Belle, Look there's a deer!!!

So after church this morning we took a drive. I'd wanted to get out and see what the rivers look like now that it has snowed and they are almost frozen if not frozen already. Tony and I have both realized that we aren't made for the city. Even though Austin is a smaller city we can't wait until the time comes that we can move out in the country.

After church we loaded up Belle and brought her along for the ride. She loves car rides. Everything is very pretty in the snow, the world just looks so clean. (Ask me in February if I still have the same sentiments about snow).

On our drive we saw a doe. Deer look awesome in the snow too. Than about 10 min later we say a spike buck and I believe he was an 8-pointer. Belle saw these too and she went nuts. She whined and whined and whined. The tail was a wagging and everything else was going on. It was pretty amusing. I didn't get a very good picture of them but I did manage a shot of them while they were running away. It's not the best but you should be able to make them out.

Dinner and Dancing

Last night we went to the plant's Christmas Party at the Austin Country Club. We had lots of fun...or at least I did. I can't speak for Tony but I think he had a good time. The appetizers were great....some tasty bacon among other things, and the meal was delicious as well.

After the dinner was some dancing. I saw some moves like I have never seen before.

It was a great relaxful event and it was a lot of fun to get all dressed up for a fancy night out.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

Here's a photo of our small but doable Christmas tree. I decorated it on a cold night this past week. We had Bing Crosby playing and Tony had started a fire. It was wonderful. All I needed was a nice cup of Hot Chocolate. We didn't manage to get the light up outside this year. We got snow the first couple of days we were back from Thanksgiving and it's been freezing since. Oh well, there is always next year.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Sorry I know this is a little late but it amazes me how time flies. I can't believe Christmas will be here soon. Tony and I went shopping today and I believe we are done with all that.

Wanted to tell you all about our Thanksgiving holiday. We left Austin around 4:30 and the drive was...umm...okay. It had been spitting outside all day and thank goodness Tony had replaced my windshield wiper a couple of days before, because it was difficult to see through the nasty rain and spotty snow. After we got through Des Moines, we got stuck in traffice for about 30min. For those of you that haven't driven South of Des Moines on I-35...there is nothing, I repeat nothing that should make traffic at a standstill. Apparently a lane was closed because they have been doing construction. Well, the lane wasn't actually closed, people just saw the sign that it was and so they got into the other lane, like any good driver would do. But it still sucked...mostly because I was driving.

The rest of the trip down was pretty uneventful and we didn't have any blinker problems this time either so I was thankful for that.

Thanksgiving Day we woke up, watched the beginning of Macy's Thanksgiving Day, and heard mom say her famous line (and it wouldn't be Thanksgiving if she didn't say it), "_____ number of years ago I was getting ready to march in this parade. We had to wake up at 5:30 to be there." Mom, I thought I wouldn't share your age with the whole world :)

For dinner we went to Grandma Sally's home and had a wonderful meal with our wonderful family. It was a pretty low key day which was perfect. It was a nice time to just sit around, relax, have good conversations, and eat some wonderful pie and peach cobbler.

Friday, I went shopping with my mom and sister while Tony took off with Wayne and Joe to run the trap line. If I remember right they caught a couple of beavers.

We didn't get up at the crack of dawn to go shopping, we left around 7:30 which was fine by us. We ended up with a few bargins and had a wonderful lunch at Carlos O'Kellys. I can't tell you how bad I've been craving it. It was delicious.

Friday night, the Michaelis' came to visit. It's always great when we get to see you guys. Maddie and Emma we miss you bunches and Conner you are so goofy. Good luck with the rest of the school year.

