The Bakers, down from the mountains ...

"The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In."
Isa 58:11-12,

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Trapping... the latest adventure

The boys have been spending lots of wonderful time in the woods this winter.
We would love to show you a sample of pics to give you a taste of what they have been experiencing.
Below are a couple of shots of the creek / swamp area that have been a productive site.
Hidden under those sticks in the 2nd pic is one of Coy's muskrat traps.


Coy displaying one of the muskrats that he trapped.


Jay, taking a break on the trail of beaver, holding a muskrat trap.

The boys come upon on of their traps and see that it was successful.

They hold up the prize, a nice large beaver with a prime pelt.



Zac holding up a muskrat catch from another location.

Jay holds up two muskrats, just prior to the drying and skinning process.



Coy working on a beaver pelt. After carefully removing the hide from the animal, he scrapes off all the flesh. Then the hide is stretched to dry.



Beaver Pelts ready to be sold.

Muskrat & squirrel pelts, along with some duck decoys hanging in our garage.


For all of those who might be "sensitive" in this area of harvesting animals... rest assure, the circle of life was complete when we took the carcasses to a local farm to be fed to chickens. Yes, fed to other animals, we have not attempted to roast them for ourselves.... yet. But we have sampled eggs from those beaver-fed chickens.

Jay Is Still Riding


Our cowboy!



Buck has returned ... and grown some

After a long wait...

We finally were able to see her the other night. The last time we had seen her, with certainty, was just after Thanksgiving.

Jay, while jumping on the trampoline shortly before dinner, heard her in the woods just behind the house.


The whole family was very excited and hopes to see her again soon.

Zac's Birthday Cake




I just had to post a pic of this marvelous cake.

Zac's Birthday





This year, as we have done many times in the past, we set up a trail of clues for Zac to find one of his presents.
We did not get pictures of the first several clues, but you get an idea of his searching, figuring ... and finding.






And what do you think he had wanted ...