Yep, I'm 34

Life on the other side of 34...

On January 22nd I celebrated (celebrated might be a stretch) my 34th birthday, and 40 never sounded so young. It's hard to believe that I have been married for almost 10 years, have 3 children, and am officially eligible for a mid-life crisis.

I didn't do anything too crazy for my birthday, and that's just the way I like it! Spent some good time with my wife, played with the kids, and I was in bed pretty early. Now that's what I call a birthday! It's also usually on birthday's that you tend to do some thinking. What are my life goals? How have I been doing at what's most important which is loving God and loving others? What do I need to change as I move forward?

I know I want to spend more time with my family. That means that "my" hunting and fishing habits will be a little different in the coming years and that is just fine with me. One of the other things that I'm excited about is that we started outdoorsmanswap.com! I'm pumped to see how that comes out. (if you haven't listed anything on the site...shame on you!) I'm also looking forward to seeing what God has for me and my family in the coming months, we are definitely learning to trust Him as a family. I also need to improve on "not sweating the small stuff." For example, my daughter just used my sweatshirt for toilet paper around an hour ago, but what are you going to do? She's adorable, I can't get mad at the face!

Well, until next time keep the main thing the main thing! Looking forward to the next blog when we will be discussing a couple of the beaten places to enjoy the great outdoors indoors this winter. Until then, just get out there and enjoy some time with your family! 

Finally!

Well, it's been a loooooong, unsuccessful hunting season going all the way back to October 1st. I passed on a couple small bucks early during bow season, was unable to find a buck I shot during early muzzy season, and I had on last chance this past weekend to make something happen.

My dad, my oldest son Hayden, and myself headed down to southern Iowa and arrived at our spot (after a couple small detours) around 3:00PM. After loading my son up with enough hot hands to keep a family of five warm for the winter we picked out a spot along the edge of the timber looking up at a field edge and settled in for the afternoon.

It did not take long for us to have deer moving all around us. Around 4:45 a mature doe stepped out around 150 yards away and started moving down the field edge in our direction. I waited until she was around 85 yards away, leaned up against a small tree, and my Winchester Apex did the rest of the work. A few moments later, I was celebrating some late season success with my favorite deer hunters. 

It was so much fun to see my son enjoy the whole experience! (minus the field dressing part in the dark with coyotes howling all around us.....but that's another story) He sat still the whole time, was able to watch the deer, and even helped Grandpa track it. While it would have been nice to shoot a buck this year, I won't soon forget the memory made this past weekend! And more importantly, neither will Hayden.