December 23 Office Window Snow

We had 6" in Leadville last night, 10-12" in Avon, and they reported 17" on the ski slopes. Its not easy to hang out at work in these conditions. I would rather be skiing, but someone has to show up.

Sean, Jennifer, and the boys showed up on Friday. We cut a Christmas tree on Saturday, went to church on Sunday, and skied at Ski Cooper on Monday. Jacob and Jennifer did not get to ski because Jacob got sick Monday morning. They are going out with Heather and the kids later this week and I'll take all the kids up on Saturday also. I don't have any pictures because I left my camera here at work over the weekend, but I did get some good video of Sean digging himself out of a faceplant in the powder and Lane actually doing a face plant in the powder.

I'm hoping to get out this afternoon looking for a cow elk to fill my rifle tag. If my tag was good for unit 45, I could easily fill it. I'm seeing elk everyday when driving to work.

Bow ( Oct. 19, 2007 - July 2, 2008)

I finally took Bow's picture down from my cover photo. Remi has now taken his spot in our home, but Bow has not been forgotten. I was more attached to Bow than the rest of the family was and it is probably the same with Remi. It is incredible how much a part of our lives they become in such a short period of time. We had Bow from late Dec. 2007 to early July 2008. Remi is now just as much a part of our every day life as Bow was. These are a few of the photos I took of Bow during his short life.


The above photo was take while Bow was still w/his litter in Nov/Dec 2007.

This was just after Bow came home with us the weekend before Christmas 2007.

We did routine walks in the snow at Turquoise Lake. My snowshoe tracks can be seen in the photo. Bow is 13 weeks old in this photo.

Our walks during the week were at night. We were walking in the snowfall at Turquoise Lake in this photo.

This was Bow's first and only exposure to birds (quail) on our April 2008 visit to IL. I took him over to Wendel Wright's house in Paducah and let him get his first smell of a game bird. Needless to say, he liked what he smelled. I was pretty proud of him on this day.






These last two photos were taken in late June a couple weeks before Bow died. We took our walk at Twin Lakes and Bow did several water retrieves. He was a retrieving fool.

Office View

This is the view from my office window. I will probably never have a better view from an office. I may make this my "cover" photo if the fog clears from BC and I can get it in the photo.

Ski Season

There has been quite a bit of snow here for a while now. The last series of storms and those that we are experiencing right now have sealed the deal on what appears to be great skiing for the Holidays.

Ski Cooper opens on the 19th. We have season passes again and are ready to get on the mountain. Even with the "Epic Pass" for Vail/BC being sold at such a discounted price, the cost for three kids and two adults was more than we were willing to spend. If we lived in the Eagle Valley we would have bought them, but the cost along with the drive made it impractical.

Our Christmas visitors (Sean and family) will be here in a few days (19th). I don't believe they will be disappointed with the snow. It will probably take them a few days to acclimate to the altitude (10,152 ft) in Leadville, but I'm sure they will be OK. I'll assign them each a snow shovel and that should speed up the process.

Expect to see lots of skiing photos soon. I'll hopefully have another elk photo soon. My late season cow tag started on the 15th and continues until 1/15.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Remi has grown a lot since I got him in August. He has claimed us as his own. The bay window is a favorite of his to keep tabs on us and the neighbors. He likes to stand there in the window and watch me when I leave in my truck.

We will be in IL on the 21st and will leave for CO on the 29th. We are looking forward to the visit. Heather has planned out where we will be and when we will be there. I will spend more time at Mom and Dad's or Sean's house since we will be bringing Remi with us. Hopefully we will get to visit with everyone.

It sounds like the church (Mt. Sterling) will be having a chili supper and hay ride on the 22nd, so we plan to be there. We will celebrate Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad at Mom's on Wednesday night and spend Thursday at David and Gretels. In between all of that, I'll bowhunt with Sean a lot and hope to drag a doe or two out.

