Hunting Wild Hogs in Florida- Oct 2012

My friend, JRoger, has a 1500 acre wilderness area leased for hunting, When he showed me this beautiful wilderness over by Wacissa, which is about 25 miles from his place, I told him that I would love to shoot a Florida feral "wild hog".  So the other morning way before daylight, he and I found ourselves way out in the middle of this area in the dark! Darker that DARK!!  Wow, I had forgotten how dark it can get down here in Florida....especially out in the "piney woods".   Rog has two tree stands and corn feeders strategically place at very appropriate places.  We parked way back so as not to disturb anything and walked to one of his tree stands….


As we sat in the total darkness waiting for the sun to come up, the strange sounds of the calm forest rung out. Wow, what a neat time of the day.  It was beautiful!!    Here is the view of of one of his feeders from the two person tree stand nearby. We were ready…


The sun was just coming up behind us……..  


Roger said “I think I hear them coming, are you ready”?   "Yes, I am ready", I told him. However, my heart was pounding so loud that I was sure the Hogs would hear it. 


I kept a dead eye on the feeder as I held on to the rail.  I sure didn’t want to get excited and fall out……It was quite a drop to the ground.


JRoger says “Well I’ll be, they went right on by.  I think they must be headed to the other feeder”  He had his favorite “lucky” hunting hat on and everything….


After about an hour and a half and we didn’t see any hogs, Rog says “I got an Idea.  I will walk you over and show you where the other tree stand is and you can stay there.  I’ll come back and get you in about an hour”. Sounds like a plan, so off we went and I got up in his other tree stand and watched for hogs at that feeder.


Here I sat, all by myself not really having any idea where I was for sure. But I was engrossed in this place. I sat quiet as a mouse watching and listening to all the strange sounds of the woods.  Man O Man, I wasn’t seeing any Hogs but I was enjoying the quietness and peaceful solitude of this beautiful place.    

It finally dawned on me to look at my watch and see if it was about time for Roger to come and pick me up.    WOW!!  I had been there an hour and a half!  What the heck??  Where is Roger? I was listening for the truck and didn’t hear a thing.  For one quick second I thought to myself, Oh. No, did I fall for a trick and I am left out here all alone as a joke??  Naw, good buddy Rog wouldn’t do that to me. 

Then I thought, OH, Shucks, I better turn my phone on!! I had been so engrossed in my hunting, that I forgot all about my phone.. Quickly turning it on I found that sure enough, there was a message from Roger. He told me his truck wouldn’t start,.....battery was dead! So he had called the Gals, Ms. Pat and Susan, to come out and give us a jump start.  Ah Ha, that's where Rog is, stranded.   I sat in the tree stand for a little longer and then decided I better get down and walk around as my legs were getting a little numb.   I started walking out towards the main road and just as I got there, Rog picked me up and the gals were right behind him.

So we didn’t get any Wild Hogs that morning.  We spent the rest of the afternoon getting Rog’s truck fixed and ready to go out again.

Today we are all headed over to Randy and Lisa’s (Ms. Pats daughter and SIL) place and have a big seafood feed……….Hip Hip Hurray..

We are having a ball in Florida and time is going way too fast!!

But it was definitely a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  Come on back Wednesday and hear about more Florida fun!

God Bless you all..

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

Friends and Family,,,that’s what it’s all about!!

We got all settled into JRoger and Susan’s wonderful place out in the country just North of Monticello, FL. JRoger had just built up this neat RV spot for us.


Here we are all set up and comfortable. It seems so GREEN here after our exceptionally dry summer in the Black Hills.  It will take us a few days to get used to this humidity…..


We have been busy doing a lot of different stuff....here I was helping JRoger try to drain the swamp. 


We always look forward to the kids coming out to see us.  This is Ms. Pat’s youngest son Scott and his wife Shelly. 


The next ones out to see us was Ms. Pat’s oldest daughter Lisa and her husband Randy. They came with guns ready to shoot.


Do you see the resemblance?  That’s Lisa on the right.

We have been doing a lot of shooting and JRoger has helped me sight in all my rifles, including the AR, and several of my pistols. Yesterday I loaded several hundred  .45 Cal ACP bullets with one of JRoger’s four reloading presses.


