There is still...

...so much beauty and beautiful people in this world!
I love Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and especially the Ode to Joy.  Beethoven composed this beautiful piece after he had gone almost completely deaf.
The premier night of this piece was Beethoven's first on-stage appearance in 12 years.  Although the performance was officially directed by another man, at the beginning of every part Beethoven, who sat by the stage, gave the tempos.  He was turning the pages of his scores and beating time for an orchestra he could not hear.
I have often felt sad that Beethoven could not hear the orchestra perform his brilliant piece.  However, it is said that Beethoven could hear all of the music in his mind--that is how he was able to compose such an amazing piece in the first place.  I wonder if the music he heard in his mind was even more beautiful and heavenly than the sounds our earthly instruments can produce.

There Goes My tournament Baby!

You can keep your Tequila Sunrise!

I have an Oreo sunrise!

The 2013 Hunt

'Tis that time of year again.  Ah, firearms deer season.  That time of year when all the deer take up guns and chase the hunters from the woods.....
Yeah.
All of the boys in this house have been waiting with barely-contained excitement for that special Saturday to finally get here.  Picture something like a pack of hyped-up racehorses in their respective gates, chomping at the bit, restlessly awaiting that signal shot.  Only with bigger guns.
Saturday morning finally arrived and it looked promising.  Now, I mean it literally looked promising.  I glanced out of our back window and a faint rainbow had dropped to the ground right where our guys were out hunting.

See?  

Sign of good things to come, right?

Nope!

It has been a HORRIBLE hunting season this year.

The boys have seen a few good bucks but never in a place that they can get a good shot at them. 

I think they are all just rattled and have lost their confidence because I was the one to land the first buck this year. (I just used my car to do it, no need to get up out of my seat or get my hands dirty using a nasty gun.)

On opening day they saw a few does but let them pass by because they were sure they were going to be getting the big bucks.

A couple of days into the season, having no luck and seeing next to no deer,  they decided they'd shoot does if they saw them.  Better does than nothing.  

But then there were no does either.  

So they lay awake at night, scheming and plotting, strategizing and crying....

Finally they decided to form a hunting posse and David, Jason, Seth and our friend Nathan headed out to the great woods.

I waited back at the homestead.

In the nice, warm, cushioned, carpeted, soft-seated, refrigerator and snack pantry accessible, satellite television enabled homestead....  and thought about the posse out in the freezing cold wind watching the empty pastures.

Finally a text came in!

It was Seth.  

The message brought news of a deer finally being brought down.

David had made the shot and Seth was in the process of helping David drag the deer in.

David had set up his hunting position on top of an old metal shed behind an old house that sits on Poppy and Baaboo's property.  Being up on that building gives you a great view out across many pastures but sometimes such a wide open view isn't the best thing because you can see deer running around out of your range and you have to just sit there and feel frustrated if you cannot get them to come in closer to you.

Seth's message was laced with excitement and pride as he bragged on his little brother.  "At least 300 yards and a dead drop."  And he had taken time to pose his little brother with his deer for a photo before the daylight was gone.

Eventually I got the call that the deer had been brought in and I could come down and see it.  Upon arrival I was given all of the details of the adventure.  

David had been on top of his little building.  He saw a doe and decided to take the shot.  After Seth got to David the boys worked together.  Using their cell phones, David stood atop his shed directing Seth down in the field guiding him to where the deer went down.  Seth found the deer with no problem, she dropped right on the spot David had shot her.  The boys dragged the deer in and Jason and Nathan met up with them. Going back over the area they had covered, Jason realized that the shot was more like 400 yards if not a little more. And it split the heart.

Looks like we have another sniper in our family!

The funny thing is, David has this ongoing little joke of his...  

When the guys are getting ready to go out and they are readying their guns and ammo, Jason asks David if he has enough ammo and David always replies "I only need one" and holds up just one bullet and puts it in the ammo-holder-thingy.  

So when all was said and done this evening and we were all back inside the nice, warm, cushioned, carpeted, soft-seated, refrigerator and snack pantry accessible, satellite television enabled homestead David came up to me, looked me in the eye, pulled the spent casing from his pocket and held it up as he said, "See, I told you, just one." 

Have you got your tickets?

It's time for the gun show!
Little did we realize the arms David has on him.
He is strong.  He has always been very strong.
He is in a weights lifting class.
He hauls hay and water buckets and bricks and all kinds of stuff around the yard doing chores.
But he always keeps his t-shirt sleeve down over his arms.
We have noticed his arms were looking a little bigger in general lately but it wasn't until he made a move that pushed his sleeve up a little that we realized the muscle this kid is developing.
So being the mother that I am, I threatened the lives of everything he holds dear if he didn't hold still and pose for a couple of pictures.  He was embarrassed but he really didn't want to see his favorite ushanka go up in flames.

Our Boy

Got to go to the temple with Seth this weekend.  What an awesome day!

 

That's my Katie

On the days the girls' basketball team has away games the coach has asked that the girls "dress up"--meaning wear a skirt and look nice.
So Katie wore a skirt.
If you know my Katie then you know getting this far was a big accomplishment.

Don't push it.

Dead Puppies

This is how my corgi sleeps.  It must be nice to be so secure.

And the persimmon seed says...

SNOW!!!!!!

After moving to Missouri several years ago I learned of the old tradition of opening persimmon seeds to predict what kind of winter we will have.  The tradition is when you cut open a persimmon seed, you will see one of three shapes. If it is shaped like a spoon, the winter will have heavy snow. If it is a knife, then it will be a biting (or numbingly) cold winter. Finally, if the seed is shaped like a fork, then it will be a mild winter. 

And, for the record, I have spotted one wooly worm this year--but didn't have my camera with me to get a picture so you don't get to see him.  

The wooly worm I spotted had a lot of black on both ends and a relatively narrow band (not super narrow, not like a line, definitely a band, but a more narrow band than I have seen in past years) of orange in his center. 

According to folk wisdom, when the orange bands on fall wooly worms are narrow, it means a harsh winter is coming. The wider the orange band, the milder the winter will be. 

Some towns hold annual wooly worm festivals in the fall, complete with caterpillar races and an official declaration of the wooly worm's prediction for that winter. 

I want to have a wooly worm race!  But I have only found one wooly worm this year so it would be kind of hard to do I guess...

Dr. C.H. Curran, former curator of insects at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, tested the wooly worms' accuracy in the 1950's. His surveys found an 80% accuracy rate for the wooly worms' weather predictions.

Maybe Katie will get to use her snowboard this year like she is hoping for!

Tut tut, it looks like rain!