The NFL stands for "Never ending Foolishness League"!

The picture above shows Matt Bryant, kicker for the Atlanta Falcons, celebrating his game winning field goal against the Seattle Sea Hawks in the 2013 divisional playoffs.  This kick was reason to celebrate as the Falcons gained enough yards in the final 30 seconds of the game to have the opportunity for this kick to be attempted.  The kick was good from 49 yards and all but sealed the 30-28 victory with only 8 seconds left in the game.  I can understand the high fiveing and sideline dancing in this case.  The rest of the game...not so much!

I am not the biggest Pro football fan.  I did participate in a fantasy league this year and follow the Falcons just enough to know who is on the team and how they did each week, but for the most part I mainly stay focused on college football.  I was reminded why as I watched the Falcons in their play-off game on Sunday.  The Falcons took an early lead and looked great going into half time with 20-0 advantage.  You would think I would have been happy as the team from my home state seemed to be doing pretty well, but I was upset because my son was watching this game with me and no child should have to watch grown men act this way.  Catch a pass...do a little dance.  Get tackled...get up and jaw with the tackler.  Get burnt on a long pass...laugh about it a do a little clap.  Score a touchdown...do a choreographed touchdown dance.  Get shown on the sideline...flash a money pose.  Who are these people????

Where has the example setting athlete gone?  Where is the guy who catches a pass and hustles back to the huddle?  Where is the guy who gets tackled and tells his tackler "Nice hit" as he gets back to his feet?  Where is the defender who gets upset with himself for blowing a coverage and tells his teammates that "I've got the next one"?  Where is the guy who scores a touch down and simply flips the ball to the official as if to say "I've been here before and plan on being here again shortly"?  Where is the guy who says "Hi Mom!" on the sideline.

I'm sure there are still players out there who possess these qualities, but they are becoming fewer and farther in between.  Why would I want my kid to watch a NFL game?  What kind of example is being set by these "all about me and my money" athletes of today?  Not a good one I'm afraid!

I watched the Falcons loose a 27-7 4th quarter lead.  As the Sea Hawks were driving down the field for their 3rd consecutive score, a defensive back for the Falcons was able to deflect a slightly under thrown ball and helped the ball fall incomplete.  He danced.  I told my son that he should get his butt back in the defensive huddle and worry about the next play, not show off like he did.  I reminded Reid that football is a team sport and no one man is the hero.  I also told him that it was foolish for a player to be dancing after one play while the team has been getting the stuffing beat out of them the entire 2nd half and that particular player had missed numerous tackles.  It was embarrassing!  What happened after the dance??  The Sea Hawks went on to score a go ahead touchdown with 30 seconds left.  Who was dancing then??

The Falcons "rose up" and made two great plays to get into field goal range for the game winning kick, but I was not dancing....

I'll leave that up to the show boats that play in the NFL!

Stranger in the Attic

See this little guy?  He has been causing me a lot of grief for the past month or so.  There is nothing quite like to sound of pecans being rolled around in your ceiling or on your attic floor at 4:00 in the morning, but that is just how these little flying squirrels roll.  I knew I had a problem when I was unloading all of our Christmas decorations.  Every box seemed to have a pecan in it.  Keep in mind that I have no pecan trees in my yard and the closest one is down the street.  I then heard the first signs of trouble one evening while putting Reid's clothes in his closet.  A faint scratching was coming from the ceiling.  I went up to my daughter's room and opened the attic door found in her closet.  As I shined my flashlight, this little guy peaked his head around the corner, smiled at me and was gone in a flash.  The game was on!

I guess I was hoping that by taking all of his pecan stash away in the Christmas boxes that he would find another place to dwell.  I was wrong.  He worked harder to replenish his bounty and drove us nuts crazy rolling his pecans all over the house.  This was getting personal and this little squirrel's life was coming dangerously close to ending!

I decided to go the humane route and bought a live trap.  I spent some time in one of my four attics (crazy house design) and found the pathway that my little pecan hording buddy was using to stash his stash.  I set the trap up with some pecan hearts as bait.  I slept well and did not wake to the scurrying of little feet chasing nuts.  As I approached the attic door, I could hear the metal doors of the trap as our little friend was bouncing back and forth looking for an opening.  He didn't find one!

I have read that you need to take a flying squirrel at least 5 miles from your home if you intend to release him.  If you do not go five miles, chances are he will come back.  I took my little buddy ten!  I let him go in a nice little park in downtown Ocilla, GA where he raced up a 100 year old pine and stopped to look at me one last time as if to say "It's been real".

I have also read that where there is one flying squirrel, there is more than likely several more.  I will set the trap again when I get home and hope for a repeat performance until I get rid of these little suckers.

This means war!

Update:  As of Wednesday morning, I am now two for two on squirrel catching!  The battle continues!!

Great dove season final!

This year's dove season came to an end in fine fashion with both a morning and afternoon shoot on the final Saturday.  We got into a birds on both shoots and had a great time fellow shipping with good friends and watching good dogs retrieve our tasty little grey feathered friends as they tumbled from the sky after a shot from my Browning shot gun.

