A NEW YEAR!!!! 2010 is here

Whether we like it or not 2010 is here. I hope we all like it because it sure beats the alternative, right. The year has started out very cold and white. We have probably received close to 40 inches of snow in the last 30 days. I heard on the weather station, that we had 14 straight days that the temperature was below freezing. Last year was a good year and I am looking forward to this year and what it will bring. It is hard for me to believe that I am 60 years old.(nearing 61) My mind will not let me believe it, on the other hand my body and the mirror tells me otherwise. As I reflect back on my life, I know I have lost loved ones near and dear to me. Even though I have lost my father, mother, a wife and a stepchild. I have so much to be thankful for and what better time than the first month of a new year to acknowledge it. Thank you, God for my health and my family.

You can tell from the pictures that we are not the only ones who get cold.

Margaret is already packing for our annual cruise. We have decided on Jamaica and the Western Caribbean this year. We will be leaving next month from Miami. We have a trip planned in two weeks to Winterplace for some skiing and snow tubing. Dathan, Jessica, Kaden, Jonathan, Jennifer, Margaret and I are going on the 13th of next month.

Celebrating birthdays in January were Becky Deel on the 4th,Chloe Faith Deel 5th, Jarod Deel 7th, Michele Bowler Welch 10th, Catrina Elswick 11th, George Mike Jordan and Landon Carter Williams 23rd, Terry Vanover 24th and Blair Thompson on the 26th.

December Birthdays

Celebrating birthdays in December was Stacy McCallister Looney on the 22nd.

2009 highlights...December

Dathan and I finished our hunting season on Dec 12th. I guess you could consider us fair weather hunters. lol Anyway we hung up our weapons. We did not kill any big bucks this year even though we did pass on several decent bucks, electing to let them grow another year. The season highlights were harvesting a bear, one deer, Dathan shot a bobcat at 40 yrds and also came to full draw on a very nice wide 8 pointer. Maybe our patience will pay off next year.

Margaret has started getting ready for the holidays. Hopefully most of the our children will get to join us this year. With Christmas falling on Friday this year and after talking to the family

we decided on Christmas dinner on Saturday the 26th. It started snowing early in the week and by Christmas we had several inches of snow. I scraped the road so everyone could make it up to the house. We had a dinner, exchanged gifts and had a great time. We had a total of 19, most everyone was here except Amber, Asia, (working) Greg, Jarod, Brody, Shana, Matt and Sam.

2009 highlights...November...Thanksgiving

Margaret has laid the law down and said I needed to take time off from hunting and enjoy Thanksgiving. Donna, Hanna and Ashley came in November 26th. Ashley went on to Haysi with her dad. Donna and Hanna stayed and we had a good visit and Dinner. Donna and Hanna made candy and cookies and we had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Margaret, Donna, Hanna, Dathan and I enjoyed dinner and conversation. Jessica and Kaden went to Louisville to vist Aaron. Donna and Hanna headed back to Atlanta on Sunday.

Celebrating birthdays is November were Shana Burmood on the 10th, Samuel Burmood 25th Gerald Vanover 26th and J Wallace on the 28th.

2009 highlights...November...continued

We decided we needed to take at least 3 0r 4 doe each year to improve the overall deer heard.
With that in mind Rodney and Dathan both shot does in early on. We had bad luck and were unable to recover either deer. I took a mature doe on Nov 16th. Dathan had an encounter with the wide 8 that we have pictures of from the trail cameras. He was at full draw at 35 yards, but unfortunately the buck took another route and he did not get the shot. Very unfortunate , that is what we wait on all season.

2009 highlights...November

We saw the first signs of scrapes on Oct 30th. I cut the corn field on Nov 4th. Deer moved in right away and started using. I saw several smaller bucks and a wide 5 or 6 pointer chasing does on Nov 6th in the cut field .On the 6th of November Dathan saw 3 bucks chasing on the 4 point stand. He elected not to shoot any of the bucks, nothing we consider shooters. I saw a nice shooter on the stand behind the water tank, it happened fast and I could not get a shot.

