Thanksgiving by the river

The girls are glad the beaver made this tree into a resting bench so they could be ready for the walk back to Grandma's house and still be ready to go bowling.

Hailey and Grandpa check out the beaver activity including trees that are cut down and drug to the river and trees that are just starting to get cut down.

Zeke showed his swimming and retrieving talents. He is really going to be a good dog. Neal is glad to have another male in the house.

One of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions is a trip to the Teton River below our house in Hibbard. Everyone that is at the house at this time of year is invited to go and explore the river. We look for deer, moose, porcupines, birds and beaver sign. This year we loaded up Grandma, Sally, Kelsie, Linsey and Hailey on the four wheeler and trailer and headed for the river with Neal and Zeke walking along.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

You are a great example of a great marriage. There are a few simple things that I think you should know are observed and appreciated:

1. You still hold hands while walking through Hibbard
2. Dad still kisses Mom when he gets home
3. Mom makes Dad's lunch for work
4. You still go for a ride to enjoy the scenery and time with each other
5. You frequent bars on Harley rides for some cokes and a good meal... at least that's what you say...
6. You still tease each other
7. At nights, Dad can be found lying on the couch with his arms folded and ankles crossed... Mom can be found in her red chair with a project on the table in front of her.
8. Mom will be the first to admit that one of the things she loves about Dad is his good looks.
9. Dad makes sure he takes Mom on plenty of dates, especially now that the kids are all gone!
10. You both still love to spend as much time as you can with family: your parents, siblings, children and grandchildren.

I hope Jeff and I can turn out just like the two of you!
~ Stacy

Carson Baby Blessing

On Sunday, January 4, 2008, Carson was blessed by his Dad, Ben, in the Rose LDS Church. We went to Ben and Brittany's after for yummy potato soup and pie. Grandad and Grandma Burt went with us. It was really a neat experience.

Ben and Casey went ice fishing on Rigby Lake on Saturday, January 3. They had a lot of fun.

Carson was a good little boy when he was blessed. He wore the same blessing suit that Casey wore when he was blessed.

I think this is a great picture of Ben and Brittany with their two boys.

Dad and I have spent a lazy Sunday afternoon. It has been a busy week. Dad taught the Teachers today and I taught the 9-year-old Primary girls. Our church starts at 11:30 now. We took a nap and then worked on our blogging skills. It is so fun to hear from all of our family. We love you all and will write more later. Dad and Mom

Carson Baby

Sunday night night at the Johnson's

This picture is Saturday at Neal's friend Steve's Grandparents' place on the Yellowstone. Linsey came along and carried two of our birds. It was a great hunt that include calling in a red fox and then shooting o few roosters. Mom and I drove home that night with a few exciting times on the roads. The freeway at Livingston was closed except for a detour through town and then poor visibility

on home. After church I met up with Blair and Leo to head back up to Billings to spend the night before going on into North Dakota. We had a real treat waiting for us. The grand kids were there and Sally had made bean and ham soup and corn bread. It was great. While we were getting sleeping bags and beds ready, Linsey asked her Mom if she could make pancakes for the family for the next day. I went up and helped with turning the first batch and then went to bed. In the morning we found a note that said our pancakes were on the table. It made a great start to our 4:45 AM start time and pheasant hunting trip.

Merlynn's Pig Farm

The afternoon of our second day took us 30 miles North of Williston to a federal wildlife refuge. We took the first road that we thought would take us into the refuge and soon found ourselves in a "No Hunt Zone". The narrow road led us to a run down farmyard where we thought we could turn around. We found Merlynn and Mike in the yard putting a dozer on a 1066 IH tractor. Mike was doing the work and Merlynn was in the truck drinking Busch. When we asked if we could just turn around in the yard, Merlynn asked where we were from and what were we doing. After responding to Merlynn he said why not just stop here and shoot birds. The first bird was by the pig pen. Leo stepped out to shoot and had to run at the bird to get it fly. He unloaded his gun and the bird kept flying. That was the beginning of our poor shooting in the pig yard. We only shot one bird in the yard and listened to Merlynn cuss our poor shooting. He was a really nice guy(just a foul mouth). We hunted off down in the cattails and deep snow and filled our bird limits. We definitely shot better once we got out of the pig yard. The next morning we started the day with a good breakfast at Grandma Sharon's cafe. It was the place with the most pick ups. The weather station said it was -17 degrees. We decided to believe Blair's pick up that said it was only-9 degrees. We went back to the pig yard and continued our poor shooting in the yard. Leo wounded one that flew off into the far cat tails. We later found the bird on our way back. I missed a bird that flew out of a small little shack. You just don't expect to have a rooster fly out of the window. We all got a chance to miss birds flying out of different buildings.

The day didn't get much warmer. Blair missed a couple birds because his gun froze up. The trigger and firing pin just wouldn't work.We ended up with 4 birds that morning and some tired legs from working through the snow and cat tails. We needed to head back to the Super 8 and check out before hitting the road for home. Bandit was safe and warm in the insulated kennel inside the camper.

We wired the gate shut at Merlynn's pig farm and started to think about how we would hunt it the next time we came back.

We made it to Billings and waved at the Johnson's house as we drove towards home. We all made it back before midnight on New Years Eve.

Super 8 in Williston, ND

The room at the Super 8 not only provided a place to sleep and shower but it also became the gun repair shop, the bird cleaning kitchen, the clothes line for wet hunting clothes and the kennel for one tired springer spaniel. We put out the "Do Not Disturb" after the first night to keep the cleaning crew from getting too discouraged untill we had a chance to do a cleanup of our own before we left. We were in tight quarters but very glad to have a warm and dry room with a hot shower.

Our first real blog

This is a picture of Dad and
Bandit in North Dakota
pheasant hunting in Dec
2008 after spending Christmas
at Sally and Neal's in Billings. We are on a North Dakota WMA area that is open to the public. We drove in to the area and started looking for pheasants and found some in the Russian Olive shelter belts. We figured out a game plan to hunt the area and then the work began as we hiked through knee deep and deeper snow and drifts. I shot one bird in the tree line and the rest flew different directions. While my hunting partners Blair Dance and Leo Castagno were working their way back to the truck, Bandit worked across a snow filled ditch. Bandit dove under a big bunch of trees and brush while I waited on the road. After about 5 minutes he flushed a nice big rooster out to the right that I dropped in the snow. Bandit went back in the brush and flushed out a rooster to the left that I missed. Bandit couldn't get back to me through the snow drift with out me pulling him out by the collar. He worked really hard for us. He was rewarded that night with lots of scraps from dinner and a nice warm place to sleep.