Lil' Monster and B'Day Cake

Victoria's Little Monster, Ian.

Victoria's B'Day Cake with "20" candles!

Happy Birthday Victoria!!

Today is my granddaughter's 20th Birthday. Her name is Victoria Leigh and when she was born on Halloween, her Dad, who has since past away, nicknamed her "SPOOK"...a very Happy Birthday Victoria...I love you very much! Gran Gran

More Happy Halloween Dogs...

Going to the Dogs...

Would you do this to your dog???

Pumpkin Simulator...

Got this from Dennis ~

“Okay, here is something to keep you occupied for a few days, while you’re waiting for the doorbell to ring announcing those little ‘Gremlins.’ Or.., just sitting around awaiting your turn to vote and alter forever, the fate of our nation, one way or the other.”
~Dennis ~

CLICK HERE

Maxine's Halloween

COFA ~ A Christian Fellowship

Our camp from an overlooking hill that I call "Mountain Lion Knob" because it is from this hill that last years mountain lion followed me...

Mike, myself and George. Mike and George are founders of The Christian Outdoor Fellowship of America, better known as COFA.

George and Pastor Greg

Mike and another hunter

An evening time of devotion and praise...Pastor Greg shared song, verse and God's Word.

Dave, who lives in Indiana, went elk hunting with COFA (Christian Outdoor Fellowship of America) that lasted ten days. He flew home last Thursday and took these pictures in the Uncompahgre Wilderness area at 8,700 feet in the Rocky Mountains. The nearest town was Ridgeway, and where they were was about 2/3 of the way between Montrose and Telluride, CO., Telluride being the closer of the two. He said, there was tremendous moving of the Holy Spirit and one man accepted Christ the very first day. "Once again, this turned out to be a wonderful time with brothers in Christ, an interdenominational men's retreat if you will."

Here are only a very few of the pictures he took and many would make wonderful computer desktop backgrounds. He said, in a few days that he will have them posted on his website, free for the taking.

"We had only one bear in camp that we know of which was on the first night. Actually I chased a small one off early in the evening, and I expect it was the same one that came in later. Heard a mountain lion first evening and early in the morning of the second day, and one guy had it "snarl" at him while he was on the outdoor makeshift privy much the same as I had happen last year, but there was no indication of any attempt at a follow or attack. We heard no wolves this year but the coyotes were singing quite a bit."

"At the time I left camp which was Tuesday last, only one elk had been taken. However, the weather had been way too warm and dry, with daytime highs at our altitude around 70 and nights were in the low 20's. The weather, i.e., snow and rain and lower temperatures came the next day, and the guys in the second half of camp which is going on right now should have much better luck. Tracking conditions were horrible as far as trailing bears and mountain lions, and although I mounted three trail cameras as best I could, I got no bear or cat pictures. Next year should be better. God Bless, and I hope you enjoy my feeble attempts at photography." Dave

Dear Heavenly Father,

Please help me to be the

man my dog thinks I am...Amen

D. Robert (Dave) Quick

Member: Christian Outdoor Fellowship of America

Member: Pilots 4 Christ
MY WEBSITE:HANDLOADING FOR HUNTING

MY DISCUSSION FORUM:HFH DISCUSSION FORUMS

Don't tell GOD how big your storm is.

Tell the storm how Big your GOD is!

Happy Birthday Debra Ann!!

Today is my daughter's 39th Birthday. Wishing you a very Happy Birthday Debra! I Love you, Mom

Sites at Deer Camp

Our GMC hunting truck and camper.

A very steep hill to the right side of the camp house.

The deer camp house.

The deer skinning rack.

The outhouse.

My favorite camo crocs!!

Tree roots on short road.

The end of the road

Midway around the road.

There is a short road behind our camper that is very interesting. A cool place for the grand kids to play in our great wild outdoors!

