Lewis & Clark

Guess which little kids are excited about a little fishing in the creek? Charles & Gillian are looking forward to playing down at Bill's "recreation area" this weekend. They had to make sure the canoe was seaworthy!

Quite a Tom

Cliff took his first tom this morning. Cole photographed it and later Cliff & Jen stopped by so I was able to see it in person. What an amazing bird. Photos are great, but they really do not do justice to the size of these wild turkeys & the beautiful colors in their plumage.

"Shotguns? Shotguns?! He doan need no stinkin' Shotgun."

Cole's been out practicing with his bow most of the evening. He says it's time to take it up a notch. He's seriously considering using his bow for his turkey hunt in the 5th season. He'd been practicing with a paper target taped to the bales & today decided to use a more expendable turkey decoy to practice with. Here's his pattern from 20 yards.

In other news... We took photos of all the baby bunnies this afternoon and updated the rabbitry blog. Charles finished another magic treehouse book today (Tonight on the Titanic) and is plugging along on his mathematics. Gillian tried to turn into the world's most wrinkly prune of a child in the bath & Joe is blowing HUGE wads of fur every where he lays. That's our day!

New Blog, 80th Birthday, Yesterday's Turkeys & A Big Red Ribbon

I finally realized that my personal art blog is being over-run by more family related posts... Enter "The Brandon Family Blog" Please feel free to visit often, we always have something going on.

This weekend has been especially busy for us. On Friday my father celebrated his 80th birthday with a nice party - the house was full of family and laughter. We had a great time!

The Beautiful Cake (Thank you Aunt Carol!)

Aunt Violet, Aunt Carol, Charles, Dad & Gillian

(l -r) Cole, Charles, Aunt Violet, Suzie, Dad, Gillian, Aunt Carol, Tim, Patty, Carrie, Patty's husband, Zane, Annah, Sally, Jessie, Alyssa, Paul, & Danny

Saturday morning Cole, Gillian & I (Charles spent the night at Dad's house) woke at 3:45 am to get ready for a big day. Cole was headed out to hunt & Gillian & I were off to a rabbit show in Amana.

By Saturday afternoon we all arrived home successful. Cole had taken a nice turkey, cleaned it & even managed to mow the yard by the time I arrived with the kids, a red second place ribbon & two new little bunnies. Plus our neighbor, Bill, came by with his prize bird - Cole said he felt a little green - it was a huge tom.

Cole's TurkeyBill & His Turkey

Whew! What a weekend - and only half over... I'll be cooking a big bird tonight! - JoyceB