A Year Ago

Michaela's birthday is coming up. I finally edited pictures from our last (2009-2010) Christmas and her 3rd birthday.

I hope to post an update from her 4th birthday in a more timely manner.

Mead Wildlife Website

I have spent much of the past two weeks updating, transitioning, and partially redesigning the Mead Wildlife Area's website. Two nights ago we (with the help of an expert) transitioned the DNS and domain name over to a new server, one that supported a different design which hopefully allows for easy maintenance.

If you're interested, take a look and give me feedback. I suspect there will be many issues to resolve in the coming week yet.

http://www.meadwildlife.org/

Christmas Visit

We had a wonderful visit with Minnesota family over Christmas and New Years. Aubrey, Steven, and Abi were back from Oregon and the girls had a blast playing together. It was interesting watching them "try" to share and have fun, including the youngest two sledding.

It is amazing how hard it is to get three grandkids and grandparents to look at the camera, and from our pictures it looks almost impossible to get seven grandkids to look at the camera (even with Photoshop help).

We were lucky to spend time with many family members, but missed many more and most of our friends. We wish everyone a great 2011!

Puzzles on the Weekend

The first weekend of the new year has come and gone. Did we keep our new year resolutions? Did we have any new year resolutions? Did we stay warm?

Well the frigid weather kept us inside for most of it as we played games and worked on puzzles. The neighbor girls came over and inspired our girls to head outside for some warm weather fun in the sandbox!

Snowfall

We were unable to avoid the winter wrath that hit southern Minnesota and central Wisconsin this weekend, receiving a pile of snow on Saturday and equal sized drifts on Sunday. Today the neighbor girls came over and played with Michaela and Danielle for almost eight hours, with no nap in that time. They had a great time and even helped shovel the driveway. In the late afternoon all the girls went outside to play and enjoy the snow piles. I hope everyone has stayed warm with the winter weather.

North Dakota Hunting Part 2

After a wonderful hunting trip with Gary, Chandler, Steven, Matt, and Dad two weekends ago I returned to the same location with Matt and Dad for more duck hunting last weekend. Luckily I was able to ride with Matt from the Cities to Fargo, where we crashed for the night. Dad joined us there and we left early Saturday to ensure an early morning hunt on the water.

In the years we've been going to this ND location we have never seen as many other hunters....which happened to coincide with far fewer ducks. We still had enough ducks to go around and neared our limit, even though it required more time and effort than the weekend before. Once again we shot, and more often than not the birds kept flying. Overall it was wonderful weather, with heavy fog the second day, and a wonderful time together.

On a personal note, during the trips it was the first time seeing and identifying Gray Partridge in the field. The 300th bird on my list

North Dakota Hunting

We had wonderful weather in North Dakota for duck hunting this past weekend. Warm weather, wind, and a few birds on almost every pond made for great comfortable hunting. Everyone shot some ducks but shot at many more. This was the first year that Steven joined us for the family get together and I hope that it is the first of many.

I learned of and was reminded of a few things on this trip.

1. Chandler is a pretty good shot.
2. Men in Binford ND must be really tall, that or the plumber had trouble with the installation in the bar.
3. Steven's hunting day is Saturday, but on Sunday he gives the ducks a break.
4. I can give my dad a piggyback ride.
5. The water is still cold when it goes over the boots and waders.
6. Dad is still an awesome shot.
7. Spending a day hunting with family is wonderful.