Hog Hunt

I'm sure everyone already saw the pictures on Facebook so I won't include the blurry pictures I took with my cell phone.  Elias had a fun hunt and was able to shoot a 175 pound boar.  Now that I gave away the ending, I will fill in the details. 

We have been out hunting several times and Elias hasn't been able to shoot anything.  He loves hunting and I could see that he was starting to lose interest.  We were hunting at a friends place (who is the definition of Southern hospitality) and we weren't able to take a shot at anything.  They took us over to a ranch that does hog hunts.  The ranch owner loaded us up on his Kawasaki Mule and gave us a great tour of the ranch.  Elias absolutely loved it.  The owner was telling us stories the whole time. 

He has one place that is about 40 acres and I think he had about 20 hogs on it.  I could have those numbers switched around.  Anyway, he called it the Honey Hole.  It was the place that everyone went when they werent able to get a hog during their hunt. 

Before we went in, the ranch owner told Elias that there was one boar in there that might charge.  He had a pretty mean disposition.  Then he told him that if the hog charged, get behind a tree and wait for the hog to chose a side and then jump to the opposite side of the tree.  I asked Elias after the hunt if he was scared.  He told me that he was totally freaked out. 

We spotted a bunch of hogs down below us and walked down to where we were within 30-40 yards of them.  There was a nice little hog that was standing right in front and I thought that would be a perfect one for him to shoot.  He was further down the hill with the rancher and they were picking out hogs.  The rancher crouched down and put his hand on the tree with his arm straight out so that Elias could rest the gun on his arm.  Elias was shaking like crazy.  I kept thinking he was going to shoot but he didn't.  The pigs started moving and a great big boar stepped right out in front of all the rest of them.  You pay by the pound and I kept saying to myself, "don't shoot that one, find a little one."  About that time the rifle goes off and the biggest one drops.

He was really excited and pretty nervous too.  He hasn't stopped talking about it since it happened.  The rancher was extremely good with him and I would recommend Langley Ranch to anyone that wants to go hog hunting.  They have a great website at http://www.texaswildhoghunting.com/.  Elias' picture should be there soon. 

(I, Tami, added the photos for those of you who aren't facebookers.)

Work Shirt and Bald Eagles

I realized today that I have a sissy job.  I was with the scouts for the morning so Tami and the kids were going to clean out the weeds, trees and other things growing along the side of the yard.  Tami told the boys to go put on work clothes so they could help out.  Silas walked out of his bedroom with a button up shirt ready to go "work".  When Tami told me the story, I realized that I officially have a pansy job.  He didn't know that a work shirt should involve flannel.

We were driving home from Sam's club today and Silas was on a roll.   He had cut part of Tami's segal palm and we were telling him that he shouldn't do that.  He told us that he didn't like it and it poked him so he took the shears and cut the plant.  His brain told him to do it and as long as he didn't like the plant, he was going to continue to cut it.  I told him that if he cut the plant, I was going to shave his head bald.  He immediately came back with, "that would be awesome because then kids would call me a bald eagle."  For some reason, I don't think I won that argument.    

Renaissance Festival

I thought Tami was going to do a post on the Renaissance Festival but I guess she hasn't had time.  It was the first time I had ever been to one.  Tami used to go to the one in Moscow, Idaho and it was just a bunch of hippies selling arts and crap but on a very small scale.  We have been hearing how great the Ren festival is here and that everyone should go because it is a lot of fun.

 Let's start out with people watching.  It was the absolute best people watching ever.  I can't even start to explain how weird people are at this place.  I got tired of hearing My Lady, My Lord, etc.  I can't believe that grown ups actually speak that way without laughing.  Oh yeah, and every plus sized lady with boobs had them squishing out of the top of whatever they were wearing.  If that wasn't sexy enough, the hairy arm pits topped it off.  And if that wasn't enough, the smell of the costumes had to get you going. 

The kids wanted to go on rides but every one of them was home made and had some type of leather straps holding them together.  I'm sure the quality control was outstanding but they were just trying to make it look dangerous.  Needless to say, they did not go on any rides.

Everyone out there was trying to sell something.  I felt like I was walking in downtown Denver with all the beggars.  The only difference is that we got to pay $25 per adult ticket to have them do it.  One poor guy tried to sell us some pickles.  It was hilarious, Tami actually said, "Oh gross" (out loud) before she could catch herself.  The guy was extremely dirty and smelled really bad (part of the act I'm told) and Tami just couldn't hold it in.

A lot of people had a funny smell to them.  The incense didn't quite cover the smell that they had.  I couldn't quite place my finger on the smell.  One time when I went to work with a detective friend of mine, one of the ladies took me to a special locked up closest and showed me these green balls of grass or something like that.  It smelled very similar to that.  I'm sure it was just the local plants out there.

We stayed for about two hours.  We had to eat a smoked turkey leg and an elephant ear.  To get those we had to listen to some guy say, "Thank thee me lady" to Tami.  Tami took some pictures of several people and we will post them.  Be forewarned, you aren't seeing the half of it with the pictures.  You must go and experience it for yourself.

Our Own Personal Glee

Well not exactly.  Elias had his Fall Festival Choir performance.  They had all the choirs that are in feeder schools to Oak Ridge High School and all the ORHS choirs perform.  It was a fun night.  The HS choirs were especially awesome.  The Men's choir was so good and definitely inspired E to want to keep singing.  For some reason I can't get the best "Glee"-like performance to upload.  Maybe it's for the better! 





PS. It finally worked.  Here's the most "animated" one.