Even though muzzle loader season is in now we made the decision this year we were going archery only now and in the future. We have seen good improvement with better bucks since we have started passing on smaller bucks.

Bucks have really started working the scrapes now, we got trail cam pics of 4 or 5 different shooters the week of Nov 12th.

2009 highlights...Oct...continued

Dathan and I have relocated a couple of our stands, pre rut activity will start soon. Several good days on the stands since season opened. We have all passed on smaller bucks.

Finally, October 23rd shot a nice black bear at 27 yards. Little over 200 pounds. Dathan found bear and helped me get it out. It was about 10 pm before we finally made it back home.

Celebrating birthdays in October were Bailey McCallister on the 3rd, Sierra Stovall 7th, Patrick Deel 8th, Randy Looney 11th, Patricia Ann (SiS) Deel, Connie Wallace, Ramona Stacy 12th, Helen Vanover 13th, Casey Welch 16th, Lily Vanover 20th, Samantha Jordan 26th and Harold Vanover on 27th.

2009 highlights...Oct...Nov...Dec

Yea! Its October and deer season is here. Dathan and I have finished putting our tree stands up and we are officially ready to hit the woods with bows in tow. We have our sights set on several nice bucks that have shown up on the game cameras and hope to bag one this season. It's Opening day October 3rd. Rodney joined Dathan and I on opening day. We all saw deer but Rodney saw a real nice shooter buck but could not get a shot. Dathan and I neither one saw what we felt like was a shooter.

The second week of archery season came and went, again Dathan, Rodney and I all passed on deer. Nothing we really wanted to shoot. Dathan passed on a pretty good 7 pointer and a couple of smaller bucks. I still have not seen a shooter on my stand.

On the 12th of October we surprised Sis with a little birthday get together. Margaret,myself, Juanita,Crouse,Darrell,Tammie,Patrick,Sabrina,Chloe,Chad,Christy,Blake,Blair,Bree,Dathan,Jessica and Kaden came and we enjoyed good food, a day of visiting and some good birthday cake Juanita had made. Chloe put on a show for us. Bree is cute and all the children have grown so much. Darrel gave all the families a cutting board he had made, they were very nice.

2009 highlights...September...continued

All good things must come to an end. After we said our dreaded goodbyes, Sonny took us to the airport the next morning. We had a layover in St Louis, Mo., other than that we had a good flight back home. Sheila picked us up the airport. We had a nice visit at her house and like mother, like daughter........she had dinner ready. We went to Aunt Kate for the night. We said our goodbyes the next morning and headed back to Virginia. We arrived home safe and sound and everything seemed to be in order. (Thank you God)

Celebrating birthdays in September were Randy Miller on the 9th, Angela Vanover Stovall 12th, Lisa Bowler 19th, Chad Thompson 21st, and Luther Stacy on the 25th.

2009 highlights...September...continued

We finished the day driving to a park and more sightseeing. We had a great day. We saw lots of wildlife including mule deer and a rattlesnake.

We even saw an illegal immigrat trying to sneak across the border.

2009 highlights...September...continued

Sonny and Mary had a get together at their house the evening after Tyler's game. There were probably 20 to 25 people there. Again, Mary had some good food and we had a great visit with family and some of their friends. Uncle Harold recruited some of the people and a lot of progress was made on one of the puzzles he had started. Sonny managed to hide the last piece of each puzzle so Aunt Kate could finish it. He is such a suck up, ha ha.

On Monday we all loaded up in two vehicles and went sight seeing. We started out going up the foothills of Santa Catalina Mountains and drove up Mount Lemmon to the village of Summerville, Az. We ended up eating at a nice restaurant neat the summit. We had a great day and saw some great sights.

