A Fathers Dream Come True

I grew up with a father who loved to spend time with with his kids. While my brother and sister grew up enjoying some of our fathers hobbies and outdoor activities I cherished every moment spend in the woods learning the in's and out's of hunting with him which is one of the reasons I love to hunt to this day. On March  7, 2010 Ariel began her own journey of becoming an accomplished hunter and I posted here that she was "The Apple of My Eye"

Fast forward to today and I have the pleasure to tell you that one of my greatest dreams has come true. Today my son Alex completed his Connecticut Conservation Education and Firearms Safety Program. He spent two days in a classroom interacting with 5 separate instructors learning about firearm safety, ethics, local game species, hunting, trapping and much, much more. I was proud to sit at the back of the room watching him ask questions, be the first to raise his hand to answer questions directed to the class and the thing that made me happiest was when he was called upon to demonstrate safe gun handling and knew before being told by the instructors how to properly handle the weapon which resulted in him being the demonstrator at the front of the class for the remainder of the lesson.

At the end of the class today he took his final exam which he passed with a great score then moved out to the shooting range. While the range part was more to show good safety practices he also out shot most of the class which was made up of adults with the exception of Alex and one teenager. Needless to say, much like the day Ariel completed her class I have been walking on cloud nine!

Alex's main request has been to learn how to turkey hunt, something which I have been successful at in the past but by no means am an expert on teaching. I decided that while I would like to get him a shotgun of his own for turkey hunting much like Ariel I wanted him to have a rifle that one day he could call his own. I was blessed to have a family rifle passed down to me by Rebecca's Grandfather so in keeping with tradition I decided that I would pass down the Winchester .30-30 that I got from my father many years ago. It has been a good gun and I have taken many deer with it over the past 20 years and I look forward to watching him take many more with it too!

Over the years I have enjoyed the time spent in the woods, not only the thrill of a hunt but also the peaceful times observing God's amazing creation. While the time I had to spend with my dad in the woods was cut short I now have the joy of spending time with my own children in the woods teaching them all the knowledge I have learned over the years and continue to learn each and every time I go out. The is no doubt that I have been blessed in life and knowing that a cherished tradition is being passed on to another generation is a beautiful reminder. 

I love both my children and look forward to spending time with each of them one on one and together as a group at the range practicing with our firearms, in the woods observing nature, harvesting game for our food and every moment in-between! 

Congratulations Alex on a job well done. I love you and your sister very much and I am very proud of you both. 

As you can all imagine I can't wait for hunting season to open later this year!

Aiming for the 10 ring

Everyone knows how lucky that I am to have a family who shares my love of all things shooting sports. Today I felt like the proudest daddy in the world as I watched my daughter Ariel working on her qualifications for the Venturing shooting sports award.  She was attentive to the instructions, handled each weapon safely and showed her determination to eventually become an expert marksman or should I say woman. She fired a multitude of different weapons ranging from handguns, long rifles and the oh so popular in the news AR style rifle. When she was done we spent some time shooting the M&P that I got for Christmas along with her Marlin XT that she received as a Christmas present as well. Her safety and skill caught the attention of another group at the range and they invited her to punch some paper with their AR's as well. It was a great morning spent together honing our shooting skills and just hanging out as a father and daughter. It ended up being about 20 degrees colder than originally predicted so her hand warmers that Aunt Jackie made her for Christmas came in very handy as you can see in the pictures!

Preparing for a long cold winter

Today I decided that I would work on splitting some more of the wood I had in the side yard. Ariel had the day off from school to go to an all day event with some friends so I decided that Alex could have the day off too. I would rather look at it as he was out of the class room and learning one of life's important lessons - how to put in a hard day's work and embrace the challenges of becoming a man. Well maybe splitting wood doesn't really make you a man but it can teach you a life skill that will be used to keep your family warm in the future and it can always be used as part of obtaining the required credit in PE!

When I was a kid I can remember my father getting a big tri-axle of logs dropped off at the house every year for my brother and I to split. And we did it the hard way with an maul no gas powered machines to aid in our chores. I admit I was younger and didn't really do a lot of the splitting I did most of the moving and stacking of the logs. I of course was also the one who was responsible to get the wood down stairs and stacked on the far wall so there was never a shortage to be fed into our stove.

