Saturday, January 26, 2013

A Duck Hunter’s Joy

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Jacob was jump shooting in the corn field next to our house when this beauty jumped up and he took him. Notice the trophy? Last year, one of the few ducks he shot had a federal band(here) and it made his yeeeear. He got his certificate mailed to him, found out the duck was over 2 years old and traveled over several hundred miles in 4.5 months. He made a necklace out of the band and wears it often.

When he retrieved this drake, he was more than a little excited to get his SECOND band. He popped online and in five minutes found this duck had come from even a further distance. It was banded in Brackett Lake, Northwest Territories on Sept 8 of last year. 1133m(!) away just 4 months ago! Hokey pete, that’s a long way.  This drake was 3yrs old or older, I love all the facts that they give.

This young man is bringing home enough duck each weekend to provide a meal for his family of ten, pretty good if you ask me.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Grandpa 6/1939-1/2013

I put this on FB this morning.

“Dear friends, My father-in-law passed away, at home, yesterday morning. It was such a blessing to care for him for those sweet seven months. I will miss the raspberry/white chocolate scones at The Woods he bought us every time we went to chemo, the white chocolate mochas he loooved(I must have ordered a hundred!), his kind gentle words, optimism, joy and perseverance through it all. We are missing him dearly.

 
The night before last, I was asleep in bed and the phone rang at 2am. I answered it and no one was there. I checked the number and it was Dad. I tried to call him back, but he didn't answer so I got dressed to go out to his home, worried. Just as I was getting up, the phone rang again, and it was him! He was laughing and said his goofy phone called me on it's own and he was SO sorry to call me in the middle of the night. We had a good laugh, chatted briefly and said goodbye. That was the last time I talked to him and I am so thankful his *phone* called me!”

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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Man Cave

“Where men are made and ladies are always welcome”

At least that is what my husband wrote with a Sharpie marker on the window of the shop door. This is where The Boys would spend the majority of their time if they could.

Our thinking is, if we can train each of our boys to become expert plumbers, welders, electricians, car mechanics, fabricators, home repairmen and what have you, we will be able to sit back in our old age and actually make it off what little retirement we’ll have! Brilliant, ain’t it?!

I ventured out into the freeeeezing cold last night to walk aaaall the way down the driveway to check up on my men in the Man Cave. My husband built his shop himself back in 2004, a year after we moved in. He had dreams of him and his boys working together. ;)

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Here you see the elusive Daniel, doing one of two things he does best….wiring. He installed our ceiling fans, bathroom fan, outside lights and all the sockets in our new addition, too! He has a thing for electricity, running wires, and making connections without getting shocked. I take that back, I just asked him if he has even been shocked when wiring and he said “Twice”.

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Daniel’s signature tattered pant legs and Romeos.

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In the woodshop, he just installed these lights from start to finish. Not that I’m proud.

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Daniels second love is being a mole. While installing the wiring under the house, he discovered he looOOooves being under the house. He has since installed plumbing, sweated in the copper piping under Nana’s cabin and pieced together the PVC drain pipe. He likes to get dirty….very dirty.

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Jacob was making templates to fix some holes in drywall, then learning the whole patch, sand and finish trick. Fixing drywall is something all men need to know, imo. ;) Jake is great at home repair, woodworking, welding and tractor/backhoe work.

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The ‘coon that didn’t get away. The Man Cave is SO redneck.

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The Beast.

I don’t even know how to describe it. It is a 55 gl drum / woodstove conversion with a fan that will about blow you over. It keeps the shop at a toasty 70 degrees when it is 10 below.

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A circuit board city to play with the Hot Wheels.

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The wire feed, my hubby’s favorite toy.

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Micah is the family painter. He is priming his baby sister’s new door. Micah likes to stay clean so he always wears his coveralls. He loves to use the sanders and drills, and looks forward to the day he can use the bandsaw and the big tools by himself.

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His toy.

 

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Her toy. 

 

The Man Cave is meeting it’s goal of making men out of boys. They have many sweet talks about the Lord devotionals are read, and growing up is made easier. Hearts are kept close and skills are built strong. This is one wife who is thankful for the Man Cave.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

"What Happy Is"

A few months back we stumbled upon this song on YouTube. The Josts are a large Christian family who tour and sing together across the Canada and the US, that is all I know about them. You can look up their videos on YouTube. What caught our eye is the fact their 9yr old daughter(at the time) loved to sing and play her ukulele. Well MY 9yr old daughter loves to sing and play the uke. That is what turned her onto this song so quickly.

Emma and Gracie singing "What Happy is" from Squaw Creek on Vimeo.