Here Ms. Pat practices with Lisa's small .38 revolver carry gun.


She then had the pleasure of shooting JRogers "BEAR" gun, his S&W 500.  It’s a Big Gun and it makes a BIG BANG!! We all had a ball shooting this cannon!!


Yesterday Terri, Ms. Pat’s middle daughter (far left) came out and spent the day with us. This is a wonderful Happy Hour gathering place. What an enjoyable spot to enjoy all this great fellowship! Ms. Megabyte2 has her chair in the circle and joins in the conversation but mostly just listens.  The weather has cooled off considerably (only 73* yesterday) so Ms. Pat cooked some of Gina's Taco soup for dinner.  Delicious!!


Here Ms Megabyte gets some sun rays as she rests from her long trip. This traveling really wears her out!

I know many of you are concerned about how Ms. Pat’s back is and I am happy to report that she is considerably better. We are fortunate to have a Granddaughter that works for the Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic and she was able to get her Grandmother in on short notice. I took her in Monday right about lunch time and she was able to see one of the best Orthopedic Doctors in the area. He gave her a complete examination, then gave her a steroid shot in the "hurting spot".   They assured us it was not the tainted vaccine that has been causing the Meningitis problems.  She is still sore and slowly showing some improvement. We have another appointment in 10 days just in case she isn’t better. Hoping we can cancel that.   Please keep her in your prayers...back problems are no fun!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

We have many more fun things planned.. Come on back Sunday and I’ll fill you in.

God Bless you all..

Mike

NOTE:  Thanks to Susan for a lot of these pictures.  She walks around with a camera in her hand.

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

We are in FLORIDA

Thursday morning, we departed Little Rock on our journey south and ended up at the Elks Club in Calera, AL. just south of Birmingham.   Another fine day on the road and 400 miles closer to our previous home in northern Florida.  That left us just one more easy 300 mile day to get to JRoger and Susan's place in Monticello. I was sure looking forward to getting there and seeing them. It had been exactly a year since our last visit and although JRoger and I are in constant contact by phone and email throughout the year, it's always good to see them..

As we crossed over the Chattahoochee River East of Dothan, AL. we were in the Eastern Time zone. That is 2 hours earlier than it was back home in Custer and I think we were suffering from “Jet Lag”, I was exhausted and ready for some R & R….i.e., down time!!  Poor Ms. Pat has been nursing a serious back problem and the trip has been unusually difficult for her.  She has been miserable to say the least.

Shortly after noon we called JRoger and told him we were just a short distance away and would be coming in for a landing soon.  When we arrived, we found he had graded the road into his place and built us a nice spot to park the Motorhome.  After a wonderful Happy Hour and some of Susan’s great Vinison Chili, Ms. Pat and I returned to our RV and "died". We were both way beyond exhausted.  We were so happy and relaxed to be here. Even though we were 2 hours ahead of our bedtime schedule, we had no problem crashing and I slept like a log! WOW, I needed that!

Ms. Pat’s back is not getting any better, so she scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic clinic in Tallahassee.  Our Granddaughter, Megan, works at Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic and she was able to pull some strings to get us an emergency appointment for tomorrow (Monday) afternoon.

Meanwhile JRoger did what we both love doing.  He showed me all his guns and I showed him mine. Then JRoger helped me put a Tactical kit I had purchased on my 12 gauge shotgun.  Man it looks neat and Ms. Pat and I are ready for the Wickenburg Sportsmen's Club "3 Gun competitive shoot-out" they have once a month..

I haven’t given much thought or time to the Blog this time and it's kinda short but I just wanted to let you all know where we are and that we made it in fine shape. We will be here a couple weeks, then head on West towards AZ.


Remember how shabby our place looked at North Ranch in Arizona the other day when Paul sent us the picture above?  (ignore date on picture)


We called Les, our yard care man, and he soon had it back looking much better, don’t you think? Thanks so much Paul and Nancy for keeping us abreast of what's happening. We are both getting a little anxious to get back to our home there where we love it so much!

