The Bakers, down from the mountains ...

2011-12-27T10:25:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas!

Hey folks, we moved last month. I know this is a shock to some of you, but most will know that we have moved many, many times over the years. We are now in Boone, NC area.

Here are pic's of our new home and a view of our front yard.

Yes, we have not lost the irony of our blog name "Down From The Mountains", as we have now moved back up the mountain.

If you will be in the area, please give us a call or drop by.

And the front yard... with Jay's golden retriever, Fender.

Coy's Graduation Pict's

2011-06-06T14:38:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from my graduation party.

Famous Artists of the Renaissance

2011-04-28T16:58:00.006-04:00

As we are bringing this last school year to a close - this is Jacob's final week before his summer break - we would like to post an essay that Jacob wrote in his Writing class. After reading this, I'm sure you will agree that Jacob is certainly blossoming as a budding writer. His paper (click here to view) is titled Famous Artists of the Renaissance.

Jacob's first horse riding competition

2011-04-13T19:32:00.018-04:00

Last Saturday Jacob participated in his first riding competition at Steppin Heaven Farms. He entered two events:

- Walk/Trot with Pattern: here the entrants ride a predetermined pattern, and were judged on overall control, correctness and transitions and diagonals.

- Walk/Trot Under Saddle: here the entrants were judged on control of pace of horse and diagonals.

Coy put together this little ditty with some of the footage taken by his proud mother and brother Zac.

2011-04-07T21:18:00.005-04:00

If you are a gun enthusiast, then you might enjoy this video blob post. But if guns scare you then please do not visit this link.
Bump'n

Trapping... the latest adventure

2011-02-26T10:41:00.012-05:00

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

2011-02-26T10:31:00.004-05:00

Our cowboy!

Buck has returned ... and grown some

2011-02-26T10:15:00.004-05:00

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

2011-02-26T10:01:00.003-05:00

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

Zac's Birthday

2011-02-26T09:17:00.009-05:00

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 ...

Horse Riding Lessons

2010-06-17T12:21:00.004-04:00

Jacob has been doing horse riding lessons since April. Here are some pictures. Hopefully i can get a video up soon.

Buck the Fawn

2010-06-15T14:10:00.003-04:00

I was walking in the woods one day and i happen to look down and i see a fawn laying on the open ground. Seeing that it was thin and weak i brought it home. I began feeding her a goat milk supplement out of a baby bottle. She is a doe but we call her Buck. ( I'm sure I'm breaking some kind of rule somewhere.) As soon as she is old enough to live on her own i will let her go back in the wild.

Trapping

2010-03-20T08:52:00.004-04:00

We have been having a problem with groundhogs around here for the past year. They were digging large holes in our yard that they would dig back out if we filled then in. Finally, I set out two conibear (body grip) traps at two of the entrances. I then blocked up the rest of the holes, forcing them through my sets. I chose to use a blind set without bait and see how that would do. I checked the sets each morning and evening and on the second evening my second set had a groundhog. He was about a foot and a half long and shaped like a hog with fur. I skinned it cased, fleshed it, stretched it, dried it with the claws, ears, face and tail on. Its pretty cool looking. I'll post a picture of the pelt when its finished drying.

Jacob's critique of Pandora's Box

2010-02-12T21:07:00.000-05:00

Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box is a classical Greek Myth. Its original author is unknown. In the past, many people have retold this myth. This one was retold by Lori Verstegen. Interestingly enough, some later versions have the box containing all the blessings of life and when Pandora opens the lid all of the blessings fly away leaving the earth a desolate place. The setting begins in heaven on Mt. Olympus which is home for all the major Greek gods. It then shifts to the ravishing green earth when lovely Pandora is given away.

