Pies, truck and turkey

Oliver and Eli 

All the apples 

Josie helping me make the pie crust 

We used a apple peeler for the first time this year, it was nice. 

Liam helping me roll out the crust 

Liam and me

Josie rolling out the dough 

the pie all done 

The pie filling all done 

Liam all ready for his school's party. I made the costume 

The new truck 

Christa working on the pies 

It has been a busy week. I have not even had time to update this. On Thru. Amy, Christa and all of the kids came over so we could make pies. We did not get started until 10:00 and we did not finish until 10:00 at night. It took a lot longer this year because of the two babies. Someone always had to stop working to feed or take care of one of the two. Then Amy had to stop to take and pick up Liam from school. Then at 5:00 Amy took Liam and Josie downtown to go to the Halloween celebration.  Jese came and got Oliver and Adam came and got Eli so we finally got to move a little faster. We got 28 pies made and 14 quarts of apple pie filling. We still had one box of apples left when we were done. Amy took them and is going to make some apple butter and apple bread.
I had Friday off so I cleaned the house. The kitchen was a huge mess from making the pies. After that was done I got to go with Rick to pick up his new truck. He finally got a 4 wheel drive truck. He has been talking about it for over a year and finally decided to get it. He got a 2011 Dodge Ram. It is really nice and I am going to love having it when we pull the camper with it.
Saturday I had to go back to work to make up for taking Tue. off to be with Linda and Curt. It was a pretty slow day at work so that was good. I did get a call about a cat in the woman's bathroom in my building. Someone put a cat with cat food and water in the bathroom. Not sure what they thought they were doing. The cat was a stray. So I picked it up and put it outside where it was much happier. After I got home from work I made some mini pies in canning jars. They turned up really cute. I made 9 apple, 6 pumpkin and 6 cherry. I think I am going to make some more only blueberry.
Today I did not get out of bed until 9:00, it was nice. I had a turkey in the freezer that I got free last year at this time so I decided to cook it today. I also decided to make some clean eating stuffing and make the turkey with a clean eating recipe. I sure hope it turns out because it smells good! Amy and Liam are going to come over for supper. Josie and Adam have to stay home because they are both sick. Hopefully Amy and Liam don't bring the sickness over with them!
Time to go check on the turkey.
Later Sharon

It must be Christmas time.....

It must be getting close to Christmas because my Christmas Cactus is blooming like crazy. I put it outside on my deck all summer and it must have like it because I have never had it bloom this much before. I got this plant from my mom who got it from my Grandma Becker house when she died. So I am the third generation to have it so I guess I better keep it growing so I can pass it on to one of my kids. I am not sure which one I could give it too since none of them are very good with house plants. Maybe I will just have to give it to one of my grand kids.....Now that we are done hunting I have my evenings back. It is nice to actually have more then an hour at home before going to bed every night, I might actually get to start working out more again. Last week I ran 3 days. It sure feels good to be running again even if it is on the treadmill. On Monday I left work early and went up to Abbot to be with Linda when Curt had his surgery. He did not go into surgery until 4:00 and he did not get out until 10:45. They had told us it would 4 to 5 hours but it ended up being almost 7 hours. It was a long day. But the good news is they believe they got all the cancer out and Curt is going to live a long and healthy life! I did not get home until almost 2:00 in the morning so it was a good thing I took Tue. off of work. I am really not use to staying up that late so I was shot yesterday. I got woke up by the dogs at 8:00 in the morning so I did not get much sleep. I decided I would make cookies since I was home. It the afternoon I had to pick Liam up from school and then got Josie and Eli from daycare. I only had them until Adam got off work but it felt like forever because I was tired. Good thing they were all good. Congratulations to Sarah who found out she is going to have a baby boy in March! She is very excited to be a new mommy. Well I guess I better get on with my work day. Later Sharon 