Made Tami's Day/Week/Year?

I can't believe it is already happening to me.  We were at church today and someone admitted that when we walked into church for the first time, he thought I had four boys and an older daughter that just didn't quite fit into the family.   Yes, you guessed it.  That daughter was Tami.  He was not joking about it either.  He was really trying to figure out how everyone fit in the family.  I know she was young when we got married but she is only two years younger than I am.  I am going to blame it on good genes.  Her mom and dad  both look much younger than they are.  I tried to blame it on the wonderful lifestyle that her graying husband provided for her, but having four boys makes that impossible.  Living stress free like she does must help out quite a bit.  (If you don't know Tami, she stresses out about everything and I don't stress about much of anything)  So that can't be it either.  I actually took it as a complement too.  I always joked with Tami that when we were older, people would mistake her for my daughter.  I guess that time is now.  It came much earlier than I thought.  The good thing is, I can still have a trophy wife when I am in my 60's and it will be the same person that I will have been married to for 40 years.  It wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't rubbing into my face the whole time.  She is feeling pretty good about herself right now.  She was always confident but now she is downright arrogant about it.  I guess that is the price you must to pay to have a trophy wife. 

Water Leak

Last evening/night we had a GREAT BIG South Texas rain storm.  Somehow in the middle of the night Silas snuck in at the foot of my bed and stole my blanket.  This morning he was telling me that he came to my bed because water was "shooting out of his bed".  I disreguarded his story thinking that he must have just heard the rain and thunder in his sleep. He IS quite the vivid dreamer.  He kept telling me that it had really happened.  Then I began thinking maybe he wet the bed.  Last night he fell asleep at 5:30 while in his room on a time out.  He slept the rest of the night which really made me worry that he'd wet his bed.  I investigated his clothes and looked all around for abandoned pee pee pants that he might have hid.  Nothing.  Then I went to make his bed and there was a HUGE wet spot. WTC!?!  I did the ol' motherly sniff test and it was clean.  OH SNAP! Are you kidding me?  This brand new house has a leak?  Oh I was ticked.  Our builder is probably bankrupt by now.  He's not fixing the few things that were supposed to be done before closing and isn't answering emails or phonecalls. So I'm thinking dang it, we're going to have to find and get this fixed.  I climbed on the top bunk to feel the ceiling and try and figure out where the water was coming from.  Everything was dry and nothing looked suspicious.  I'm completely at a loss now but not dropping my investigation.  A  pool of water that big came from SOMEWHERE!  Knowing that Silas went to bed so early I questioned if he'd gone to the bathroom in the middle of the night and gotten himself a drink?  There were no cups around so I doubted that.  Elias has been sleeping on the top bunk while Maggie has been staying with us.  I decided to ask Elias if he took some water to bed with him last night. He said not exactly...hmmmm what does that mean I ask. "Oh, well my ankle was hurting so I brought a bag of ice to bed."  He told me a couple days ago that in PE he punted soccer balls the whole hour and that his ankle was sore from it.  I told him he was just out of shape (and a sissy). I guess he decided to take treatment measures into his own hands.  He's so over dramatic!!! I blame him for Silas being in my bed!

We Trashed the Place

I am back from Idaho now and I think everything on the house is almost complete.  We are still waiting on the lease agreement with the State Parks and Recreation department.  We are complying with everything so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The people we bought the house from were very nice.  They were an older couple that had been in the cabin for a lot of years.  They hadn't even been able to go for a couple of years because of their health but their daughter has been using it quite a bit.

I had to leave early but the daughter still wanted to have one last hurrah before they turned it over to us.  For liability purposes, I called her and told her that she couldn't stay at the cabin and she needed to come get the rest of her stuff.  Let's just say, she wasn't too excited about not being able to have a huge party there the last weekend.  I know, I am totally unreasonable not letting some total stranger party at our house while we aren't there.

My brother in law Jon, his mom and my dad went out to the house today so that the lady could come get her stuff.  I guess they showed up completely drunk and were not happy about the changes that were made on the house.  It was probably a good thing I wasn't there because I have a tendency to lose patience very quickly when people are drunk, yelling and screaming and being rude.  I was told by both Jon and my dad that it was a good thing I wasn't there.  I dont really know what they meant by that.  The people said that I had no respect for history and that I had trashed the place.  I think they meant that I had detrashed the place.

Jon and his mom helped me clean out all the old stuff.  They worked like crazy and we took literal boat loads of stuff to the dock and loaded two pickups completely full of stuff.  We had couches, cupboards, rugs, knick knacks and all sorts of other stuff.  Jon cleaned up the beach area and helped me fill in the old outhouse.  (that isn't a job that you ever want to volunteer for by the way).  We got rid of a lot of stuff.  Float houses are kind of funny, if you take weight out of them, they float better.  If you add a lot of weight, they tend to sit lower in the water.  When we were done, I couldn't even close and lock the door because it had shifted so much.

The next day, Harvey and Cheryl (Tami's parents) came down and completely cleaned the house.  Cheryl was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floors on the entire main floor.  Harvey was cleaning light fixtures, knocking down cobwebs and cleaning windows.  It really opened the whole house up and it now seems very big.

I really don't want to be rude, but.....we did not trash the place.  I know it has to be hard to see something that you grew up with be completely changed in a matter of 2-3 days.  The drama is now over. 

PS(from Tami)  Caleb is much more PC than I am.  Let's just say he gave you the rated G version of how the daughter and her boyfriend behaved when they came to get their CRAP!