2008 St. Al Homecoming Queen

Jenna Cialone, 18, the daughter of Alan and Mary Cialone, is crowned the 2008 St. Aloysius High School homecoming queen by the 2007 queen, Kayla Childress, 19, a freshman biological sciences major at Mississippi State University, Friday night. (Photo by Katie Carter ~ The Vicksburg Post)

Bob and I went to the St. Aloysius High School football game Friday night, October 24, 2008, with some of my classmates. St. Al won their football game against West Lincoln, 35-14! We were also invited earlier that morning to Mass at the St. Aloysius Gym with the 2009 graduates, teachers and student body. Our Class of 1959 was recognized after the Communion Hymn, Grace Rains Down, sung by the St. Aloysius Choral Group. Our classmate, Vera Marshall Brown, gave our Testimonial. A reception was held afterwards. It was very nice to see some of my classmates and visit with them again. We are looking forward to our 50th class reunion next April 2009. I posted pictures of the event on our blog at "Class of 1959". This is a sweetthing!

Wildlife Refuge Dedicated Today

A dedication ceremony for the Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge (TRNWR) in southern Sharkey County will be at 11:30 today during the Great Delta Bear Affair Festival in Rolling Fork, MS.

The TRNWR is one of the newest wildlife refuges in the state, established in January 2004 through a bill presented by U. S. Rep. Bennie Thompson. Thompson will be on hand for the ceremony, joined by local dignitaries and representatives from U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Wildlife Mississippi.

"The focus of this refuge will be to manage a diversity of wildlife species, but also place special emphasis on providing corridors for and protecting black bear," said James Cummins, executive director of Wildlife Mississippi. "It's a very low-lying area in the South Delta, and that really lends itself to waterfowl management, and we hope to provide some pretty significant public uses." This is a collection of refuges and includes both the youngest (Holt Colier and TRNWR) and the oldest refuges (Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge) in the state. The complex includes more than 100,000 acres of land on seven refuges that provide vital habitat for fish and wildlife in the Delta region in our great outdoors.

A Doe Harvest

It seems like a long, long time ago that these pictures were taken at Jasper Bottom Hunting Club in Claiborne County. Above, Bob is clowning around putting my doe's tail to his mouth....myself with Elaine, who's mother was Bob's medical doctor at the time, taking her hunting with us. It was great for me to have had a successful harvest that day. I would say that these pictures were taken in the early 90's. Elaine is married now living in Alabama with her husband and two children. I can't remember the story behind this hunt, but it was enjoyable to be in the great outdoors and teaching Elaine some hunting skills! Charming, Just Charming!

Bob's 8pt. Buck Taken in 92'

Bob with one of his 8 pt. bucks taken back in 1992.

Still have the license plate to our old suburban but not the suburban!

Came across these hunting pictures the other day. They were taken back in 1992 of Bob and his former boss, Reed, with one of Bob's 8 pt. bucks. Reed had had a stroke and was retired on disability. That did not stop him from hunting. He would come down every deer season from Campaign, IL, to hunt with us for two weeks. Reed has since past away. I really admired him for not letting his handicap keep him from deer hunting. When Reed was not visiting with us, I would hunt his stand in our great outdoors. I don't know the hunting story behind this particular harvest but it's a nice 8 pt. for sure.

Featured at Grandparents.com

Back in the Spring I received a call from Jack Beaudoin, a 43 year old Maine-based journalist, with Grandparents.com. He was commissioned to write a story about the pro's and con's of hunting with grandchildren. He came upon my blog in a Google search. We communicated by phone and e-mail and I was very interested in helping him with the story. I had to answer six questions to complete the interview. The article was posted on Grandparents.com the other day and I'm happy to share it with you.

Hunting: An Activity for Grandchildren?

In many families, hunting is a tradition. But as public opinion turns against the sport, your grandchildren may not want to join you.

Norm Phelps, 69, of Funkstown, Md., remembers boyhood days in the Tidewater region of Virginia, hunting bobwhites, squirrels, rabbits, and an occasional red fox, with the breeze blowing off Chesapeake Bay.

"I hunted a lot as a child and a teenager," Phelps says. "I started when I was 7. Everybody I looked up to hunted — my father, all the males in my family, even the preacher."

So you might expect Phelps to be planning to pass on the family tradition to his five grandchildren. Don't bet on it. "Just because something is a tradition doesn't make it right," says Phelps, who quit the sport when he was a teen and is now a leading animal-rights author. "There are good traditions and bad traditions, and hunting is bad. Why would I want to turn my grandchildren into people who kill animals for fun?"