Thank You all for stopping by. We are looking forward to seeing some of the kids today…….

 It was a GREAT WEEK!! Praise the Lord!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

Great Granddaughters….

OK, here they are!!  That is Cora on the left and Alice on the right… aren't they beautiful?


Little Cora says, “ O’Boy...Pops you're boring.  Alice says, “ I think I’m getting my first tooth!!


Yep, she says it a tooth alright.  Both of them are a lap full!!


Ms. Pat took Alice and wanted to take her home with us..


Soon they both fell asleep……


When they get hungry, they demand their parents attention.  Shala and Ryan are wonderful parents and they have their hands full!  We sure enjoyed seeing our Great Granddaughters who were exactly 4 months old that day.  Happy Birthday Girls!

We had a wonderful time in Lincoln, NE and Gregg helped me do some cleanup work at Ann’s place. I know Ann appreciated it and we even got her snow blower started, so she is ready for winter!  Here we are with our RV’s side by side parked at the Lancaster Event Center just a few miles from Ann’s house.


Ms. Pat and I stopped by for a personal visit with Son Scott and to let him know we were thinking of him.  We miss you Son!


Yesterday we arrived at our favorite site #11 at the Willow Beach Corps of Engineers campground in Little Rock, Arkansas.   We have stayed here for years and years. It was a superb 700 mile trip down from Lincoln. We had beautiful weather and even a tail wind both days!! Ms. Megabyte2 doesn’t move while we are traveling but she sure likes to get out and stretch her legs when we stop.

Today we will enjoy a visit with our old traveling partners Louis and Janette. They traveled with us for years before Louis became disabled with Parkinsons and they had to give it up.  We have memories that go back a long ways..   

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!   

Tomorrow we will continue our trip on towards Florida!!  We continue to praise our Father in Heaven for all his Blessings that make this wonderful life possible.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come on back Sunday and catch up with us wherever we are..

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

On the Road again!!

Right on schedule Thursday morning we gave the Cabin one last check, locked it all up and hit the road. We departed at 0730 on a beautiful morning with hardly a cloud in the sky. We had a nice easy trip, 410 miles to the same place we stopped last year, the Great Platte River Road Archway on I-80 near Kearney, Nebraska. This is a wonderful place to spend the night. They welcome RV’s and trucks for overnight parking and we had it mostly all to ourselves.  The Arch was closed when we arrived but it opened at 9am the next morning.  We wanted Gregg and Bonnie to see this wonderful exhibit so we waited for them to take the tour.  It is truly a great stop…



Ms. Megabyte2 stretches her legs after a long travel day.  It was a gorgeous evening and we all rested well....the heavy traffic from the Interstate right next to us didn’t bother us one bit.




I had a new toy to play with this trip.  This is my new Silverleaf Electronic Engine Monitor.  It sure gives you a lot of information about what is going on with that big Cummins engine.   It is a special cable that you purchase that connects to your engine computer and then to a laptop on the dash. A lot of our friends have one and I have been wanting one for a while. The software is a free download and you can arrange the gauges on the screen any way you want… Neat!!

Friday shortly after noon we pulled into the Lancaster Event Center in Lincoln, got all parked and soon headed over to Ann’s place for Happy Hour! How great it is to see her again, as usual. It seems that Scott should be here, but he isn’t. Some of the memories are painful but God gives both Ms Pat and I the strength to get through it and I know he is in Heaven smiling down upon us.

Saturday was a big day.  Just happens that they are having a GUN SHOW here at the Event Center this weekend.  WOW! How lucky can you get.  We took in the Gun Show for a couple hours, then headed on over to Ann’s to help her with some chores she needed to get done before winter set in… like get her SNOW BLOWER running again.  I’m happy to say, it started right up!! Gregg and I worked hard but we got a lot accomplished and then sat back and enjoyed a fine meal that Ann and Ms. Pat prepared.  We finished eating just in time to watch the BIG RED vs. Wisconsin football game on TV.  During the half, we hurried back to the RV and went to sleep watching the 2nd half.  Sounds like it was a good game and even better when I discovered that Big Red won!!