Winter is approaching

Olivia and I took Remi out for a walk and released a couple quail for him. He is definitely "bird crazy" and hunts like a dog on a mission. I've not seen the same inclination to point out of him that I did with Bow at this age, but Remi pointed more as a pup than Bow did. So, I still think the point will come around, but I really need to get him on wild birds. Maybe I can find some quail in IL when we come to visit over Thanksgiving. Regardless, he is ours and we wouldn't trade him for anything.

Looks like we will be visiting IL over Thanksgiving. Our plans are to arrive on Friday the 21st and leave on Saturday the 29th. We will spend most of our time with family, so if you want to visit you will be welcome to stop by. I will bowhunt (of course), so finding me may be difficult.

The photo above is Olivia with Mt. Massive and Mt. Elbert in the background.

Winter is here.

We had our first 1" of snow Monday then Tuesday night/Wednesday morning it snowed 3 or 4". When we got home from church last night at 8:45 it was 17 degrees. That isn't that cold if it was December, but it sure seems cold right now in October.

The kids are getting all geared up for Halloween. Boyd and Olivia got costumes last night, Ghost Rider and a Skeleton. We're going to take Isaac to Silverthorne and Frisco tonight to look for his costume. I believe he wants a Star Wars costume.

They will probably trick or treat at Beaver Creek this Saturday, then Minturn on the 30th and Leadville on the 31st. We'll have enough candy to last till next year.

Remi has grown quite a bit and is now 6 1/2 months old. He isn't as big as Bow was. I've released several quail for him. He finds them well and hesitates when he does, but he hasn't pointed for any length of time. I still believe he has potential, but probably not as much as Bow had. That is ok though, because he is a really good family dog even if he never makes much of a hunter.

End of Archery Season

It is a depressing time of year for me. Archery ended a couple weeks ago. I didn't get out much after killing the bull on the first day. I regret not spending more time in the woods looking for a deer now. I do have the late season rifle cow tag that comes in the last two weeks of November then again from mid December to mid January.

The Aspen leaves have long since turned golden and the recent wind has blown most of them to the ground. Winter is on its way and I can't say I'm ready for it yet. I enjoy the skiing, but I would like another month (or two) of Fall.

We drove to a local lake to look for waterfowl today. We did see one flock of 20 or so geese and three flocks of Gadwalls. I don't think hunting is allowed on the lake though, so it doesn't do me much good. I could drive about an hour southeast and hunt, but the cost to set back up to hunt waterfowl an hour away doesn't seem practical.

It has been a while since I had the necessary equipment for hunting waterfowl. I would need to buy waders, decoys and everything they require, a call or two, amo, etc. Seems like a lot of cash to only have a couple opportunities to hunt. But, it is something that Isaac could hunt before he turns 12 in three years and can hunt CO big game.

We hope to have the funds to travel home to IL over Thanksgiving. I will certainly buy my lic. and an archery doe permit. Don't think I can swing the either sex permit. Looks like the waterfowl season starts in IL during that week, so maybe I'll try to put Isaac on a wood duck or two. Probably won't be too many mallards there by then. I know Sean still has the dekes, but I would still need to buy waders.

Isaac and Olivia have been playing flag football since September and will probably have games until the weather prevents it. Isaac ran four or five touchdowns today in two games. He played for another team the first game that did not have enough of their own players. I think he's as fast or faster than most of the kids. Olivia holds her own with the boys. She ran a touchdown today also. I'll try to post some photos of them playing.

2008 Colorado Elk Hunt

Here is the video of my 2008 archery elk hunt. I did not know the video camera was on. The action came on so quick that I did not think about the camera until he said "I've got all of this on film".

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday was the first day of the Colorado archery season for elk and deer. I have both tags, but elk would be my main goal with deer second. I hunted with a friend and killed my first elk, a bull, at a few minutes after 7 AM. Not only did I kill my first elk, but my buddy managed to get my video camera turned on and caught most of the action on film. The bull was a 4x5 and would not be considered a "big" bull, but he looked great to me. I couldn't be happier with him.

