Fun with a Snapper

On the way to teach and meet with my advisor, I saw this snapper crossing the road. I popped him into the trunk and promptly forgot about him until we were ready to head to Cleveland. I opened the trunk to get something and this snapper was staring up at me. The kids loved watching him snap at everyone. I have eaten snapper before and probably prefer a delmonico steak to be honest, but if times were tough....I could eat snapper. They have about 4 or 5 kinds of meat on them.

Biting at Kenton's shoe.

Video of snapper rolling over.

Papa Pours a Sidewalk

I do not have time to elaborate: I am busy; I need a sidewalk poured; Dad always wants to spend quality time with grand kids = Dad pours sidewalk.

Small explanation: I was in my office working on my portfolio and ran over to watch. My wife makes fun of me in my "slippers", and so I make fun of myself so it is not so funny for her. It did not work she took a picture. It is hard to get respect around here! :)

This is the way we play with mud, play with mud, play with mud....

Dinner came out before we finished.....and so we set our plates down. The cat promptly jumped up and chowed down. I was generous and let Blacky eat the whole plate.

Hydrogen Conversions Can Become Hydrogen Bombs

When making a hydrogen converter - make sure you wire it so that it shuts off when the ignition shuts off. This is simply done by accessing an ignition activated fuse instead of hard wiring. A simple relay can help run a stronger current straight from the Battery. If you don't - Boom. All the money saved in gas could be wasted with replacing the motor. Read more about it here: http://w2wkb.blogspot.com/2008/10/hydrogen-bomb.html

A New Genre of Music...

.....Rocket Music.
Alyssa brought my breakfast over to me this morning. After seeing my Ipod she asked what I was listening to. I took the earphones out and put them into her ear. I was listening to Porter Wagoner singing "Green Green Grass of Home". She went back over and announced to Mommy that I was listening to that Rocket Music. I am not sure how she got that from Porter Wagoner, but never the less we now have a new music genre - Rocket Music

One More To Go

I just finished my Educational Research course and will finish my VLP (Portfolio) in 1 week(that is if I do not lose my mind. I have one class left EDL557 Educational Leadership. After that April 17 I will graduate from Indiana Weleyan University with a Masters in Education. December 31 ends the course.

Kenton Bags Two More

Kenton's squirrel hunting ended up very successful despite a bad first day. On the opening day of the season he missed 3 squirrels. Yes 3! The worst part...one was the biggest fox squirrel I have ever seen and two of them were black squirrels. Yep! Ouch! He felt bad, but learned a 3 great lessons. Lesson #1 - Patience. Lesson #2 - Patience. Lesson #3 - Patience. His patience paid off.

Here we are after he missed two black squirrels.

The neat caterpillar that crawled over my leg. Its head is next to Kenton's finger but it looked like it had a head on the other end. Weird looking thing.

We were sneaking through the woods stalking a chattering squirrel that was scolding a deer that was snorting at the squirrel when Kenton spotted this big black squirrel sleeping on a big limb. We patiently snuck up till we were about 30 yards so Kenton could take a shot.

Then we headed over to a cool place that always has squirrels - a grove of beech trees. We sneak out to a hill that overlooks the grove and are usually eye level with tops. As we got to the edge the phone rang....it always manages to ring right when a deer or squirrel are ready to be shot. As I quietly answered my cell phone in my hunting voice( a terse whisper that lets the offender know we are being bothered while on an important mission) Kenton spotted this squirrel napping on a branch as well. One shot, one BB, and the squirrel dropped like a rock.

Tip for squirrel hunters: With the leaves on the trees it makes it easy to sneak around the woods, but it also hides them. All 3 squirrels were shot while napping in late afternoon.

A Little Bit of Weight

Calculated weight: approximately 5,500lbs+

The back boom was let down to counter the weight. I would have liked for the videographer to have kept filming as the hoe went higher but somehow the camera was stopped right at the best part.

