the above picture, brad and i had a successful day one in the woods. we were about 60 yards from this bird and the trees you see in the picture were between the bird and us. after belly crawling down a small hill and back up 30 yards ahead of where we had originally set up i hid behind a tree. after a few minutes evaluating the situation from above the grass line i saw that he wasn't even 25 yards ahead of me and had no idea that i had moved closer. i got into position very closely and he turned around for just a minute to give me an opportunity to get my gun up. after bending down for one last bite of food he raised his head the rest is history. i was absolutely ecstatic to take this bird down by 7:40. thanks brad for being a great guide!

events...

i just got home from a very exhausting day of corralling kids...well, not really...i spent the entire day driving to and from branson and enjoying a wonderful meal eaten with only my hands at dixie stampede...i know it doesn't sound like the best thing in the world but i had a great time and so did the kids...also, in a little more than 24 hours i will be perched up next to a tree waiting on a big tom to come into range...can't wait, even if i don't get anything it will be great time spent with brad...i have to get outside to mow the lawn because tonight is the big return of two great shows, grey's and lost...can't wait!!!

blake, great job...we really enjoyed...

blake, we loved the play...it has been a long time since we attended a play, especially a high school play...and it certainly didn't seem like it was 2 1/2 hours long...we'd watch again anytime.

is this kobe bryant...in a word...yes

the next time you think you are ballin' in your local pick up game...just think about trying to jump a moving car...or don't

what a week...can't wait till it's over

this week has been great and i've spent most of my time reading MAP tests, today i read for 3 hours solid (forget about not being fair to me, i couldn't believe the kids, they were real troopers, i was very proud), scouting for the upcoming turkey season (thanks to an unnamed individual for hunting permission. i can't give away the source because i'm afraid everyone would show up opening morning because of how great this spot looks), picking ticks off myself and winston (just picked one off my head about 5 minutes ago, i thought a harsh winter was supposed to take care of all that), and digging pagers (singular) out of the toilet. yes, that last one is true but i can't take credit for actually digging it out. i will have to give credit on that one to holly and someone from her squad who took care of it this morning while i was at school.

anyway, i'm going out early (6am) tomorrow morning for one last scouting tour, just to make sure we will be set up properly opening morning. i have a track meet with some of my kids on saturday morning. they are participating with sporting chance at parkview at 10am, it should be great. not sure what else i have in store for saturday, maybe a little fishing at the river, maybe. not sure of holly's schedule yet.

and, the office is on tonight, this week really is winding down quite nicely!

wii olympics...a championship video

i'm pretty sure everyone was totally exhausted, and still loved it. enjoy! to view all the videos from the wii olympics just click here

the 1st annual wii-olympics

and the winners are...


and the losers are...

there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears poured into representing our country, which certainly paid off...really, there were no losers...we had a ton of fun and are glad you all were able to make it...can't wait to do this again...

winston had a big day

first, winston and I ran from our house to gary and lisas which is about 5 miles and then winston decided lisa had not had enough partying so he decided to put on the cap and party like it was 1999.

happy birthday lisa...from winston

happy 39th...if it's not i'm going to cry...

sneak peak...let me know what you think

this is a video i made that will be seen this coming sunday. i hope you enjoy, let me know what you think.

just not today...kenny chesney...

i bought his album last year when it first came out and mostly just listened to a couple of songs and really didn't pay much attention to rest of them...mostly because he didn't write any of the songs on the album...i usually love the songs he writes himself...so, the other day while working on taxes (not mine, others) i decided to play my entire collection of chesney songs which is way to many...and as the songs played this one really caught my ear, so much i had to stop what i was doing and play it again, and again, and i just loved it...it has been on my mind ever since and i listen to it quite often...i know some of you don't like country music, why?, i don't know, but you can't say this song doesn't conger up some memories of your childhood, when life really was simple...somedays, i really miss those days...

crazy tornado pics...

i know you're wondering if i took these, but i had just passed the camera to my partner prior to getting into the optimum picture taking angle. on a more serious note, i really can't believe a tornado touched down in buffalo and we had no idea at fg. i hope everyone there still has there belonging after hearing about the looters, and i hope all the fish at my fishing hole are safe and sound, seeing as my favorite fishing hole is about 2 minutes from where the twister was. anyway, hope you enjoy.