Highline State Park Camping

We went with our church to Highline State Park on a weekend camping trip. We go every August, so this was our second trip. The weather was nice, but a little cool for the kids swimming. I did get Remi into the water there and there is no doubt he's a water dog.

I took several photos at sunset after working with Remi. There is nothing more beautiful than a Colorado sunset.

The fishing photos are from a little lake south of Leadville named Crystal Lakes. The fish are all "stockers", but I'm sure there are a few big fish in the lake. The geese are while I was fishing the little lake.

Today's walk

We will be following Julie Knutson's training methods for training Remi. One of the most important steps is "The Walk" in the field. Not down the road, not on a leash, no voice commands, just a continuous walk keeping my mouth shut and paying attention to the dog. Both of us eventually learn a lot about one another, it builds confidence in the dog and he learns to hunt.

Today was our first walk near the headwaters of the Arkansas River just south of Leadville. Remi has started out at my heels, except for the few bumpers I tossed for him. Through a continuous effort of going on "The Walk" daily, he'll build the confidence needed to venture out ahead of me, learn to use his nose to hunt, learn how to find birds and won't have to depend on me to point him in the direction of the birds.

"Happy" bumper during today's walk.

New Puppy

Where are all the kids you promised?

Lounging in my office.

A little more lounging.

Your kicked back too!

He doesn't care for the flash.

Not the flash again!

Taking a nap at my feet.

Those shoes look mighty tasty.

I picked the new puppy up on Thursday, July 31st. He is starting to adjust to his new surroundings and follows me around like, well......a lost puppy. The kids and Heather made it safely to IL last Friday, so the kids have no idea that I've got a new puppy here. It will be a big surprise when they get home from their visit.

The new puppy's name is Remi and he's 16 weeks old tomorrow. He doesn't replace Bow, but he sure makes me happy. He does some of the same things Bow did and I have a hard time not calling him Bow.

The last photo is under my computer desk in our basement (note the 70's carpet that will be replaced in a couple weeks). When Bow was a puppy he would curl up under there when I was on the computer.

Joe and LeeAnn visit & Heather's IL Trip

Joe and LeeAnn will leave from IL on Friday and be here on Saturday. We are looking forward to the visit. I'll still have to work, but will get to spend time with them each evening. May get to take Joe fishing somewhere and drive them up over one of the passes (12,000 ft) to see a few mountains and breath some clean air (if they can breath at that elevation).

On the following Friday, they will start driving back to IL and Heather will be driving along with them for a 2 week visit back home. She will go to Lacey's wedding at Gulf Shores while visiting. I will fly into Nashville at about 10:20 pm August 7th, stay at mom and dad's Friday and Saturday, then start driving back with Heather and the kids Sunday.

While Heather is gone I'm getting a new pup from the same parents Bow came from. I wish I could have him now, but the owners are coming to CO on the 30th and considering gas prices, I'll let them deliver. The pup will be 15 weeks old by the time he shows up. Owners have already brought him in to start crate training and they are working with him on retrieving, so we should still be ok. I'll have to kennel him at the vet when I fly to IL. It costs too much for him to fly with me.

The kids do not know we are getting him, so it will be a nice surprise when they get back to CO. We all miss Bow quite a bit. He was a great dog and could have had a really great future with grouse hunting.

Very Sad News

Bow made it through the surgery on Wednesday and they called me to tell me they wanted to keep him a couple days. They removed the ball, but he had some damaged small intestine. They warned me of the possible problems, but then said their gut feeling was he would recover fine.

At 6:30 pm the doc called and said Bow was bleeding and he needed permission to go back in and see what was up. He was really concerned about the amount of blood. In about 30 minutes he called back and said it looked really bad. Bow's entire small intestine had died and the only option was to remove the entire small intestine and reattach the large intestine to the stomach. He felt that even trying that was a very long shot of survival.

They had told me what the problems were with only small sections of the intestine removed, but I could not imagine him having any kind of life without his small intestine. The other option was to euthanize him. He was going to be in terrible pain if he were to wake up and he had very little chance of survival. Reluctantly, we decided we had to euthanize him.

