For those that don’t know, we were informed earlier this year, that all family vacations have to be preapproved by the school. And limited to no more than 5 days total per school year. That, and a few other things led us to raise our own kids 24 hours a day.
So far, I am enjoying it much more. Kids too.
Me, and the three older girls spent the week in northern Minnesota, where their grandfather grew up, visiting all of the grouse hunting areas he grew up hunting, that he was introduced to by his father, who I had the good fortune to hunt with for 3 years before he passed away in 1981.
Since 1978 my dad has not missed a year. Now, granted, who went with him has changed over the years, and this is the first year that all of my older girls, and all of my brothers got to go. <grin> But it also does not mean that we cannot take any more time together as family due to some rule.
We found a cute porky in the woods. None of the dogs did anything stupid to it before we got them out of the area, and he was docile enough to allow a few photos.
He never even chittered at us, so he was not real worried. Just waited for us to leave so he could go climb a tree to eat.
Odd, to come across a blue heron in the woods on a road.
It jumped up into a tree when we drove past, which was stranger still.
We walked all kinds of woods. Honestly, the tag alder swamps are the most productive for birds, but the least fun to take a stroll in. It is all beautiful though.
We did not just get birds. We got a lot of birds. But a snow shoe made an appearance as well.
Hard to come up with a better itinerary than days spent walking through the woods hunting and being outside in the north woods, and evenings watching my girls play monopoly together.
The trip ended with about 15 birds and a hare, which will end up being a large wild game feed for all of our families before Thanksgiving, where we eat turkey, finish filling deer tags, and hunt pheasants for Christmas dinner.