Now as much as I love splitting wood by hand there was way too much for me to do in one week without cutting into my hunting time so Uncle Tony made it easier on my by letting me borrow his log splitter again.

At first Alex was less than thrilled to be spending his morning performing physical labor but once we got going he cheered right up and we got into a steady rhythm taking turns running the machine and placing the logs. Before I knew it the pile of split wood was growing and the whole log pile was shrinking at a steady pace.

I realize that this next part may cause some controversy but I can remember getting a forbidden treat once in a while growing up such as nip of blackberry brandy at breakfast after a cold morning spent in the woods bow hunting or one of Aunt Concetta's flammable rum balls at Christmas. While I may not have benefited me in any way it sure didn't cause me any harm. This is the same reasoning that I used today when I let Alex have an ice cold Monster Energy drink. As you can imagine he ran up the back stairs to get us each one and partook of it throughout the morning and early afternoon, savoring each tasty sip!

I must admit Alex surprised me today. He really stepped up to the plate and showed me that he is willing to work hard and actually requested that we keep going until all the wood was split. He worked hard loading the truck when we picked up and moved the wood and like a champ assisted with stacking the first cord and a half several weeks ago and proved to me again today that he wasn't afraid of a little hard work. I am proud of my children but today was special in that I watched my son act like an adult and was rewarded with a sense of accomplishment when all the wood was done.

Thankfully we have 4 cord of split wood for the winter ahead, hopefully Gabriel will allow us to use it considering he claimed it as his own before we could finish!

Next week I just might give the kids another day off from the classroom to teach them about stacking wood which of course can be turned into a math lesson about how much wood is in a cord, or the science of proper stacking and defeating the powers of gravity! Plus stacking wood and drinking Monsters beats running laps around the soccer field any day!

The British are coming...

Yesterday we took a family trip to Boston and walked the Freedom Trail. I am actually ashamed that despite living in New England as long as I have that I have never taken the time to do this until now. We started at the far end below Bunker Hill and took the guided tour of the USS Constitution.

Upon departing the ship we worked our way through the USS Constitution Museum which we could have dedicated much more time to but wanted to complete the entire walk today. We decided to take in the Bunker Hill museum during a future trip and instead made our way into the city and our first historic site was the Copp's Hill Burial Ground.

 From there we made our way into the North End of Boston and stopped at the Old North Church - I was a little distracted and didn't take any pictures until I was right below the church. It's amazing that so much of our countries history has been preserved.

From here we made our way down through the memorial mall area where there was a woman playing an armonica which was an unexpected treat.

It was a short walk through the Italian Section of Boston (which I especially enjoyed) until we arrived at Paul Revere's House. I was intrigued with the cobble stone on the street level as well as the fact that this really was the house that Paul lived in.

We then made our way down towards the area we are most familiar with in the city and stopped for some local pizza before continuing on to Faneuil Hall. We took a break from the history lesson and wandered around Quincy Market where Alex was taunted with the sight of dry aging beef - Even I must admit I had a sudden desire to eat prime rib!

And of course we couldn't continue on without a picture of the beloved Samuel Adams! 

We then made our way into the heart of the city and stood where the Boston Massacre took place in front of the Old State House. Once again everyone was amazed at the little old building nestled in between all the skyscrapers.  We continued on past the Old South Meeting House and Corner Bookstore and finally stopped to rest at Benjamin Franklin's statue at the Site of the Boston Latin School 

We worked our way down the street past King's Chapel and entered the Burying Grounds where we slowly worked our way around reading the head stones tomb markers.

We finished the walk passing by the Park Street Church and the Massachusetts State House. On our way back to the Naval yard we stopped at the Holocaust Memorial because I feel it deserves recognition when we are learning about the honor of freedom.

As we made our way back to the truck we stepped off the beaten path and checked out some of the local shops which included ethnic groceries and pastry shops. It was a great day together as a family and I think the kids enjoyed the experience as much and Rebecca and I did. As we made our way over the Charlestown Bridge Alex posed for a picture in front of the TD Garden and the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. Needless to say Rebecca didn't enjoy this moment in our trip as the bridge was nothing more than grates which allowed you to look down into the churning waters below but Alex still managed to make us all smile with his antics. Ariel and I joined in on the fun too - This is a free country after all!