We are a very upset family. Bow living in the house with us had made him part of our family. He never hesitated to show us his love. He was our friend and we miss him.

Bow is in surgery!

Bow eat something in the last few days that will not pass and he has been sick. Today it became clear that the only way to get it out was with surgery. The vet has him right now and should be nearing completion. I'm worried about it. A dog living in the house quickly becomes a family member. Hopefully they'll be calling with a good report very soon.

Baseball Season Finished

Olivia and Boyd had their last T-Ball game on Thursday and Isaac's last baseball game was Friday. We planned to get out hiking and scouting for elk and deer on Saturday, but I decided to sleep in. We went to a friends birthday party in McCoy Saturday night and had a good time.

They live on a farm in McCoy along the Colorado River. We fished for a while, actually I tied and baited hooks for kids (and adults). The river was moving fast, making the fishing difficult, but fun. I also let Bow run and do some retrieves in their field. After eating, they had a fire and everyone made smores. Then they had a lot of fireworks that were great. They are situated in a canyon, so the fireworks echoed off the walls. It was the best home fireworks I've ever seen.

Boyd started Sunday morning off sick. Becasue he was sick, I stayed home with all the kids instead of going to church. Heather made it down the mountain on here own. Boyd was feeling fine by mid-day and played like nothing had been wrong.

This morning my back decided it didn't like the way I bent over to pick up a pair of socks and I yelled like a little girl. Heather didnt' know what was wrong. I'm at work now and my back still hurts. I've been trying to stretch to get rid of the stiffness, but it still hurts. I'm walking like someone has given me a "wedgie".

I'll send some more photos out soon.

Baseball

This is the best photo. Actually looks like he knows what he's doing.
This is one of his "change ups". Actually, this is what I talk about below. He doesn't lob it like that when I practice with him.

Baseball will be over at the end of the week. Isaac is not old enough to play in the All-Stars. He needed to turn 9 before May 1 and his birthday is May 18. Other than that minor detail, he would have been playing. We want to get out and do some camping, fishing and scouting for deer and elk anyway.

I've included a few photos of Isaac pitching. He was able to pitch in two games. He pitches pretty good to me, but he changes everything when a batter gets up to bat. I think he is afraid of hitting them. Maybe he'll get over that and be a pitcher, but I expect he'll be an infielder. Him and maybe two other kids on the team are the only players that have any clue what they are doing. Some of these kids just quit T-ball and still want to run with the ball. Drives me crazy. Coach Drew taught him quite a bit back in IL.

On another note, there is still a lot of snow up high, but Isaac and I will be getting out looking for elk and deer. I kept an eye on several of the herds as they followed the snow line up, but other than the big group of "calving" cows, the herds are mostly out of sight. I did see a few bulls outside of town a little while ago, but they are in a limited unit that I can't hunt. I've got some plans on where to look in one of the closer unlimited units.

I desperately want to find elk, but finding a big Mule Deer buck above treeline is one of my goals. I guess big may be relative to the fact that I've never killed a Muley. But, I have no intentions of packing a little buck or doe for a long distance.

Also, if you did not know, we are supposed to close on our house in IL on June 30th. The buyers are from Ledbetter, KY and lost their house to the state due to the new hwy and bridge.

Summer has arrived

Summer finally showed up here. Temps have been near 80 here in Avon. I still wear a jacket in the morning, and if it clouds up and the wind picks up it can be needed up in the day. I got good and sun burned yesterday. A short trip into one of our subdivisions to check on some work turned into a standing around a couple hours watching someone work. I'll be putting sunscreen on today.

Work has steadily picked up here in Town, so that I don't feel like I can keep up sometimes. I like this time of year much better than the dead of winter when paperwork rules. We've been working on the house again. The basement bathroom and bedroom has been gutted and all new materials have been bought for the remodel. After I get that done, I'll start on the new fence in the back yard.

