Christmas Schedule

I have off work the week before and after Christmas. The kids last dat of school is Wednesday. You will have to let us know when you are going to Lewiston so we can hook up. Lisa wants to drive down to Mesa to see Lenny and Rose. Maybe that was me... anyway let us know. It only took them 60 buck worth of gas to get down there with the new Prius. wow.

Thanksgiving

Thanks for a wonderful Thanksgiving with family's in Lewiston and New Ulm. God has truely blessed us all.

ZACH ROCK ON

The other day I had the kids in the van going somewhere. They were loud as usual. Zach yells turn it up. The radio was on but he couldn't hear the song he liked. The song you ask??? I get drunk all day, I get drunk all night, I'm to drunk to what??? Rock on Zach, Rock on!!!

Sunday is Zach's b-day party

I got up early and took Nick and Lexi to 9:30 church. Then when we got home I cleaned up all the extra coats and stuff by the entrys. Next me and the kids cleaned the basement for the party. Next they got it messy again and I worked on getting the rest of the deer processed. I made 30 rings of bologna. So that is 15 good meals for us.We are up to 2 rings now that Nick eats so stinking much. I used to only get like 4 bites so now I will at least get some too. Party people should be here shortly.

NICK!!

Nick was home with me and Zach on Friday night. Yes Lisa was out again. He checked the guide on the TV and says"Awwww The Wizard of Ozz is on and so is Friday Night Smackdown". What to do Nick. I told him with wrestling season only 3 weeks away... just kidding. He flipped back and forth. Zach liked the Wizzard better.

Deer Hunting 2008

I had been planning on hunting out at Bart and Wayne's farm for a while. I got to Lewiston on Thursday night and went out to set up my stand early Friday. It was snowing when I got up. The yard was total mud. They do not have any gravel at all. Dad's truck sucks in the mud. I was sliding all over and just about got stuck a few times. After I got my stand set up I was walking out of the woods when I looked up and see "the BULL" that Dad and Bart were talking about a few weeks ago when we went out there. He has a pretty impressive set of horns on him and he was eyeing me up pretty good. Needless to say I got over the fence in a hurry. I would hate to get attacked by a killer bull with no video camera on. When I got back to the yard, I had to try to back out because there was no room to turn around without getting stuck. I put it in reverse and stepped it down as fast as I could without spinning. I was sliding left and right the whole time. When I came to the edge of the one shed I decided to back it in and try to go forward. I stopped put it in drive and let 'er rip. Mud was flying everywhere and the ass end was fishtailing pretty good but I made it out. WHEW!

Since it was early I headed down to Winona for a burger and figured I would check out Warren's on the way home. I hit up McDonalds drive thru for a double cheeseburger and a Sprite. How come nobody has Pepsi products. COKE SUCKS!!! As I was heading out to Hoppe's farm I missed the turn and almost headed to Altura. When I turned around there was a nice 6 or 8 point buck standing right in the middle of the road. I slowed down and he trotted off the raod about 50 yards and just stood there. That must have been a sign to go the Warren's. When I got up there it was pretty muddy on the last stretch of field road. I made it out to the field with only a little slipping. On the way out it was a little up hill and I did not make it. Great. Stuck way out here with no one around. I backed up sliding all over as far as I could go till I started to go off the path. I said a little prayer and took off. Right about the crest of the knoll I was almost stopped. So close I could taste it. I decided to let it fly. I spun the wheels and slowly, slowly crept over the hill. Thank God. Tommorow I am going to park in the hayfield and walk.

I set the alarm for 6 in the morning. I figured I Could get dressed and out the door in 15 and 15 to drive out there. Of course when I got up it was pitch black yet. Apparently Mom and Dad don't believe it setting the clocks back for daylight savings time. So it turns out I was in the woods in plenty of time.

