Nature for the Soul

Lightning flashing in the distance while warm rain comes down in a soft sprinkle, making tiny rippling rings on the surface of the pond. Peaceful and quiet it was, just me and a fishing pole. Fishing away enjoying the soothing touch nature has ones soul. It was beautiful and really nice, just to be outside enjoying the freshness after a good rain. Sunday was really nice as well. I went out to the Jackson's and spent the whole time brushing, doing ground work and a bit of riding with Pedro. He is a good horse, just people shy. It was really nice just to go out there and be around horses and the quietness. Nature for the win. ~Semper Fi

Robbed by Raccons a True story

Allan, Dan and I get back from walking and eating ice cream to find food from inside our cooler has been taken. Found a broken egg on a bench. Open cooler to find a piece of chicken is missing. Take our food stuffs to van, while up there a raccoon comes and sits on our table. We are not even 50ft away. I charge with our axe, coon runs. We hear a bunch of noise around our camp and get the flashlight out and see at least five different sets of eyes. They begin to encircle us, making growling noises. We through rocks and scare them away. Here is where I begin a time log, it follows.

10:20pm
set trap with remaining piece of chicken
make spears
11:30pm
egg is broken
got more wood
bait shifted to optimal position after raccoon pattern of assault is known
12:20am
raccoon escaped with chicken
we pursue
recover half of the chicken
1:20am
last of the wood put in fire
1:40am
assaulted by five from the water
spear launched negative hit
2:00am
Allan is being surrounded while Dan and I look for more wood
2:05am
Distress call received
2:06am
Dan set back to assist
2:10am
I return with more wood
2:20am
attack pattern changes again. 4th pattern used
raccoons very cautious
2:30am
Peanuts become rationed
too quiet
4:15am
While singing to God raccoon comes
Wait for him to be upon the chicken
I launch spear. Direct hit!
No blood drawn
chicken reset for his friend above us
God has been good to us
5:00am
I score a second hit on a raccoon
Scripture reading
5:30am
Another attempt
Ended night with a prayer
Dan remains vigilant
5:50am
Dan hits raccoon with rock it limps away
Allan and I get back out of bed
5:55am
Another sitting
Smell of skunk in the air
Not a skunk, stupid raccons

After that nothing else showed up so Allan and I went back to bed while Dan stayed up longer. Nothing else happened after that and Dan finally came to bed around nine am. We had a ton of fun that night try to kill a raccoon and just waiting for them. It was really creepy at first because they weren't really scared of us and the growling noise and the sound they made, sounded like something much bigger moving in the woods, when they weren't trying to be sneaky. We had a huge dinner of a two and half pound steak and chicken. After dinner we went and each of us got a pint of ice cream to eat. While eating the ice we walked over to the diving cliffs and just sat and talked and laughed. We went hiking earlier before dinner on a nice trail, so we ended up walking close to six miles that day. On our way back we stopped and Sugar Loaf and climbed to the top which pretty much wiped us out completely. That will be camping trip I will never forget, it was so fun and relaxing. I have pictures of course under the album - Camping Spring Break 07 That is all for know. ~Semper Fi

Yay! A New Post

Today I went out into the woods and built myself a little fire to help focus my thoughts in preparation for time with only God and his creation. While I was looking for my old spot God gave me a couple of nice gifts. The first one was a two point buck skull, a bit later a came upon a tree in full blossom, which was just beautiful out in the middle of a pine forest and I even found a softball from last year, home run for the win. I never did find my old spot because the forest has changed so much, but I finally found a nice place to sit and make the fire under some trees. After the fire was going I got my Bible out and just opened it up and started read some random page. But the wind was blow at just the right angle to flip the pages like a person would, so it was like God was right there show me some specific verses, because he would stop on a page long enough for me to read and then move on to another page, it was really neat. The book of Colossians and Romans 8:6-8 really spoke to me. I really enjoyed my time outside in the quiet with just nature sounds around me and the crackle of the fire. God is good.

Yesterday Allan, Erin and I went to visit Caleb and Lindsey. Caleb had gotten some massive, like 20oz size, steaks to cook for dinner. So the guys were outside around the charcoal grill cooking the steaks, while the girls were inside chatting and getting the rest of the food ready. Caleb and never had cooked steak on a grill be for so I was giving some advice on that while Allan kept the fire from getting to hot, because the streak had gotten put on to early. Oh man was the steak good. We also had mashed potatoes and spinach and carrot salad, mmm tasty. After dinner we played apples to apples for awhile and before we left we had a little devo with singing, a verse and a prayer. On our way back we got caught in a speed trap, because Allan's, speed odometer is broken, but got no ticket. The best part though was as the cop was looking at Allan's stuff his cell phone rang and it was the theme song to Cops, lol. Anyway after that nothing eventful happend. It was a really good time and was great to see them. Spring break is going great so far. ~Semper Fi