Marie Wicks ~ Our New Miss Mississippi!

Marie Wicks, Miss Dixie, was crowned tonight, Miss Mississippi 2012, at the Vicksburg Convention Center.  She will go on to compete in the Miss American Pageant at the Theatre of Performing Arts, Paradise, Nevada, in January 2013 .  This is her fifth time to complete in the Miss Mississippi Pageant here in Vicksburg.  She is quoted as saying in an interview that she would like to be a Doctor one day.  Congrats to our new Miss Mississippi!

  

Hometown:  Ocean Springs

Age: 22

Talent:  Piano

Platform: eyeS.T.A.R. - Eyesight To All Regions

Biography:  Wicks is majoring in French and international studies with a minor in chemistry at the University of Mississippi.  She was inducted into the 2012 Ole Miss Hall of Fame, was the winner of the young Writer's Competition for the London-based literary journal "Slightly Foxed Quarterly" and a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies.  She is a Newman Scholar, Craft Scholar and is in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.

nbw Camper's Comfort Body Mist & Giveaway!

I was recently contacted by, Andrea Hillen, of nature balance wellness (NBW) to do a review of their product and also host a giveaway for my readers of the same product.  I chose the Camper's Comfort Body Mist (a heavy duty but natural bug spray) and I love it!  The ingredients are: water, apple cider vinegar, witch hazel, oils of lavender, tea tree, lemon eucalytpus, neem seed oil, citronella and lemon grass.  It is naturally safe for people and pets.  The best part, it's 100% DEET free.

Summer's here!  Fish are biting and so are the deer flies!  What better way to protect and take care of your skin that is so vital for your health!  The right outdoor body protection will make for a hassles free recreation of any kind.  Using natural products safeguards your long term health, and also helps to protect the outdoor environments that we all love.

Click on the link to see other products that are offered. 

http://www.nbw.ca/store/products/category/outdoor-products

Please leave a comment if you would like to have a chance to win your 'FREE' Camper's Comfort Body Mist, which will be randomly selected.  Good luck and I know you will enjoy using this natural product that smells so good while giving you the great protection that you need. 

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Ashley's First Bear!

My hunting friend, Linda, "Sunshine" who lives in Mount Vernon, ME, sent me pictures of her daughter, Ashley, with her very first bear.  She was hunting with her Dad, "Bob" in New Brunswick and used a 7mm 08 to bring it down.  The bear weighed 130 lbs. 

Ashley is shown here with her Dad and you can see by the look on his face how proud he is of her accomplishments.  She is also an avid deer and turkey hunter and have posted pictures of her hunts.  

Her Mom, a deer hunter herself, and I met about 13 years ago on a forum called, bowhunting.net and have stayed in touch all these years.  

My sincere congrats to Ashley at 16 years old harvesting her very first bear in our great wild outdoors!  Way to go Ashley!  

Braddock's Firearms

Braddock is my step-granddaughter, Jessica's, husband in Santa Fe, NM, and while there he showed me his gun and rifles.  Below are some picture I took of him with his proud firearms.

Uberti Single Action Army .45 colt

Mosin-Nagant 1929 7.62 x 54R

Western Field pump .22 LR

Ruger No. 1 .300 Winchester Mag w/a 4 x 12 Burris Scope

Finally, Pictures of Ethan's First Doe

I finally got the pictures of Ethan (my grandson's) first doe that was taken in Hinds County, MS, while hunting with his step-grandfather, Charles Ivy.  This happened about 2 years and 7 months ago.  He shot the doe in the late afternoon and they both looked for it and had to go back the next day and was lucky enough to find it.  It had ran over on someones property and they were able to retrieve it.  The temps were cold enough for the deer to lay overnight.  I'm so happy that he found his 135lb. doe.  I'm not sure if he was initiated or not with a bloodied face, being his first deer.  I've taken Ethan hunting with me a good many times but he was never lucky enough to get one.  To me, the quality time spent with my grandson is cherished in my lifetime, deer or no deer.   

Shown here with his step-grandfather, Charles, helping him skin out his deer.

This picture was taken of Ethan the night before we left to go to the famous Christmas Place Plantation and Hunting Camp for a Youth Hunt weekend in the MS Delta, November 2009.  He used my .270 Ruger (shown here) but did not harvest a deer but had a great time with all the other young hunters. 

