I had the good fortune to be able to get back out in the woods today for what will be my last day of hunting this season. For those of you keeping count this is my second day out during the two week firearm season. Not the best number, but seeing as the last few years I didn’t get out at all I am more than happy to be able to get out even once. So today was my first time ever hunting from a tree stand, and now that I reflect back on it I think I rather enjoyed it. Getting up into the stand was an interesting experience, mainly because I was not familiar with getting into one and I was doing it in the dark. Once I was up and settled it was rather comfortable in comparison to sitting on a bucket or a folding seat on the ground. However I felt that my visibility was slightly limited because I didn’t have the ability to fully turn and see behind me. The overall dynamic of hunting from a tree stand is different and I am not a huge fan of, what I call, mid-heights (15 to 20 feet above the ground). So when I felt like the ground was spinning I assumed for a second that it was some sort of vertigo, but then I realized that the tree was swaying due to the wind. 🙂 The morning passed by peacefully and quiet, though I did hear a few shots way off in the distance. Then about 8am I watched as 5 deer (one of which looked like it might have had spikes) jumped the road and came running toward me through the field I was sitting next to. They were running about 30 yards away parallel and to the left of the stand I was in. I knew this would be the only opportunity I had to take a shot this morning, so I lead the first deer in the pack and when I got to the opening of my shooting lane I fired…and missed. The deer never slowed and I watched them bound down the field and up around a small finger of trees. I knew before I took the shot that the likelihood of connecting was very low for a number of reasons: the distance, the speed of their run, and the fact that I only had slugs to name a few. However, I also knew this would be my only opportunity of the morning so I took the chance. It was great to see them even though I didn’t get to fill a tag. At that point I had thought that I would be able to go back out in the afternoon, but as it turned out I was not feeling well and missed that opportunity. So my hunting season has come to an end and all I have to show is one empty shell. Better luck next year.
Category Archives: Family
Educational Update
Kylie’s first parent teacher conference of her first grade year was today and we are very happy to report that she is doing very well. Kylie is currently reading at level 8 and she needs to reading at level 16 by the end of the year. Her teacher thinks that at the rate Kylie is learning and picking up this necessary skill she will be reading at between a level 20 and 22 by the end of year. This of course makes Mommy and I very happy, as we both enjoy reading and are trying to install that joy in Kylie as well. Seeing as she already enjoys going to the library and picking out books, we think we are on the right track. Additionally she is doing well in math but she needs help with money, mainly what each coin is worth. Mommy and I are trying to figure out a good way to help her with this, as the times have changed so much from when we were kids. See when Mommy and I were young it was still very common for our parents to pay for purchases with cash and coins, which means we could handle them everyday and help in making purchases. This constant handling of money made it a lot easier for us to pick up on money and each pieces value. However now it is less common to use cash and more common to use debit or credit cards, in fact it is so common that Daddy almost never has any cash on him at all. I am sure we will figure out a way to help her in this, as it is still a very important piece of information she needs to learn. Speaking of important skills, Kylie is also doing really well with writing and sounding out words, spelling them phonetically and learning how the actually spelling of words differ from the way they sound. She often asks us how to spell words while writing little notes and even more often will say to someone “Guess what. I know how to spell…wanna see?” and then she will spell a word. Sometimes she correct to the true spelling of the word and sometimes she makes a very good attempt by spelling the word the way it sounds. When she spells the word incorrectly we tell her the correct spelling and why it differs from what she gave, and more often than not she only needs to be told the correct spelling once. We are confident that the rest of the year, academically speaking, will go by without an issue and she will continue to learn and expand her knowledge ahead of the curve. Now if we can just do something about these boys Daddy will be even happier. 🙂
A bad day in the woods…
For the first time in a couple of years to day I was able to go out hunting. It’s opening day here fro firearms and it was nice to be back out in the woods, even if they weren’t productive. The morning started out nice and early, heading out in to the darkness and finding a nice spot to sit and wait. I was on top of a small hill looking down into two recently cut corn fields hidden in a little copse. The predawn air was crisp but the sky was clear and I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about rain like we had yesterday. As I sat patiently and quietly waiting on dawns light, listening to the sounds around me, I soon realized that today was not going to be a good day for hunting. Right around dawn a think fog began to roll in, slowly at first and then all of a sudden. It was very thick and heavy and dropped visibility, even from my hill, to mere feet. A few times through out the morning I thought I heard a deer grunt, but I could not tell where it was coming from and had no hope of seeing. The fog finally lifted around 10:30am, but by that time I could see Adam and Ryan (the guys i was with) heading out of their respective blinds and stands and making their way back to Adam’s truck. Even though we heard a lot of gun shots in other fields around us, none of saw any deer today. Unfortunately they both had to work the afternoon so we only had the morning hunt to try and get something. It is passable that this will be the only time I get to go out this year, and even though I didn’t even see a deer it was still great to be back out in the woods. You know what they say “A bad day in the woods beats a good day in the office.”
