The Greatness of....

Wedding

2010-04-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my sister Melissa and my new brother-in-law Tyler. The Mercers started their life together on February 20^th, 2010. It was a beautiful wedding and I was so glad to see those two unite. I don’t have any pictures from the actual ceremony yet, but please enjoy some pics from the rehearsal and reception.

Albuquerque 2010

2010-03-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

This is at the top of the Santa Fe ski area

Perfect snow for skiing

Sunset over Albuquerque at the top of Sandia Peak

Most of the time I spent away from home over the past few months has been due to work. Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel, but it gets a little old sometimes. Airports, fast food, hotels, boring government training, you can see how this would get old, right? I’m thankful for my job and for the most part I look forward to the travel. I have found that with a little extra effort its easy to make work travel a workation. Is that how you spell that (work + vacation)? Anyway, its good to have the opportunity to do that, but having a travel companion makes it better. I am even luckier in the fact that I have friends that will tag along with me on some of my more interesting travel destinations. On a recent training detail to Albuquerque I had the great pleasure of being joined by Shannon. WE HAD A BLAST. We left a few days before my training and went to Santa Fe and skied and enjoyed the local culture a bit. Great food, a perfect new 3 inches of New Mexico light and fluffy snow, and southwest scenery you just can’t beat.

Albuquerque itself ain’t to shabby. They have some good dinning options and some pretty cool outdoor stuff to do. While I was in class Shannon did lots of hiking around the Sandia Peak area and just exploring around. After class we went up on the Sandia Peak tramway, watched a great movie (Crazy Heart), and just plain old relaxed around the hotel. Before we left I decided I would try my hand at some snowboarding. I think I may be getting old because I hurt in places I didn’t even know I had for the next few days. The main difference from skiing is that both of your feet are locked together which doesn’t leave lots of room for a quick recovery. Easy things like getting off of the ski lift and getting up off the ground are fairly impossible. It is pretty dang fun however, and I think from now on I’ll snowboard when I have a chance and try to get good at it, or until my body just won’t take it anymore. Whichever comes first. Enjoy the pics

How we spent most of our time snowboarding

If your on your butt a lot, you might as well enjoy it.

San Diego 2010

2010-03-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

The flight deck of the Midway, SD skyline in the background

Anchor Room

Ready room for pilots

Sorry for the lax in blogs over the past month and a half or so. In all honesty I have not had time. Matter fact this is the first weekend I have been home for the whole weekend I think so far this year. So while my laundry is laundering, I am going to catch you guys up on some stuff I have been doing.

I got to go back to San Diego this year. This time it was all business, no job offers. In last years blog I mentioned how much I loved that place. This year it was pretty much the same feeling. That city is awesome. On one hand I’m glad I didn’t move there (traffic, family, friends, Texas, etc.), but its one place I will be going on vacation to, hopefully yearly. My buddy Mike and I went the weekend before my conference and thought it would be a good idea to head to the mountains east of LA to do some southern California skiing. Bad idea. Snow storms, LA traffic, heavy rain, high winds, on and on it went. We decided to head back to SD and enjoy the weekend there instead. We ended up spending a day at the USS Midway. I love old navy history and that ship is one of the most historic ships in America.

San Diego is great but I was sure glad to get home after a week there. Once again, highly recommend that place. Go as soon as you can.

PETCO Park

Did you ever see Master and Commander with Russell Crow. this is the boat it was filmed on.

A soviet sub from the Cold War era

Walmart Clown

2010-01-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

Did you guys see this? I laughed for days!

all the decoys in the world

2010-01-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

Public lands hunting is hard. Most hunters know this and you can ask those hunters what the most difficult game on public land is – ducks. Some may say deer but I think that’s just because the opportunities to hunt big game on public lands is much more limited and restricted, at least around these parts.

Nope, its ducks. Scouting, big lakes, access, fighting for good spots, decoy layout’s …….not getting in the line of fire of other hunters, it all makes for a tough hunt. That doesn’t even take into account the most important factor of all. Texas is at the bottom of the US. Ok now that that’s established please consider the following migration routs.

http://www.birdnature.com/allflyways.html

As you can see, by the time most ducks get to Texas they have seen a lot of decoys and heard a lot of duck calls not to mention most have probably been shot at a time or two. They get hard to hunt needless to say. Even after all the scouting and early morning hikes sometimes you just cant convince the ducks to decoy for you. What I saw this morning confirmed that. We had a great decoy spread and a perfect location but I swear, every time the ducks came over and gave our spread a look, they went the exact opposite way. Never mind a call; they’ll just turn the afterburners on. I’m not a pro duck hunter by anybody’s standards, but a weekend like this one really wears you out.

