1st Blog Post (April)

OK, here we go: This is my first post, and my first time ever blogging. A mere few days ago my wife Proverbs 31 Mama sent me her blog. I started reading it, and today I decided to sign her guest book. In order to do so I had to register. I figured as long as I doing that I may as well go ahead and start my own blog. I don't know how long it'll last or if I'll even keep it up or not. I guess we'll see. I have short bursts of obsessive compulsive disorder, and this may be one of those outbreaks!
A little about myself. I am obviously married to Proverbs 31 Mama and we have 3 beautiful daughters: 17, 13 and 5. We have a black lab and 2 cats, my oldest has 2 guinea pigs and the oldest and youngest each have one beta fish.
Besides my family, I have a few main interests, which will be the focus of my blogs, I think. To me there are only two seasons: hunting season and riding season. Many times they overlap. The time when there's neither going on is tentatively going to be model railroading season.
1. Hunting. Particularily duck and goose hunting, but also deer with bow and gun, turkey, rabbit and whatever else tickles my fancy at any given time during open season. I am a the chairperson for my local chapter of Wisconsin Waterfowl Association. We raise money to restore wetlands here in Wisconsin. I also belong to Ducks Unlimited. I started hunting a number of years after gettng out of the Marine Corps. Up until then I fished quite a bit, but the combination of selling my boat, getting into deer (bow) hunting, and getting my Harley-Davidson Sportster basically prompted me to abandon fishing up until this coming season, which starts May 5th. Because I got hardcore into duck hunting two years ago, I just recently bought a Smokercraft Jon Boat, and will be setting it for duck hunting and fishing. There will be more on this at a later date.
2. Harley-Davidson Sportster. I bought my 2002 1200 Custom Sportster on June 19th, 2003. 6 days after we bought our home. This was right before the 100th Anniversary. I remember during the 90th Anniversry in 1993, I was drinking and bartending, and I had said by the 95th in 1998 I would have one. The 95th came and went, I was still a drunk, and said by the 100th I 'd have one. My last drink was July 10th, my last drug July13th and my first full day of sobriety on July 14th, 1998. One month after the 95th. I connected with my wife on the 18th, and the rest is history. Not quite 5 years later we bought our home and our bike. The 100th was a blast, and since then we've done a lot of riding (we, or I, go to XL-List Rally in KC every year) and my bike has undergone many changes. There will be more on that at a later date.
3. Model railroading. I have taken a fancy to N Scale model railroading. I actually started getting into it back in December of 2002, around christmas time. I worked on it for two weeks during that time, and then it was put off for a long time. When we moved into our house we didn't have room for it, so it sat out in the garage until November of 2006. A few weeks before we were on a local highway, and there was a train going by. I told my 5 y/o that the train was like the ones I had. She said "Papa, you have trains?" That started the old fire again, and shortly therafter there was the Milwaukee Trainfest at State Fair Park. Timing couldn't have been better. We went to that, and I was hooked for good this time. I'll be discussing that in my blog, as you have probably guessed, at a later date.