North Woods Buck

You know it's a pretty big deal when he takes a selfie. Wish I had been there with my camera!
 

 

 

Evan is tagged out for the season! I am very jealous, but happy for him. That's what I get for leaving Davy Crockett up in the woods all by himself. He shot him near the St. John River. This buck is his biggest yet, weighing in at 206 pounds all dressed out with an 8 point rack. He had no hunting season at all last year because he was at school so he's making up for lost time. :)

 

It's very weird to see at least 4 moose a day but never see any deer! I have yet to set my eyes on any, doe or buck in the North Woods. But here's proof that they are around! I'm hoping that I might get a shot at one the last couple of days of the season!

 

 

 

Stronger For It

This little guy is not known for excessive snuggling but when we left to come back to Machias this week, he gave extra snuggles to Daddy. Kids can be so intuitive.

We hate spending any time away from Daddy. With a very sporadic schedule, there are plenty of days that we don't see him until right before or after dinner or at bedtime. Some days we don't see him at all. No matter how much time we get to spend with him during the day....we don't care as long as he's home at night.

At this time last year, Evan was packing his bags and shining up his boots for week 15 (out of 18) of the basic law enforcement training at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. What a major, MAJOR adjustment for our little family. I realize that there are plenty of people who go weeks and months without seeing their spouses or parents. For us, getting to see him late Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and early early Monday morning would never seem like enough. For the majority of those weeks I was very pregnant and taking care of our sweet two year old little boy. Every day, several times a day, for months I counted down the days to his graduation. Little did I know that we would get the call from the Warden Service during his last week of the police training, and I would start another 12 week countdown for the Advanced Warden Service training.

Last year was probably the hardest year of my life...30 weeks is a LONG time to spend so much time apart. But in hindsight I'm very thankful that it happened that way. I have no doubt that it certainly made me stronger as a person and made us stronger as a couple. It was awesome preparation for this new life. He may be gone for most hours in a day some weeks, but we had got used to having him gone for most of our weeks! Now, to have him home at night to read a couple of books, start a couple of tickle fights, and tuck the boys into bed is a huge blessing to our little family.

Love this....I felt like when he came home and was sitting right beside me, I missed him because I knew he would be gone so quickly!
Quote from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/268738302737610736/

Slooow Living

Trapping and hunting have become a sort of family bonding time for us. You would think that every day up here would count as family bonding time because we have only each other to bond with. But, there are distractions in this house just like every other. When we get in the car, the piles of laundry and the stacks of dirty dishes are left in a cloud of dust (or, at this point in time it's more like giant craters of mud)!


Dragging Jackson through some rough terrain! :)

Lots of smiles.

Beaver

Lots of watching and learning.

Dragging the beaver and Jackson out of the woods.

Starting em young!

On Evan's days off, we pack up the boys and go riding around checking traps and looking for interesting creatures. Heater hunting isn't the hunting style of choice...but it's really the only option with two little boys. We're usually in the car for a couple of hours. We have no wifi and no cell service anywhere. We have a camera and a radio. We hear non stop stories from our little Warden and random pips and squeaks from our other wild man. It's just another way we are able to spend time as a family with no distractions.


This was the first day of snow.



Our chauffer for the day...our little wild man.

I think so much of how we live up here is stress free because we have such LIMITED options. The biggest decision we make when we drive out of our driveway is whether to go right or left. We have no destination. There is no mapped out plan. We aren't going to see something specific. There is no one waiting for us. We aren't in any time crunch. There is NO schedule! Most of the time I don't even know what day of the week it is or where the hands lay on the clock. We're just living slow up here in the great North Woods of Maine.