Some Good Memories

It being Thanksgiving tommorrow and all, I thought I would skim through some of my recent personal family stuff and I found a couple of shots from a two little family fishing trips this past summer.

The first was here in Indiana. One evening, we went to the pond down the road from my parents’ house at my aunt and uncle’s house right before I left for Mexico to get married as kind of a family outing before I started my new family.

I have so many great memories from this pond which we walked to all the time in the summer’s growing up. Fishing, Swimming, Shooting, and lots of mischief, no doubt.

But here are a couple I got with my old 30D and the 10-22 which really was a knock out lens for a crop camera.

The other trip was my bachelor trip up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is ” jus nort a da bridge and jus sout a hev’n!”

My family has been going to Big Manistique Lake since the 1960′s, when my Grandpa Conrad (pictured right with me, my brother and my cousins) first took my dad and his brothers and sister.

Ever since then we have been going mostly for the fishing but also because we are a family that honors traditions and we are a family that also vacations together.

So anyways, this time my Dad just took my brother and I due to the fact that it was a bachelor trip the weekend before my wedding. And we really had some great times!!                                                                                        

Photo by Peter Ringenberg

Here is one of my brother one evening out on the dock.                                                                                                                                                              

Dad and Brother with an evening’s catch!

And I love this last one of my brother with a walleye, those teeth are naaasty!

I really am thankful for all of the wonderful memories that I have throughout my life and the biggest one of all has to be my wife, Anna. She is the most wonderful helpmate that the Lord could have given me and I thank God every day for her and for all of the fun that we have and will have in the future together!

Photo by Josef Samuel

Happy Thanksgiving and don’t forget to ask yourself what you’re thankful for this year and then be thankful!!

Artist and Hunter

When you think of the typical artsy crowd, the usual creative design kind of person, hunting is not something that will typically enter your mind. Why is this? Why do I feel that because I hunt I may be looked down upon by some in the creative arts industry? Perhaps it is just my own paranoia with the hypocritical open mindedness I associate with Hollywood and so many others who preach the open minded idea to everyone while quietly shunning anyone who disagrees with them about anything right or wrong.

Perhaps I am getting to deep for a little blog posting but nonetheless, I felt that I just must share my wonderful success from this past weekend!

Not only did I turn the big quarter-century, I also managed to get my first buck while deer hunting with my family on Saturday morning.

I have hunted ever since my Dad took me through hunters safety course at the age of 12 and went out for the first time on the morning of my 13th birthday. It was that morning that I shot at and missed the biggest deer I had ever seen. Well to the day, exactly 12 years later, a huge 9 point buck, eerily similar to the one I missed on my first outing, came trotting around my blind about 8:30AM on Saturday 
morning. It presented a perfect shot at 40 yards and this time I made it count. Here is a picture of him.

There is something beautiful about hunting, about nature, about the art of the kill, about the order of it all. For those who have hunted I know that you understand, for those who haven’t…..don’t knock it until you have tried it, or at least that’s what the open minded policy should be…….

Fall is Gone

Today as it sleets/ices/rains/snows outside, I am yet again reminded of how quickly my favorite season passes.

Fall is officially over with the temperature dropping to 20 degrees (F) last night and the 35 degree temperature with ice and snow today I really am just now getting excited for the holidays! And that makes me think of my family in Mexico, because we just bought our tickets to go down to Monterrey for Christmas!

For those who don’t know, my wife, Anna is from Monterrey, Mexico and that is where her two sisters live and my two nephews and niece! (And my brothers in law, Tonio, and Mau of course) So here are a couple shots that help get me from visit to visit without missing them to much!

And just in case you were wondering….Yes, I know that I have some of the cutest niece and nephews around…