Click on the link below and enjoy! Don’t forget to view the video of the moose!

http://www.allanne.com/hunting-2008-part-one

Post from: But First, We Have Coffee

Hunting, Come Take a Look

Too much excitement before 5am

My alarm didn’t go off at 3:50 like it was supposed to in order for me to take my oldest son, Ben, to work. I did awake to Ben knocking on my door at 4:10.  I hurriedly jumped out of bed and got dressed.  We left as soon as I got my coat and shoes on.

Thankfully, he started the pickup for us an hour earlier, which didn’t do a whole lot of good because the draft in the pick up is so bad, we shivered the whole time.  It was somewhere around 15°.

I got him to work fine, but when I came up our driveway, there was a huge snow drift that I got caught up in and lost it. I was stuck in the snow.

I went into the house. It was 5 am by this time and I was supposed to wake Dennis, anyway. I told him about it. I tapped on the boys’ bedroom door to wake up Joe and Eric.  Nephew Steven woke up, as well and between the three of them, they shoveled me out.

Dennis was up by this time and went out to check on things. He moved the [unstuck] pickup, then found that the door had froze open.  He couldn’t get it to loosen, so he headed over to the other pickup (the one with little to no brakes) and began to get it started.  Meanwhile, Joe took a screw driver to it and got it releasing fine. Dennis came back to mess with it and found that we had no tail lights or dash lights.  Evidently, we blew a fuse.  At the time, he thought it was wiring.

His car is in another city, the van’s battery is dead, the other pickup has no brakes, David’s van is at the motel with his folks. What was he to do?  Dennis starts to unthaw the older Chevy pick up, which has no brakes.  We couldn’t find the window scraper, remembered the flashlight is in David’s van…at the motel.  The good news is, though, that this pick up has 4 wheel drive, so off we went.

Our driveway goes down hill with a drop off on both sides, then heads back up with a curve in it, so Dennis, not wanting to get stuck, gooses it. I gasped, as I hadn’t gotten my seatbelt latched.  The three boys are in the back seat.  My nephew begins sweating.  Dennis stops! He backs up the driveway in the dark, then goes for it again.  He tells me he was carving a way through that snow drift for when I come home.  Okay… good…we need a path to get home.

We get to where Dennis’ truck is parked.  He set my brake. We all went into the little store because Dennis forgot his coffee and the boys and I went in to find a scraper. We go back out, said our good bye’s and pull out onto the street.  I almost immediately turn right and proceed onto the on ramp of the freeway when suddenly, this overwhelming cloud overcomes us all. Steven rolls down his window right fast and I pull over on the on ramp.  I tell the boys to (in the dark) run as fast as they can back up to the truck stop and catch Daddy… but don’t get hit! Remember? It’s about 15°. Nephew, Steven, is wearing only a sweatshirt. It’s black.  Joe is in his jammie pants and his hunting snow outfit, which keeps him warm and is hunter orange, so we thought surely Dennis would see them his headlights even shone on the boys, but HE DIDN’T SEE THEM!  They were waving at him and he drove on by.

Fortunately, before I left, I saw my mil’s cell phone sitting by our phone and took it with me, “just in case.” So, seeing the boys’ plight, I called my brother-in-law, who was snoozing peacefully at our house and woke him up. I told him what was going on. I didn’t know whether to move forward or what.  I didn’t want to burn something up! He finally told me to move a little while he was on the phone with me.  I did and it was fine!

We came on home.  No problem… until the driveway.  I did the turn and gassed it.  I aimed for one of the tracks Dennis made for me but instead, I must have caught part of the drift and it sucked me in. I gassed it more and made it up, up, up… then it died.  It wouldn’t start again, but we were home and all thankful!

There’s really more to the story. It has turned into a bit of an ongoing saga. Let’s just say, as it stands now… It’s a week later and the van is still dead, with one battery removed (diesels have two batteries), the pick up with no brakes is sitting up on our road, broken (probably a fuel filter), the yellow pick up has been pretty good…after we dug it out of a snow drift and in spite of it’s draft, and God is good to take care of us.

Post from: But First, We Have Coffee

Too Much Excitement Before 5am

Post from: But First, We Have Coffee

The Van In For Repair