Also that night we headed to the Paxico bar for a couple of drinks with Adam and Loretta. Glad we could catch up!! Sorry the bar closed so early :)

Saturday we had Thanksgiving with the Erikson side at Mom and Dad's. Once again the food was great! Elaine made rolls....yum. For those of you that don't know, when I was younger my Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter meals mostly consisted of 4 rolls, some corn, mashed potatoes and a small, very small amount of turkey with ketchup. Have had since broadened my choices but rolls still get me every time. At least now I eat more of the other stuff and no ketchup on the turkey.....I'm a big girl now...haha. Oh, and I also discovered I have a new found love, sweet potatoes. Never used to eat the things, the orange turned me off, but oh my I didn't know what I was missing. We even had a "fake" Thanksgiving earlier this week with a couple of friends and I was super excited because I didn't have to wait until the next big family meal to have sweet potatoes :) Oh the little joys in life.

Anyways that afternoon the boys all took off to the farm to do some shooting. I hear they had a pretty good time and everyone came back in one piece.
Us girls played some Taboo and went for a walk(Jack and Dee, once again I apologize if Belle has made Allie terrified of large dogs). It was such a BEAUTIFUL day.

When we got back for our walk the boys were home. During the rest of the afternoon into night football was watched, battleship was played, puzzles were started, and I learned that I need to learn more of my historical/national landmarks thanks to my ten year old cousin during a game of Catch Phrase. (Thanks John, I don't think there was any way I was going to come up with Old Faithful...but it took you no time.)

Sunday we had to head back. Nothing too exciting on the drive home except we almost ran out of gas, and then once again while I was driving we got stuck in traffice for at least 40min.

Tony and I are so very thankful for each and everyone of our family and friends. We have been very blessed this year. With buying our new home, graduating college, and starting the next chaper of our lives. It's hard to be away from everyone and we miss you all greatly.But I truly believe this was God's plan for us at least for the time being. No one knows what the future holds but we just have to put our faith in Him that He will lead us through.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays mostly because there is no fuss. It's simple. Just food, family and fun. I thank God every single night for the gifts that He has blessed me with and I ask Him every night to watch over my loved ones and continue to provide for us all.

May each and everyone of you continue to be happy, healthy and loved.

Love you all,
Lisa and Tony

Last day of water trapping

Well I have had some traps out this last week but haven't had much luck. The beaver ditch is frozen but I set 4 traps in runs under ice and a baited set. Four days set out and no beavers. Two muskrats in the four days, but one had been chewed up by a mink so I left it there. One snare was closed but no action with coyotes other than that. I set coon traps on the river on Thursday. It is a nice shallow river that is easy to walk through. A lot of coon sign was around too. I put out 20 sets in about 3/4 mile.

That night got down to 2 degrees with the windchill and it stayed that way until noon of Thursday. I was not optimistic that the coon would be out, and decided to pull all traps. I could almost walk on the beaver ditch ice but most wouldn't hold me. I was cutting ice with my hammer/digger tool. When I got out of the water my waders would turn to ice in about a minute. But, my feet stayed nice and warm with the trucks heater.

On to the river with my boat in the back. I was pretty disappointed when I got to the bridge and saw that most of the river was froze over. There were a few areas of fast flowing water that weren't ice. I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket and my tool and took off into the water. I have to stay in the water to stay legal. Again, not enough ice to support me, but enough for me to keep trying. It was about 1 1/2 inches thick in the thick places. At least I knew the water depth from the day before. I would say I had to break the ice for about half the distance I had sets. I went about a hundred yards and thought I had sets but couldn't see them. I dig a hole in the bank and have my trap at the bottom in the water. All I do is look for a hole in the bank and know that my trap is there. I realized when I got to a place where I knew exactly where a trap was that my trip just became a lot harder. All of my holes were under the ice! I had no way of knowing where my traps were.

So I had to go to the spots where I knew I had sets, but also every spot that I thought looked like a good set, because I may have set a trap there and forgot it. I had to go to the side of the bank where I knew or thought I might have a set and stomp down the ice until I felt my trap go off. If it never went off, I drug my metal tool on the bottom and tried to feel or hear the chink of metal. It was tough but I got all of my traps out of there.