I can’t leave this post without a couple of positives. First, time in the field with good friends is always worth it (check out Rob’s last post). Second, I’m still amazed at God’s handy work. I just can’t get over that. Last, well I’m out of points…...

Wouldn't you want some of this if you were a duck?

Firewood Retriever

2010-01-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

Thought y'all would get a kick out of this.

My partner Tim and I were patrolling around the lake the other day and came upon this odd situation. Tim got out of the truck to open a park gate and when I drove through he had this weird look on his face and was pointing at a dog. The dog just appeared out of the woods and looked like he was on some sort of mission. I noticed the large chunk of firewood hanging out of his mouth, which explained the confused look on Tim’s face. The dogs owner came walking up about that time and explained that his dog had been retrieving firewood for years. He went on to say that the dog has just always had a helpful spirit and what better way of helping his master than providing him with firewood, for warmth, cooking and log cabin construction materials.

We issued the dog a ticket for removing firewood from public property and had him return all the firewood he had stolen over the past few years.................Just kidding:)

Texas Deer Season 2009

2010-01-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

This season at deer camp was one of the best yet. Everybody ended up taking a good buck and either a doe or a management spike buck. I finished my season this past weekend with a solid seven point buck. Not a trophy by any means but one I was real happy to get. I would post some pics but I decided to do something a little different for this post.

Most hunters go into the field for the same ultimate outcome – game in the freezer. It’s a good reason to hunt but for most of the general public who doesn’t hunt its hard for them to understand. “Why do you spend so much time and effort for wild game when you can go to Wal-Mart and get what you need”; they think but are polite enough not to ask. There’s a whole mess of reasons “why”. But how do you explain the amazing and unbelievable things you see and hear (or don’t hear for that matter) to folks who never get up before the sun, or spend a whole day out in the wilds alone, watch a hawk snag dinner right out of the field, or a couple of tom turkeys spar. They don’t actually ever watch the sun go down second by second and contemplate how finite and precise God has made everything in nature to run like clockwork, day after day, after day (with or without man I might add). The above photo was taken on the last morning of my Texas deer season this year. Ill share it instead of the deer we took and hopefully you can enjoy a little bit of what I had the pleasure of experiencing many times this year, and hopefully Ill experience many more times to come. I won’t ramble but I would like to offer this suggestion. Make time to get outdoors, make it a family and friends event, and make it often.

Mellisa's Graduation

2009-12-29T15:09:00.000-08:00

I was glad to watch Melissa get her diploma from Texas A&M and celebrate the occasion with friends and family including Melissa’s fiancé Tyler and his family. It was really good to have the whole family together and a lot of fun seeing it all come together for her. She really did work hard at her degree and I see big things in her and Tyler’s future. Congratulation Lissa!

NYC

2009-12-22T18:40:00.000-08:00

It’s always good to get back to New York City. It’s been about 15 years since I was there at Christmas but out of all of the times I have been, Christmas is the best time to go. This time around I went with my cousins Beth and Becki and Becki’s husband Michael. It was a quick trip but we made the most of it. My aunt Karla just had a baby and lives in NJ so we went over there and visited. We where glad to welcome little Lily into the family and be the first ones to see her. Don’t know much about babies but its apparent good looks run in the family. The rest of the time was spent down town, Central Park, a Radio City Music Hall Rockets show (or is that Rocketts (the famous dancers (high kickers (girls)))), Carmines Italian Restaurant, Times Square, FAO toys and Macys. Great city, best friends, and fantastic food, you just can’t beat NYC at Christmas.

I think that's it

2009-12-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

So over the last few months I slacked, but I think I got most of the trips and hunting stuff blogged that I wanted to tell you guys about. My goal from this point on is to just hit the major stuff as it happens. Ill put the New York City trip up the first part of next week and probably my sisters graduation from TAMU the last part of next week. Hope you enjoyed the past few postings. Duck season and a trip back to San Diego soon to be blogged. Thanks for reading

Memphis and Hot Springs

2009-12-16T18:01:00.000-08:00

One last thing till I’m caught up.