The Beam is in Place

Thanks to Buddy and Lisa Carr our new beam is ready to be lagged into place. Buddy and Blaine brought the beam down after work Tuesday. The beam is an LVL Microllam beam which is designed to hold up a tremendous amount of weight for free spans. This beam is 1 3/4" by 16" and carries a maximum load of 18,484 lbs. This will hold our roof up when we cut out the interior support wall to make room for our expanded sanctuary and platform.

I am not sure what Roy Shumate was chuckling about.

The beam was able to slide into the windows just before we remove them next week. Tom Rodgers had cut a hole into the original part of the church and the beam is now laying up inside the overhead beams of the church.

Interesting Poll from KDKA

A poll from KDKA in Pittsburgh:

Did the final presidential debate change who you will vote for?
No, I will vote for John McCain.
63%
No, I will vote for Barack Obama.
20%
Yes, I am switching my vote to John McCain.
15%
Yes, I am switching my vote to Barack Obama.
1%

I think the debate helped McCain.

Pastors Appreciation Banquet

Our church has been so good to us this month. After planning a night out to eat with Tom and Cindy Misch we ended up at the Cranesville Fire Hall instead of the little Italian restaurant just down the road. Great job for pulling this surprise off. Here we are walking in.Ilene presenting our certificates of graciousness from the whole church. We are so thankful to our church family for all these gifts that they will be giving us throughout the year.

My beautiful family.

For more pictures see Julie's blog: http://gurneejourney.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-are-appreciated.html

Vincent's First Squirrel

The past two weeks have been crazy around here. I have been so busy that I have not been bale to do any scouting or even do any bow hunting for that matter. Priorities. I never thought I would get to the point that other things were more important than bow hunting, but things have changed. We worked at the church to finish the removal of the concrete and old doors from 7:00 a.m. till noon. Then priorities came into place. Everything stopped and we got the 410 and headed out. The leaves are still making it hard to see the squirrels and so we gave up after about an hour an not seeing anything. On our way out of the woods I saw this big red squirrel sleeping on a branch. I say big because red squirrels are the smallest of the squirrels. It was a momma squirrel that looked like she had raised quite a few. Vincent used the 410 and BANG it dropped like a rock to the ground. He was so shocked that it was so easy. He told me that he had decided if he got a squirrel on the first day he was going to keep hunting squirrels all season. Anyway, I am very proud of him.

Vincent is waiting for the squirrel do give him a good shot!

The moment after.

I am so proud of my little guy!

Vincent's Age: 6 years and 4 months

The Old Doors are Gone

I have no pictures for the door removal, we started at & and so we will have to start at the time my wife got out of bed (10:00). I now will duck as things start to get thrown my way! ROFL!!

Take note of who is responsible for laying the block. :)

I calculated the dimensions of the steps and found the weight: 5,743lbs. This will explain why the hoe tipped forward when I moved forward. The tires were spinning and not getting any traction until I let the hoe down to counter balance the weight. In brief the hoe was lifting more than it should have. Don't tell Dad. :) It is one tough hoe.

Chaining the concrete to the hoe.

I will add the video of this in another post.

The entrance way that has been used for 164 years is no longer a viable option for entering or leaving the sanctuary. It almost feels weird not being able to go out of the church that way. Then again I have only been here 4.4 years. Imagine the ones that have gone here for 80-90 years. (Yes we do have several that fit that category.)

Our New Water Reservoir

While at Larry and Betty's I grabbed a couple of photos of our new water reservoirs. There was a tree growing through one of them. He had planned on putting in a shallow well about 30 years ago but put in a deep well instead. He is donating five 36" I.D. x 30" high concrete rings for an underground water silo reservoir for us. My wife is very excited about this new development. I did some calculations and figured it would hold 6oo for us. I will install a switch that measures the amperage draw and water level switches. The submersible pump will pump into the underground silo and then I will install a Jet pump to pull it out of the reservoir.