Heading back got to be a chore. I believe the five gallon bucket weighed about 40 lbs and got very heavy. I think it would have been twice that much if I was using rebar stakes. Once my bucket got filled up, I started putting traps inside my waders. (Bet thinking of that will make you laugh). I was relieved that on the way back I already had a trail broke through the ice and I could just walk on out. WRONG! About halfway out the ice had refrozen over my trail. That really broke my spirit. Also, there is a small pinhole in the right leg of my waders. I put duct tape around them and it helped a little, but not much. I felt my right foot getting pretty wet. I knew I needed to get out of there and back to my warm truck where dry socks awaited.

You might have a picture in your head about a poor little boy freezing and barely moving in the icy water, but that wasn't the case. I'm sure I looked strange with trap chains and cables coming out of the top of my waders and shiny duct tape on the bottom of them, and you'd think I would be shivering in the 2 degree windchill,but I was sweating once I got back to the truck. I was glad to see that none of my traps had been taken out of the boat on the back of my truck. I got in my cab and couldn't find my emergency socks that I now remember are under a jumper seat in the backseat. I stripped off my waders, which was difficult because they were practically an icicle. My right pant leg was wet from the knee down, and my sock was soaked. This was the first day I've driven any vehicle barefoot. I didn't have another pair of boots, and the warm air felt good.

My boat is put away for the winter. The coon and muskrat are still sitting in the garage hard as rocks. I couldn't get the christmas lights hung up because there is snow covering the roof. I didn't get the mud tires put on my truck soon enough for the snow. My trapping season has now switched to ice season, and now I must wait until it gets thick enough to walk on. Lisa and I went Christmas shopping today and it felt good to stay warm all day.

So far this season, I've caught about 60 coon, 20 muskrats, 6 beaver, 4 mink, 2 possoms, and 1 red fox. From now on I'm going after mostly beaver and muskrat.

If you're still wondering, no I didn't catch anything that day.

Kitchen Redo...

So the next room on the remodel list was the kitchen. Nothing drasic just giving it a fresh coat of paint. We had picked out the color we wanted, it was a hunter green color. Well on the day Tony was going to go get the paint he couldn't find the card with the name on it and wasn't able to reach me at work. So he got what he thought was the color we picked. Turned out it was a little more green than we were going for. It was like a grass green. Very green. Good for a kids room but not what we were going for the kitchen. So we went and got another color. I decided that I didn't want to go as dark as hunter green. I wanted more of a sage color. I ended up getting Shaded Tree. Its dark enough but not to dark and I am pretty happy with it.

Since it's trapping season and Tony's gone alot this was a project I got to conquer myself. I tore down the wallpaper, sanded, painted and I found a new love in the process. I love plastering holes and cracks!!

I do have to admit, Tony was still a big help as always. He took down all the trim for me and did a lot of the trim painting. I have decided I like to paint, but I don't like to be careful. Give me a roller and I am fine, but I have a hard time finding the patience for painting all the little nooks and cranies. We had to use q-tips to get around the hinges on the cabinets....not fun!

But alas we were done with the painting.

We aren't done putting all the finishing touches on the kitch yet. I want to get some new curtains and we need to put the trim but up but I wanted to give you a little preview. I don't really have any good before shots and I'm sure Brenda will appreciate this picture but it's all I have.

You can kind of see the ivory wallpaper we took down. Thank God there were only 2 layers this time.

P.S. I apologize for the mess, I was baking cookies this morning and we still have alot of stuff that doesn't belong in the kitchen there, but anyways you get the point.

Mom! I finally got my farm stuff up and the egg actually swings!!!

Looking into the dining room...

Happy Halloween

Here are pictures of the pumpkins we carved this weekend! We haven't carved pumpkins in so long and we enjoyed doing it!

Picking out my design....

Yum!

Hard at work...can you tell what it is???

Final outcome....they look pretty good don't you think :0

A haunted house...
A Witch! Tony's turned out really good. Guess he's pretty good with that knife. He's got a lot of practice skinning.