This summer I had the great pleasure and opportunity to date a fantastic girl. My cousin introduced me to Shannon around April and invited us to go on a double date with her and her husband. It was a blind date and I usually have a rule against that but I’m glad we both agreed to go. Long story short, we hit it off and before I knew it my summer was fully set with fun dates, great conversation, and a true caring friend to talk with, laugh with and just all around chill with. It wasn't without its ups and downs but looking back……I couldn’t have picked a better girl to spend the summer with. You can tell from the tense of this post that we are no longer dating and I won’t go into the reasons why. I will say that we are still friends and that life can be a bit confusing, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Good, bad, or indifferent the relationships we have during our lives are what make life interesting. The following is just one great memory from this summer. I’m not happy this one didn't work out but it’s a good example of the point I'm trying to make.

I had to go to Huntsville Alabama in September for work and Shannon drove out to meet me and drive back to Texas. She’s great like that and really has an adventurous spirit. We decided to go back through Memphis and Hot Springs to check out the local scenery. We ate BBQ in Memphis and spent the next day at Hot Springs National Park. Cant tell you what a great time we had and I’m so glad to be able to share these pics with you.

Beale St., Memphis

Hot Springs NP

Kansas Hunting Trip 09

2009-12-15T17:44:00.000-08:00

My buddy Chris confirmed the good news with an email, “You have successfully been drawn for a 2009 Kansas white-tailed deer archer tag”. Woo hoo! I figured it would take at least three maybe four years to get enough preference points to get one of those sought after tags. In years past people have waited that long, especially out of state hunters. I was stoked needless to say and could not wait to start planning this trip. I hadn’t really bow hunted that much the past five or six years. It use to be my favorite type of hunting but that changed after I shot a good buck and never found him. Still don’t know where that deer went but I felt horrible about that and decided I would just use the big guns to take game humanely and quickly. After a few years I started to get the itch again. This go-around I really focused on shooting my bow at least 30 minutes a day, practicing hard shots, becoming proficient with my shot placements and making sure my archery equipment was in great working order and not skimping on things like broad heads and bow strings. Practice, confidence, good equipment and patience make’s bow hunting just as humane as gun hunting. It’s like this- good ammo, clean, sighted, and well oiled guns will do a better job of humanely harvesting game animals. The same is true with archery equipment.

All that said, I really love bow hunting. It’s a different experience from gun hunting all together. It usually consist of early season heat, shot in the dark tree stand placement’s, long backcountry packs with tree stands strapped on your back, close but no cigar encounters with big bucks, hours and hours in the tree stand, waiting, and when it does all come together it is usually over in a moment. That moment is worth all the work. How do I explain this? Never have done drugs of any kind but a pure shot of adrenaline goes through your body and the buck fever takes over making it impossible to keep your hands still and your knees from shaking. I got that moment in Kansas. Weeks of planning and talking with land owners for access to their property, equipment checks, a long drive from Texas and a few other unsuccessful early season deer hunts all added up to this moment.

After a long mornings hunt I gave one last look around and started the task of climbing down from my tree. I had removed some of my camo and wasn’t paying much attention when I heard a tree twig crunch behind me. I turned around and saw a nice buck standing broadside to me at 25 yards. I was caught off guard. I scrambled to grab my bow and knock an arrow. After getting into position, drawing my bow and settling in for the shot the buck gave a perfect opportunity and…………..It all happended so fast but the aim was sure and the arrow flew true.

After the moment and as I was trying to get my body under control, I finally managed to send Chris a text. It went something like this-

Got one.

Got one!!!!!!!!!

Big!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh got one hes big

Oh im gonna pass out!!!!!

I was 25 ft up in a tree so passing out wasn’t a option. I got down from my tree stand and waited for Chris to come so we could track the buck I just shot. While I was waiting thoughts started going through my mind. ‘Did I get a clean shot? It looked clean. I don’t know, seemed a little high. Oh dang I hope that deer didn’t run off. Is there a blood trail? How can I find that deer if there isn’t a blood trail? Ill never deer hunt again if I cant find that deer.’ And so on and so forth. Chris finally showed up and the tracking began. We went 60 yards and there he was. The practice and equipment proved lethal. That deer never knew what hit him. I was pleased and once again hooked on that most wonderful challenge of real deer hunting in God's great creation. Cant wait till next years archery season!