In the story, the main characters are Zeus, Pandora, and Epimethius. Zeus, king of all the Greek gods, finds himself irate at Prometheus. Cunningly, Zeus constructs the first woman, Pandora, in order to bring sin and sorrow into the world below. Zeus created Pandora to be exceedingly beautiful and verily gifted. He also fashioned her character with foolishness, mischievousness, and idleness. His scheme was to give her to Epimethius, the brother of Prometheus, a stubborn and weak man, so his plan could be carried out.

The conflict of the story begins with crafty Zeus plotting revenge. He feels indignant because Prometheus stole fire from Mt Olympus and brought it down to earth. Zeus created Pandora irresistible to draw in the foolish Epimethius. Smoothly, his plan works. However, before Pandora leaves for earth, she is given a beautifully decorated box by all of the gods. Tantalizing her, they sternly warned her not to open it. Not even a peep! During the course of the next day, Hermes takes Pandora as a gift from Zeus to Epimethius, who on seeing her beauty and believing himself to be fortuitous, immediately takes her into his home. Prometheus had warned him about trusting in Zeus, but to no avail. He had to have her. Hermes boldly bade both of them never to open the adorned box.

The climax of the story occurs when Pandora's curiosity takes over and she opens the forbidden
box. Epimethius was standing in the doorway like Adam did in the garden. Curiously, he did not stop her, but scrutinized with excitement because he to wanted to know what was in the box. As soon as Pandora opened the lid just a hair, all of the sins an sorrows spread throughout the land. It satisfied Zeus. Tragically his revenge on mankind was complete. The theme of this story is that curiosity can lead to disobedience, and disobedience can lead to harm, and harm can hurt others.

The story cleverly reveals the nature of man and the nature of sin. For example, when Pandora's curiosity takes over her self-control and she examines the contents of the box, the reader identifies with the desire to know what is in it also. Pandora was strictly warned not to open the box, but Zeus understood the nature of man's lack of self-control and knew she would disobey, causing sin to enter the world. The reader clearly understands the dangers of curiosity and the harmfulness of disobedience.

Jacob's critique of "The Monkey and the Fox"

2010-02-12T20:45:00.001-05:00

THE MONKEY AND THE FOX

The Monkey and the Fox is an Aesop fable retold by Eric Carle. It was published by Orchard Books in 1988. The setting of the story opens up in the steaming jungle with all of the animals gathered around. Tragically, the beloved old king of the jungle had died. Among the animals present, they needed to elect a new king as wise as the old one.

The main characters in this story are the Monkey and the Fox. The Monkey smoothly preformed as an imposter of the king, but had no sense at all. The Fox was very wise, not being tricked by the Monkey's impersonation of the old king, but he slyly served as a traitor to the new king.

The rising action of the story begins with the Fox earnestly desiring to remove the Monkey from his position because he was an unwise king. A little while after the Monkey became king, the Fox noticed a trap set in the forest and thought of a plan to get rid of the imperious Monkey. One day he slyly strolled up to the king and bravely declared he had spotted something strange in the forest. The nosy Monkey swooped off with the Fox to inspect the tantalizing curiosity which the Fox had talked about.

The climax occurs when the Monkey reaches for the banana in the middle of the net which falls over him. He was caught! The towns people, who had hidden in the bushes, jumped out, seized him, and carefully carried him to their zoo. During the next day, the Fox visited the zoo. Furiously the king exclaimed, "You traitor. You have betrayed your king."

"No." Sneered the Fox, "You have betrayed yourself."

The lesson of this story shows that a king who falls for the first trap set for him can’t serve his animals well. And that is the truth.

Being opposite in character, the Monkey and the Fox, unveils for us the nature of humans. In this story the Monkey was foolish and the Fox was wise, but yet they were both proud. The Fox showed pride by thinking he knew what was best for the animals, but yet he was not loyal to his king. The same can be true with people. The Monkey thought he would make a exquisite king, foolish though he was. Being wise does not mean you won't make mistakes. We need to be careful not to think to highly of ourselves less we also become foolish. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. Proverbs 12:15

Snow Fall

2010-02-10T20:10:00.003-05:00

My mom has been wanting me to get these pictures up, so I decided to put them together into a movie along with some video clips we took. The music playing in the background is called "First Snow Fall." Hope you'll like it.

