Hammer Time

His word is like a fire
coming down like a hammer
shattering me into tiny pieces

Griswald Family Christmas

I love that movie...Clark is my hero, although I am pretty much the complete opposite. I feel like I am surrounded by Griswald's in my neighborhood. We have completely outlined in lights houses, we have inflated Santa's, snowmen, and Snow Globes! We even have a neighbor with singing Christmas lights...yeah, they get a little annoying after you've heard Jingle Bells for the 4th time in 10 minutes. Just about every house you drive by you can see the perfectly decorated Christmas tree with presents stacked all around it. They are all pretty impressive...until you look at our house.

I think we have the most bare home in the hood. Our idea of Christmas decorating is to leave our porch light on all night...it really sets the mood. We have no Christmas lights, no holly, no greens, no presents, no Chrismas tree, no wreath...zip, zero, nada. It looks like Scrooge lives here.

One thing I don't understand about this Christmas is all the news about church's being closed on Sunday. Its been like huge news on some tv stations here. I don't think these people get it. I think we all can get to caught up in the what day, what hour, what minute, what second to memorialize things in our lives. I have a hard time believing God cares if we celebrate Jesus' birth on December 24 or December 25. It makes you kind of wonder how many days people that have an issue with this have God part of their life...Sunday's only, biweekly, monthly, all the major holidays - "Chreasters" (Christmas and Easter only attenders). Thats my rant for the day. Maybe its because I am lacking energy lately, but it seems like an issue not worth the energy it is taking.

My Head

My head hurts today. To much thinking, to many decisions, to many problems today. It feels like my head is in a vice and its getting squeezed tightly...no more please. I need a haircut to, its getting that fuzzy look.

Thats about as deep as its getting today.

Rabbit Hunt # 3

This saturday I went rabbit hunting with two of my nephews and one of their friends. It was a lot of fun. Their friend brought along his English Setter...holy spaze-a-dog. It ran circles around my dogs...literarly.

It was a pretty nice day. If I had my choice their would have been a little less snow...the dogs and I get tired quicker in this amount of snow. We saw a bunch of rabbits. We ended up taking 7 of them...we could have had more, couldn't we Matthew.

For some reason my dogs were really wet and muddy when we got done...a bit of wisdom: Don't take a shower with your dogs after you trimmed their nails. Been there done that and it can be painful.

Rabbit Hunt #2

This past saturday found me and my nephew Matt chasing the bunnies with my dogs. Unfortunately due to all the snow my nephew Aaron and friend Brad weren't able to make it out. We always seem to do better with 3 or 4 people...must be something to do with 6 or 8 eyes and 2 more barrels.

When we got to our farm we got out of my truck and both gave eachother that look of...wow, its really cold and windy out here. That is not usually a good thing for bunnie hunting. But we are dedicated bunnie hunters and a little cold and wind isn't going to deter us one bit. So we bundled up, got the dogs out...who began shaking in the cold snow, and headed out for the brush. Like last week it didn't take them long to get on a hot trail. Unfortunately I got a call on my cell phone about the time the rabbit decided to take a detour towards me. So there a I am one hand holding phone to ear in mid conversation the other hand holding my gun...my brain was stuck somewhere in between the conversation on the phone and every other part of my body saying SHOOT IT! I quickly the other person on the phone had no idea what I was doing and if they all of a sudden heard a gun shot they might freak out on me. So I let the bunnie pass. My nephew ended up getting that rabbit five minutes later when he doubled back on the dogs and ran headlong into the path of my waiting nephew. Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids...

It was a decent day considering the weather. We hunted for a little over 2 hours and managed to get five rabbits. One of them did a death dive into the snow and was never recovered.

There is something about saturdays with snow, nephew(s), and my beagles. I love them.

I'm sorry

I feel its necessary for me to apologize. I got a new plow for my truck yesterday (long story we won't go into) and we got it all hooked up (the we does not refer to me in anyway another long story). So I was pretty excited yesterday afternoon and really wanted to test it out so included a request for snow in my prayers. Maybe I need to be more specific in my requests...2" would have been plenty, 7" was more than enough.

So to all the kids who got the day off from school...I am sorry school got cancelled :) That is the crazy thing with snow days, we don't think kids should try to get to school because its to cold, snowy, and dangerous out. But what is every kid doing today. I know what I did every snow day I had. I would be anxiously watching the TV or listening to the radio in hopes of hearing my school was cancelled. I'd do the victory lap around the house all excited I didn't have to go. Then we would all suit up for a day outside filled with snowballs, snowmen, sliding, ice skating, hot chocolate, snowmobiling and repeat. Yup, way to dangerous to get to school. May your snowballs and snowmen be big and round, may your hot chocolate be warm and chocolate', and may your sled slide like your on ice.

I have been up to long...I am going to bed.

Nighty night.

First rabbit hunt of the season

Ahhhh. Nature, snow, beagles, and rabbits. Saturday morning was a blast...even if we could only go for an hour. We saw a bunch of rabbits, the dogs ran very well for their first time out, but some of us need to work on our shooting. We ended up getting five rabbits...all in an hour. Most of the time was very exciting with the dogs almost constantly running rabbits.

My two nephews that I hunt a lot with are coming home this weekend...so watch out bunnies we're coming to get ya.

Early Mornings

If you ask my wife she will tell you I am an early riser. Sleeping in to me is 7. Lately like clock work I have been waking up at 4:15. No matter what I do...its turned into this strange game. I wake up, think about what time it might be...3,4,5,6,7...its got to be 5:30 by now, I look over at the clock and its 4:15. Every morning for the past few weeks its been 4:15.

Usually I lay there trying to fall asleep, I toss and turn, then I give up on sleep and try to talk to my wife... Mental Note: don't try to have a conversation with your wife between 4:15 and anytime until she wakes up on her own...your likely to get hit with a pillow or a knee.

I end up giving in to the fact I won't be sleeping anymore and get up. Today I was kind of excited to get up, I bought some waffles a few days ago and it sounded like the perfect Saturday morning breakfast. Have you ever had one of those days where your still not quite with it. The mornings where you put the cereal "away" in the fridge and the milk "away" in the closet. I had one of those days today, I caught myself pouring my "glass" of milk on to my plate...like I got out a plate and a glass, grabbed the milk out of the fridge and began pouring it "into" my plate. Its kind of hard to pour into a plate if you haven't tried it...glasses work better.

Rabbits are dangerous

Its official Michigan's regular firearm season ended last night. Thankfully we still have more archery, a muzzleloader, and a late antlerless season if the twitch and itch get to be to much.

For me it signals that start of my life again. It is crazy how much my life gets put on hold for the purpose of chasing a furry creature. It has been a crazy season. We took more deer off our farm then any year before, twelve. Twelve deer is a lot of deer. Five or six of them went to families with needs. That is pretty cool to see and be a part of.

Today also signals the start of another part of my life...the chasing of another furry woodland creature. The elusive and dangerous cottontail rabbit. Don't believe me, come along sometime. It is fun to get out in God's creation listening to hounds on the chase. I look forward to it. I know my dogs do...it seems like every morning I let them out, especially the days we have snow on the ground, they come back in all excited probably hoping that I am going to say, "Do you want to hunt the bunnies?". That will send them into a manic frenzy. Going into a closet and coming out with something orange usually gets them going to.

So Saturday I think I will test my mind against the dangerous cottontail. Penny and Abby...prepare yourselves, come Saturday we hunt.