Today is the big day for me. I will be seeing the twin Great Granddaughters!!!   Ms. Pat couldn’t wait so she and Ann ran over to Shala’s yesterday while Gregg and I worked on Ann's place. She said they were beautiful babies.  She got to hold them and play with them for a little while.  I can hardly wait.  Remember I promised you a picture of me holding them both.  I’m so excited, I haven’t held a little baby for years and years….and now I get to hold TWO!!

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow we will head on towards Little Rock and should be there by Tuesday afternoon…….

See ya Wednesday!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

Buffalo Roundup 2012

Monday was the annual Buffalo Roundup in Custer State Park. So bright and early, just as the sun was coming up, we found ourselves headed to the Buffalo viewing area on the Wildlife loop.  The line was a good 5 miles long but most of the time it was moving right along.



It was a beautiful clear brisk morning and the colors were outstanding………


As we approached the South Viewing area, many of the people were already there and had been for hours.  We like the South side best, as you get to see the buffalo come down from the hills. It amazes me how this event has grown, from a crowd of just a couple thousand, to a crowd that was somewhere between !4,000 and 16,000.


Everybody was getting excited now at the first site of a horseback rider on the horizon.  See him on top of the hill? There must be Buffalo up there somewhere, soon to be coming into view..


Now they have them all pushed down from the Hills and will bring them right up close to us and into the corrals..



They are getting closer! That is the news media set up with all the cameras.


Approximately 1400 Buffalo being herded right before our eyes,,  You can smell the dust and feel the power! No where else in this world can you experience an event like this!!


This is my favorite picture......only in America and only in the Black Hills!!


The final group go into the large holding pen just outside the corrals. This picture shows the North viewing area.  Just look at all the people….  and this isn’t even half of them.  Here's a short video from the 2011 Roundup.  2011 Buffalo Roundup  


This is a picture of Gregg in the “crow’s nest” above the chutes where the Buffalo will be worked.  The calves will be branded and the young bulls tested and any other treatment needed. This is also where they are sorted for the Big Buffalo Auction that is held in November. 


Ms. Pat and Bonnie are on the “cat walk” above the chutes watching for the Buffalo to be pushed through those trees and into the pens. They are standing above the pen where the baby calves will be branded and vaccinated.  It was a long, busy day and even though we got back home shortly after 1:00 pm, I was bushed.

Tomorrow is our departure day.. We have been busy loading everything up and winterizing our summer cabin. We are so thankful for all the wonderful help Gregg and Bonnie have been in all this preparation and loading.  It is work!! Plus Gregg has polished and cleaned everything we own.  He loves to polish, and of course, I love to let him!! He did the entire Motorhome, including the roof, both the old and the new pickup trucks, my Harley and even his own truck and 5th wheel.  I don't know where he gets all the energy and I don’t know how we could have done all this without them…

Later this morning, we will blow out all the water pipes and close the cabin up for the winter.  Then Thursday morning, if everything goes as planned, we will be “on the road again”! Praise the Lord!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!      

Thanks for stopping by and we hope you enjoyed going to the Roundup with us as much as we enjoyed going. 

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

OK, Definitely Time to “Load ‘er Up”

The departure time is getting close now. So many things we have to wait until the very last minute to do……… but the time has come..



Ms. Pat had her last Line Dancing class Friday and here she is finishing up a few last stitches on her sewing machine as she gets things ready to head South.




We took Gregg and Bonnie up to the Old Gold Mine where our personal “Cache” is located. We wanted to give it one last check before we left it for the winter..




Here they are way back in the "mine"…



Then we went on up top where our hidden cache is and showed them the view.  Gregg spotted the cache right off.



Then yesterday we checked out the annual Arts and Crafts Festival out in Custer State Park. Here Ms. Pat checks out all the Entertainment and Activities. This affair gets bigger and bigger every year…  We have watched it grow from just a small gathering into what it has become today. Unbelievable! It's is a two day affair held before the Buffalo Roundup tomorrow (Monday).



Gregg and Bonnie inspecting the many many booths of all the different crafts.




It was a gala affair with every type of item you could dream of.  These type deals wear me out in a heartbeat.  It all seems so elaborate and vast that it just blows my mind.