"His" mercies are new every morning...and evening!

2010-02-06T12:44:00.005-05:00

Thursday evening found us finishing up the remainders of celebrating my 41st birthday, when the night took an unexpected and critical turn. After devouring a fantastic meal that involved shrimp (no we don't usually eat these bottom feeders!), Coy began feeling sick. A few hours later he forcefully expelled his dinner and we were hoping everything would then be okay, but that was only the beginning of what would be a long night. His throat began swelling and we knew he was having an anaphylactic attack. Bruce immediately rushed him to the emergency room where, much to his delight, he commanded center stage. Within 5 minutes he was stuck with an epiPen, hooked up to monitors, and made to "swallow" another set of pills. Thankfully, the med's helped him make a quick turnaround and we are pleased to announce he is still with us! Thank you Jesus our divine Healer!!

Final Deer of the Season

2010-01-01T16:43:00.004-05:00

Well, on the last day of 2009 I bagged the final deer for the Bakers.

I was hunting a food plot at a climber spot that I had been tending to over the last month and a half. 2:30 PM found me 16 feet up in a tall pine tree over looking the food plot. On one end of the plot was a bunch of corn on the ground and on the other end grew luscious grass. Deer tracks covered the plot. Around 4:45 PM, after a little rain, the buck came out of the woods from my far left and headed through some high grass toward the corn. As soon as he emerged from the high grass he began circling the food plot at a trot. Fearing he would leave me without a shot I grunted at him and he stopped............. The rest is history, the deer only ran 6 yards.

200 lbs Buck

2009-11-17T13:55:00.005-05:00

Well, this morning I climbed into my stand to face a wall of fog. But as the morning progressed the fog burned away. While it was still foggy and a little dark I could make out a deer coming my way. I got up my gun and looked at it through the scope. It was a big deer but it was limping and it appeared to have a lame leg. As for antler, well all i could see was one good beam because it was broadside. I had passed up a spike the previous evening (which my mom was not happy about) so i decided to take this one. After waiting a hour and a half after the shot i got down and looked for blood. I found it and trailed it to my deer. But what a state of shock I was in to find a HUGE deer laying before me. We estimated it to be about 200 lbs and three years old. The antlers we very different though. On one side it had a good 6 inch beam and on the other side it had a mess of 8-9 short points. I had a time of it getting that deer processed.

Jacob shot his first deer!!!!!

2009-11-04T12:28:00.003-05:00

Tuesday evening caught Jay and I (Coy) in a tree stand on the edge of a power-line overlooking a food plot. About 10 minutes before dark, we spotted 3 does crossing the power-line at about 150 yards to our left. Jay got the gun up but decided it was to far and dark for his shooting capabilities. No more then 3 minutes after this decision we heard movement on the right and a large spike walked out broadside. After stopping him with some grunts, Jay's .243 Remington roared. After finding the deer about 25 yards away we realized he doubled lunged him through the heart and broke a shoulder. Patience is truly a virtue.

This was Jay's first deer and it was a big one.

DEER!!!!

2009-10-26T12:52:00.003-04:00

Finally we kill us some food. I shot a spike (with my new rifle) and Zac shot his first deer ever!!

After Zac shot his deer we had to track it about 100 yards into thick brush which was a challenge but a good experience for Zac.

Coy's 16!

2009-10-26T12:08:00.003-04:00

We had a phenomenal week celebrating Coy's 16th birthday. It started out with Coy opening several large boxes that only contained notes leading him to various places in the house. He may be 16, but we still love our silly games! The look on his face below is a fearful grimace that we are really toying with him and there's not really a gun in the box. Ha! The next pic shows the "I can't believe it's really a gun" look. He received a Remington Model 770 .270, camo, steel barrel - very cool rifle! Then later that day the Baker grands dropped in for a visit and took everyone out to dinner followed by his birthday cheesecake.

