A glimpse into the workings of a Reformationist Christian who loves the Lord, his wife, children, birddog and flyfishing...

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Smallies, Bees, Turkey and Chickens

Fishing is great! The boys hammered the Smallies last Sunday afternoon. Fergus and Virgil have been called to adventure and have begun fishing Spur Creek. What great fun and the smile or should I say the light on their faces is impressive when they are holding a smallie by the lip standing waist deep in a clear stream. The bite is on and even Dad is going to get into the fray tomorrow, the boys I grew up with having the same kind of adventures as my boys are having are coming up to fish the BW. I don’t think we will have the same sense of awe and wonderment as my boys have but I get we will enjoy make new memories and reliving old ones. It is funny we have all grown older and taken different paths but I get the sense we are all looking forward to getting our lines wet just as much as we did when we were boys. The reasons are different, I can escape a cube and all that is Research, D. can escape academia and M. well he will enjoy a day away from the “grind”. I am not sure where the years went or where I lost my why of what is important but my boys and JB (my daughter) have helped me recapture how it can be exciting to go to a little stream and “explore” all the possibilities that might be just around the bend. I could go on about how God has called us to live an adventure, just like John Eldridge tells us, but I won’t because we all know it we just ignore it. Maybe not all the time but most of the life we have developed for ourselves is that of the day to day struggle to get back and forth to work and kids activities not catching the big one or hiking to the other ridge in the distance. After watching my kids I want to grab the wife and with the kids in tow hike to the far off ridge or float the stretch of water we have never seen.

My daughter has inspired me that it is not just the target of the hunt but the experience. We turkey hunted about a week ago saw a few birds, heard a gobble or two but no bird in the bag. She was sad but then saw a family of geese with the little ones waddling behind. That scene of the geese was what she told everybody about, but don’t think she isn’t a hunter, after seeing the geese she asked when we could go back and kill them. She sees the beauty in nature but likes the taste better. She is quite the little girl and a good sport to boot.

Last item: Bees and chickens at once. We went over to a friends’ (Dr. Phil’s) to pick up some half grown chickens and why we were there the neighbor hollered over at us about a bunch of bees. I told Fergus to load up the chickens and let’s go. We ran home unloaded birds, loaded beehive bodies, hurried back and caught up a big swarm. I guess this swarm probably had 12,000 bees, it was a big one. We trimmed the limbs back, the good Dr cut the main branch off while I held on and then we put it in the hive and that is that. Bees in a new home. A busy last few weeks.