Christmas hunt 2011

A very memorable few days with my brother-in-law and Tate. Tate shot is 1st duck and this doe, his 6th, I think. He was very proud of the duck. His dog Gracie retrieved both the ducks.

The picture on the left is Tate's 1st doe(Dec 2009), the one on the right is two years later (Dec 2011). He is growing up!!!

Best ever

I was honored to have Julie share a deer blind with me on this evening. We had a blast laughing at Penterist on her phone. We almost ran all the deer off before this big guy walked out into the wheat field.

One of the best days of my life! Hunted with Tate in morning and Julie in the evening. Really!

November

Tate's 5th doe. 1st of 2011 season. He's a great shot by the way....

Four firsts

1. First public land duck hunt

2. First Oklahoma duck hunt

3. First duck hunt for Tate

4. First duck hunt for Gracie (English Cocker Spaniel)

Spring is near

With Spring and Turkey season just around the corner, I am thinking about this picture from last April, just before we moved. One of my best hunting partners has a great place near Dripping Springs to get an early morning gobbler. He really put us on them this morning. Hope to be able to get on Oklahoma turkey this year.

My new favorite beach

I love local restaurants. In the same way, I love to hunt or fish for the local favorite when I visit new places. Gulf Shores, Alabama is my new favorite beach/family vacation spot. AL is know for their very fertile red snapper fishing grounds and our partly took the limit of two per person very fast on this day. Had a very large fish fry with these and a dozen or so spanish mackeral.

A differnt kind of trout

A few months before this picture, we were living in Austin and I was catching speckaled trout (salt water). Now, here's picture of Julie with a nice rainbow trout that she caught while we were fishing with our guide for the day, Lisa Mullins, on the White River in NW Arkansas.

We had a blast and all caught trout. I will remember this trip with Julie, Tate and Grant forever!

In memory of Dad

Shortly before moving North, 3 of my Hilti sales men took me on a quided fishing trip with my Dad's favorite fishing guide, Capt Ranier! My dad really loved fishing with Ranier more than just about anything else he ever did. I bet he fished with him at least 25 times, very easily more. I know he sent him many, many clients also.

This day, we fished very hard all day and had just enough for everyone to have a fish dinner with their family.

This day was about remembering past great days!

Been a while, need to get up to date

Here's a shot of my last quail hunt before leaving Texas and moving to Tulsa, OK. This was in a 900 acre pasture that I hunted with my dad since I was 10 years old. One of Dad's best friends, Don Schell, and his black lab Rythem, made the one day trip with me. Weather was not too hot for S Texas and I think we killed 8 or 10 bobwhite quail. Texas has not a any quail to speak of since.

A few more cabo pics

The coolest part of this fishing trip was seeing how different (and the same) fishing can be in another part of the world. I was impressed with the depth of the water near shore, the amount of bait fish around cabo and the amount of game fish within a mile of the marina. I will go back many more times in my life!

Cabo San Lucas

Julie and I went to Cabo for a week in July to celebrate our 10th anniversary. She was nice enough to let me go fishing one day with my cousin Scott. We had a great trip and both put a marlin in the boat. We also caught yellow fin tuna and dorado. Here are pics of the fishing trip.

Turkey hunt with Tate

Tate and I called turkeys in late April together. We listended to two gobblers for about an hour in the morning. We never got them to come close to us. We did catch a couple of fish, but, the big one got off before we got it out of the water. Here are a few pictures of the trip.

late spring fishing

I took my parents to fish the Colorado river for an afternoon in early April. Here's the result-Mom's 10lb flat head catfish on spinning rod. Nice fish.

a few of the blogs that I read are:

http://wymanmeinzer.wordpress.com/

http://byhenrychappell.blogspot.com/

http://www.russellgraves.com/

enjoy,

David

Spring Turkey Hunt

Tate held this turkey for me to get a picture. Called this one and another gobbler in on the first evening of the 2009 Spring Turkey season.

warm weather fun!

Tate washing the car.

Carefully planting onions and tomatoes.

Good helpers!

Grant and Carson on the four wheeler.

Look at all those fish!!!

Spring Break has been alot of fun! Last weekend we took the boys to Weatherford to hang out with Mimi and Dado for a few days. They always have a blast there. Aunt Carol, Jimmy, and Chloe came over for a few days to play with them. They are loving my parents new house with a playscape that is much bigger and better than ours, a sand box, and a pool that was a little too cold to swim in, but that somehow didn't stop my kids from putting their feet in and walking around the giant steps. Thanks mom, dad, and Carol for babysitting! While they were gone David and I went to Fredericksburg to a beautiful bed and breakfast and had alot of fun. We came home and began painting our living room and kitchen. We are very slow painters but I am really pleased with the outcome.

On Thursday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather. We washed my car and planted a garden. I have been wanting to wash my car for some time because it seems our neighbors do it every weekend and it is a great way to get a little sun and save money not going to the car wash. Tate was a great helper, for about three minutes. He got bored and tired very quickly so I did most of it by myself. That evening we planted a very small garden. David has been wanting to plant a garden for as long as I have known him. Since we have a pretty large backyard he thought this year would be a good time to start a small vegetable garden. I am starting to get excited about it. We planted onions, tomatoes, okra, squash, and bell peppers. We'll see how it goes! On Friday David took both boys to the hunting lease to camp with some of the other families on the lease. The boys had a great time and want to go back soon and take mom....we'll see. I hope you all had a great spring break, too!

Spring Fishing in the Colorado River

Fish fry anyone?

I took Tate and Grant to camp and fish at our lease this weekend. The kids had a blast playing with all the other kids that were there. Brad's family, his parents and his brother's family were all there staying in there campers.

We caught about 50 pounds of fish from the river all on a rod and reel. We used worms, shad and cut bait for the big fish. Tate helped me reel in the 12lb yellow catfish. Brad's yellow catfish was just under 20lbs.

Tate and Grant helped me "plant" sunflowers in the big field where the hogs had dug up the ground. -for the doves

Camping w/ Tate and Grant

I took both boys camping at our lease last weekend. Most people thought that I was crazy to take Grant at age 2. Both boys actually did great. We had a blast driving around the lease, fishing in the Colorado river and cooking out. You can see a couple of the fish that "we" caught. We all made some great memories.

Spring Time is getting near.....

These pics are from last April's spring turkey hunt. As you can see, my dad, Jacob and I all connected on our spring birds. Tate was with us for all three birds, two of which were called into about 15 yards away. I am ready for Spring!

January Deer hunt

I ended the hunting season with a bang, literally. In 24 hours, I traved 2.5 hours to our hunting lease in San Saba county, killed a hog and a doe and found many new spots to fish and camp this spring. What a great time. Derek and Jim joined me and Derek connected with an older spike with his bow and arrow. A great time was had by all!