What are we living for?

But I count my life of no value to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.  Acts 20:24

Turkey Bloopers

Jr Wolfpack Wrestling

Nebraska State Wrestling 2010

Sam finding his deer

Hunting Season comes to an end

We are done deer hunting for another year.  It was quite a finish. Muzzle Loader and Archery ended Thursday.  On Friday the Antlerless rifle season opened, so the boys got out the big guns.  On Friday afternoon Sam shot this doe at 115 yards with the .30 06.  Thanks Uncle Brian for letting us use it.  Then on Saturday afternoon, Jesse shot this doe from the same blind with the .243 at 60 yards.    It has been a great season.  Including Pop Pops deer we have taken 9 deer this year.  Five with a bow, three rifle and one muzzle loader.   

Southern Valley Champion

Toby won this weeks Tournament with 3 pins.  This final match is over last years 5th place state medalist.  Toby lost to him twice last year.

 

Subzero Muzzle Loader Deer

Sam shot his first Muzzle Loader Deer tonight.  The temp was –1 at the time.  The deer was 154 paces across a picked corn field.  Sam used the hood of the truck for a rest and made a perfect shot. The deer ran about 50 yards before crashing in the corn. We were about a mile from the closest road.  Sorry about the quality.  This is just a cell phone picture.

Toby's First 2 matches

New Farming Video

Jesse’s Deer

Jesse shot this deer at 82 paces with a rifle.  This was the first of many that came out to feed on an alfalfa feed in front of our ground blind.  Sam was on the other side of the field and had to watch all the deer since they were on our side and too far from him for a shot.  Muzzle Loader season starts next week.  Both boys are looking forward to the season.  Toby is continuing to archery hunt.  It has been a great year so far with six deer in the freezer.

My Buck

 

I was fortunate to take this buck on the last day of the 2009 early bow season.  He was chasing a doe when I shot him.  I told the boys that chasing girls can be deadly.  Tomorrow the Rifle season starts.  Sam and Jesse will be looking for a deer in the morning.  Click Here for more pics.

Nebraska Bow hunting

I have been so busy hunting and trying to keep up with the  ministry that I have not had time to update the blog with some pics.  Perhaps I will write later with the story but here are a few pics.  Toby shot his deer about a month ago.  Dad and I shot ours this past week. The final one is a young guy from our church with a great buck he brought by to show off.

 

 

Prayer Request- Update 2

Hello everyone,

At this point, Gabriel is no longer on the ventilator, praise God. He is still in the incubator. Liz will be discharged tonight. It seems that he is out of immediate danger, and it will just be a slow process towards getting him healthy, strong, and home. I do not think that I will have anything to update for at least a few days. I will let you know if anything seriously changes or if he is released.

Thank you for your continued prayers,

Brian

Prayer Request- Update 1

Hello everyone,

I have a bit more information about Gabriel. He is still on a ventilator, but they can tell that he is breathing somewhat on his own power. So, that is good news. They did an echo-cardiogram and his heart looked pretty good. It appears as though one chamber is not pumping as hard as it should, but they think that this will likely improve over time. With oxygen deprivation, brain damage is the fear. Of course, there is no way to test this. We will just have to wait and see. Gabriel will be in the hospital for at least a week. Liz will be discharged tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued prayers. I will update you more when I get more information.

Brian

Prayer Request

Hello, everyone. I am not sure how many of you know of Becca's older sister Kim (Massanari) Kahan. She and her husband live in Maryland. Kim's oldest son, Jacob, just had a baby with his wife, Liz. I know that sounds a little confusing. The point is that the baby, Gabriel, was delivered last night with some complications. Due to things I do not understand, the baby was without oxygen for an unknown amount of time. Last we heard (at about 5:30am), the baby was stable but on a ventilator.

Please pray for Gabriel's health and for the family in general.

I will keep you updated as I know more.

Brian

Toby's Deer

On Sunday night Toby, took his first deer with a bow.  He shot it at 18 yards dropping in its tracks. It is a 3x3 buck.  Mattie was in a ground blind with me.  We saw lots of deer and actually shot a doe but did not find it.  Sam and Jesse were in other stands.  They are not yet carrying a bow.  Both saw lots of deer including one very large buck.

 

On Wednesday the kids had off from school so we went in the morning.  Sam and Jesse saw a couple of deer.  I saw none and Toby shot his second deer.  The archery permits have a bonus doe permit so Toby let a small buck walk and then shot this doe.  She was 26 yards away and his shot again dropped her in her tracks.  We now have lots of meat in the freezer.

God’s Faithfulness

As the weather cools and the leaves begin to turn, the signs of fall are all around us.  Our sovereign God controls all things.  His faithfulness to us is displayed in the changing of the seasons as the heat of summer gives way to the cool  nights of early fall.  Soon, the snow will fly only to be followed by the daffodils of spring.  As sure as the seasons is God’s grace offered to us in the horror of the cross.  One day we will be with him.  Until then, we enjoy the beauty of his creation and dream of the day when all will be made perfect as it was intended to be before Adam allowed pride to enter his heart.

As we spent our first afternoon in a tree stand, we were filled with anticipation for the deer that might pass within range.  On this day, that was not to be.  As so often happens, each deer passed by safely beyond the range of my arrow.  There will be more days to dream about the big one that didn’t get away. Today was a day to spend some time with my boys and recognize that I am blessed by the God of All.

New Blog

Because none of us have enough blogs to follow... Karen and I have a new blog. We wanted to have something that our friends and Karen's family could see without sending all that traffic to the Thompson family blog. There's a link to it on the right, along with Tom's & Rob's blogs. For now, you can check this link: http://www.spenglerspot.blogspot.com

Photo project

Here's a photo I took of Lindsay along a trail off of the Kancamagus Highway. I shot it in RAW and .jpg format simultaneously. The picture was Karen's idea, using the amazingly blue sky and vibrant green leaves as a backdrop. Karen held Lindsay over her head while I got her attention and took the shot. Due to the bright light in the background, I shot with the pop-up flash on... not much control, but just enough to provide some fill-flash. Lots of smiles, but this one was my favorite!


Using Photoshop CS2, I made some edits. 1st, I cropped, to remove Karen's thumb from the picture. I also pushed Lindsay over to the right just a bit to make the off-center seem more intentional and take advantage of the 2/3s rule... although I wasn't able to get all the way there. Next, because I shot in RAW, I was able to adjust the white balance, warming up the picture a bit to make the lighting feel more natural for that time of day. I then bumped up the contrast and saturation just a bit, while toning down the midtones slightly trying to reduce the hot spot effect on her forehead. Most importantly, perhaps, I lightened and saturated her eyes. In the original, her eyes are very dark and unnatural, while in this new version you get a better sense of their true color.




Then, just to see what it would look like in B&W, I used the Channel mixer to turn the photo to monochrome, pulling down the red tones and boosting the blue and green. That enabled just enough detail and contrast in her face.

I hope you like the results as much as we do! What a cutie!