Happy Thanksgiving

This past week was one of hurry and scurry. Trying to get as much done as possible as we'll be heading to Iowa to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jenelle's family. 

And with that in mind, I'll try to keep my blog a bit shorter than usual.

I worked as much as I could and hunted as little as possible. With the beauty of the snow, I wasn't able to resist getting out in the frigid cold on Friday evening for a last minute bow hunt and then on Saturday morning I took Blake pheasant hunting. We aren't actually pheasant hunters, as there really aren't many pheasants in our area. The DNR tried to stock them back in the 70s, but they just don't seem to survive through all of the snow. This year the DNR stocked pheasants in a Wildlife Management Area close to our house and then had a drawing for a youth hunt. Blake drew a permit and so we went pheasant hunting. It was a lot of fun and Blake was able to bag his first pheasant ever, something that I've never been able to personally achieve. 

An interesting tidbit fact is that since the birds are pen raised and then left out in the wild, they aren't overly flighty and wild like our native ruffed grouse. And so this makes easy pickings for the coyotes that can smell them hiding in the grass. We had a new coating of snow and it was windy and so the tracks we saw were fairly fresh. And we saw coyote tracks everywhere. We even saw a spot where they ambushed a rooster and all that was left was the beautiful feathers.

And then on Sunday evening we had our annual small group Thanksgiving dinner. We had a fun time with everyone bringing great food, and like always, there was more than enough to go around! That was followed with table games, although the kids all skipped out and went sled riding and playing in the snow. The table games didn't seem to go so well. We did have fun, but of course the gals beat the guys in Family Feud. But honestly, that only reflects the brilliance of our ladies picking us for their spouses anyways. Well, maybe not, but it was a fun time.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday! Even during sad or hard times, I think it should be celebrated. Being thankful isn't necessarily a feeling. It's a little bit like love. It can be a feeling, but most often it's an action that leads to the feeling.

So this week we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving! 

And we do really thank God for all of you. From those of you that give us words of encouragement, to those who buy our products, and to those that just follow along, reading our blog and sharing and putting a good word in for us now and then.

It's been fun bumping into some of you too. And when I say this, truly, it is heart felt,

Thank you!