The First Morning

Pheasant

(look close)

My Kansas Buck

The local bar/grill. Good Food, Great People.

Tarleton State University 09

2009-12-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

A year ago October I overscheduled a couple of trips with some close friends. One trip was to New Mexico on a mule deer hunting trip and the other was supposed to be back to my alma mater Tarleton State University. I thought I was good with the dates, but wouldn’t you know it, I scheduled for the same weekend. If you know me you know it was an easy decision as to which trip I would be taking but as soon as I got back from NM I put down on my calendar the 2009 Tarleton Homecoming. This year, I made it back and had a blast. I know it’s strange and sounds like an older guy trying to relive his college days but the truth is I didn’t really have any college days while I was actually at college. There was concerts, friends, school clubs, BSM and such while I attended Tarleton but for the most part I was focused on my job (I was actually a Ranger while I was in college) and on graduating as quickly as possible. Looking back I really made some bad decisions and should not have been in such a hurry, but hindsight is 30/30, right? Yes, I was focused and extremely blessed to have a good job while I was in school to help pay for things but the college experience is more than sitting in class and making a point A to point B path to a degree. If there are any college kids reading this, make a note of that last bit.

Either way, it is what it is and the here and now is what’s important. In recent years while living and working in the metro-plex I have actually met lots of people from Tarleton. Most of these people are close friends and co-workers that were actually there when I was there. Our paths never crossed then but now I can see how timing is extremely important, God’s timing that is. No doubt I would have liked to have met these people while I was in school and do all the things you do with friends while in college but going back for this trip made me realize a few things.

1. The time I was at Tarleton was time well spent.

2. The money my college job provided me was really the only way I was able to get through without a huge debt, even if it did take away from my actual college experience AND that college job turned into a career I really enjoy.

3. I was much more immature in my college days; I didn’t need the free time. Enough said.

4. I’m blessed to have the resources and friends with resources to go back for a weekend, enjoy the festivities, and then leave when all the kids have to go back to class on Monday. HA!

Bonfire at the school farm

Purple Poo

All in a days work

2009-12-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

The transition from Lavon to Grapevine wasn’t to bad. Matter of fact it was the right move for my career and I'm glad I did it. the staff is great to work with and my lake manager is a pleasure to work for. It's been a smooth transition.

For those who don't know about the life and times of a Ranger, I thought I would give a quick blurb and then show some pics of a recent outing. The long and short of it is being a Corps Ranger can be a challenge. We administer 2,500 recreation areas on 460 projects nationwide, 360,000,000 visits per year on 12% of the nations total federal park lands and protect over 12 million acres of lands and prime natural resources. To put that into perspective the National Park Service’s Yellowstone National Park is 2.2 million acres alone. That’s just the recreation side of the Corps. for all of that there are less than 2,000 Corps Rangers nationwide. It’s a handful but most Rangers wouldn’t have it any other way.

The reasons why we become Rangers are simple, love of people, parks and natural resources. Honestly though most of us just want to be outside and be able to work in the nations park land areas. The nature of the job requires certain tools to accomplish our management goals and we use these tools to do just that. For example, we use boats, 4x4’s, horses, bikes and of course ATV’s. Since coming to Grapevine I have had my share of adventures, heck most every day is an adventure of some kind. To illustrate this I thought I would share some pretty cool photos of one of our recent outings patrolling the wildlife management area on the north end of Grapevine Lake. Its tough work but somebody has to do it:)

Lets go Flying

2009-12-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, like many little kids, I wanted to be a pilot. It’s a fairly natural thing I think. The desire to want to get up there with the birds and be able to look down on Gods creation. I wasn’t any different and went through that stage. I even took a flight lesson when I was 13. My instructor took me up in his Cessna airplane out of Red Bird Airport and we flew around the Dallas skyline (pre 9/11) and then back to the airport. I loved it but sometime between that flight and 2002 I decided being a Park Ranger was a better idea. Don’t laugh, its true. So I pretty much rote that off as just a phase.