First Day of Trapping

Here's some pictures of the first check of trapping season. I have about a 30 mile road line with 16 sets.

The skinning shed is half of the garage. It is more room than I've ever had to work with. The 4 coons were pretty good size. 2 were nice and silver, the other had some yellow to them. They were all pretty blue.
Finished Product:

Here's my work area:

Special Visitors

So this summer Tony and I headed out to a fellow co-workers house. They had been having problems with a woodchuck under their neighbors shed and they asked if Tony might come out and try to catch the thing. Well the evening turned out to be a really fun night. We ended up having a fire, eating pizza and drinking a few beers. We had a great time and laughed our butts off discussing this and that. Than all of the sudden Tony asks me if I'm ready to leave. I'm like no, it's only 8 o'clock. Well a half hour goes by and I can tell he's getting very impatient and I couldn't figure out why because we were having such a great time. So I finally give in and say we can go, and he hands me the keys and tells me he'll meet me at the truck. So I knew something had be up. And like any girl hopes for, I'm thinking he's planned a romantic night. Well once we get home and I falled to see any flowers and he heads to the couch and opens up the paper I knew that couldn't be it.

Now I'm just waiting to figure out what the hell was going on. I only had to wait until 9 when I heard someone outside say something like, "How they hell am I supposed to know, dumbass." Than I guessed it. Our two great friends Loretta and Michael drove all the way from Kansas to come and visit us for the weekend.

From what I hear the drive sucked, but if anyone has spent more than two hours in a car with Michael Heighert, they know what I'm talking about. Loretta had to spend 8 hours with him :)

Once they got all their stuff in the house we headed out to Torge's (Austin "Hottest" Night Club) and had a couple of beers and a few laughs and some dancing. Michael was very disappointed everyone was doing the Cotton-Eye-Joe wrong, so we had to go out and try to show them how; it didn't work.

Than of course Michael was hungry so we head to Burger King and he proceeds to purchase $17 off of the value menu. More food than all of us could eat, let alone 1 person.

After sleeping in on Saturday, Tony and I took them out to the Tendermaid. This place is really cool. It's like stepping into an old 50s soda shop, not to mention they have WONDERFUL shakes! After that we headed to the Famous SPAM Museum, where there are loads of fun to be had by all :) No, the Spam museum is pretty neat and it has tons of information about the history of Hormel and than of course SPAM. It's corney but it's also fun, especially for kids and the young at heart. Not to mention it is one of the top 5 tourist desinations in the State of Minnesota.

Later that night we stayed in, had supper and played the awesome farming game. Which is a game I will never win but I try.

Sunday it was time to say goodbye. Tony and I both appreciate Loretta and Michael coming all the way to visit us. It was a fun weekend and it means alot to us to know we have such great friends in our lives. We love you both very much and we can't wait until we can see eachother again, which hopefully will be very soon!

First Snow

Tony and I had just returned from Kansas where we were hoping to find a little warmer weather than it had been in Minnesota. We found no such luck. Anyways we got home on Sunday night and a few light flurries were in the air. When I woke up on Monday morning to head to work the ground was starting to get covered. By the end of the day, Austin had received about 3 inches of snow! This was Oct. 11, 2009. I cannot ever recall having snow that early. The earliest I can remember is on Halloween when I was younger. Everyone keeps telling us this isn't normal. For some reason we are hearing this phrase constantly. We heard it all summer and now again in the fall. I'm beginning to wonder if they are all trying to trick us :)

Here's a couple of pictures Tony took late Monday morning.

I'm hoping we get a least some sort of fall weather before we jump into full blown winter. Hopefully my wish is coming true. The weatherman says it's supposed to be in the upper fifties the rest of the week. By the way, many of the trees have already turned and lots have lost their leaves. We had a pretty dry September which caused them to turn early. We are in luck though, some are just beginning to get their fall foliage.

2009 Deer

This year I shot my first buck. It was also the first deer I've shot with my bow. It was a six-point buck, probably a year and a half old.

