Just counting the days until my very first pheasant hunt on the weekend of January 17th!!!  Headed out to SW Kansas. 

WOW!  It will be here before I know it!

Something I wanted to share with everyone, taken from the King James Bible...

Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a 2009 full of successful and exciting hunts! 

This Christmas was a particular exciting one for us, as our eldest daughter (12 yrs old) recieved her first bow!  It's a Browning Micro Midas.  Here she is with her new bow...

Her Dad set it all up for her, and it was so much fun watching her pull it back and pretend to aim!  She has literally spent hours watching us practice...I found myself wondering, is this why she looks so comfortable and "natural" handling her bow, or is she just a bowhunting genius at the ripe old age of 12?  HA HA! 

Here's a few more pics...

I did notice that she's NOT gripping the bow, something I had a difficult time with when I first started, which I was glad to see.  However, she is hyperextending her arm at the elbow, something I did in the beginning, which resulted in a couple of nasty blows to the inner arm by my strings!  OUCH!  She is excited to get her bow completely tuned in and get her arrows cut and get some serious target practice in.  She is keenly aware that recieving a bow is a pretty big deal in our family, and has hysterically pointed out that it's the "gift that keeps on giving"!  HA HA!  I already have envisioned her out on hunts with her Dad and I, shooting her first turkey and deer!  I know I speak for the hubby and I BOTH when I say, we cannot WAIT for the day when she is out walking side-by-side with us on a hunt!

KansasBowGuy was incredibly generous this Christmas, as always.  He gave me an awesome safety harness that I have been wanting!  I gave him some new arrows with Confederate Flag decals on them that he had been admiring at James' bow shop.  He was beyond thrilled!

Of course, we are both sporting our SWEET matching "Drop-Tine Archery" hoodies in these pics.  I am a hoodie fanatic, so I had to have one as soon as James had them for sale at the shop.  I ordered Tom one at the same time, but held it back until Christmas.  So he got to envy mine for a few weeks until Christmas when he finally got his very own!  HA HA!

And what bowhuntin', wild-game eatin' family wouldn't be happy without a BRAND spankin' new CAMO crockpot???  YEE HAW!  Venison meatballs, here I come!

Of course, being the sweetheart he is, KansasBowGuy knows that all the hunting and camo gifts should ideally be evened out with a little Christmas "bling"...so he surprised me with a really pretty bracelet as well...What a SMART, SMART man he is!  WINK!

The funniest part of our Christmas gift-giving had to be the fact that we both gave eachother a Garmin GPS system for our vehicles!  We borrowed one from friends when we took our family vacation to Colorado Springs this past summer, and it proved to be quite handy.  I have a Garmin GPS watch that I use when I am training for a running event, and I have been quite impressed with the quality and the features, which made it easy to decide on the Garmin brand as far as the car GPS goes. We decided that we only needed to keep one, however, so I will be returning his and he will have to figure out what he'd like to have instead.  I am sure he will have no problem whatsoever with THAT!

Anyhoo, I have a few more pics in my photo album of our family's Christmas to share.  One pretty funny one in particular of our 4 year old daughter that has the most hysterical expression on her face!  Don't kids just bring so much joy and excitement to Christmas??? 

Everyone take care, and keep the hunting and Christmas stories coming!  Thanks for all of the Christmas messages and well-wishes I have recieved from my fellow bloggers. 

Last week I took our two oldest daughters, ages 12 and 10, along on a trail ride in the Ozarks near Hollister, MO.  I had been contemplating taking our youngest horse on a weekend-long trail ride, however, I have to ride him bareback due to a sore spot he has where he had a tumor on the skin for quite some time.  He was treated numerous times and nothing cured it.  Finally it just went away on it's own, but he still has a sensitive spot where it was located. 

Anyway, I figured this short trail ride might give me an idea of what to expect, so I was excited about it!  Unfortunately, every single person on the trail ride were first-timers, and, to be honest, not really too outdoorsy.  It was an all-female group, but I figured since they all claimed to have experience with horses, they had to be somewhat accostomed to dirt, manure, cold, wind...etc.  Myself and my daughters were right at home, but the other seven women complained the entire time about the cold, the wind, the smell of the horses when they stopped to do their business.  Everyone wanted to know, how much longer, how much farther, can I trade horses, mine isn't doing what I want it to.... You can imagine our frustration!

As for me and my two girls, we thouroughly enjoyed ourselves!  We rode through mostly wooded areas, stopped at a few places with beautiful overlooks of the OzarK Mountains and nearby lakes.  We saw all sorts of wildlife, and I was thrilled to see all sorts of amazing deer rubs and tracks!  Only actually saw a few does who seemed just as curious about us as we were about them!  HA HA!  I am sure they are used to the horses and people walking through their territory from time to time.  I did have my camera with me, but we were instructed to stay on the trail, so I couldn't get down off my horse to take any pics of the really good rubs I saw. 

My horse, Comanche, was simply AMAZING!  Reminded me of our younger horse, Baldy, who is an ex-barrel racer.  So much spunk and get-up-and-go!  I could tell it was KILLING him to have to slow down and wait for the fussy women bringing up the rear!  I felt his pain! HA HA!  However, he was a pretty good ol horse and although I could feel that he was not happy with my holding him back at times, he DID mind well.  Finally towards the end of the ride, our guide let myself and daughters ride ahead and said we could go as fast as we felt comfortable with!  YES!  FINALLY!  So, we all three agreed to let 'em loose and let them carry us back to the ranch!  They knew the way, so all we had to do was hold on and enjoy the ride!  What a blast!  HA HA!  I think the horses enjoyed every bit as much as WE did! 

I know some gals around here who go on trail rides with their own horses, and that's what I am planning on doing with Baldy.  I am just curious to see what he will do in that setting, as he's never been on a trail ride, and I won't have the luxury of a saddle.  I personally have decided I enjoy bareback even moreso than using a saddle.  I enjoy the simplicity of it, and you have to communicate to the horse with your body moreso.  And, he is more comfortable, of course, which is important to me. 

I know some of you have mentioned that you own horses or have done longer trail rides.  So if any of you want to give me any pointers or advice on what to expect on a trail ride with my own horse, please feel free to share! 

Thanks in advance!

Well, that adorable husband of mine returned from his annual pheasant hunt out in Western Kansas yesterday afternoon.  I am WAY bummed because he didn't get ANY pics... he tells me, "I forgot I even had the camera with me!".  A little hard for me to identify with, as I have a camera or at the very least, my cell phone cam with me AT ALL TIMES!  LOL!  Especially on a hunt!!  Oh well... I am hoping one of our buddies will email us the pics that they took and maybe I can post them here at a later date...Hint, Hint boys! 

Anyhoo, he shot a total of 8 birds and one coyote over the weekend.  The group of 8 guys shot a total of 31 pheasant, and two coyotes combined.  So, it sounds like he did alright!  I know he had a BLAST, but was sure happy to get home to his girls yesterday.  I am so excited for my first pheasant hunt in January, but I am hoping that it's not brutally cold when we go out there.  Last year we went out in Jan for the Pheasants Forever banquet and we were actually warm and stuffy in long-sleeved clothing!  In JANUARY!!!  Crazy! 

And you can bet I will have pics of MY pheasant hunting trip to share when I get back!!  HA HA!

Have a good week!