While working at Lavon I met some pretty interesting people. One of which is Kirk Wood. Kirk had a friend that would take him up in his airplane every so often so when Kirk gave me the invite I jumped all over it. The date and place was set and Kirk and I met his friend at the airport. It was just like I remembered, the takeoff, turns, barrel rolls, and landing, well maybe no barrel rolls. Flying is fun but in a little airplane it’s a whole lot more real. We flew over Lavon Lake and I got to get a birds eye view of the parks and resources I worked to protect and administer for the last three years. It was a totally different perspective and a real good way of going out. Thanks a bunch Kirk!

Alaska

2009-12-02T20:41:00.001-08:00

Alaska was great. if you ever get a chance to go, jump at it. It is truly one of the most magnificent places on earth. You think you have seen it, pictures, movies, screen saver, etc. but its just not the same. Aside from being one of the most incredibly beautiful places on earth its also a great place to travel to with friends and family. I got this opportunity and was able to share it with some of my most favorite people. We took a week long inland passage cruise from Vancouver and ended in Whittier, Alaska. It was one of the most fun things i have ever done and I'm pleased to share the following photos with you. Enjoy!

Update, I promise

2009-12-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

I know I have been falling down on the job with this blog thing. I guess I have just been real busy, at least that’s the excuse im using. So, my plan is to do a series of blogs over the next few days to get the 6.5 people who follow this blog caught up. Don’t know why it matters, the people who read this already know what’s going on with me for the most part. I guess I do have some pictures I’d like to share so I will just do a small blurb then put lots of pics. If your anything like me you probably only want to see pictures anyway:)

For starters I just wanted to pick up where I left off in June. In my last blog I said I was going to Alaska. Well, I did. And then I came back. Lots of stuff happened between that trip and now. Girlfriend, no girlfriend. Went from ranger at Lavon to ranger at Grapevine, and plenty of good hunting trips. I got to fly around in a friend’s airplane over Lake Lavon as kind of a going away, farewell to that lake. I traveled from Huntsville Alabama to Memphis and then on to Hot Springs with Shannon. I even went back to Tarleton State University with friends for my first ever Tarleton football game and homecoming festivities (three years there and I couldn’t seem to find time to be a college student till now).

In the next few weeks I have some cool stuff coming up that ill share. Im going to New York City, my sisters graduation from Texas A&M, maybe another hunting trip to Arkansas and back to San Diego in February (just a conference, no job offers). My advice to my 7 followers (I just got confirmation from one who was on the fence about this blog)…..stay tuned

2009-09-01T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well folks I’ve been busy. Not really busy, just lazy I suppose, especially when it comes to this blog. I have however accomplished a lot in the past month. As most of you know I made a quick move to Grapevine Lake to Ranger over there for a while. Its been a smooth transition and im glad I made the move but I sure miss my friends from Rockwall. I was kinda just sitting around today (yes im at work) and thought to myself, self, you should blog. Let people know what you’ve been doing. So I got my fingers warmed up and…………..

I forgot what I wanted to say:)

2009-06-06T05:28:00.000-07:00

Got to get this in before I leave. I am on my way out the door, going on a cruise to Alaska with some of my most favorite people in the world. Alaska would be something I think I should blog about if I’m any kind of blogger at all (its debatable). So be looking for some photos and a new post coming soon about this trip.

I would also like to update with what’s been going on the last few months. It would take a while to put pen to paper and get all the details, bends and turns, ups and downs of my life into this post, and people have better things to do. So in short:

I ended this years hunting season with a couple of successful turkey hunts in Hill and Dickens county. Hunted with my buddy Derek in Hill down around Aquila and Whitney and scored a nine inch tom on a Tuesday night and then a seven and a half inch tom the next morning. Derek hunted hard but was unsuccessful that hunt. We then went on a trip with our dads out to Dickens county just down the road from the famous Pitchfork Ranch and 6666 Ranch. It was a hard hunt but Derek scored a nice bird and his brother zapped a good nine inch tom with his bow. It was his first turkey kill and his first time to turkey hunt. Come to think about it, I cant stand that guy:)

nine inch bird

Derek and me with my 7 1/2 bird

I had an opportunity to go see Kenny Chesney with my sister and some friends from Hillsboro this year and what a show that turned out to be. If you will all remember with me the biblical torrential rain downpour we received on May 2nd you can then imagine Pizza Hut Park and 25,000 soaked concert goers in an outdoor venue. IT WAS A BLAST. The rain poured so hard it would get in your ears and nose like you where swimming in a pool. I expected the show to get cancelled but I guess Kenny liked it. He just kept playing. At one point it was coming down so hard the band had to go in but Kenny got his guitar and a microphone and went out into the middle of the arena and played an additional two songs. It seemed like the harder it rained the more fun it got. Me and my sister befriended some folks sitting around us and had an unforgettable time. It was great. Lightning finally forced the show to end and truth be told it was time. Because of the constant rain we only really got a couple of good photos but this is my favorite, you can see the stage in the background. Good seats.