I figured out that all those years of holding out for a big Kansas Monster wasn't really paying off. So my strategy for this year was to get any kind of deer before trapping season.
I had been hunting on a piece of public land right outside the Austin city limits. It has really good habitat, but there was always someone else hunting at the same time. One hunter I talked to recommended a spot about 10 miles South of Austin. There is a half mile hike from the road before the hunting area begins, so it gets a lot less pressure. I went out there on Monday, Oct 5, early in the morning. I got sidetracked on the way there when some horses started to cross the highway in front of me. I stopped woke up the owner and helped get about 7 horses back in the pen. At least none of them got hit. Once I finally got into the hunting area, I missed a doe twice at 20 yards. This is also when I found out what a year of not shooting my bow does to me. I found a good spot to set up the next time I came out.

I went out again on Wednesday, Oct. 7 in the morning and there was patchy frost on the grass. I couldn't find the spot where I wanted to set up because it was too dark. I stayed put until daylight and then made my way to the good location. I sat on a log facing the Southeast wind. I waited about 45 minutes and saw a doe about 40 yards ahead of me. It was going away from me so I blew a few doe grunts. I didn't see the doe again but this buck came into view and started heading my way. I couldn't of asked for an easier shot; sitting down, drew when it went behind a tree, moved the bow into position when it went behind another tree, it stopped and looked at me for a second than took a step forward and was shot at 15 yards. It was shot a little low, but it died pretty quick. I shot it at about 8:20am.

I went back to the truck to change clothes and get a knife and gloves. I found out I need more practice field dressing, but I got the job done. I started the 3/4 mile drag out and was glad I changed out of my coveralls. It got to the point where I would drag for a minute and rest for 2. I got it to the truck at 11:30.

I had help from Lisa getting the deer hung in the garage. I had to make do without a proper gambrel using a trapping stake and a dog leash. I then got off to class at 1:00, but got back at 1:20. I took the deer into the big game registration station across town. I got there and answered the questions and they said we were done. I asked them if they needed to see the deer, which they did not. So then I somehow managed to get the deer back on the trapping stake by myself. I skinned it out and washed it down. Then I went to class at 3:30.

Because we went to Kansas on Thursday night, I butchered the deer from 12:00 to 4:30 Thursday afternoon. I might not have cut it into all the correct cuts, but most of it is going to be ground up anyway.

Well there's the very long version of my 2009 deer. I'm sure you'll hear from me again after trapping season starts the 24th.

New skill: Lumberjack

Okay, so I'm not quite a lumberjack but I did learn how to chop wood a couple of weekends ago. I mentioned in an earlier post that we got like 6 truck loads of wood at a farm auction. Well Tony was outside dying traps. He was getting ready for the upcoming season. We have made a small fire pit in our back yard and he was boiling the traps over this. Anyways, you need wood to make a fire so I decided to give my lumber jacking skills a try. After a much need form lesson from Tony I was good to go. Here's what I learned.

#1. Always keep your legs apart, that way if you miss you don't have to take a nice trip to the ER. (Don't worry, this didn't happen, but safety first people.)

#2. Chopping wood sure does make you feel 'manly.' Not that I want to be a man but you get my point.

#3. Careful selection of tree type is important. I can only split oak....leave the sycamore to your husband.

Below is a picture of my not so good form but as you can tell I did split it in half :)

Later that evening we decided to use the fruits of my labor and build us a fire for the first time in the fireplace. If you know me, you know that I was paranoid my home was going to burn down the whole time. But, alas I have learned to try to stay somewhat semi calm through the experience.


Here is a picture of our fire (please ignore my messy house):

Wallpaper no more...

So in mid-July we decided to dive right into the remodeling scene. First stop, Home Depot. After spending a nice chunk of money we were finally set to repaint the master bedroom. Only one thing stood in our way....wallpaper! We were blessed to find out that there were three layers that we had to chisel our way through. The first layer was pretty easy to pull off. The second and third, not so much. I was good to go for about the first three hours. I wussed out after that and left Tony to pick up my slack. Don't worry, I helped out again after I had a nice cold rum and coke. :)

What was supposed to be a weekend job turned into a week long project. After much hard work and very few 'disagreements,' we were finally finished.

