Be Very Very Quiet, I'm Hunting Deer

Yesterday I went out bow hunting. I have been out several times this season and usually have seen deer each time but rarely have they come within range (I like them to be at nor more than 20 yards). I chose a new tree for my climbing stand and had put out some doe scent about 15 yards behind me. The wind was perfect yesterday carrying the scent up over to the top of the ridge. At 8 AM my 8 point buck must have caught the scent and came trotting down to check it out. Once it was under my stand I made a grunt sound and he froze. At this moment I took a shot and unfortunately, shot him in his spine. This severed his spinal cord paralyzing his hind legs. I then shot a second arrow and hit his shoulder. At this point I was really wondering what was wrong with my shooting skills (this was all in a matter of about 6 seconds). I then grabbed one more arrow to get a vitals shot and drew back my bow and the string popped. My bow made an exploding sound and broke my carbon fiber arrow in two places. I was not happy to have this happen but it definitely explained why my shots were not going where I had aimed. Fortunately, my shots were fatal and he died quickly. I am happy that I was able to get at least one deer before rifle season this year. Deer jerky, here we come!

Favorite Night of the Year - Halloween

Last night was a fright! We had an estimated 250 kids this year. It has been growing each year and it may be in response to our 'display' that we put on. There were adults who came to see our show even without their kids. The kids were ready to go 'treating'.





We were ready for 'tricking'.









We scared quite a few people but they enjoyed it even if they didn't say so. Clyde and I were the live actors for our display and we had quite a few people who didn't realize at first that we were 'real' people and not just props. We had our picture taken about 100 times during the night. We even had parents put there kids next to either Clyde or I when we were lying in the coffin to have their picture taken.




Even the kids wanted to have their picture taken in the grave.







The new addition of the trash can skeleton was a big hit. Clyde built this from plans we found online. Can you spot the theme of the skeleton? (Hint: metal trash can plus the hat).

The kids had a blast and we all enjoyed treats following our haunting. The best was the brain that was ready for devouring.



Hope everyone had a great Halloween. Remember, there is only 363 days left until Halloween 2010 so it is time to start preparing!

The Day Before

It is the day before All Hallows Eve. We are all very excited and the yard is completely ready. We have three pneumatics set up this year and all are run by remote control. I did a quick night walk-through minus sounds as a preview.

Also, Krispy Kreme has holiday themed donuts. They should have filled them with raspberry filling instead of cream.


Tomorrow is the big day!

Jack-o-Lanterns, Ahhhhh......

Tonight we carved our Jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. It has been a treat this year, Papa (Jen's Dad) is here for Halloween. The kids are really enjoying him.


Today he and I went over and ate lunch with Sam at school. I am getting very excited about Halloween. Less than two days to go. We have had so many compliments about our decorations this year. We even received a card from people that we don't know thanking us for our great decorations. The addressed the card, 'To the Halloween House" since they don't know our names. Here are our jack-o-lanterns, I do not think an evil spirit will come near our house!

This is Dan's


This is Becca's


This is Michael's


This is Sam's


This is Clyde's




This is mine. It ate Jen's and made it puke.


Here is the group shots of the awesome Jack-o-Lanterns.

Balloons, Family and Halloween

It has been over a month since I have blogged and have too much to update. As usual, I will try to get caught up. Last week was the Morgantown Balloon Festival. Since we have Church in the afternoons we were able to go see a balloon race Sunday morning. It was fun to watch them all set up, take off, fly right over our heads and then watch them disappear in the fog over the ridge.





We also have finally took more family shots of us. It is amazing how hard it is to get 6 people to look at the camera and smile. These are the best that we got and considering how many shots it took to get these three, I am very happy with them.




It has been looking like Halloween around our house for the past week or so. I added a 'before' shot so a point of reference can be made. The graveyard is up. There are several modifications this year. The goul is now a pumpkin scarecrow and is now a remote control pneumatic. I can make him grab at people from anywhere in the yard just by hitting a button. Much better than having to mess with valves. Papa (Clyde - Jen's Dad) is coming out for Halloween and he built a surprise for Halloween which is another pneumatic that I will feature in a future blog. It is going to create quite a few screams on Halloween night. He-He. These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago and there have been some more changes that I will show soon. I bought another anatomical skeleton for the yard so that one could lay in the front dug grave and the other, Dr. Bones as we call him, can stand in the yard holding a lantern. We have been getting quite a few people driving slowly past our yard and numerous compliments on the decorations. Many people look forward to our decorations and what we will add this year. Stop by if you are in the neighborhood.