Recently, my grandson joined the Air Force and will report to duty October 2012 at Lackland, AFB, TX.  We wish him the very best of luck and thanking him for wanting to serve our country.  May God bless and protect him from harms way during his tour-of-duty.

Flying Home

Leaving family and New Mexico behind.

Coming into Houston, TX.

  

Many tall building in Houston, TX.  A small town city girl does not see this everyday!

Picture taken as we were climbing with the sun setting over the great state of Texas!

Coming into Jackson, MS and finally home after a wonderful vacation with family in Santa Fe, NM.

Santa Fe Pets

This is Ike, a German Shepard, that was a former police dog and was taught commands in German.

The black/white is Jazzi and black one, Skids, at the cabin.

Skids, (skid row) who used to have a hard life, looking out the window at the cabin!

She is now living the good life!

Jazzi at the house enjoying a family get-together!

Eilley holding a pet chicken and 

...showing off a pet rat.

Eilley feeding a pet fish at her grandmother's house.

On Top Of The World!

My stepdaughter, Karen and her husband, Ron, have a really nice home outside Santa Fe and is so high on a hill that they have a 360 degree view on 10 acres.  It is beyond awesome!  Their next door neighbor is Robert Redford with 1,000 acres of land.  You can see Los Alamos and other cities aglow at night.  The sunrises and sunsets are spectacular!  Below are some pictures that were taken at their beautiful home.

Myself, Bob and Karen getting ready to go into Santa Fe and spend the day with Ron who took our picture.

Where I had my coffee earlier.  So peaceful, relaxing and cool.

  

A beautiful entrance to a beautiful home!

Sitting on top of the world, Santa Fe style!

Bob with a beautiful and spectacular view behind him.

  

A crow standing guard with a turquoise in it's mouth on the edge of the front grounds.

Ron, great granddaughter, Eilley, Karen and granddaughter, Brittany making over a grasshopper that she had caught.  So cute!

Got a shadow of us on their adobe home while sitting and enjoying a beautiful sunset.

A gorgeous sunset behind the mountains!

Cerro Bonita Ranch (Part III)

Making my way back to the cabin from walking to the generator house to take a picture of the bear scrape on the door frame.  Half way to the generator I heard a loud growl like a big old bear but it was Ron trying to scare me.  What really got my attention was hearing a snap on a branch on the hill back behind the generator and decided I better head back to the cabin pronto!

Looking at the cabin as I make my way back.

Karen climbed up on one side to the cabin to see what was in a nest she found.

A nest of eggs!

Mama bird circling and trying to get back to her eggs.

Karen found this rusty old ice pick or log carrier while we were coming in towards the cabin and told Ron to stop.  She got out and ran over and picked it up.  It's no telling how long it had laid there in the woods and her keen eyes saw it and is now displayed at the cabin as a conversational piece.  They are hamming it up!

Ike having a blast fetching sticks as we threw them into the brook.

Taking life easy!

The sun setting over the "beautiful mountain" after a fun filled day at the cabin.

Cerro Bonito Ranch (Part II)

At the Cerro Bonita Ranch there are many roads and traditionally named after ladies only.  I am fortunate to have a road named after me and it's called, "Marian's Mile" for my smile.  It was great to once again have my picture taken by my road sign in our great wild outdoors! 

Marian's Mile for my smile.

To the right of my road is Abby's Meadow Rd.

 Kristina, step-granddaughter and her boyfriend, Jared, riding in the back of the truck.

Kristina standing by her sign, Kristina's Kaper.

At the swimming hole.

Ron going to try and catch a frog at the swimming hole.

No luck!  The frog outsmarted him!

Ron showed me the trees that were growing out the side of the mountain rock near cowboy camp.

At Cowboy Camp

Looking back at the truck. They left Bob and I alone to go check on something at cowboy camp. They did this before and it was like Deja Vu all over again and wondering if a bear would appear.

Karen and Kristina came back with an elk vertebrae and some bones.  I guess the bear or mountain lion ate the elk up!

We went up and down some pretty steep roads which was once used for silver mining years ago.

The name of this rock is called, "Mountain Lion" because one was sighted here!