HELLO ALL....

I know, I know, I've been MIA for quite some time! Sorry! Life's gotten a little crazy. Between work and work and work...there seems to be no time to do anything else. I've been told this is a crazy time of year for animals (more like an INSANE time) but it's really been nutty. One day last week I actually worked a 12 hour shift, all the other days were only 10 to 11 hours, lol! Trust me, this is the first day I can smile about it. I don't feel secure there. I don't know if I ever have. That's a whole other stress. I have a meeting at 6:45 tomorrow morning which will tell me if I'll still have a job on Wednesday. Life as an adult is hard.



I hope everyone else is having an ok time. I've been so out of touch, sorry!

Introducing...

...Koda (which means "friend" in Native American)!!!


My new little man! :) He is a 12 week old Australian Shepherd and he is so awesome! Such a smart baby.






I'll post more later. He's keeping my hands full. Just wanted to drop a line and say hello to everyone.

I've completed week 6!

I didn't want to jinx myself so I had decided I wouldn't blog about this topic until I reached week 6. Well, i'm going on week 7 of faithful exercising! Whoo hoo!

I joined a gym in Abbeville and have been going 5 to 6 days a week for 6 weeks now! I'm so darn proud of myself and have really noticed a difference in muscle mass and I can finally keep up with Josh when we go on our 3 mile hikes through the woods. :) It feels awesome to be in shape and I enjoy the heck out of going to the gym. I go every day during the week from 12 to 1 and always look forward to it. It's my escape from the stress of daily work life. I finally stuck with something and its paying off. I am my own motivator!

I've downloaded some great motivational upbeat tunes to listen to and let me tell you, good music makes all the difference! From Fergie to Britney, Pussycat Dolls to Kesha and Lady Gaga to Lasgo, these artists get me through it.

Another big motivator besides the music, Robert Kennedy's Oxygen magazine! They have great tips when it comes to foods and exercises. It was definitely my biggest inspiration to start building my healthy body.



They always end the magazine with "Exhale" which is a motivational quote that I stick on the fridge to remind myself to stick with it!

Happy exercising!

My little man is gone...

...along with a piece of my heart.

Monkey had been missing for 2 weeks. Yesterday morning I woke up from a terrible nightmare about him being hurt and not being able to find me. I told Josh that I sure wished that I knew whether he was ok or not and that the worry was making me sick. That's when I walked up to him and asked "Do you know where Monkey is?" He calmly shook his head yes and I knew then that Monkey was not ok. I asked him if Monkey was dead and he shook his head yes again.

He died two weeks prior and Josh did not have the heart to tell me. He was hit by a car.

I've only cried 4 times today. Yesterday I thought I was going to have a heart attack from emptiness I felt. He was my baby boy, Sian's little brother. We loved him so much.



I can only hope that what they say about Rainbow Bridge is true...



because I have a hole right now that seems like it will never be filled. I never thought I could love a pet this much. I never thought this day would come. He was just a baby.




Rainbow Bridge:

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

-author unknown

And it's over, just like that.

Another deer season (and my second) has come to an end. Rifle season officially ended today and because bow season closes on Friday it really doesn't look like I'll get to hunt until the 2010-2011 season. That's ok though. I had a great time killing my first buck and double in the same day. I'm blessed to be able to live in an area where we can drive 15 minutes to our hunting destination! The deer just weren't really in our area this year. Maybe because of the extreme heat and a ton of rain so late in the season, who knows? Maybe next year we'll have better luck...until then, let the antlers grow!

Christmas 2009=awesome!

As always, Christmas was awesome! I got to spend quality time with my wonderful family and great friends! We started off at mom and dad's for finger foods and card games! It was great, I had a ton of laughs with my folks and we exchanged awesome presents! My parents are so wonderful and I love being with them. :)

Last night we went to Josh's grandmother's house and then on to his mom's. We exchanged gifts there and sat around the tree. :)

Josh and I exchanged presents on Christmas eve. I got him a new target bag and his very first deer decoy! Very cool....the head moves!



And to my (huge) surprise, I got my very own Mathews bow!!! I had been wanting a bow of my own and Mathews came out with this women's bow this fall. I could not believe it!!!!! I was about to cry (happy tears) but fought back. :)




Its not just camo either, it's got little camo flowers all over it. So pretty!!!! I love it!



