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.

Links to our pastor's web site

Here are a couple links to Ethan's (our pastor's) web site and the weekly article he writes ("first tracks") and places on the Trinity's web site. We really like attending Trinity and have made a lot of friends there. It is, honestly, the best thing we have become a part of here in Colorado.

First Tracks - http://www.trinityvail.com/Firsttracks/firstracks.htm

Ethan's web site - www.gracecommando.com Ethan is the guy shown under "What happend to me"

Spring Break Trip to IL

Well we've decided to come home to visit over Spring Break again this year. We were going to wait until June and go to California over Spring Break, but the CA trip was going to cost too much. Heather may still come in during the summer, but I will not have the vacation time.

We will probably start driving on the evening of Wednesday, March 26th and get there the evening of Thursday, March 27th. If I was brave enough to drive all the way through, we could get there Thursday morning. We will head back to CO on Saturday, April 5.

Of course I've already cooked up some turkey hunting plans. Sean's boys will have youth permits for the 29th and 30th, so we'll try to get them both a bird that weekend. Also, Isaac and myself will probably skip out from IL for a few days to hunt in AL where he can try to kill his first bird, and I'll be backup. :-) I've talked to a few others about going and sounds like a couple are in, if everything works out. If I haven't talked with you and you want to go, just let me know. Anyone will be welcome. A 3 day lic. will be $120 and a WMA permit is $16. Other expenses would be food, and depending on how many of us go, fuel and hotel.

We will be hunting Northern Alabama in the Bankhead NF. The Black Warrior WMA is within the NF and can only be hunted until noon, but the rest of the NF can be hunted all day. The terrain is steep rugged hills w/ hardwoods and pines. We (Dad, Sean, Kenneth, Sonny and myself) hunted it in 94 and there were birds everywhere. In 97 Sonny and I went back and didn't hear much of anything, but the weather was cool and rainy. It will be like any other DIY public land hunt, a hunt, not a guarantee.

Basketball Players

Isaac and Olivia had their first games on Tuesday and Thursday. They both have the same coach. She asked for my help during Isaac's games, so I pretty much sat and yelled at Isaac because I don't know the other kids names yet. Isaac (4) did really well. It took him a few times down the floor to remember what he needed to do, but out of their 34 points he scored at least 12 of them and he handled the ball really well too. His team won their game.

Olivia (4) did really well also, considering she has never played before. I did not get to go to her game because it started at 5:30, but Heather took some pictures there also. Olivias team won their game also.




We skied today at Ski Cooper. It snowed about 8" yesterday and was snowing today also, so the snow was really good. Boyd has gotten over some of his fears from earlier, so it made for a really good day on the mountain. Isaac is skiing really well and has picked it up a notch the last couple times out. I would expect within a couple years he'll be waiting on me. He can actually smoke Heather right now. Olivia is doing well and with a lesson or two could be close to Isaac. The only difficulty we had today was Olivia started feeling bad so we left and got her some antibiotics called in. We should have expected it since the other two have been sick the last few days.