Tony picked out the paint colors for the room. The original wallpaper wasn't too bad, just dated. Tony picked Lilting Laughter for the ceiling and fresh praline for the walls (where do they come up with these names?) basically white and peach are the colors.

We've included a few photos of our first remodeling adventure to share with you all. Next up on the list, the kitchen!


Before:

During:

After:

Renaissance Festival

So finally September arrived. We went to an auction and picked up 6 truck loads of wood for a steal! Now we just have to split it (more on that later.)

A couple of weekends ago we went to the Renaissance festival in Shakapee, MN which is a little south of the cities. We had a lot of fun. It was pet weekend so we saw all kinds of dog breeds. They had Frisbee dog performances and all sorts of other things for your pooch.

We watched a lot of show at the festival too. I think our favorite was Puke and Snot. These guys are full of quick Wit and humor. I couldn't stop laughing. If you every get the chance to see them, make it a point to do so. You won't be disappointed.

Puke & Snot

We also watched a hypnotist...which neither of us are sure we buy into it but who knows. I don't think it's possible to get that many people to fake what they are doing.

Probably the last show we watched was a juggler. We're not talking like your normal juggling. This guy is amazing. He balanced on top of a ladder, while juggling rings, and spinning a ball on his head; unreal. It was crazy how talented he was.

Here's the car that parked right next to us....one word....WOW.

Tony's Birthday

So for Tony's Birthday we decided to go camping. I had a three day weekend because it was a plant holiday so we decided to make the most of it. We had made reservations although I told Tony to, but when we pulled in we managed to get the last spot...lucky us. We went to a small lake called Lake Louise about 40 minutes from Austin. I wouldn't exactly call the lake a lake though...it was more like an oversized pond. Oh for those of you that don't know, Mower County the county we live in, is the ONLY county in the State of Minnesota that does not have a natural lake...go figure.
We took it pretty easy while camping. Went for walks, read books, and chatted with the neighbors. On Sunday we decieded to go to Rochester since we were close and Tony discovered his new favorite store, Fleet Farm. Picture a Tractor Supply, Home Depot, and Cabela's, all wrapped up under one roof. I think they have everything a man could want. Needless to say, we spent a few hours in there.

Fourth of July

So the Fourth of July rolled around and we decided to stick it out in Austin. Every year they have a big celebration. We went to the parade which was great. It was over an hour long and we are talking floats not just old cars and horses at the end. Austin is a great community for fun celebrations. Later that night we went to Bandshell Park. There was live music, great locals bands, food, games, crafts, etc. Austin also has a great community band. This is the second year we have heard them play and they do a wonderful job, they even continue to play during the first part of the fireworks. Then at dusk it was time for fireworks. Wonderful fireworks display!! It was probably 20-30 minutes of continuous explosions...the dogs were going nuts :) The Fourth was probably the coldest Fourth of July we have ever experienced. I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans and I had a blanket wrapped around me and I was STILL cold. In fact it was a very mild summer, even by Minnesota standards.

We have arrived....

Welcome to our blog! Sorry it has taken us awhile to get this things started but I hope you enjoy. Tony and I have been keeping busy these first few months we have lived in Minnesota and I will try to recap them for you.

So our wonderful parents and sisters helped us move into our new home at the end of June. It was probably the longest 9 hour drive of our lives, but we finally made it. We moved in on Friday and tried to get unpacked and semi-settled before I started work that Monday. Not the greatest timing but we made do. It was hard to say goodbye to our families but incredibly exciting, scary and fun for Tony and me to begin our new adventure on our own.




Below are some pictures of our new home.

Here's a shot of the "Man Cave."

For those of you that need it, our new address is 803 8th Ave. SE Austin, MN 55912