December 2010

December was rather busy for us this year. Technically the picture below was from Thanksgiving, but if you add in Blake's family, my sister and her husband, the three little girls that we had during Christmas, and Jon's mom, and you would might be able to visualize what Christmas day lunch was like.

Karen started the Christmas season with a trip to Chicago with our friend Pam to get coffee and to do some shopping. They stopped at the Christmas Market and bought a few ornaments. I got to go pheasant hunting with Blake and the boys the first weekend of the month. That story was told in an earlier post. The real story, however, starts with the picture below. Karen, Clarice, Adelphia and Elizabeth went to the Nutcracker at Fort Wayne on December 10^th. Elizabeth was thrilled by the opportunity to dress up and go to the ballet.

On Saturday the 11^th Clarice and Jon took Skyler and Trae to Chicago to see the Christmas Carole play at the Goodman. Karen and I were invited along as well. We had discussed several options for going which included taking the South Shore out of South Bend. But in the end we decided to just drive up in Clarice and Jon’s truck.

Views of the Chicago River.

Grandma with two Grandsons

The other thing we planned to do in Chicago was to go the German Christmas Market which is an open air market in Daily Plaza. The weather was sort of messy that day; it started raining about the middle of the day while we were at lunch. We went to the Christmas Market for a while but because it was still pretty crowded and the weather was lousy we headed to the theater early.

Here we are waiting for the doors to open for the play. At least it was warm and dry.

The stage set was very good with lots of large sets moved onto stage for various scenes.

The play was well done and as hope Trae and Skyler enjoyed the experience. There were a few scenes that made everyone jump. They did a great job on the ghosts.

We went to a couple of Christmas parties near the middle to end of December some at work and some related to Church groups We even went Christmas Caroling with a group of folks from Church one cold winter’s night.

Deer season ended on December 19^th. I did not get a deer this year, but I enjoyed the time in the woods anyway.

On December 20^th I had surgery to repair some long time damage and deterioration on my right shoulder. I have to have my right arm restrained for several weeks and have 20 weeks of therapy ahead of me, but it is the off season so to speak and therefore I will only miss the ice fishing season this year.

One of the young couples from Church was planning to take a tropical trip for their 10^th anniversary. Karen and I volunteered to have their three little girls for Christmas so their uncle dropped off the girls on Christmas Eve. Clarice and Jon and Jon’s mother came over and helped us decorate our tree after the girls went to bed. In the morning they were surprised to see our tree decorated and presents for them as well. We had a very active Christmas day.

We did a big Christmas dinner in the early afternoon. Blake, Apryl, and the boys, my brother Ron, Judy and Len, Karen’s mom, my mom, Jon, Clarice, Jon’s mom, three little girls and a young man from Church were all there most of the day. We cooked most of the meal at our place but had the meal next door at mom’s since we had 17 and our place will not easily accommodate that many at a time. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Our young friends on the tropical vacation got hung up with all of the blizzards and flight cancellations on their way back and had to spend Saturday night in the air port terminal in Memphis. They finally got back here about 6:30 Sunday night. Their girls were glad to see them.

On the 26^th we had the Christmas gathering for our family at Karen’s mom’s place. All three our kids and their families were there for a meal and to exchange gifts. It was a very pleasant evening.

Here is Jon enjoying the toys the boys were getting.

Carolyn overseeing the operation and making sure everyone was behaving themselves.

Trae and Skyler in their new sweat shirts.

Apryl and Blake watching the kids open gifts.

Since I had a bum shoulder I got assigned granddaughter duty. Elisea and I got to open her gifts and once we got to the second gift she had it pretty well figured out and she helped me open my gifts too.

We ended up with four play-dough elephants and then we made four frogs.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the evening.

Karen and her mom made pajamas and night gowns so there needed to be a pajama parade.

Here is the spectator sections watching the events.

We spent New Years Eve with our friends the Bishops and the Berrys. Happy New Year.

Early December 2010

A cold windy snowy day in December, an invitation to go pheasant hunting, and the memories came flooding in. I spent most of my youth in Porter and Jasper counties in northwest Indiana. My dad was an avid hunter and I was usually invited to go along on his hunting, fishing and trapping trips. I learned a lot about the outdoors and how to get along in it, dressing properly to be out in the elements, safety, endurance, the responsibility of taking care of the environment, and care and use of the wild game we took home from the field. I have tried to pass on those principles to my son and grandsons. The legacy of hunting seems to be alive and well in the Jay Harris clan.

I decided to honor my dad by taking along his old double barrel 20 gauge shot gun, the old shell vest and a pair of bib overalls that he used to wear. When dad passed away I inherited his shot gun. He bought that particular gun in the 1940's when he was a teenager. He originally had a 12 gauge, but during World War II ammunition was scarce. Apparently he was able to get a case of 20 shot gun shells so he traded his 12 gauge for the 20 gauge side by side. Its probably close to 70 years old now, a simple gun worn with use, but still very effective. Dad was a great shot, quick and accurate, I learned that if I was going to get any shots I had to be quick and accurate too.

When we lived in Jasper County when I was in Junior High and High School dad had a farmer friend, Bud Daugherty, that farmed over 1000 acres which we were allowed to hunt. In those days pheasants were plentiful and it was not uncommon for us to limit out in a couple of hours no matter how many of us went out. Normally Dad, Bud, my brother Dave and I hunted every weekend during pheasant season.

My Brother Dave dated and eventually married a farm girl from Benton County so our hunting territory expanded to include a 1000 acres there as well. Back in the 60's and 70's farm programs and techniques included allowing many acres of land to lay fallow. Normally these fields were planted with grasses which provided great cover for birds and other animals. Even corn fields provided lots of cover. Herbicides were not as effective as today and cornfields normally had plenty of fox tail and other weeds, that combined with there cornstalks, provided great cover for pheasants, quail and rabbits.

There is nothing more exciting than walking through an 80 acre field and having a cock pheasant explode right at you feet in a flurry of wings beating and cackling or a covey of quail bursting out of heavy cover in a cloud of energy. Oh, those were great times, but like many things change occurs. Farming techniques changed, the fallow fields and wide fence rows between fields were removed and got plowed up. Cover for wildlife became scarce, and then in the winter of 1977-78 a blizzard came and wiped out all of the pheasants. In the fall of 1978 we hunted in the same fields we had hunted for years and did not see a single pheasant, not even a foot print. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources decided that they were not going to even try to re-establish pheasants, so I haven't hunted pheasants for nearly 30 years. Therefore, you can imagine the excitement and emotion that came with the opportunity to go pheasant hunting again.

Skyler, Blake, Trae and me ready to head out.

The first pheasant that took off was went in the direction of some buildings and our vehicles, so I had to wait to get a clear shot, but unfortunately it was pretty much out of range. But, the second one was just as I had remembered, a flurry of wings, wait, wait, bang, tumble, there it is, the first pheasant in the bag.

The farm we were hunting has had pheasants released, but the cover and the conditions were very similar to those back in the day. The owner of the farm also raises Labrador Retrievers so we took Blake's dog Toby with us. We started out with Toby's mother as well and soon his father and sister joined us, apparently there is a hole in the kennel fence and the desire to be in the field was too great, so the fields got covered pretty well.

The field was nicely divided into sections that were wide enough to cover with the four of us.

One pheasant that Blake hit landed on an island in a small pond. Luckily the water level was down a bit so were were able to retrieve the bird.

Another nice pheasant bagged.

Grandpa Harris gets one more. Yeah! This is great!

Skyler and grandpa, hoping to make more memories.

At the end of the day we had five pheasants and actually got two rabbits as well.

I think dad would have been pleased.