Day Two of Hunting...

Today started at 4:30 a.m.   After a short 8 mile ride,  a short walk across a field and then 11.5 hours in a tree.  Felt like I was in the zoo.  Heard turkeys gobbling and yelping, had eagles, red-tail hawks, and buzzards in the trees around me, saw 11 deer total - 8 were bucks, 1 was a doe and 2, I couldn't identify.  4 of them were too far, 7 were less than 20 yards from me (none were big enough for me) and I saw 6 of them from 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. and only one deer after 2 p.m. at 5 p.m.

Here are the pics.... WONDERFUL experience!

Day One of Two Week Vacation... in the great outdoors





Gray Squirrel

Got to the farm I was hunting today a bit late due to the heavy fog on the way... the first photo is the begining of the day and the last is the end of the day... in between those two I sat on the stand the whole time... and some of the pictures document what I saw... though of all the 9 deer I saw, none were close enough to take a picture of.

Lovely Day in the Outdoor Sanctuary!

I sat in a deer stand yesterday from 6:45 a.m. till 5:50 p.m.  And it was a wonderful thing!  I got down once to take a short walk to take a few pictures.  Saw my first buck at 7:30 a.m. at 15 yards.  Second at 9:30 a.m. at 8 yards, third buck at 1 p.m. at 30 yards and fourth buck at 5:40 out in the field.  And I saw 4 antlerless deer (2 button bucks and 2 does)  I shot 4 deer with my NIKON and pics are posted here.   Wonderful day!

New Beginings...

Every day is a new begining!  Thank God for his mercies which are new each day! 

Took a walk today after our Board of Directors Meeting of the Hazel Outdoor Discovery Center and snapped a few photos.  What a beautiful world God created!

WITH.

Our area Church of the Brethren Pastors group is reading and discussing the book:  "With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God"  by Skye Jethani.   In preparation for next week's gathering, I read the two chapters assigned and couldn't put it down.  Been thinking about an Advent Theme for 2011 and think I may have found it.

From the book..." The Life With God posture is predicated on the view that relationship with God is at the core of the cosmos: God the Father with God the Son with God the Holy Spirit.  And so we should not be surprised to discover that when God desired to restore his broken relationship with people, he sent his Son to dwell with us.  His plan to restore his creation was not to send a list of rules and rituals to follow (life under God), nor was it the implementation of useful principles (life over God).  He did not send a genie to grant us our desires (life from God), nor did he give us a task to accomplish (life for God.   Instead God himself came to be with us - to walk with us once again as he had done in Eden in the begining.  Jesus entered into our dark existence to share our broken world and to illuminate a different way forward.  His coming was a sudden and glorious catastrophe of good."

In the book Skye compares and contrasts 4 postures we often use to relate to God.  Life under, over, from, and for God.  And he shares the disappointments each leads to.  Then he encourages us to consider living out of a 5th posture... Life WITH God.   This is what the gospel writers record about Jesus.  Especially evident in John 1.

With.