Just One More Bite

Mr. Bob was a fine man that appreciated a simple life. He had a great family with two sons and a couple of daughters. A wife and life partner that helped run a antique store out of Jefferson, Tx.

Mr.Bob never wanted for much. Just a healthy family and a limit of fish.

Mr. Bob enjoyed catching a limit of catfish as much or more than anything else in this world. He enjoyed the simple pleasures of canepoling. Just a ball of Charlie on a treble hook and a cork would do him fine.

He became quite a good fisherman during his lifetime. Saying that just 5% of the fisherman catch 95% of the fish.
Mr. Bob belonged to the 5% club.

Mr. Bob had reached the ripe young age of 80. His legs wouldn't carry him very well to his favorite fishing haunts, so he stayed around the antique shop most days.

He would occasionally venture to the local cafe where his younger fishing buddies would taunt him about not being able to catch fish anymore.
"You just don't have it anymore old man" they'd joke.

I think he took those words kinda rough because he WAS no longer in a condition to do the one thing he really loved. CATFISHING

The wife and I purchased a home on the lake. I invited my fishing buddy BobbyJr. to tell his dad to come on up and fish from the bank as it would be easy fishing for him. He could drive right to the water's edge if the yard wasn't too wet.

Bobby told his father and Mr. Bob came on up to the lake to try his hand once again at the thing he loved most.

Mr. Bob came up when the water got high. The wind was blowing into the bank and had the water muddied up. Mr. Bob once again was into the fish.

He came up several times that year when he was able to slip away from the shop. Each time catching his limit.

The neighbors would comment about how methodical and patient he was sitting on his bucket, first flinging out his line and then waiting on his cork to go under.

I hear he was even going back up to the cafe' and letting the fellas know he was still catching his limits. I grin at the thought.

After a sudden illness and short hospital stay....Mr. Bob is no longer with us cept in loving memory.

My hat is off to You!
Glad we were able to help ya out.....with just one more bite!

ps..I think the fish still tremble at mention of your name.

I don't think I have a picture of Mr. Bob fishing, but one of Bobby jr, wife Angie, and daughter Sara.

Enjoy!!

Ducks

Goldeneye

Bufflehead

Scaup

Lake Wildlife

Some our Lake's Wildlife
Pileated Woodpecker

Juvenile Bald Eagle

Pelicans and Cormarants

Nicholas

Sweet baby Nicholas sits in

my Sweet baby Tracie's (aka: memaw Tracie) lap

The Setting Sun Waits on No One

Time slips away fast.

I am edging the speedometer just over the limit as I race towards home. The green trees are a blur as the shiny red Toyota truck zips along towards the lake. Watching the sky...I know I'm not going to make it in time. "Dang if I just had a little more time!!" I say

I slam on the brakes hard!!!!!

In a instant...it is there and gone. A small doe deer has darted right across the highway infront of my truck. I miss it by mere inches.

So now I've missed two things. My daily sunset watching event and a small deer. Sad about one and glad about the other.

Tracie tries to hold up the sunset...just for ME!

So You ask, why are you in such a hurry just to get home?

I am anxious each and everyday to get back to our new home on the water.

I think to myself ....to Thank God!

For he has painted the sky today....just for us.

Words are never enough!!

Tracie reads my posts and says....huh....kinda short on words don't cha think?

try figureing out a women and how she thinks...I'm way to old and wise to waste the time trying to figure em out.

You just gotta love them....cause you can't make it with out em!

btw the real estate man said that T is way efficient and would love to hire her out if he could afford her....all that know her...knows these words to be true!

Lake House

So the house will allow sunset viewing every evening as the weather permits. Water on two sides of the crib....tough life huh?

Dream of a Dream

Life is nothing more than a reality of a dream.

Our dream is finally coming to fruitation.

A sure enough....lake house on the water! YEA!!!!

God willing ......we are to close July 16th, 2008.

It will require a lot of time and work to make it our home.

Deer Roping

Actual Letter from someone who farms in Kansas:

I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it.

The first Step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregated at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were Not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have A good hold.

The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it... it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope with some dignity. A deer, no chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it.

As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I originally imagined The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere.

At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual.

Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have it suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand... kind of like a squeeze chute.

I got it to back in there and started moving up so I could get my rope back. Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist.

Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head -- almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts. The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly.

I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now) tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the bejesus out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp.

I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -- like a horse -- strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work.

In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run.

The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.
__________________

Death is Nothing at All

Death is nothing at all

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other

That we are still

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way you always used

Put no difference into your tone

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes we always enjoyed together

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was

Let it be spoken without effort

Without the ghost of a shadow in it

Life means all that it ever meant

It is the same as it ever was

There is absolute unbroken continuity

What is death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind

Because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval

Somewhere very near

Just around the corner

All is well.

Nothing is past; nothing is lost

One brief moment and all will be as it was before

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral

Costa Maya...a tiny Mexican fishing village

Are you already there?

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village.

An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it Took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Mexican.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, and sing a few songs... I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"asked the Mexican"Afterwards?

Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting,"answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big,you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? R e a l l y???? And after that?" said the Mexican.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like and enjoying your friends."

And the moral is: Know where you're going in life...you may already be there.

Author Unknown~

New friendships are made aboard the Fantasy Carnival Cruise Ship.

James, Tracie, Darla, and Paul