I walked out to the far field and down the hill to the big round bail marking teh path into the woods. I picked out a nice tree to stand behind and waited... 3 minuted later some guy comes walking up to me. Its Warren. He says "Phil?" Apparently Dad did not tell him that I may be hunting out there. He was cool with it though. He said he just chased a doe and 2 fawns up the ravine. Coulda had the doe it was pretty big. He took off and I settled in. In about 30 minutes I saw a doe over the edge of the hill about 75 yards away. It wasn't a very good shgot but I let fly hoping it would turn towards me. BOOM! It ran down the hill the other way. Another deer came by about 45 minutes later in the same spot. This time I did not shoot and it walked away too. What to do. What do you think. I went down to where the 2 deer had walked by. Just after I got settled in I look up and see a deer, right where I had been sitting. RIGHT THERE. I put the scope on it and it was a buck. Sniffing on the log I had been sitting on. He slowly walked ahead a little sniffing around. When he got broadside it was fairly open so I unleashed hell on him. He took off through the woods knocking down trees and braches making a hellofa racket. Miss # 2. Screw this I am cold. I am going to the truck to warm up.
I walked out toward the corner and found a nice tree stand so I decided to sit up there for a while. About 15 minutes later I heard something behind me. How do they always know where behind is. I turned and see 4 deer coming my way. They are a little startled. Not to bad just trotting along. 2 of them stop. 2 keep coming on teh trail right at me. Heart rate increases rapidly. They are right under me. I take aim, try to take aim. Apparently Dad has this scope thing on his gun which makes it neer imposible to see anything moving. AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!! I let fly again at them. Miss # 3 and 4 if you are counting. I don't remember if I saw them or just pointed the gun thingy at them. Needless to say I missed. The other to took off fast the other way. I should have just Rambo'ed them. I probably could have jumped on them. Enough of this. I am going to the truck to warm up.

I took about a 15 minute break and ate something. When I was warmed up enough I headed back out again. I went to my original spot. Where I missed the buck. I sat there for about 2 hours and saw nothing. I walked over a ways along the deer trail to where the were all kinds of fresh rubs and some scrapes. There were 4 big trees that fell down together. They were leaning on 5 other trees so it made a real nice stand about 8 feet in the air. I had a great view all around. Soon afterward I heard a deer coming. A lone doe strolling along eating. I let it get closer and closer till it was about 40 yards away broadside. BOOM! Shot # 5. notice I didn't say miss # 5. She went down. Got up and took off. I could see the blood pouring out of her and she jumped kind of crooked. I thought I hit her in the front shoulder. She stopped and I tryed to put her down. Miss # 5. She took off and I Decided to wait it out and let her die. I always heard you should wait a half hour and that would be enough for them to bleed out. Do you know how long 30 minutes is. I lasted 5. I started tracking the blood trail. It was realing pouring out. I followed it for a hundred yards or so and jumped her and she took off. Along with 4 other deer. I started following the blood again and jumped another deer. A big buck I think. He took off head down in a straight line and was gone. So after I lost teh trail and headed back to the truck. I was hoping Warren was there to help me look for it. He wasn't. Insert your own naughty words here. I couldn't believe I lost it. After I warmed up a little Warren puilled up in his truck. I told him what happened and he told me where to go... no not there, He was going to weave around in there looking for it. When I got where I was going I saw another deer and let fly again. Miss # 6. Later another deer ran down the hill across the ravine and I didn't shoot at it. I was getting really cold and was ready to go when Warren hollered. He had found my deer . Whohoo. When I left to go to my last spot he waited a little and headed into the woods right where our trucks were. My deer was right there 10 feet into the woods watching us the whole time. When he started in teh woods it took off and collapsed 100 yards later. No blood left. As Warren went after it he jumped 4 deer by George. Who missed them. Then a doe and fawn took off and Warren took the doe. So right about 3:30 we both had our deer. Thank goodness he found mine. I would feel terrible if we had not found it. I thanked him a bunch of times before I left. He is such a great guy. All told I fired 7 or 8 shots and saw 15 deer. Wow.

This ends the story of this years hunt. The clod lives on though. 5 days and counting.

United Way

Every year at Kraft we have the United Way fundraiser. This year I helped out with the Day of Caring too. It was kind of fun. We washed windows on the older couples houses. Anyway, for the fundraiser we always have an auction with donated items. I put up 4 Brett Favre pictutes that I framed and Matted and one Adrian Peterson. So far the Favres are at 100 Bucks and the Peterson is only at $7.00. I guess that Packer fans are WAY more kind and charitable people than the tightwad Vikings fans. I even think the Peterson one looked nicer too.

Zachary

A couple nights ago Zach was on the couch at night watching TV with Lisa.
Out of the blue he looks at her and says "PBSkids.org". We both got a good laugh out of that one.

Lexi

lost her first tooth today. She looks sooo cute with the big space in front. She said she is going to ask her teacher " notice anything different?" Let's hope the tooth fairy comes tonight.

ouch

My foot hurts tonight.
I bought 22 Adrian Peterson cards on Ebay last night.
Go Tampa Bay Rays.
I can't wait for deer hunting at Bart and Waynes.
Zach needs to get to bed.