2009 highlights...September...continued

As luck would have it we were visiting during Erica and Tyler's sports season and we were able to watch a volley ball match and a football game. I think it is great that Earl & Darlene and Sonny and Mary are so involved with them. That brought back so many memories for me. Both Erica and Tyler are good athletes.(they are Vanovers) Tyler did break free for a 70+ yard touchdown run from the line of scrimmage, I think the game was a battle of the undefeated teams and His team ran away with the game. What do you expect with Tyler as a running back, Earl coaching, Darlene on the camera and Erica cheering them on.

2009 highlights...September...continued

Margaret has been busy getting us ready for our trip out west to see Uncle Harold and family. Aunt Kate, Margaret and myself have been planning a trip to see Uncle Harold and family for two or three months now and the time is finally here. Aunt Kate made arrangements with Michele and P A for Piper and Fletcher. Margaret and I keep our bags packed so we are ready to go. We headed to Nashville on the 22nd to meet up with Aunt Kate. We had decided to turn in early because we had an early flight the next day. Sheila took us to the airport and we arrived in Tucson in the afternoon. Sonny picked us up at the airport and the royal treatment started. We do have an awesome family. I do not believe we have ever been anywhere and been made to feel more welcome. The trip would have been perfect if Sonny had not spoiled Aunt Kate so much, it was disgusting to watch him. I am so glad James and I were not involved.

We did have a great visit and I feel like I gained 10 pounds with Mary's cooking. James and Linda as well as Peter and Carolyn came and Uncle Harold taught us how to work puzzles the right way, we had a blast.

As amazing as it is Uncle Harold knew many of Margret's relatives. He had been hunting with her father and some of her brothers. I think he may have bought some "shine" from her granddad many many years ago.

2009 highlights... September...Continued

Dathan and I have started hanging tree stands as it is only a month until opening day of archery season. We have seen some nice shooter bucks and several different bear on the game cameras.We are excited and getting ready.

2009 highlights...August...continued

The party broke up around 4 pm and we said our goodbye's and were back on the road again. We drove to Savanna, Georgia. We drove through Savanna and gave ourselves a self guided tour. We were very disappointed as there was a lot of construction going on with several detours. We did make it down town but could not find some of the historic sights. So much for the self guided tour. I will know better the next time.
We spent the night just out side of Savanna and headed back early the next morning. Tammy helped with the driving and we made back to Charlotte early afternoon. We drove on to Tazewell and were glad to be home. We had driven over 2,000 miles and were ready for a rest.

Jenny Vanover and Nate Hall were married August 22 at the Little Prater Church of Christ.
Margaret and I attended the wedding, and I will have to say that the bride looked awesome. Gerald and Linda were very proud parents. Aunt Kate, James and Azelia spent the night with us and we had a good visit. They headed back home the next day and we said our goodbye's.

Celebrating birthday's in August were Tracy Vanover Roop on the 2nd, Tyler Ryan Vanover 3rd, Sabrina Deel 4th, Carrie Branham and Darrel Deel 8th, Robert Allen Pass 12th, Grayson Goodall 17th, Erica Vanover 20th, Tammy Deel 22nd, Ian Tyler Vanover 24th, and Luther Stacy on the 25th.

Aunt Carrie's 90th birthday party...continued

Not only is Carrie a wonderful lady, but she has a great group of children and grandchildren and they seem to be very close. Margaret and I made another trip to Florida last year and Lavern and J C opened their house to us and treated us like their own. J C is a world class long

distance shooter with the 50 mm caliber rifle. They travel quite often competing in various competitions. Harold and I share a passion for fishing and hope to get together one day soon for some fishing fun.

2009 highlights...August...continued

We drove on to Palatka that evening and stayed at the hotel where Aunt Carrie's Birthday party was being held. We were all bushed and turned in early.

The next day we got up early, had breakfast and started getting ready for the party. Her party started at around noon and there were 75 to 100 people there. I think she was pleasantly surprised. Relatives and church friend from several states were there. Her children Willard, Harold, Imogene,Leverne,Reasha and their spouses hosted the party. They had the food catered and it was delicious. Along with the food we had good conversations and some fun games.