Butter and Candles
Making butter and candles is not how I thought I would ever spend a Saturday afternoon, but that is what we did today. Melissa had found a flyer at the library saying there would be a demonstration of how butter and candles were made in colonial times and that we would even be able to participate in the experience. It sounded interesting to us and after asking Kylie what she thought about it we all decided to go give it a shot. We got there about an hour prior to the demonstration so we could locate exactly where it would be and to allow Kylie to look around for some books to borrow. She decided today that she wanted to borrow three books: Paddington Bear, The Elephant Wish, and The Sad Princess. When it was time we went into the story room where everything was set up. The demonstration for the butter was first and the speaker explained that the butter was made from mixing heavy whipping cream and some salt. To all the kids delight they were each handed a small jar containing the ingredients and told that all they needed to do to make butter was to vigorously shake the container for a few minutes and when it started to “make a glob” that they would then have butter and the remaining liquid would be butter milk. It was rather interesting to see the butter form out of what was basically just liquid. Melissa was a little disappointed because on the flyer it had shown an actual butter churn and so she was hoping to see one of those in use. Then it was time for the candles, and the speaker explained that these were candles made from real bees wax. Many of the children did not like how the bees wax smelled, but Kylie thought it smelled good. In a crock pot there was already a lot of melted wax and each child was given a started candle and told they needed to dip the candle into the wax, pull it back out and let it cool for a few seconds and repeat. Kylie tried this but lost interest in it rather quickly so Melissa gave it a try and also found it to be a very tedious task. By the time we decided to leave we ended up with two small jars of butter, but no candle, mainly because none of us had the patience to try to make a candle and a lot of other children were also trying to make one and the hot wax was splashing and dripping all over. Thought the event didn’t fully live up to our expectations I thought it was still very interesting and educational. I think Kylie was more excited that she got a few new books to read though.
This is getting bad!
It looks the my “problems” are going to not only continue but worsen a lot sooner than I had anticipated! I mean, she’s 6 and in 1st grade, a Father shouldn’t have to deal with this yet! Don’t get me wrong, I knew it was coming, I knew I would eventually have to deal with these situations. I just thought I had more time! What am I talking about you ask? Boys, as in boyfriends! -sigh- Let me explain… About a month ago Kylie came home from school with a rose from Lestat. Admittedly I wondered what I was going to do about it, but only for a few minutes and it soon passed. I figured I didn’t have anything to worry about and that this was a one time thing. Seems reasonable, right? Wrong! Kylie came home today with not one, not two, not even three roses. She came home with a FULL DOZEN!! That’s right, Lestat brought her in TWELVE roses! This is the picture that Tiffany sent me tonight. What am I going to do about this? The kids not old enough for me to play the “big scary Dad” role. I’m not ready for this…
Labatt is nasty
I got a disappointing phone call tonight from Tiffany. She wanted to let me know, just in case Kylie decided to tell me this coming weekend, that Kylie does not like the taste of beer. Specifically she does not like the taste of Labatt beer. Apparently Aunt Sissy and Theresa were preparing to go out and in there pre-outing preparations were having a beer. When I asked why this meant Kylie had to try some I was told that Kylie had asked multiple times when Aunt Sissy, or someone else were drinking, to try the beer. All the other times she was told “No, this is an adult drink” but for some reason tonight Mommy decided that she could try it. She told me that Kylie immediately decided she did not like the taste of the beer and spit it back into the bottle, apparently she disliked the taste so much she even licked a towel. Tiffany asked me if I was mad about this event to which I replied “Doesn’t really matter, it’s done and there is nothing I can do about it now.” I’m more disappointed than I am mad, and I have no doubt that if the situation had been reversed that Tiffany would have been pissed at me for letting this happen, yet I got the impression that she felt this situation was humorous because of the way Kylie reacted. I don’t know, perhaps I am just being over protective.