Our house in IL will be officially sold on June 30th. At least that is the scheduled closing date. It will feel good to have only one mortgage payment. I'll probably get rid of the old Tahoe and buy a used four door Toyato Tacoma. I want an 05 or newer. We have had the 95 Tahoe since 99, so it has served us well for nine years and now has 170,000 miles on it. I may keep it for a while longer, but it needs multiple things fixed on it and a new set of tires.

Heather and the kids are enjoying VBS this week, but the drive down everyday is killing them. I believe next year we will probably sell the house we are in now and try to buy down here. Most likely it will be in Gypsum, but calling it affordable there is only relative to homes in the valley. It is not affordable at all. We'll see how this winter goes, but I believe we will have had enough of the long drive to work and church. I know Heather will have had enough of the snow.

Heather will driving to IL July 25/26 with Joe and LeeAnn after their visit out here July 19-25. She will head back to CO on Aug. 9 after I fly into Nashville on the 8th to drive back with her. 1200 miles is too far for her and the kids to drive alone.

Baseball Season

Baseball started today w/ a parade of all the little league teams through town. Olivia and Boyd are on the same T-ball team and Isaac is playing baseball. Isaac's team is the Cardinals, his Grandpa David's favorite team. There was sunshine today for the kids games. It made it to the upper 60's (67 by the car's temp.) w/ only a little breeze.

I still have not been able to send the pictures. Shutterfly keeps crashing Explorer. I've used it quite a few times, so I don't know what is up with it. I'll set up an account w/another and try that.

May 2008

Tomorrow is Isaac's birthday. He's already got his gift from us, a new mountain bike. He rode it for the first time today. Heather has been gone this weekend to Steamboat Springs with the women's group from church. The kids and I walked around a little down town, cleaned the back yard today, went to a small dirt bicycle track, and went fishing at a local wma pond. Heather has only been gone since yesterday, but we will be glad when she gets back tomorrow afternoon.

I've got lots of pictures to share, but I don't have the time right now to upload them. Actually I'm too tired to upload them right now (11:40 PM). I was trying to upload them to Shutterfly and email the album to everyone like I used to do, but it keeps making Explorer shut down.

The weather was very nice today and it appears that spring may be here to stay. All of the snow had melted out of our yard besides a big pile along the back (north) side of the house, but it decided to snow about 12" last week. Thank goodness all of that is now gone too.

We killed turkeys here in CO during the third weekend (April 26). Lot of luck involved. We also hunted Nebraska last weekend and took the snow to NE with us. Saturday was rain and snow. Sunday morning was cold and snow on the ground. Sunday afternoon got really nice and all the snow disappeared. Then Monday morning (our last) was really nice. We saw lots of turkeys, found lots of tracks, and heard several on Monday morning. We didn't kill a bird, but we will be going back next year.

The kids will be out of school soon. I'm sure they are looking forward to Summer break. I know heather is. I believe they will be coming home to IL to visit during last part of July and first part of August. I'll probably help her drive home then fly back to Denver the next day so I can go back to work. Then I'll fly from Denver to Nashville a couple weeks later to help her drive back. So, I'll get all the fun of the drive without any of the visiting.

I've got an assortment of tags coming again this year. Hopefully the turkey has broken the dry spell. I plan to do a lot of scouting this year closer to Leadville where I found elk last year. I'm sure Isaac will spend a lot of days in the mountains with me this year. Olivia and Boyd will both want a few days out also.

I'll try to get those photos out soon.

It's been a while

I haven't posted anything new in several weeks. We made our spring break trip to IL to enjoy the rain then returned to several inches of new snow and had around 8" the next week.

Isaac and I have been out hunting turkeys the last two weekends just south of Salida, CO. We found turkeys the first Saturday then came oh so close to closing the deal on a good tom on the second Saturday (last weekend). We'll be hunting again this Saturday and may hunt Sunday morning early then sprint back to church. I'll eventually post a whole string of pictures from our turkey season in the mountains and hope they culminate into a grand finale that includes a Merriam turkey in hand.