Nick's baseball 2008

Nick ended his baseball season a couple of weeks ago. Here is my brag post about his year.
In Rookies which is the 8-10 years olds he ended up 22 for 29 for an average of .759.
His on base percent was .781 and his on base slugging percent was 1.290. He scored 12 runs and drove in 22. The team record for the years was 11-3 I think.
His pitching for the year was awesome. He only gave up runs in 2 games all year and one of them the sun was in the pitchers eyes so he could not see home plate. That game he gave up 2 runs he said. For thye years he pitched 27 innings, gave up 3 earned runs for an ERA of 0.555, he struck out 44 and walked 26. This is way better than last year when he walked like 3 an inning.
The coach for the older kids asked Nick to join their team after a game or two so he played 2 nights a week in the Peanuts league which is 11-13 year olds. The peanuts had a record of 4 and 9 but they had a lot of fun. Nick played stellar 1st base all year and only made 2 errors I think. His hitting against the older boys was very impressive. Remember he is 9 hitting against 13 year olds. He hit .414 for the year 12 for 29. His eye was tremendous collecting 9 walks for the season for an OB% of .553. Lighting quick on the basepaths he stole 11 bases on the year tallying 3 in 2 different games. He scored 9 runs and drove in 8. Next year he should get to pitch for the older boys which will be fun to watch.
We had a great time watching him all year and hope you all can make it to some games again next year.

Friday is fun day

Is this a great picture or what. I can't find where Lisa put the zoo pics.
Since I don't work Fridays anymore, I told the kids it would be fun day. The first one we had a treasure hunt. Next week we had a scavenger hunt, and the week after we went to the Minnesota Inventors Congress in Redwood Falls. The have it every year with all the new inventions people come up with. The kids got to make some blades for testing wind turbines, play a math mountain learning game and get some candy from a couple of the booths. Our pastor and his wife were up there with the new board game she "invented". I think they got 3rd prize. They also have some rock collectors society at the show too. Some guy from work is into rocks. He gave the kids some purple gemstones and we gave him the crystals that we found at the Arches last fall. The kids favorite thing was the grab bags of polished rocks. I think we bought 10 bags of them. We were sitting on the floor looking through them. Zander got a geode. We all had lots of jackpots.
After that we went to the Zoo at Ramsey park for a picnic and saw the animals. After that we went for a hike up the falls. I can't believe how big it is. We all had a great time.

Parade Day

Today we all got up and went to church at 9:30. After that we went to the church picnic and got all kinds of goodies. I got a couple magazines and books, and a pump for a water barrel, the kids played games and won some junky prizes and candy. After that we went through the BK drive thru for burgers... ate them on the way home and headed over to the parade after we changed clothes.
The kids all had fun. We got a spot in the shade so it wasn't hot at all. They got plenty of candy. Zach ate most of his right away. Lisa was talking to some old lady we sat next too. She was a Fischer too. We saw quite a few people we know. I thing Nick said he knew 15 people. Here are the pics. The guy pulling the 20 tanks made the corner. I thought no way.. but he did it.

US Womens Open

Friday I took Lexi and Nick up the the open championship in Edina. It was at Interlachen Country Club. We got up about 8 in the morning and I got everything ready to go and then woke the kids up. We were on the road by 9 or so. We parked at Southdale shopping center and they ran shuttle buses over from there.
We walked over to #13 and watched 4 groups go through. We saw Paula Creamer, Annika Sorenstam, Julie Inkster, Pat Hurst and Morgan Pressel. Then we went to hole 9 and 18 by the clubhouse and the practice greens. Nick stayed by the clubhouse and got some autographs as they went to and from the practice area. Lexi stayed there with him for a while too. She got 2 balls from players after their rounds. Nick only got one and he was jealous. Later on he got an autographed ball from some player. Lexi and I watched by the #9 green under a nice shade tree. We were right in the front row. Lexi sat pretty good. She was collecting the nuts that fellfrom the tree.
We went to eat at about 12:30. We got a couple hot dogs a chicken wrap and 3 pops. Total bill $25.50. Later we got an ice cream and 2 waters. another 10 bucks. On the way out after it started to rain we went into the tent where we came in and the kids got a coupon for a free meal so we ate again. They also had a goodie bag for the kids with a hat, bag tag, rules booklet... The Lexus tent took our picture and gave out some free lotions. Nick took 9 of them. Free stuff you know. We stopped at McD's on the way home. Nick had 2 - 4piece nuggets, fries , pop and a sunday. When we got home he wanted a snack. Had to say no to that one.
The next night Lisa took Zander and Lexi to see WALLEE. She said it was TERRIBLE!!!! While they were gone Zach and me put together our stuff from the OPEN. Here are the pictures.