Making the Churches Christmas Gift

Keeping Old Man Winter Out

Thanks to Blaine Cosner for helping me do some winterization at the church the last couple of days. We got the furnace room and rafters sealed up.

Hot Sticks

We had Julie's deer made into hot sticks.

All 25 lbs of it!

The Amish do a great job of it!

I then vacuum seal the bags.

Visit with the Wife's Grand & Great Grand Parentals

William and Phyllis Blair - Julie's grandparents.

Erma Blair - Julie's great-grandmother.

More Meat for the Freezer

Thursday night with the help of high winds and bitterly cold temperatures my 45 grain hollow point was able to travel 352 yards and secure some more meat. Luck...skill.....I guess it does not matter as long as the tag got filled.

The kids came out to congratulate me.
Kenton was with me when I got it.

A Morning on the Preserve

We are blessed to have great friends like the Hatchers. Kenton and I headed to the preserve early this morning hoping to catch a buck moving through. We had the best stand, a gun that is sighted in dead on, heat...what more could you want. Well besides deer that have antlers. Well shells would be great. I normally load the gun, but since Kenton is the hunter he has been loading it up. I thought he had, he thought I had, when in fact neither of us had. When we left the stand and went to get in our truck....I "unloaded" some air. Yep! NADA! Nothing was in the gun. I think we would have been pretty bummed if we had seen a buck and the firing pin had of fallen on an air shell. You live and learn.....we had fun anyways.

I Am One Proud Husband

I was very fortunate to have met my amazing wife 15 1/2 years ago. She is very special and continually does things that makes me say "WOW". She has kept herself looking well, does a superb job as a mother, wife, parsonage queen, and many other areas. One promise she made almost 15 years ago...I will hunt with you, but....and the list was long. Every year a new excuse or reason emerged. Some were legit and some were an excuse, but don't tell her I said that. Excuses were: getting up too early, too cold, loud noises, gun will kick, college, babies, and then she would start the list over. I built her a 30' 2 story tree stand equipped with propane heat. That took care of the cold issue. I bought her a nice Remington Model 700 in a 22-250 Winchester caliber and a set of ear plugs - no kick and quiet.

Here she is at 7:00 AM this morning.

The boys ready for some bucks.

Here she is putting a pic of the deer on Facebook.

One proud man and his one-shot kill wife with two proud sons.

I think everyone was very proud of her.

A dear with her deer!

Making Memories in the Mountains

Since I could not shoot any deer, I decided to take Kenton the Mountains. I took him to the spot where I shot my first buck. It was a great bonding time. We had so much fun.

Break of day waiting for deer.

The view of his shot. It was not an easy shot and he missed.

About 9:00 it started to rain and then snow and back to rain.

Keeping my client dry as a bone.

You know me, I love to talk. I struck up a conversation with this gentleman. We were reminiscing of the good old days. 25 years ago this place would sound like a war. Tons of deer running everywhere....I told him of my first buck kill and how I used to hunt with Daryl Rowan and Del Neely. He laughed....Dell was his dad. Larry had changed quite a bit over 25 years. We had a great time catching up. He was there the year I shot my buck. He loves these woods so much he drives clear from Dayton Ohio to hunt.

Me and my hunting buddy.

Making memories and having a blast!

Kenton was watching a deer through the scope and was concentrating so hard he had some rear wind action. He got to laughing so hard we had to move to a new spot since all the deer in the county could hear us both howling our heads off.

Kenton thought these two trees were cool.

Kenton loves drinking from mountain streams.

NCYC Represented at Keepville by Dr. Lyn Corder

We enjoyed having Dr. Corder and his lovely wife for a service to represent the Northwestern Community Youth Center. We enjoyed having them join us for dinner.

Shop Class

The Eldest Daughter Turns 6

Happy 6th Birthday Kendra!

Goal Completed - Another 4 Year Old Rides a Bike

When Kenton jumped on a bike and rode away just a few days after he turned 4 I decided to make it a goal that all of my kids do the same. So every year I had to do some jogging behind a bicycle. The last Gurnee child will be 5 this winter which meant I had my job cut out before the bikes were put away. It did not take much to get Alyssa pedaling. The champion of the Albion Fair pedal puller started pedaling like she had been doing so for many years.

CONGRATULATIONS ALYSSA!!

A Joke for Church Hoppers

Louie was shipwrecked and lived alone on a desert island for years until he was rescued. Before leaving the island, he gave the rescue party a tour.

"I built myself a house. That's it there. Here's the barn, and over here is the church I worshipped in."

"What's that building over there?" one of he rescuers asked.

Louie sneered. "That's the church I used to belong to."

Enjoying a T-Bone from T-Bone

The Deer Cutter

Mark Fultz - Deer Cutter Extraordinaire!

13 Roasts

New Windows for the Kids House

I Love This Time of Year

Burning leaves, bow hunting, bon fires....and my beautiful wife!

Kenton Prepares for Winter

Kenton bought 5 hay bales and a Oats/alfa bale.

Lining them up for use later this winter.