Lodi Farms
We took a trip out to Lodi Farms on the other side of Ann Arbor to go on a hay ride, navigate our way through a hay bale maze and allow Kylie to pick out a pumpkin. We had not heard of Lodi Farms prior to the other day when I got a Living Social deal in my email and because it sounded like a good deal we decided to make it today’s outing. The people how run the farm were very nice and the numerous cats wandering around were also very friendly. The entire experience made for a fun day, and I am not sure what part Kylie enjoyed the most, but I think it may have been hunting for all of the cats! Pictures from the day can be found here in the gallery.
An Evening in Da Moonlight
There was a time when I used to attempt to go to at least one cultural event a year. This typically took the form of going to see a play or a musical. However, in recent years, due to to time and money constraints I have not been able to continue this desire. Tonight Melissa and I have taken our first steps to rectifying that situation. We ventured out to Chelsea for an evening of dinner and theater.
We started the evening with dinner at The Common Grill and found it to be very delicious. Seeing as neither of us had ever been there before we decided to try the Seared Rare Ahi Tuna for an appetizer, and we both enjoyed that very much. This was a little shocking to both of us because I am not a fan of most cooked fish (though I do enjoy a bit of sushi now and again) but we quickly discovered why many people consider Ahi Tuna the Filet Mignon of seafood. For our entrees Melissa had the Goat Cheese Ravioli which was excellent and we highly recommend it. Additionally her meal came with a side salad and she choose (or rather I choose because she wasn’t interested in a salad) the Tuscan Pear and Gorgonzola Salad with Herb-Balsamic Vinaigrette. This salad was very delicious and, in fact, I thought it was better than the salad I had chosen for my entree. The salad I had for my entree was the Grilled Chicken Salad and it came with a Honey-Bacon Vinaigrette dressing that sounded awesome but in reality was really very bland and disappointing. For dessert we decided to try their Caramelized Vanilla Bean Crème Brulee with fresh berries. Crème Brulee is something we have recently discovered and it has rapidly become one of our favorite desserts. While the Crème Brulee at The Common Grill was very good we wished they had crisped the sugar topping just a little more, but seeing as they prepared the entire dish in the kitchen (other places we have been prepare it table side so you can specify the crispness) we couldn’t have them heat it further. When all was said and done dinner was very enjoyable.
Afterwards we walked across the street to The Purple Rose theater to watch Escanaba In Da Moonlight (click the image to the left to see more pictures from the show on The Purple Rose’s website). 
For those who have never been to The Purple Rose theater we encourage you to go and see something, anything, sometime. This is the second play I have had the opportunity to see there and it is a wonderful place. the theater itself is small with seating for about 170 people with the stage in the very center, so every seat in the house is literal a good one. Having seen the movie version of Escanaba In Da Moonlight on several occasions I was really looking forward to seeing this performance and I am very happy to say that it was all that I had hoped it would be and more! Their ability to portray the situational comedy, and display the visual effects that make that comedy work, on stage was incredible. Even having seen the movie version of this play a number of times, and knowing what was coming, I still found myself laughing out loud with the rest of the audience. Melissa and I think the actors did a marvelous job with this production and are looking forward to seeing other performances here in the future. This was by far one of the best Wednesday nights we have had in a very long time, and because Chelsea is so close to home it is one that we can repeat with a future show.
Go Blue!
Today was the annual tailgate party that one of my storage vendors throw at the University of Michigan football game. This year it is for the U of M v Minnesota game, and once again I was lucky 
enough to get tickets for Melissa and I to go in to the Big House and watch the game. The tailgate was a blast, and being in the stadium to see the game is always fun. Michigan winning the game (58-0) was also a huge bonus. This year was the first year that we tried parking at work and walking to the stadium though. I think this worked out well for a number of reasons: 1. we didn’t have to ay for parking 2. there was plenty of parking to choose from 3. we didn’t have to deal with all the traffic going in to the game or leaving the game. The only real downside was that it was almost a two mile walk from work to the stadium. Now that’s not a lot and going to the stadium was easy because it was all down hill, but coming back after a long day of partying was a little rough. Also, the wind was very strong today and made for a long cold walk. We still had a blast though and as you can see from the picture, Melissa and i had a great day!
First Grade School Portrait
