Merry Christmas 2014!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Merry Christmas today, celebrating Jesus' birthday with family and friends.

I feel so blessed this holiday season...and plump! Our son, Steven, just made us the best prime rib Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Oh my. Call me Mrs. Claus.

The above picture is of my sister-in-law and brother's Christmas tree. We celebrated downstate this past Sunday with my side of the family - the Kok Family.

I can't be Mrs. Claus. I have a wedding right around the corner for these two festive cheerful people - our other son, Riley, and his fiancee, Lindsey.

I LOVE those Christmas vests!

I LOVE the look on faces as recipients (young and old) open their gifts.

This is fifteen-year-old Jake sporting his new coat. He shivers in the cold. Now he'll be toasty.

This is Jesse and Delta or Delta and Jesse. I forget now which is which. They are such darn cute puppies. I couldn't keep my hands off them. And no, the dog on the left is not stuck.

I LOVE these guys!

(Missed you KennySue!)

Merry Christmas!

God bless you all out there - everyone!

~Debi

Just A Few More Deer Camp Pics and Then I Promise I'll Quit...

I finally made the time to clean pictures off my cameras and organize them. (An ongoing feat.) I came across some from my deer blind and I thought I would share one last time. 

For this year anyways. Wink.

The above is literally the crack of dawn on opener morning. My blind faces east.

And, of course I had no deer to watch, so I watched the day unfold.

On day five I had this mother and deerling sneak in.

Something alerted them. I thought it was me, but it wasn't. It was something much more sinister and it wasn't even holding a gun.

It was a wabbit, I mean rabbit.

The deer took off to the west.

The rabbit took off to the south scurrying around my blind not sure where to hide.

I think they surprised each other!

A little excitement for me!

But then I took a deep sigh, sat back, and dreamed of seeing this out my blind window- only with horns.

You can see more of the above deer on a previous post. Click here.

And I posted the recipe Layered Veggie Casserole With Crushed Pork Rinds on Cabin Cleaver today. Yum! It doesn't get any more backwoods than that!

Feeling Blessed

Back home from deer camp. I had a mother and her yearling, or should I say deerling, come to one of my bait piles. But that was it. All the bucks came during the night when I was fast asleep in the cabin. So, in true form, I got bored. I read books on my Kindle, and played 562 and 1/2 games of Scrabble with Norm. (I don't play against the computer in easy mode or hard mode. I play in normal mode, hence the name Norm. Easy mode is just plain too easy and hard mode is - CRAZY. I haven't heard of over 3/4 of the words the computer plays and I always lose by the hundreds. So I play Norm. We take turns winning. It's funner that way. Is funner a word?)

And when I had had enough of all the above, took another peek out my window and saw nothing but a grouse in a tree as high up as me eating red berries, I played on my phone like you can see above.

And here...

And I got into my photo apps and put this together because I missed my dogs, Ike and Bear (even though we go down to our house twice a day to feed them and let them run a bit.)

I organized the pictures on my phone, and then took pictures outside my window of the river.

Closer...

Of sunset at deer thirty...

Of the fog...

Then it rained and rained and the snow all melted and yesterday we moved home and there was/is water everywhere. We had a lake in our front yard. Overnight it snowed again and now everything is white again and Steve is out plowing again.

Even though we haven't harvested a deer yet (I'm hopeful!), we had a blast at deer camp. Our son Riley and his friend Brett (our friend, too) came up for a couple of days and we sure enjoyed their company!

I am very thankful for our little cabin in the woods.

And for all of you!

And for so much more...

Have a blessed Thanksgiving everyone!

God Bless!

Debi 

Deer Camp 2014

Lots of snow at deer camp this year. I'll be hiding in the woods if you're looking for me...

First Snowstorm of the Season

It's pretty outside! But Steve sure has been busy these last couple of days!

Upper Peninsula Moose Caught on Camera

Enjoy the recent photos of an Upper Peninsula moose we picked up on our game camera this past week!

He loved that mineral lick!

Smile!

On second thought, I'm not quite finished...

Five Blind Mice

This is the view from Steve's deer blind. 

After Steve chased five mice out who had made his blind their permanent residence, I can now relax and sit comfortably without making a lot of perturbing noise movements while getting those annoyed looks from a quiet motionless hunter over in the corner by the window because I am not being a quiet motionless hunter's quiet sidekick.

Excuse my rambling but did you get all that?

Here's a breakdown of the chaos before the mice were evicted:

• I would continually lift my feet twelve inches off the floor and wiggle them to scare off any small brown creature with a pointy nose that may be stalking  my toes even though I had my hunting boots on.
• I would abruptly turn around in my chair (which squeaks) because I hear scratching and think an acrobatic mouse is going to fly through the air and land on my camo hat.
• I would constantly stare at the window sills which the mice have been known to use as freeways (seen it with my own eyes) as I fear one may lose its footing and slip and fall right into my lap.
• I would swat at my shoulder because I am going nuts for no apparent reason.

Its not that I can't stand mice, I just don't want them touching me.

Or sharing my space.

Or eating my sandwich.

Good news is my blind is mouse proof!

The tamaracks are still beautiful but lose their gold a little more and more each day.

These are the stairs to Steve's blind.

If you look closely half way up the stairs and to the right, you'll see an abandoned bird's nest. 

A closer look...at least they had the decency to move out before deer season.

But I like birds very much.

All that remains is a tiny pine cone.

This is what we awoke to Halloween morning. I'm not really ready for it, but it sure was pretty and at least it wasn't raining.

I was beginning to think we needed to track down a guy named Noah and see what he's been up to these past few weeks.

This year there was frost AND snow on the pumpkins.

On our way to town, the snow amount was less and less.

This photo is for my mom.

She likes barns.