Mercy Kill

My first deer shot with a bow

                                                 This is the blind that I shot the deer from

Well I did it, I shot a deer with my bow! It was not the deer I wanted but I had to shoot it because it had a broken leg and I felt bad for it. It was a mercy killing. Rick and I got to the woods and got into our stands at 4:35. Rick was in his climber stand about 50 yards from me. I was in my ground blind. Shortly after we both got settled in we both saw the deer. I could see right away that it was a little one and thought to myself,  oh it is just a little one I am not going to shot it. Then as it started to walk down the hill I could see it limping really bad, the poor thing could hardly walk. Then I was thinking please just walk the other way so I don't have to make the choice to kill you. Well I guess it did not hear my thoughts because it just kept coming. Well once I decided that I would kill it and put it out of its misery then I got excited. It was making it's way down right where I needed it to be, it was about 2 steps from my shooting lane so I pulled up. And of course it stopped and decided it should just eat a few acorns. So I held and held and finally I had to let down. Well I managed to let down with out making any noise so the deer did not hear or see me. She finally decided to get moving again and moved right into my shooting lane. So I pulled up and shot! She was down!!!! I got my first deer with a bow!!! It was 5:02 when I shot it, I was in the woods for lest then a half hour.  I of course was shaking like a leaf by the time it was all done.  Even if she was  just a little thing it was still very exciting. Rick was just as excited as me watching it all play out. The whole season of hunting Rick kept saying that he sure hoped to see me shoot a deer, so he was happy that he got to. Rick also said it was okay that she was little, number one because there is a unwritten rule of archery hunting that says for your first archery kill it can be any size deer . And second I saved it from a much worse death since it had a broken leg. When we looked the deer over we found that it's front leg was broken way up high. It looked really bad. I took a picture of it but I forget to download it to here before I left home. I will have to put it up when I get home from work. We forgot to take the camera with us last night so the only pictures I got were from my phone, so they are not a very good. 

   I had a great time hunting this year and have lots of story to tell. From the deer coming up to my blind and sticking its head in it to me flashing a deer with the light on my hat because I thought it was Rick coming to get me off my stand. And then there is the turkey stories....All and all it has been a great hunting season and I almost hate to see it come to an end. It was so much fun hunting with Rick and I am so glad that he talked me into buying my hunting bow 2 years ago. I will be back next year to get another deer! Later Sharon

Meat in the freezer!

Rick got a deer last night!!! After not being able to hunt at all last year we have put in a lot of hours hunting this year and it finally paid off. Rick got this nice 3 point spike buck last night. So now we are finally going to have some meat in the freezer again. I was very happy that he shot it!
 Now I just need to get one. I had a nice doe coming in last night. She was coming right where I wanted her to when all of the sudden another doe came running past me from behind. She must have been spooked by the farmers picking the corn, she was flying. Well as soon as she went running by the doe that I had hoped to shot stopped walking to me and watched the other one run off. So she decided that she better follow the other one and walked away from me. Stupid deer!! I also watched a turkey last night for a good 15 minutes just walking around. Of course it was at least 50 yards away from me so I could not shoot it. No hunting for me tonight but I should be able to get back out tomorrow.
Later Sharon

Spring is in the air.....

This past spring Rick gave me an Easter Lily and after it was all done blooming I cut it down and planted it outside. Then a couple of weeks ago it started looking all lively again and now it bloomed. So it looks like spring in my yard instead of fall. Well not really since the lawn is covered in leaves! Rick spent all afternoon yesterday cutting and raking up the leaves. He has the lawn looking pretty good. To bad the trees still have a ton of leaves on them. At least this year we are keeping up with them unlike last year where we waited until we had drifts of leaves in the yard. I guess it the price we have to pay for having so many trees in the yard. The deer are enjoying themselves in the yard. Pretty much everyday we have at least 2 of them in the yard eating the acorns. I wish they would eat them faster so we would not have to rake them all up with the leaves. Later Sharon

Funny Story for the day.....

The other day Hyvee had a warehouse sale in the old Walmart building so I went to pick up some flour. The flour was only .98 for a 5lb bag and since we are going to make apple pies on the 25th I got 5 bags. Well since I was there I thought I would look around and see if there was anything else I needed. As I was walking around I got behind this old couple. First they were looking at a plastic container for Christmas cookies. The old lady was going on and on about how nice it was and that they should buy it. Her husband agreed and then asked her, " are you going to make cookies". She paused for a while and then said no and they walked on . It was funny. But that is not even my good story about them. I am trying to get around them and the old man lets out this huge loud fart. He does not know I am behind him at this point. He just says oops and keeps walking. Then he sees me and turns to me and says oh excuse me for my fart. It was funny. I just nodded and walked on past them.
So there you have it, hope I made you smile.
Have great day.
Later Sharon