Just when we thought all the surprises were over the Sellers grands showed up as a surprise to us all and we had another fun filled time with them for a couple of days. One of the things Coy wanted to do for his special day was to take me on my first hunt. Early Monday morning we crept into our stand to wait. We saw deer that morning , but they were to far off and moving to fast. We enjoyed our hours in the cold together even still. That evening Nani and Papa took everyone out for dinner. Also, Coy went for his driver's test, received his license and is now driving ALONE! Yikes!

Mom's Garden

2009-10-26T11:53:00.004-04:00

We decided to try our hand at a Fall garden this year since we had so much fun in the Spring. It is absolutely maintenance free! We are growing pie pumpkins, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, carrots and peas. We have tons of peppers left over from the earlier garden also.

BakerVideoProduction

2009-09-21T12:51:00.003-04:00

Dear family and friends,

I am moving all the movies that we do from this blog to another blog.

That blog is bakervideoproductions.blogspot.com

Please go to see some of them.

WARNING: this blog is not going to be updated very much because it takes a while to make a movie.

Guns

2009-08-29T16:38:00.004-04:00

I went out today to shoot my Dad's .357 mag. Jacob took this video for me. That is an awesome gun!!! The first half is in regular motion and the second half is in slow motion. So cool!

Hunters Safety Course

2009-08-11T14:06:00.003-04:00

This weekend Jacob and Mom took the Hunter Safety Course.......

........AND THEY BOTH PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we celebrated with Jacob's favorite cake, white angle food cake with melted chocolate dribbled on top.

Jacob can now go hunting with us!!

Bruce is 46!

2009-07-04T08:29:00.006-04:00

On July 1st Bruce had a birthday. We celebrated by having one of his favorite meals, Sesame Chicken, but he changed his cake up this year. Every year as long as we have been married he has asked for the famous Chocolate Angel Food Cake, but not this year! (Mid life crisis???) This year he wanted a Chocolate Chip Cheesecake with fresh blueberry compote on top. We just enjoyed a wonderful weekend with the Baker and Hall clan for Bruce's niece's wedding in which Lee sent us home with a bottle of our favorite port wine - Fabbioli, Raspberry Merlot. It was a perfect fit with the cheesecake. (Thanks Uncle Lee!!) For one of his birthday gifts I bought a new blouse for myself that he would like very much! (featured in pic) All ladies should try this approach to obtaining new clothes; it works marvelously!

The White House Quilts

2009-06-22T14:54:00.003-04:00

Many people have been asking me about the quilts I have been doing for the Jim Shore Collection. Jim Shore is a world famous artist and he and his wife (Jan) opened a store in her hometown - the big booming metropolis of Heath Springs, SC. It also happens to be my mom's home town and where my parents currently live. This store displays all of his artwork and in the back Jan has a quilt store (her passion). Last fall, I happened upon Jan in the store and offered to make quilts for her. These first two have Jim's artwork printed on fabric in the center and I created the design around it. I attempted to keep his unique style flowing through the piece.

This one uses several of Jim Shore's fabrics. He has taken the quilt patterns he uses on his angels and made fabric out of them. Sorry the picture doesn't show the detail of the actual quilting.

This is a pattern I borrowed from Designer Joanne Page of a table runner. It was made to entice people to buy that funky fabric!

This was the first quilt I did for them. It was designed not so much for its beauty or creativeness as it was for showing off the fabrics they had in the store in hopes of selling fabric. You can't see the quilting on the piece, but in the blocks that don't have an X in the center I quilted butterflies. It adds a little pizazz anyways.

Mimi's Summer Quilting Projects

2009-06-22T14:26:00.003-04:00

This is a quilt I have been working on for many years. The top is finally finished. I hope to quilt it before fall arrives. It is my first attempt at blending fabrics together. Despite the fact that some of my fabrics don't blend so well, it is still pleasant to the eye.

