Change in Blog

Do to the increase in spaming and the vile nature of some spam, I have chosen to turn on moderation for all comments. I tried the spam filter, but junk was still getting through. Sorry, I do love to hear from you but I don't want to allow spamers to ruin it.

Hog Heaven

All the grand kids were over tonight for family night and...well to be honest we wanted a little peace and quiet so we sent them to play on the back patio. Zane came up with the idea of catching a javelina since as I noted in the last blog, they have been visiting frequently this week. David told Zane how to build a pig snare and I secured a rope for him to make it. Evidently David's plan did not suit Tanner and Zane so they devised their own plan. The place the empty Ice Chest at the edge of the lawn, put some dog food in it and around it and tied the rope to it. The plan was to drop the ice chest over on the baby when it went in to feed. We figured that might keep them harmlessly occupied waiting for the pigs to enter their trap. Tori, Tanner, Ty, Zane, Zandi, Ryker and Karsyn sat waiting. After a while Sweetie noted that it was really quiet out side and uncle Dusty got up to check on the trappers. He came back holding a crying Ryker and reported the rest were outside waiting for the baby to enter their trap. Sure enough, the little herd was feasting on the dog food provided by the GK's as they sat mesmerized by the sight 12 feet in front of them. Doni demanded we secure Tori from such a dangerous activity, but it fell on deaf ears. Finally all of us were on the porch watching the pigs do their thing. Doni insisted it was dangerous for the kids to be doing this but when Zane saw a flaw in his trapping system, (Pulling on the rope would cause the ice chest to fall the wrong way) Doni corrected his engineering problem and came back in the house....without Tori! The pigs did not come back but when Jim and Doni were ready to call it a night Jim had to literally wrestle a rope out of Tori's hands and pry her protesting little body out of the chair to get her home. She screamed all the way to the car that she wanted to catch the pig! The anuts and uncles went to a late movie so Zane and Zandi are staying with us till around 1 am. Zane fell asleep propped up on a chair watching out the window for the pigs to come back to his trap. Sorry Zane but I'm not going to wake you if the do come back. I'm afraid you will catch the baby in your trap and I do not wish to have to explain to that mother pig that we mean the baby no harm. I don't think she would beleive me. So that's what we do for entertainment around the Z house on Friday night. (I left the pic's full size so if you click on them you can enlarge it and see the pigs behind the ice Chest.)

How to Say I Love You

Dee and I have been married for nearly 42 years now and I have noticed something about how she tells you she loves you. Before I met her she had really no interest in guns....truth be told, she still doesn't....it's not my fault, honest. I tried. My first Valentines gift to her (at 18) was a 20 gage shotgun....now if that doesn't say love and commitment, what does? OK her first kill with it was nearly me, but that's another story...(no she would not shoot me, more like wrap the barrel around my neck).Her first (and latest) kill was a side winder rattlesnake she shot with great glee. ( Snakes are the one thing she definitely likes to shoot, but only if they are on the porch. She even practices the shot! ) I think it is the only thing she really enjoys shooting...and she still does shoot them off the porch! But really, wonderful as she is in every imaginable way, she is NOT a hunter, shooter or anything of the sort. Not opposed, just not interested. So how does that explain this candid shot from last week? Zane was here for the weekend and ALL he wanted to do was sit on the lawn and shoot his BB gun. There is NOTHING but desert behind the house for 6 miles so it is safe. Zane expressed a hope to get a shot at a buck, knowing he should not shoot a doe, but none happened to walk into the back yard. He did his best elk call impersonations, a few duck calls and some calls I didn't quite recognize but he was persistant! Maybe the unidentified call was a lizard call. He did bag one of those. Mostly he managed to shoot holes into a few "Indian relics" laying about in the desert behind the house. Zandi collected a few of the undamaged relics for her collection. To me they looked an awful lot like old tin cans but Zandi assured me the ancient Indians had left them behind. Seeing as how they found them in the desert it must be true. Had they been merely old cans, a more responsible person would have put them in the trash! You can't legally remove Indian relics in Arizona so the question being raised, I best leave them lay where they are. In a yet undiscovered corner of the wash is some other "relics" of yesteryear which I was going to remove but am now considering leaving them for the grandchildren to discover. It will be interesting to see how they interpret historical "digs". I digress. If Dee were to have any quality time with Zane, it was going to have to be on his terms....with a gun, thus the picture. Sweetie added a few holes to the relics proving her worthiness to sholder the firearm. Zanw was delighted to the fact that....sorry David...when he saw his dad pull into the driveway something deep inside him moaned, "O no!" Of course Sweetie thought that was the greatest moan she ever heard! Fact of the matter we both laughed and felt very loved. Zane, buddy, I can tell you this for a fact. Your GrammieSweetie, really loves you. I know. She told me she loves me the same way a long time ago. She still does.

