December 4, 2005

Hello Folks,

Well, Thanksgiving is over (always sooo much food!) and we are on our journey to celebrating Christ's birth and the awesome Christmas season.

I have been decorating inside and out. I love to do this, but I do not forget for one minute the "true meaning of Christmas."

It is a crazy world, but I refuse to let it interfere with my "Joy" of celebrating this wonderful season.

I left the lights up outside the night before so when I got up in the early morning, I could sit in the quiet sollitude and enjoy their softness and the serenity, especially with the snow surrounding the lights. Such a peacefulness and a calming effect. I love mornings.

Yesterday I finally got the tree decorated and the front window done. We have an artificial tree now as we discovered years ago that B-Bob, the cat, is allergic to the pine. His little eyes swelled shut, so no more real live trees. Tooter, another cat, leaves the decorations alone now, if I remember to have her little, round crocheted one she can play with. I used to have about 30 of them on the tree, but after going on a "hunt" each and every morning for all of them, I gave up putting them on, and limited them to a total of 1. She seems fine with this. Sissy, another cat, isn't interested in the tree at all.

We had an incident with some hunters on Monday, the first day of deer season. My husband started out early, before sunrise, and went into our woods to his deer stand. I heard a lot of shooting during the morning. When husband came back around 10 a.m., he said he saw two trucks parked across the road from our property just down the road from our place. He made a copy of our property lines, and took it down and put it under the windshield wiper of the white truck as it was starting to rain.

I called the sheriff's office and then the game warden called me back. I told him that my husband had spotted three hunters on our property, shooting near his deer stand. I was really upset about this, as was my husband. The game warden said he would be out as soon as possible.

When it was very close to dusk, I spotted the hunters, (two of them) returning to their trucks. I put on my coat and waders, and headed out the door to confront them. I hollered at them to wait, as one of them was backing up and gettting ready to head down the road. When I got to them, I asked them why they were hunting on our property without our permission. They said they got permission from our neighbors to hunt. (I had called the bordering neighbor and she had given them permission to hunt on her property, but told the hunters not to cross over the fence lines unless they had permission from other neighbors.) I told them they were not on the designated property but on ours, and that my husband observed them on it, and also they were firing their guns numerous times while on our property. The one guy got very surly and started cussing at me, using the "F" word and said to me, "I'm not going to get into a P.....match with you." (His Mother would have been so proud of him using the language he did and his demeanor. I guess using that language shows his intelligence level.)

He asked me how my husband knew it was him. I told him, "Because you did our cement for our garage and he recognized you and your truck! You were right near his deer stand on our property blasting away!"

He was really being a jerk and I was standing my ground protecting what is ours. I pointed to our land and told him, "This will not happen again. You never asked for permission to hunt, so stay off of our property!" Hmm. Some people have total disregard for other's property and do whatever they want to do. This attitude could get him in trouble some day.

After I calmed down, I called the sheriff's office back and told them, "I took care of the matter."
(The "hunters" have not been back since.)

While I was outside the other evening, putting up lights, Clara, our lab, kept bringing her ball to me to throw. This is a nightly ritual and no matter what you are doing, she insists you throw her ball. It takes very little to entertain her. She is a good dog, most of the time, except when she ventures to far down to the woods. At least she does listen and comes back as soon as we call her. She and the beagles have a fun time every evening running and playing, and searching for "critters unknown" under the snow.

I have been teaching her to sit up and "wait" for me to give her the ball. She is getting this down pretty well. Another thing I taught her is when I lay the dog biscuit on her nose, I make her wait, and then tell her, "Okay." She tosses her head and catches the biscuit! I love to teach her things. She is smart and learns quickly.

Try not to let the "commercialism of the season" deter you from the true meaning of Christmas. I am so thankful for God's love, forgiveness, and being there always in my everyday life. I am so blessed.

I will be posting the "poem" soon that Marcy D. sent to me. It is really good.

Until next time,
Peace, Joy, Love, and Laughter to you all!

Becky :)