A close up!

Jacob's Cowboy Quilt - I made this for his 9th birthday back in April.

You can't see it very well, but I quilted it with lasso loops and stars.

Garden News

2009-06-22T13:51:00.004-04:00

See Papaw, we can grow eggplant!!

Cucumbers in a barrel.

Squash in a barrel.

Sunday we had very heavy winds while we were at church. The wind snapped one of my stakes and my beans are now providing more shade than necessary for the broccoli! Two of the tomato plants were literally horizontal, but we fixed them before taking the picture. The incident caused me to have to remove the pea vines about a week before I planned to so that Bruce and Coy could repair the damage to the tomatoes. Lost about 10-15 tomatoes, but that's very little compared to the massive numbers still on the vines.

Our Garden

2009-06-22T10:30:00.003-04:00

Everything is growing big and beautiful. We have already harvested lots of peas and now we're waiting for the millions of tomatoes to turn red. This had been a very satisfying way to garden - no weeding involved!

And presto! We now have plants. Tomatoes, peas, onions, broccoli, beans (bush and pole), peppers, melon, squash, cucumbers, egg plant and some herbs.

The one on the left is cooking while it awaits planting. The one on the right has been partially planted.

This year we planned our first garden. We decided to try the lasagna method. We applied different layers and layers of organic material for a balanced pH level. The boys helped me build it, cook it, and plant it! What fun!!

SNOW!!!!!!!

2009-01-26T17:49:00.005-05:00

Finally it snowed. We woke up and it was falling and it continued to fall all day. We got about 6 inches.

We all enjoyed sledding down the hill behind our house.

And then, there is the little brother that wants to be pulled up the hill.

Even Dad went down once.

One of our most enjoyable part of the snow was shaking the trees in the woods and letting the snow fall all over us.

Timbers!!!!!! (or snowers)

After these adventures we attacked the camera man with snowballs.

And the last thing still standing in our yard is Zac's snowman which he built.

2009-01-15T13:39:00.002-05:00

Here are two hand forged knives that I made. This one is called a tanto.

This one is no particular kind but I use it to butcher my deer. I got this one sharp!!!!

My Forge

2009-01-14T21:40:00.003-05:00

Here are two pictures of my forge. I have a friend who is a blacksmith and he taught me a little about blacksmithing. After trying to use an open fire for heating and treating my metal I decided that it was not doing the job. So I (with help from my brothers) loaded the jeep with cinder blocks from my landlords house and hauled them to my house. Building the forge was the easy part. After laying the blocks in a orderly fashion we filled in the cracks with clay/mud. One part of the forge that is not shown in these pictures is the bellows which I installed later. I made them out of a pieces of PVC pipe running under the forge and then pointing up. At the end of the PVC pipe I strapped an old hair dryer. The blow dryer blows air into the PVC pipe and up under my hot coals giving them great heat. I am having great fun with it and it is doing the job well.

A few pics from our Christmas

2009-01-14T19:43:00.003-05:00

Zac and Jacob helping make Christmas cookies…

Bruce’s parents came down on Christmas day from Virginia to visit for a few days. When they arrived, they shared a few gifts with us, but first we had a feast…

The surprise of the gifts was a special present for Bruce … HAIR!

Just about everybody wanted to be pictured with me having hair… again :)

Zachary is getting his domino's ready

2009-01-14T19:06:00.006-05:00

Zac was planning on his gradparents upcoming visit at Christmas when he knew he would be playing domino's against his Papa.

Our Thanksgiving at the Mimi's Parents

2008-12-20T18:31:00.006-05:00

Each day of our visit Jacob and Pawpaw would eat breakfast together - and every day it was oatmeal, good to the last drop.

As we prepared for the Thanksgiving feast, we found ourselves in a dilemma on how to open the bottles of wine... for there was no corkscrew in the house. Chris and Larry solved the problem by screwing a dry-wall screw into the cork. Then with Chris holding the bottle, Larry pulled out the screw with a vice-grip wrench. We do not have pics of the working out of this, but it was quite a hilarious sight to be seen.