Aunt Carrie is without a doubt the liveliest 90 year old lady I have ever met. She still drives and lives alone and loves to fish.

2009 highlights...August...continued

Its time to continue north as Aunt Carries 90th birthday is tomorrow August 8th. We have another stop or two to make before we get there. Back in the car and off to Disney World. We arrived at Disney Village Friday. We visited several shops in Disney Village and very much enjoyed dinner at Fulton's Steak and Seafood House. Another long day and its time to turn in.

2009 highlights...August...continued

Another long day and more to come. We were officially headed north again. The next day we went to the Greek village of Tarpon Springs and visited the sponge docks. We saw divers coming back in from sponge dives and visited some of the shops. After spending some time there we continued north up hwy 19 and went to Weeki Wachee. We all enjoyed the park and in particular the famous live mermaid shows. Margaret and Tammy even got into the action and into the mermaid spirit.

2009 highlights...August...continued

After a long day at Silver Springs we continued south and drove to New Port Richey, Florida to
Margaret's Uncle Bill Shortridge and his wife Bonnie. We enjoyed our time with them. It had been a long day and we decided to spend the night in Clearwater, Florida. The next morning, with a good nights rest under our belt we drove on down to St Petersburg to daughter Shana's.
We were all excited to see and spend some time with Shana, Matt and Sam. Sam is growing soooo fast. We hooked up with Matt's parents Terry and Karen Burmood and we all enjoyed lunch with them at a downtown St Pete restaurant. As much as we enjoyed our visit with Shana and Matt we were on a tight schedule and had to keep rolling, with that in mind and a long day ahead the next day we headed back to the hotel. After refueling our need for sleep we were on the road again. We decided to make a quick tour of Pinellas County. We drove to downtown St Pete and visited the famous Upside Down Pier on the waterfront downtown. We had lunch there and then drove over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Next, we went to Fort Desota State Park and on to The beaches. We hit St Pete beach then Treasure Island beach, Johns Pass beach, Mederia beach, Redington Shores beach, Belair beach and ended up at Clearwater Beach. This is absolutely a beautiful area with 30 to 40 miles of beaches going north up Gulf Boulevard.

2009 highlights....August

On Sunday August 2nd after church Margaret and I left on a road trip to Margaret's Aunt Carrie, who lives in Palatka, Florida to help her celebrate her 90th birthday. Margaret's daughter Tammy, who lives in Charlotte went with us. We swung by her house to pick her up. The next morning we headed south. We drove to Atlanta and visited with Brittney, Margaret's granddaughter. Later that day we drove to Margaret's daughter Donna in Atlanta. After visiting a while, Donna picked out a nice restaurant and we all went to dinner along with Ashley, Hanna and her boyfriend. The next morning we continued south and drove to Mike and Betty Jordan's house in Ocala, Florida. We arrived around 6 pm and Betty had a great dinner prepared. After dinner we visited and looked at Mike's bottle and Jar collection. It was very impressive, I think we all were amazed at the number of bottles in his collection. The next morning we went to Silver Springs amusement park in Ocala. The glass bottom boats and and animals were awesome.

2009 highlights...July...Continued

Jessica competed in her first 5K road race on July 25th and she was so funny, she was a nervous wreck. Even though she is in great physical shape she had butterflies big time. Several runners were there that she knew and they told her not to worry that they were sure she would "FINISH" and do fine...........She left them all in her shadow and ended up winning her age group. We were all very proud of her and immediately started working so we could run in the next race. That was a joke it lasted a week for me. Ha Ha.

Celebrating birthdays in July were Betty and Sonny Vanover (who was born first) and Amber Vanover on the 1st, Digger (David) Welch 5th, Donald Vanover 10th, John Michael Vanover 11th, Hanna Edwards 13th, J J Vanover 15th, Brianna Deel 18th, Connie Jordan and Brittney Deel 23rd, Sara Vanover 26th, and Anita Vanover on the 28th.