And Tiff (my hero!) shoots one too:


Here's a picture of Tiffany's huge buck that she killed on Christmas Eve, Alright Tiff!!!!!


I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and you were able to spend it with the ones you love.

Every time I want to hunt...

I haven't deer hunted in what seems like years! We scouted last weekend and found SOOO many tracks in front of my stand. I'm finally off of work for a few days and I wake up this morning at 5am to see this...



I don't hunt in the rain, especially THIS rain!!!! They are saying we're getting an inch today.

You see where the vermilion bay is???? That's me! Poor little me. :(

Poo on rain!

A weekend of firsts :)

Not only did I shoot my first snipe this weekend but I shot something I said I would NEVER shoot!

We were searching for woodcock and this rabbit zipped out of the bushes to my left (into more bushes). I shot 3 times and he went down. It was very exciting! I was just saying yesterday how I didn't want to hunt bunnies, lol! One of my favorite dishes is fried rabbit dipped in cheese from La Fonda's so I'll try and recreate it tomorrow night. YUUUUM!





Another cool thing is that I got to see Josh's pig that he shot earlier in the week. He had hauled it off into the bushes Monday and I had been saying that I wanted to see it. Lets just say that it REALLY stunk!!!! It's face was half eaten....ugh. I almost vomited but i just had to see it. Sorry, the picture was taken after dark moments after he shot it.


We sat in the deer stand on the pipeline tonight and I heard a fawn bleat for the first time!!! It was really close but we could hear it as it walked away from us.

What a great weekend!

My first snipe hunt

I went snipe hunting for the first time this morning. It was SOOOO much fun. There were 4 of us, we killed 12 and our friend Rusty killed the rabbit. :)

I've never eaten snipe so i'm looking forward to it!!!

2 years down...

Although it feels like 4 years, Josh and I finally reached our 2 year mark yesterday. Awwww... :)

My "rut"

I've been exhausted lately, from my job and then a virus I caught this week that spread around the office like a wildfire out of control. It feels like it's always something.

I was dead set on hunting this weekend. It rained yesterday morning so we got Christmas shopping done instead. I refuse to deer hunt in the rain. First of all, it's just miserable and second there's no way you can find a blood trail!!! We didn't get home until after midnight this morning so of course at 4:30 when my alarm went off, i decided to turn it off. Josh went, I slept in. I'm sure all you animal lovers are glad about that!!!! At this rate, two deer may be all that I get this season but I'm ok with that. I had an excellent second season and we still have about another month until it closes.

Happy Sunday....peace, love and venison!

I'll miss you Mya

We put our 11 year old Siamese to sleep this morning. That was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make, to decide if a pet lives or dies. :( She will be missed and never forgotten. I hear rainbow bridge is a really beautiful place.

Why we shoot deer in the wild...

This may make you pee in your pants.....!!!! Enjoy!

(A letter from someone who wants to remain anonymous, who farms, writes well and actually tried this)

I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up-- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold.

The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope .., and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer-- no chance.

That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.

I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual.
Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite?

They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when ... I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head--almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp... I learned a long time ago that, when an animal --like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope......

to sort of even the odds!!

All these events are true... An Educated Farmer

I'm a pooped little puppy

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We certainly did. :) Since dad is in Africa working, mom and I went to Josh's parents for Thanksgiving. It was wonderful. We ate and ate and ate...it was great, the food was awesome! In fact, I think we all had seconds later on in the night! Josh lit a bonfire and we listened to music, watched the fire and enjoyed the weather!

What wonderful company and so much to be thankful for. They are the absolute best group of people that we could have spent our day with. I'm so so so very greatful!

I went to bed at 3am this morning. It's in the 30s outside in Southwestern Louisiana. What better weather for coffee in bed and a great movie!!

Another Rave...Luna bars, yay!

THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! TASTES LIKE A LEMON BAR, BUT CRUNCHY!

Luna bars are specifically designed for women...vitamins, minerals, etc.

At 180 cals per bar, these are so far my fav. I've tried pretty much ever bar out there but these are great! A little pricey but totally worth it. It definitely curved the hunger!