Mimi was in charge of the bird this year and cooked it all night - it was incredibly moist and tender.

The dinner was enjoyed by all...

Larry and P smiling, as always, for the camera.

Bruce surrounded by his boys.

Continuous fun around the table.

Game Time. When we get together we always play lots of games: Yahtzee, Scrabble, Spades, Chess, Checkers, etc.

Here, Mimi and Nani show they are still friends after a grueling game of Scrabble.

Zac looks on as the women whoop up on the men in Spades. Girls won the tournament again!

Pawpaw is always a challenge to beat in Yahtzee. I think Coy is thinking about getting into the woods for a hunt.

The happiest couple that ever lived!

Whole Grain Sourdough Bread

2008-12-13T18:13:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday Mimi and a friend took a class on making Artisan bread. The boys and I have been more than delighted with the results. It is awesome.

Zac attempts new hair styles...

2008-12-13T18:05:00.003-05:00

As Zac's hair has been growing out, he likes to try new styles. Here is one he showed to us last week.

I'm not sure where he learned about the 50's look.

Jacob Playing Guitar

2008-11-15T18:00:00.004-05:00

Our family enjoys worshiping the Lord especially in song. Today we captured Jacob playing his favorite song.

Psalm 150: 3-6 "Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; praise Him with the harp and lyre. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and pipes. Praise Him on the sounding cymbals; praise Him with the resounding cymbals. Let everything that breathes praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah!"

The Hunting Mom

2008-10-29T10:41:00.004-04:00

Mom has just conveyed to the family that she wants to go hunting. Wa hooo!!!!!

"Sarah Palin's got nothing on me!" --- Mom

Two more bucks for the Bakers

2008-10-29T10:30:00.002-04:00

Yesterday my Dad and I hunted together and each shot a deer. Dad shot a 5 point and I shot a 4 point. The freezer is now well stocked.

I hit my deer high and hit the spine which paralized it but did not kill it. So I had to cut its throat.

Shot a big buck!!!

2008-10-26T17:56:00.003-04:00

This deer season I have been hunting on some friends land and just harvested the first deer for the season. This was not just any deer it was the biggest five point buck I have ever seen! Everybody that saw it thought that it should have more points for the size body it had.

I do all the gutting and meat processing myself.

Tennessee Trip

2008-10-26T16:28:00.008-04:00

Several weeks ago we took a trip to visit our wonderful friends, Mark and Addie Rouse and their three children. They live in the great Smoky Mountains.

Our trip started out great, but took an unfortunate turn in Cherokee Valley. We were loading up on some very expensive gas for the last trek over the mountains when our car decided it didn't want to go anymore. Of course, it was Saturday afternoon and everything had just shut down for the weekend! A highlight to the unexpected venture was a ride in the car while being towed. How cool! Fortunately, Mark and Addie only lived an hour away and they struck out immediately to rescue us.

Mark, Coy, and Zac playing poker with rocks.

Bruce only thought his days with pigs and pancakes were over. Maddie and Suzanna cornered him for story time. He loved it of course.

I think Owen had the best time of all. He loved having the boys play with him and very much understood they were "of the same breed". Yes, snails and puppy dog tails!

Say awww. What a classic.

The Rouse Seniors live next door and have the most relaxing porch I have ever known. What a great place to spend an afternoon.

The Rouse Seniors had a bonfire one night complete with hotdogs, marshmellows, and guitars and praise songs. Some of the ranch kids and faculty joined us for the good time.

Miss Maddie playing house. What a doll she is!

Mimi and Addie at Cade's Cove.

We drove through Cade's Cove one evening in search of a bear. The men folk had seen the biggest black bear earlier in the week. I was so dissappointed to have missed it. We saw horses and deer, but no bear.