Vistior

Yesterday Christa called me up and asked if she could come over for a visit with Oliver so I said sure! Christa had asked me the other day if I still had a leather jacket that I had made her when she was a little kid so I went it got it out. While I was looking for it I also found Christa's 1987 homer hanky shirt and pants that she had when she was a baby. So when they came over I had to put Oliver in it. Good thing I kept it for all these years. Later Sharon

Work, wedding, biking and hunting

Rick took this picture from his deer stand

Getting ready to go out hunting

Colette, Rick and me at the Mankato River Ramble

I had a fun filled weekend. I had to go into work on Saturday morning but I left at 12:30. We had a wedding to go to in the afternoon. I was a really nice wedding and we got to meet some interesting new people.
I had taken the day off of work on Sunday so I got to sleep in until 7:00. Earlier in the week Colette had called Rick up and asked if we wanted to ride the Mankato River Ramble so we watched the weather and since it was good we decided to do it. I sure am glad we did, it was such a well organized tour. The route was beautiful and had just the right amount of hills and flat sections. Of course some of the hills were killers! They had around 1500 bikers at the tour.  We did the 42 mile route. Since I had not been on my bike for over a month my legs were pretty tired by the end, but it was worth it.
After we got back from biking  we had about 2 hours and then it was off again to go hunting. So on top of my deer license I also have a turkey license. We have been seeing a ton of turkeys so I figured I should get one. Well the other day while hunting I saw about a dozen coming it. We did not really have a good shooting lane cut out for turkey and I found out that turkeys move fast! So by the time I got pulled up about half of them were already through my very small shooting lane and by then I was so excited that I was shaking like a leaf! I got "turkey fever!" I never even got a shot off. So last night when we got to the stand we cut a much better shooting lane and then I waited. I was lucky another bunch of turkeys were coming in and these turkey were in no hurry. Of course even if they were not in a hurry the dumb things stayed right where I could not get a shot an them. Finally they started to move again and started to walk right where I needed them, but of course then they decided they should move just a little to far out. Well I finally had an opening to shoot them, thanks to cleaning out the lane, but it was a pretty far shot for me. Rick had ranged the area for me so I knew about where 30 yards would be and I knew they were a little further out then that so I aimed at them going between my 30 and 40 yard pin and I shot! And I was to low!!!! I could not believe it but the turkeys did not move. So I got another arrow and thought well I better try again. By then the turkeys had moved off a little more but I still had a opening so I shot again and  I was to low again!  The arrow went right under a turkey, the turkey jumped up in the air and then just walked off like it was the most normal thing in the world. Now the turkeys were all out of my range so I had to watch them as they walked away and then flew into the trees for the night. The good news is I am sitting in the right area to get one so they will be back!  Rick figures it was close to 40 yards away so I should have used my 40 yard pin when aiming at them. That is a pretty far shot for me but I had to give it a try. It sure was exciting and now I can't wait to go back out and give it another try! Oh and since we were deer hunting I guess I should tell you that Rick saw a nice buck but it was to far away for him to shoot.
Today I am back to work for one day then I have two days off and then back to work for 6 days.
Later Sharon

Second Bathroom done!

bathroom after the remodel 

bathroom after the remodel 

bathroom after the remodel 

bathroom after 

bathroom before

toilet before

bathtub before

Bathroom before

I am finally getting some pictures up of the bathroom. We have had it done for a month or so now, it is very nice. Rick did most of the work on it and did a great job. About the only thing I can take credit for is painting the trim and picking out the vanity and getting it ordered. Now we just need to get the bedroom done and the office. After all that is done we can move onto the 3 season porch and the garage. I really wanted Rick to get  shed up this fall so we could get the crap out of the garage but he says he just does not have time. So yesterday I cleaned up the garage. Basically I just moved the piles of crap to better spots. If there is one thing I am good at it is organizing! I like things neat.
Yesterday afternoon I watched the Hagre kids for awhile. They were all good and we had lots of fun. After Liam was done with school we played outside. They got to play in the sandbox again and then we raked leaves. Liam wanted a big pile of them so he could jump in it. Then when Rick came home he made leaf roads for them so they could drive there trucks down it. They had so much fun. I will try and put some pictures up in a couple of days.
I am not liking this hot weather. After all it is Oct. It is time for some cool weather. We are going to go out hunting tonight even if it is to hot. I will not be able to go back out for a few days so I better go when I can.
Later Sharon