Spring has finally showed up for the most part and the snow is steadily disappearing even in Leadville. We're looking forward to green grass in our little yard and Heather has plans for me to create a couple raised beds for growing lettuce, carrots, etc. (cool weather garden).

New Snow

It snowed around 8" last night in Leadville, maybe 4" in Avon, and Beaver Creek reported 10" on the mountain. I'm not sure if we are getting more or not. I had planned to take the morning off on the next powder day to ski at Ski Cooper, but Heather is on a retreat w/ church staff at Yarmony Ranch until Saturday afternoon. Maybe I'll get another chance before our visit home. Cooper closes before we get back, although they have plenty of snow to stay open a few more weeks if they wanted.

IL visit and Turkey Season are fast approaching.

We're looking forward to the visit at the end of this month. I'm also looking forward to the turkey hunts. I'll hunt with Sean and his boys the 29th and 30th during the youth season to try and help them put their first birds on the ground. After that I'm heading to northern Alabama for a few days with Isaac to try and put him on his first bird. I hope to drag a couple people along with me. I wouldn't mind packing my own bird out also. I've been given some good local info from a guy who lives there, so I'm exited to get back down there.

I bought a new Remington 870 Jr. 20 ga. last weekend in Denver for Isaac to use. We will try out the turkey choke and Remington 3" #5's we bought pretty soon. Isaac will shoot low brass target loads and I'll shoot the thumpers. I also bought him a turkey vest and a monopod to help him hold the gun up w/o getting tired. He is exited about trying for his first bird. We'll both try for CO birds this year, but that will be difficult. We've got to find the dang things and I'm afraid the snow will keep them on private land. The snow is deep this year.

I've had nothing but turkeys on my mind lately, so I've been spending money on stuff I don't really need. But I sure do want it. I've ordered some custom made mouth calls, a fiber optic sight for Isaac's gun, looking at a custom crow (locator) call, bought Sean's boys turkey vests for their birthday, decoys I found on sale, videos (as usuals), and I actually need new boots.

I'm also starting to twitch a little and occasionaly gobble.

New Pictures

Boyd's preschool class has been skiing one day a week. Wednesday was their last day for the sesaon, so they rode the snow cat up to the top. Boyds been up there plenty of times, so the hill was no big deal. But, I think he really liked the snow cat ride.

Boyd skied quite a bit last year and the lessons at Beaver Creek were quite a bit more advanced, so he is normally well out ahead of his class. They skied twice this week on Tuesday and Wednesday to make up for a missed day. They had a different instructor on Tuesday than normal. When the instructor here asked his name and he said "Boyd", she said "The infamous Boyd, I've heard about you". I joked with him and told him a couple years we wouldn't have to buy passes because all the lifties would be saying "hey, here comes Boyd". The second photo looks more like a train wreck than a ski lesson, but I think some of these kids had never skied until this year.


The next set of photos are at the house. The snow overhanging the roof is now gone. I spent yesterday evening on a ladder w/ a snow shovel getting as much snow as I could from the ladder. The snow was about 30"+ near the gutters. Today the sun was out and the rest of it all slid off.
The biggest mounds of snow are from the roof and shoveling the driveway. We've had a lot more snow than that fall, but after it sets and the sun comes out it consolidates. Its still deeper than waist deep and I've almost lost control of the driveway. The kids have made a sledding hill from the top of the shoveling mound through the yard into a hole in the front yard. They also spent part of the day monday climbing the tree in the back yard and jumping into the snow to almost bury. They've been told not to do that any more, but Heather had to get a couple pics first.

The photos from the tree in the backyard was on Monday when school was cancelled. We had around 10" of snow, but school was closed because the bus barn had a gas leak and they couldn't start them for fear of causing an explosion.

The sabertooth and unicorn. I think Isaac looks more like snotsicle man.

Bow is growing and is now around 18 wks. He has become a handful lately. He stole a whole burrito off of the counter last week and eat it before I got upstairs. He doesn't get to eat table food, so he made a big mess in his kennel that night (if you know what I mean). It wasn't pretty.