My winter in pictures

So far, the new year has been a lotta wakin' up early, goin' to work, comin' home and goin' to bed... rinse, lather, repeat. Yet, there's been a few items of interest along the way. Rather than bangin' away on the keyboard, I'll just catch ya up with some pictures I snapped along the way...

I threw in the towel right off the bat and asked the pretty girl of mine to marry me. Those aren't fireworks in the picture, that's just my head explodin'. But hey, as CenTexTim has mentioned before, marriage is a right of passage that every man should do at least once. I picked a good one and have been testin' the waters with her for a long while now, so I reckon I'll only do it once.

We introduced Grandma to the Hulk gloves at our family Christmas gatherin'. Hilarity ensued as she put the whoopin' to several of my cousins, and I snagged my favorite picture of the year thus far.

The ol man and us brothers headed up to bear country for a little grouse huntin'. As per usual, the very same patches that produced multiple flushes in bear season yielded no thunderbirds. Regardless, we had a great time with lots of laughs. We don't all get to hunt together as a family unit very often, so we usually make the best of it even if we don't bag any critters.

I also managed to sneak out with the ol' man and put the waffle to the ol' suicide pair. Hell, we hadn't even thought about gettin' decoys out yet, and they came in just purty as a picture. Sharin' a goose blind with the ol' man never gets old, and while those two were all we got that mornin', we had a great time as always.

 Then the snow commenced to fallin', hard and fast. Broke a few records in our area. It's a little tough to gauge at our place due to the trees and buildin's causin' weird drifts, but the unofficial total at our house was a hair over 27", with the closest town registerin' over 30".

There was a fair amount of shovellin' and clearin' to be done, but with the help of the ol' Cub, we were cleared out in no time. We spent more than we prolly shoulda to get that tractor after spendin' our first winter shovellin' damn near daily with all the snow we had, but I guarendamntee ya, I wouldn't have sold that thing for three times what we paid for it after clearin' up from the blizzard. The ol' gal just ate it up and pitched it out like nothin'.

 We've had a few more bouts of snow since. Shore is purty to look at, and thus far, it ain't causin' too many headaches. With exception to the last two winters, where it seemed to snow damn near daily for four months straight, I'm usually willin' to deal with the headaches in exchange for the aesthetics.

Then it got cold. Not that I mind too much. I'm a fluffy fella with plenty of insulation.

Other than that's it's just been purty much the usual winter doldrums. Not much to hunt, no real incentive to go outside, therefore limitin' the projects I really feel like gettin' into. Kinda gets a man down with the blues. So, even though it was a balmy 30 degrees today, it was clear and sunny out so I felt the need for some group therapy...