2009 highlights...July...Continued

Margaret's granddaughter Brittney and her boyfriend Bob came in for a visit July 21st thru 24th. We took them to our camper in Giles County Virginia. They fished and did some white water rafting. On our way back home we took them out for her birthday to Outback. We really enjoyed their visit but they had to head back home on the 24th.

2009 highlights...July...Continued

We had the opportunity to go on vacation July 12 thru July 17th with Jonathan and Jennifer and the girls. We had planned a trip earlier in the year to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge Tennessee. Needless to say with Jonathan in the crowd we had a blast. We went to Splash Country water park, Dollywood, played putt putt, watched daredevil Amber bungee jump and had some great food. I hope we get to do it again soon.

2009 highlights... July...Continued

We had better weather the following day and took them to Fort Witten in Tazewell. There were many interesting things we saw including the museum and displays showing how our for fathers lived.

2009 Highlights...July...Aug...Sept

Uncle Charles and Jean visited us for a couple of days and we managed to take them to Mountain Lake and Fort Whitton. Mountain Lake in Craig County Virginia was where the Movie Dirty Dancing was filmed. Even though it rained on us most of the day we still had a lot of fun.

2009 highlights...Apr...May...June...Continued

Dathan and I have started planting the summer food plots for wildlife. The weather seems to be good for the growing season, guess we will wait and see. We have trail cameras set and have started to see several bucks growing antlers. We have several pictures of bear as well as deer and turkey. Looking forward to this hunting season.

It is hard to believe, but It's graduation time for Asia. Margaret and I attended Asia's graduation at John Battle High School on June 12th. We are very proud of her. We all went to Jonathan's afterwords. He had a cookout celebrating the occasion. He had about 15 to 20 people and we enjoyed great food and conversation. Way to go Asia, don't stop now!

Margaret and I went to her family reunion at Poplar Gap on June 19th. The reunion was hosted by Lougean Deel and Cleo Vandyke. We had some good food, great conversation and heard some good music.

Margaret's granddaughter Brianna came to visit the second week of June and we all had a great time. Brianna has grown so much since Margaret and I were married. She is turning into a beautiful young lady.

Kaden had his 6th birthday party on the 20th of June and several of his friends were there. Rodney grilled out and we all enjoyed some good burgers and birthday cake. Kaden was the big winner as he racked up on the presents.

Aunt Kate came in for a visit the last of June and we had great visit. She, Juanita
Crouse and Sis came over for dinner. Margaret and I surprised her by inviting Bill Boyd and his wife Inis as well as Carl Boyd and his wife Ruth. we all enjoyed some good food and singing while we reminisced about old times.

Celebrating birthday's in June were Matt Burmood, Jim and Linda Vanover Reed 2nd, Tammie Elswick, Michael Elswick, Jake Deel, and George Andrew Jordan on June 8th, Sheila Leggett 9th, Jennifer Lee Anne Vanover and Brenda Owens 12th, Kaden Vanover 18th, Amanda Babonas 20th and Kaleb Elswick on the 30th.

2009 highlights...Apr...May...June...Continued

With warm weather rolling in, Dathan and I Started getting the ground ready for summer deer food plots.
Margaret and I went out to one of her favorite restaurants to celebrate her birthday on the 11th. She said I could not tell her age. Ha Ha
Shana, Matt and Sam came in for a visit the last week of May and we really enjoyed their company. Sam is precious. We got to baby sit while Matt, Shana and Dathan and Jessica went out to dinner. We had a good bonding experience.
Margaret's brother Brad Boyd and his wife Cathlene hosted the Boyd family reunion on Memorial Day Weekend. There were over 100 people there and we enjoyed great food, fellowship and singing.
Celebrating birthdays in May were Christy Deel on the 5th, Fletcher Bowler 9th, Rachel Vanover 10th, Margaret Vanover, Asia Vanover and Alaura Stookey on the 11th, Broody Deel 21st and Dathan Vanover on the 31st.