I always hate to see the last day because it seems to end to quickly.  We have had a good year and Josey once again made me proud with her consistent field work.  I love to take her hunting because you can tell she loves it so much.  I will have to patiently wait for next season to come around in September and hope that my son will be ready to shoot his new shotgun at a few passing grey birds with me.

Bring on Turkey season!

It's the little things!

Christmas was always a big deal at my house while I was growing up.  It still is!  My parents always made sure that we had great Christmas mornings with plenty of presents and things from Santa.  Some of my favorite Christmas morning memories include new baseball bats, new guns and a 4 wheeler.  All of those were very big ticket items and cost my parents a lot of money, but my favorite gifts on Christmas morning have always been and always will be found in my stocking.

It's the little things I like.  Baseball cards, golf tees, small hunting gadgets, chap stick, a new pocket knife, etc, etc.  My Mom always had a way of customizing your stocking so that you knew it was meant for you.  A nice little personal touch to remind you that even though you now have a pile full of new gifts, the little things still matter too.

My favorite day of Christmas shopping each year is the one I spend by myself shopping for stocking stuffers for my wife and kids.  I try to put a lot of thought into the small items that will fit into the limited space of a stocking.  Bath oils or a new necklace for my wife.  New art supplies for my daughter.  A cool new gadget for my son.  It does my heart good to see them enjoy the smallest gift as much as the biggest.  Cool things really do come in small packages!

This Christmas, my wish for you and your family is that you will embrace the gift of the little things that this life has to offer.  If you can find happiness in the little things, then everything else should fall right into place.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Trey

I got busy!

I sat and watched the final seconds of the Georgia Southern Football season tick away on Friday night with a since of disappointment in the fact that our season was ending but also proud that my boys were once again one of the last four teams standing.  It has been a good year for the boys in blue and I am a very proud alumnus!  Now that football is over, it's time for me to get off my lazy tail and get back to work in the shop!

The table that you see above has been sitting unfinished in a pile under my counter for about four months. I picked it up in an antique shop around Macon, GA and never got around to completing it.  Saturday, it got all of my attention.  It is a very nice tiger oak table, but what I really like about it is the fact that it still has a label under the bottom shelf.  This table came from The Knoxville Table and Chair Co in Knoxville, TN.  Why is that important?  It's really not, but this is the second table that I have bought from this small company that went out of business sometime in the early 20's.  The first table sits in my living room and can be seen below!

They really made nice solid pieces of oak furniture and liked to use tiger oak.  I'll take all that I can find!

I was also able to polish up a very nice round top table that looks a lot like the one above.  I have it for sale at a friends shop.  I forgot to take a picture.  Let me know if you need a last minute Christmas gift!!

So I took a vacation....

To my loyal few followers, please allow me this time to say that I am sorry for my lack of posting in the month of November.  I needed a vacation to re-charge the batteries, so I took one.  I took a two week vacation from work in which I tried my best to stay away from a computer, and I took a month long vacation from Blogging.  So here is what is going on in my world...

November means Kansas and our annual pheasant hunt.  I look forward to this trip with my Dad because we get to spend time together and I love the Kansas countryside.  Chasing birds across fields of Milo is a rush like no other.  The only problem is that you need birds to feel that rush.  Two years of drought conditions have taken their toll on my feathered friends.  20 hunters hunting hard for two solid days only managed 16 birds.  Not a very successful trip.  We can only hope that conditions improve and the state of Kansas can get it's bird population back.

I've spent a great deal of time in my deer stand the past few weeks.  So far, no luck!  I have seen does and small bucks, but I am still holding out for one of the big boys that I am still capturing pictures of on my trail camera.  If I could only hunt at night!






Josey is ready for a good bird shoot!  Thanksgiving came and went without me firing a shot in the dove field.  My farming friends have been busy with a bumper crop this year and our dove hunts have been put on the back burner.  I am hoping all of that will change this weekend!

I found a little time to get out in the shop and refinish this gun stock.  This gun belonged to my Grandfather and is now owned by my Uncle.  It was worn with age and needed some attention.  It now looks like new!

I went to a wedding!  One of my fraternity brothers got married on the weekend of the 10th.  It just happened to also be my 10 year wedding anniversary.  My wife and I celebrated in style with some brothers I have not seen in almost 20 years.  I was great!!

Other than that, there is not much going on!  I hope to get back on the blogging trail with updates from a good dove shoot!

 

See you soon! 

 



Tri-County Soccer Success!

Our local recreation department joins forces each year with departments from two other counties to put on a Tri-County soccer tournament.  We do not have soccer all-star teams, we just enter all league teams from each county and play one big tournament.  Reid's team, the Tigers, had a disappointing season loosing the first two playoff games, but decided to put everything together for the Tri-county tournament.  They played well and finished with a 4-0 record to win first place in their division.  I was very proud of Reid as he played very well in his mid-field position.  I think we only allowed two goals in four games with Reid doing more than his part in keeping the ball on our end of the field!  He loves the game of soccer and I am glad the he has been able to find some success.

Mid-field Master!!

 

Reid and his coach, Terry Harper

 

The winning team! 

 

Thanks to all you coaches out there!  You really do make a difference!  It has been a great season!!

 

Go Tigers!!!