A Bonding Experience

Marian Love Phillips, 67, of Vicksburg, Miss., sees it differently. The grandmother or step-grandmother of 14 took up hunting in 1985, after meeting her second husband. She says her involvement in the sport has given her opportunities to connect with her family and share her knowledge and passion for the outdoors. "Every time I take my grandchildren hunting, I tell them stories of my hunting experiences, how to respect their firearms, and so on," she says. "I hope they will remember all the things that I try to instill in them. It has been a great bonding experience that I will always remember and I hope they will as well."

Phillips recalls her first hunting excursion five years ago with her grandson Carl, now 18. "We must have sat there for a good two hours or so when Carl spotted a buck coming up to cross over the levee," Phillips says. "He was using my .270 Ruger, which is a powerful gun for a little guy like him. I had taught him to take a deep breath to relax before he made a shot," she adds, and when he did, "Bam! I literally had to catch him so he would not fall off the stool. It was the most exciting and the most exhilarating day of my life and his."

A Tradition Worth Preserving?

Hunting's popularity is waning across the country — about 12.5 million Americans say they hunt today, down from 19.1 million in 1975, according to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Several states are now taking steps to revive interest in hunting among young people. A new West Virginia law allows public schools to offer elective gun-safety courses to students in grades 6 to 12. Other states, including Michigan, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Utah, have considered proposals to lower or eliminate minimum age requirements for hunters. (Most of the 20 states that have minimum-age rules require children to be 12 before they can hunt large animals such as deer or wild turkeys.)

Grandparents who hunt say sharing the sport with the next generation gives them an important opportunity to pass on an endangered tradition and to participate more actively in their grandchildren's lives. "It's not possible for me to experience the latest technology, the electronic games, the do-dads, with my grandson," says George Smith, 59, of Mt. Vernon, Maine, who is the grandfather of one and the executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine. "But I do know hunting. I know fishing. These are things I can share with him."

Smith and others also insist that hunting meets broader social goals."Our society will continue to need hunters and hunting," he says. "In southern Maine, there's an epidemic of Lyme disease because the deer population is out of control. There is no other effective way to limit that population except through hunting, and if we don't introduce hunting to our children and grandchildren, who will? They're certainly not learning it in the schools."

Hunting to help limit local deer populations, Smith says, is an example of good stewardship of the nation's land, and it's a lesson grandparents should teach their grandchildren. Smith's own children do not hunt, but he hopes to introduce the sport to his grandson. "I feel a real sense of urgency about this," he says.

The Case Against Hunting

"Hunting is riddled with abuses that many people — including kids — are horrified by," says Casey Pheiffer, campaign manager for the Wildlife Abuse Campaign at The Humane Society of the United States. She urges grandparents not to hunt with their grandchildren. "I think it's great that grandparents want to share the outdoors with their grandchildren, but those connections can absolutely be made without a weapon."

The Humane Society's position is that "hunting doesn't encourage compassion for animals," Pheiffer says. Among other concerns, the group believes, children who don't hunt at an early age are less likely to be desensitized to killing and violence; non-hunting outdoor activities are inherently safer for young children; and even "ethical hunting" is inextricably bound up in controversial practices. "Kids are definitely choosing not to go into the woods to kill wildlife," Pheiffer says. "That reflects a shift in values, and grandparents ought to respect that shift."

Phillips concedes that there may be a generational shift in attitudes toward hunting. "The desire has to be there," she says. "When my grandsons were coming up, they saw that I was a hunter and wanted to emulate me, and I was willing to teach them. Just being in the outdoors is so much fun, and they enjoyed going to the camp and learning the positive aspects of hunting. You can tell them about hunting and let them experience being in the woods, but if the desire is not there, you should not pressure them."

To learn what grandfathers can teach their grandchildren, click here. Elsewhere on Grandparents.com discover 100 things to do with grandchildren this fall, and read about fishing with your grandchildren, and find tips about hiking with your grandchildren.