Melissa and me at the KC concert (pre flood)

Last but not least I should mention a couple of things I think are pretty important concerning jobs, friends, and family, stuff I have had on my mind recently. Jobs come and go and can only fill a part in your life that really isn’t all that significant in the long run. A clean, safe, friendly work place is important for a bunch of different reasons and your career is a major part of your identity in this world, but it is what it is, a job. I guess each person just has to decide what’s important to them then prioritize. Faith in God, A loving and supportive family, Close, there when you need them friends, A job that allows me to retain the aforementioned and then all the other stuff (hunting, fishing, camping, etc.). These are the things most important to me and in that order, the first three being vitally important. I came to this realization after being offered my “dream” job in San Diego this May. A federal game warden position with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the countries most beautiful city. Take home patrol vehicle, the best natural resource law enforcement training in the country, probably the world, opportunities to do work details all over the country, lots of firepower, training at the worlds foremost law enforcement academy and supplemental training at the National Conservation Training Center (club Fed), short retirement, hazardous pay, the most beautiful office in the world – the wilds of America, everyday at the beach in SD…... I could go on and on about how this met every criteria I had 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 2 years ago, a few months ago concerning a job. When it came down to it I was humbled and honored to be given the opportunity but it just didn’t meet one criteria that I had. Is this where God wants me? It was painfully obvious but I was on the fence about it until I got back from SD to try and make that determination. It really came through in a big way and I remember as the plane touched back down in Dallas exactly what I had to do. So I am still here and dang glad to be. I have a few endeavors I will be chasing going into the second half of this year to include best man duties at my buddy Lane’s wedding, establishing an updated career plan (now that my priorities are a little more prioritized), and focusing on opportunities to establish new, I think very important, friendships, and of course building up old ones. Now if I could just stay focused…………………. Hey look at that pretty bird.

This is Border Field State Park. This was is the southern tip of California where the border wall actually goes into the ocean and the southern point of where my patrol was going to start. Actually a nice area and the locals attribute it to this new fence, regardless of the politics. http://www.trnerr.org/border_field.html

This area is Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge located in mid-bay area south of downtown (SD is in the foreground). http://www.fws.gov/sandiegorefuges/

This is "A Tribute to Bob Hope" and the main statue is Hope surrounded by cheering service men and women representative of every branch and every conflict from WWII to Desert Storm. Hope participated in the USO in all of those conflicts. it should be noted that whatever stereotypes exist concerning California and their stance on politics and the military, it was clear to me that San Diego was very proud of the military and proud to be a Navy city and it showed. The rest of the country could take a lesson in my opinion on both the border and honoring the troops - including Texas. Sometimes the truth aint popular. http://www.portofsandiego.org/public-art/greatest-generation-walking-tour.html

This memorial was in the same area as the USS Intrepid and the Hope tribute. This is a monument to the brave men who died on the USS Hoel including my uncle Ralph Falkner. Reference: Battle off Samar - Taffy 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hoel_(DD-533), its a great sea battle story of WWII. I got a weird feeling when I saw this because it was just by chance I happened by it and stopped to look at. I have some of Ralph's things and a picture but this really hit home.

2009-05-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

Did this get me to the top of Amanda's blog?

November 2008

2008-12-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since my last post and I know that all six people that read this have been waiting in anticipation for some knew info to be posted here, so here you go. For the most part I have been running all over Texas and New Mexico looking to fill my deer tags. No luck as of yet. I mean it has really, really been a tough year so far. I have had a great time trying to find those deer though, and I have seen some huge bucks this year, just none within rifle range, or they were across property lines, or in my headlights way after shooting hours. My friend Chris and I went to NM in mid October and hunted the muzzleloader season. We had a great time but as I said no deer. I then went back to NM a couple of weeks later with my dad. He was also unsuccessful. Deer season started up in Texas that next week and I have spent about 10 days in the deer stand since the opening without any luck.