One of the things I do NOT understand about Deanna. She says Javalina are UGLY but the other night a herd was enjoying a feast of dog food just outside our glass bedroom door and they had a 2 lb baby with them nursing as mom gorged on Purina. Deanna said the baby was so CUTE! I have pictures to prove the baby is an EXACT copy of the big one, so why is it so cute and mom so ugly?

Thoughts on Family from the Fog

I copied this off of cousin Ray's (far right, Derold, Left) blog . We didn't get the rest of the clan in the picture but we also were with Randy and wife Kimmie, Derold's wife Janna, and kids Shai and Devon and Dori, husband Steve and children Mat, Mike and Melissia. Randy and the kids had never met Ray and Derold saw him last near 30 years ago. Ray remembered the meeting well. Derold let him drive his new Camero (79), a treat for a farm boy. Things fell into place quickly because we are family. I'm sure we will all find more opportunities to get together as often as possible. I mentioned on an earlier post that I am in somewhat of a fog. A part of the fog is the season of life I am in. Several times on the trip Ray deferred decisions to me as the "patriarch" of the Zimmermann side of family. Technically I am #2 on the list but Derold's father Roland wasn't around so the mantal fell on me. Ready or not, it is that season. Hunting aside, the real motivation for the trip was to get the family together again, there was a longing to do it and I was not in any way disappointed. It exceeded my hopes. I have another kind of family here in Phoenix...and beyond...that I love to get together with too. Some would call it the church, but it is so much more than that. It is a group of people God has put into my life to share His Love with. Some of the Fog cleared this morning as I pondered he success of the trip and my desires for my other family. The trip was successful because we all got together to give, expecting nothing and needing nothing but the joy of each other's company and love. Had I gone looking to GET something, I likely would have been disappointed. I'm thinking that is were families, physical and spiritual, go wrong. Whenever a group gathers to RECEIVE from the family, they are essentially saying that Jesus had not given them enough so they had to find someone else to get it from. Since Jesus CREATED each and every one of us to receive ALL WE NEED from Him alone we will never really find it any were else. When we have received all we need from Him, THEN we are in a great position to really fellowship with all the family and share with them what He has given to us. If this only kind of makes sense to you or you want to think about it more with me, call me, you have my number.

To see Daniels New House via virtual earth

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/?org=aj&FORM=Z7FD1#/t30qxyvzhd47kcp3

In a Fog

You'll have to get the full story from Darin or Josh or ask to see the video but the short version is Darin and Josh went bear hunting WITH ONLY ONE BULLET. Darin made a good but not perfect shot at 400+ yards and rolled the bear down the hill. When they went to inspect it, it CHARGED to within 30 feet....and they were armed with a knife and a video camera! Darin grabbed his knife and Josh shot video! All I can figure is the bear was camera shy and turned away. Wisely (if that term is appropriate given the circumstances) they left it alone and came back the next AM with another gun and MORE bullets. It had not moved far but it still needed 3 more direct hits to put it down. So tell me Darin, what where you going to do with that knife! Surpirsingly, Sweetie is looking forward to seeing this one made into a rug and mounted on our wall!

I spent last week with my cousins Ray, Derold and wife Janna, Randy and wife Kim hunting deer in New Jersey. Kim runs a company that specializes in hunting gear...a tree harnass to suspend a hunter way up in a tree, it is awesome, but not very practical in the desert or I would have brought one home...Janna doesn't hunt, but boy can she cook! We had not all been in the same place at the same time for 30 years. It was a great time together and the hunting was ok....by New Jersey standards.... (I only shot 4 deer) fantastic compared to any where else. It was warm and very humid part of the time. I have never seen fog in 75 degree weather. Daniel moved to North Carolina while I was gone and I still feel like I am in a fog of sorts. It will clear up in time, it always does. I did hear a great sermon at Derold's church. The missionary preacher said to slay a "giant" in your life: 1) focus on the promises of God, 2) Wait PATIENTLY for what God will do. 3) Believe Jesus has the power to do it all. I loved it becasue ALL the burden for results is squarely on GOD'S part. I need to remember that to slay a few giants right now and get out of my personal fog. Above is a view from one tree stand in Derold's backyard.