There are many, very talented artists from all over the country. I especially enjoyed watching this gentleman create this beautiful creation of a Buffalo….. What talent!!




Ms. Pat also found what she loves!! I thought it was quite appropriate, this sign and Ms. Pat standing right along side… Ms. Pat Loves to Quilt!!

So now we are off to Church this morning and then tomorrow (Monday) is the Big Buffalo Round up!!  Then we will finish the winterizing project here at the "Cabin in the Hills" and move into our "Home On WHEELS"!!


The plan is for a Thursday departure date. If the Good Lord is willing, we will make it, if not we’ll change it. But that’s the plan!!  Maybe I’ll find time to post a Blog Wednesday and maybe I won’t. So if you don’t see me, you’ll know what I'm doing…

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

God Bless you all and Travel Safe..

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

Sunday Was a Busy Day!

Sunday after Church we decided to go up to Rapid City and do a few things we had been talking and thinking about. The thing that got me real interested in going was a Gun Show but it only lasted until 3pm, so we had to rush. We arrived before 1pm and easily had time to browse all the tables and look at the goodies.  Guns, Guns and more Guns, plus everything else you could imagine. I managed to purchase only one item, a leather holster. However, I enjoyed looking at all the firearms and stuff and even saw a couple friends.

As soon as we got out of the Gun Show, we did a little shopping and shortly it was time for us to head to the Movie Theater.  We went to see the movie “2016”.  WOW, a very interesting movie to say the least! I promised myself I would never get into politics in this Blog, so I will just say that if you haven’t seen the movie, maybe you should.

When we got out of the Movie Theater, we were hungry and, of course, Ms. Pat and I miss our "Seafood". So we headed to about the only recourse for Seafood in the Black Hills, that being the “Red Lobster”. Now in Ms. Pats home area of Tallahassee, Florida, Red Lobster doesn’t even qualify for a decent Seafood Restaurant but here in this dry land you can’t be choosy. The place was packed and after over a 30 minute wait, we were escorted to our seats and enjoyed  a few Shrimp.

When we got out of the Restaurant it was beginning to get dark and I could only wish that I was home in my recliner.  I was tired....so I handed the keys to Gregg and he got us home safe and sound.  It doesn’t seem we are ever out after dark anymore.  It seemed strange but does give away our age I guess. I was happy to get home but it had been a Super Day! We accomplished a lot in just one day…..Church, a Gun Show, a Movie and then a Seafood Dinner with the company of our great friends Gregg and Bonnie. Wow, that’s about a week or more accomplishments for us!! (would you believe a month’s?)


We are so sad that our good friends and North Ranch neighbors Paul and Nancy couldn’t make it out to see us this summer. They had planned on being here with us right now and go see the World renown “Buffalo Roundup” with us.  Paul wrote me and sent a picture of our place at North Ranch so we could see how much the trees have grown.  Ignore the date on the picture....it is not correct.

WOW!! I was shocked to see how much our tree’s had grown in just 3-1/2 months! I had those tree’s trimmed so they were over 6’ from the ground.  Unbelievable!  However, Paul said they had been having a lot of moisture the last couple months..  Thanks so much for the picture Paul. We called “Les”, our yard guy, and asked him to go trim them and clean the place up a little.   We should be there in about 6 weeks.  We sure miss you, Paul and Nancy, and wish you were here but we will look forward to seeing you soon. Hopefully you can make it next summer!


A lot of people commented on how much they liked  Gregg and Bonnie's Flag and wanted to know where they got it. They bought theirs at a flea market in the south Texas town of Donna. Now that’s a far piece for most folks, so we researched and asked everyone else to let us know if they could find a place where it could be ordered. Several of you sent me links to different flag sales places but just last night someone sent me to a link for one just like theirs.  Here it is:    USA/CANADA FLAG   Where else but right on good ole' eBay!!

Thanks to “yabuddy” for sending that to us. Now you know where you can get one, so you better get it ordered before it's time to head out for the winter…..

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  We are ONE WEEK from departure date!!!  Ms. Pat tells me to not get all stressed out about it but you know, even after all these years of doing it, I still get mighty excited!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..