As Coy looks on this old mill in the cove, he is thinking how much simpler it is to use electricity to mill the grain. Progress isn't so bad after all.

Bruce and Mimi still romantic after 17 years.

Cade's Cove

Bambi, but no bear.

Horses, but no bear!

Wears Valley Ranch - where broken hearts are mended. It has ours, but for now the door is closed for us to work with this ministry.

Beautiful places and beautiful people - a great time had by all! No bear though.

Blacksmithing

2008-10-03T17:06:00.002-04:00

I have been doing blacksmithing for the past year. I specialize in knives. In the picture above I am burning Zac's name into a sheath of his with a red hot piece of metal. Pretty cool huh.

Fire

2008-10-03T17:00:00.002-04:00

Now that it is getting cooler we have been having fires in the evening. We have not been able to get Mom or Dad out yet, but we're still having fun

Bow Hunting

2008-09-26T19:02:00.002-04:00

Deer hunting has started and I am tuning up my bow and sharpening my accuracy.
I need to be able to get three arrows in a two to three inch diameter. (In the center of course.)
Like this!

Jacob's Baptism

2008-09-23T20:02:00.003-04:00

Romans 6:4, "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Following the baptism, we had a family picture with Jacob's grandparents, Jim and Mo Sellers. They were a blessing as they were able to visit us for this very special occasion.

A short video by the boys

2008-09-21T19:09:00.002-04:00

Coy, Zac and Jacob are working on creating movies in their spare time. The ones they have completed so far are too large to post here, so we are uploading a small one they used for practice to determine the reality of the punching scene. This was published by Coy. Hopefully we will be able to upload more in the future.

Meeting my sisters

2008-09-19T22:01:00.010-04:00

Several months ago, I received an email from my sisters whom I had never met! We have been emailing each other and this past weekend I went to Tennessee to meet them. Katie is on the left and Heidi on the right. They are awesome!!!

Here are some pics from our time together...

We were shooting at eggs; Katie and I missed.

Heidi, aka Six Gun Sally, shot the egg with no problem. By the way, that is Katie's husband, Michael, in the background.

Here are Michael and Katie.

This is Savannah (on left) and Charlotte, Heidi's two older daughters.

This adorable one is Heidi's youngest, Madelynn. She got her first two teeth while I was there.

I had a wonderful time meeting these precious girls and I look forward to our new friendships.

SNAKES.....

2008-09-13T16:20:00.000-04:00

Recently we had a snake encounter......

Jacob and Coy were walking in the back woods at their favorite fishing spot when, seeing something in the water and trying to get a better look at it, a black snake came shooting out of the tall grass strait a Jacob. Coy, being quickwitted and a good shot, killed the snake with a quick blow on the head with a stick which related in its instant death. Afterwards Coy took it up to the house, skinned and gutted it. To the suprise of us all, in side the body we found a baby copper head! Below are the pictures. (The snake skin now hangs on the wall in the boy's room.)

GUNS....

2008-09-13T16:16:00.000-04:00

These are some pictures of Zac with his new .22 long

Guitar.......

2008-09-13T16:13:00.000-04:00

Coy is our guitarist. He plays the electric and the accoustic guitar. He is currently playing in the praise band at our church.

2008-09-13T16:10:00.000-04:00

This is Jacob cooking his cowboy groul........

Cowboy.....

2008-09-13T15:42:00.000-04:00

This is our cowboy practicing his "moves"......

2008-09-13T15:39:00.000-04:00

Jacob is practicing riding a horse because he wants to be a cowboy.

2008-09-13T15:33:00.000-04:00

Zac (above) Jacob (below)

Some family pic's from Duke Gardens

2008-09-13T15:18:00.000-04:00

The family...

Introduction

2008-08-02T15:08:00.000-04:00

The Bakers - Bruce and Mimi, and their three sons - Coy, Zac, and Jacob.
We would like to share some pictures, events and thoughts with family and friends.
Thank you for taking the time to share with us.