I guess what I am getting at is that I don’t have any dead animal photos to share yet, but I do have some non-dead animal photos I want to share. The first three are photos of the scenery from my deer stand. The last three are from a duck hunt I went on with some buddies I used to work with at the WB ranch down on the Brazos River in Whitney TX. We meet back at the ranch once every year or so to do some duck hunting and regardless of whether the ducks show up or not the scenery is fantastic, I think you will agree.

2008-10-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

You know what makes Texas so great? Big Tex. And a bunch of other stuff, like Aggie land for example. For the last five or so years my sister and I, and our cousins Becky, Beth and Jenny, and in the last few years Beth’s husband Chris and Beck’s husband Mike have all met up at the greatness of College Station for food, fun and relaxation. The tradition started when Becky went there for her undergrad and has continued with my sister Melissa attending. It’s a great time and seeing how I have a blog this year you folks get to experience some of the fun. Anyhow, these are some of the photos from this past weekend trip. Enjoy.

Jen and Beth

Roxy, Me and my dog Willie

Melissa, Beck, Jen, Beth

Beck and Mike at the Chicken

the whole crew at Potato Shack

a good week

2008-09-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

Max and Me

Well I finally got to see the great Max Stalling live at the historic Greenville Auditorium along with Guy Clark and Terri Hendrix. Unfortunately I got there late and only caught two songs, but they were great and now I am more determined than ever to catch a whole show. My friends Lane and Lizzy went along with me and we had a great time regardless. I was also able to go do some dove hunting this week with three of some of my favorite people, my dad, grandpa, and Uncle Bill. It was a great hunt and even this late in the season we had plenty of shooting, bagged 28 altogether. http://www.maxstalling.com/

Papa, Dad, Uncle Bill

Chicago

2008-09-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

Went to Chicago this week. I liked it. It was kind of an impromptu trip and I wasn’t quite sure I was going until early Monday. I had a ticket to the Chicago Cubs / Milwaukee game and thought, why the heck not? I asked the boss if it would be ok to take Tuesday off and before I knew it I was on my way to Chicago. I wasn’t able to get a direct flight so I had to transfer in Newark NJ then on to Chicago. Luckily the flights were all wide open so I had plenty of room to stretch-out and relax. Met some interesting folks on the flight, landed, figured out the public transportation system, saw some sights, went to the game, ate some great food and headed back to Dallas. The city was great and most of the people were friendly but I got to admit I was kind of disappointed, it wasn’t all that windy.

Wrigley Field

Soldier Field

The man eaters of Tsavo at the Field Musem. They ate 140 people before they were killed. (The Ghost and the Darkness)

The Most Wonderful Time of Year

2008-09-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

O yeah. It’s that time of year again folks. The air is getting a might bit cooler, there was no room for infomercials on the TV because of all the college football, new seasons of King of the Hill and The Office is right around the corner, deer season, camping, weekends off, and I’m starting to see more and more ducks show up around the lake. In preparation for the season I have decided to officially declare summer over (sorry kids –get back to school) and started work on my winter wildlife food plots at the deer lease and some choice areas around the lake. One friend made a genius observation last weekend at the movies stating, now that the kids are back in school you can actually enjoy the movie you are paying to watch. Come to think of it I think our crew was the only one in the movie except a couple sitting a few rows in front of us. She was right, there was no kids there to spoil our movie, in fact I think the only disturbances came directly from our group Yes, it truly is the most wonderful time of year.

Some photos of my friend Mike and me getting the ground ready for wildlife food plot planting.

Jersey Trip

2008-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Just got back from visiting my Aunt and cousin in New Jersey. It was a quick trip but well worth it. The first thing you notice when you get off the plane is that the air doesn’t feel like a blowtorch or a sauna, very mild. I have been to the city numerous times but I always jump at a chance to go back. We didn’t do a whole lot but we did ride the Staten Island Ferry and visit ground zero. We also went and ate dinner at Carmine’s, the best Italian food around that I know of.

startup

2008-08-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

My objective is to make this as non blog as possible. I will simply be sharing photos and insights into my easy going lifestyle. No real opinions and such can be found here.