Friends of Fishing Walleye Stocking

Brrr, it's been cold around here lately.  Sophie and SnowBall often snuggle together. 

I'm excited about the upcoming ice fishing season!  The small lakes here will be froze over soon!  YAY!  The first really cold day we had in awhile, was a day when I went to watch walleye being stocked.  It was rainy and windy too.  After leaving Flint Lake, I followed the fish truck over to Loomis Lake:

The Friends of Fishing (FOF) made this walleye stocking possible.  I've had my eye on that club ever since I helped to found the Duneland Fly Fishers (DFF).  Recently, I have begun playing an active role in the FOF, including becoming a board member.  My head is overflowing with fun ideas.  These are baby walleyes:

The FOF meetings are held at AJ's Pizza.  The group is organized; they follow up on ideas and make plans.  I wrote a press release to accompany the walleye stocking pics and sent them to our local newspaper publishers.  More pics I took that day can be viewed at the FOF webpage under the Who We Are tab.

Missile Move, Pinterest Party, and Craft Show

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  My weekend started off with a big commotion outside my backyard.   The HUGE black missile/alien spaceship is hard to make out:

I was ready for bed and watching tv in my bedroom.  Suddenly, Gladys comes running in and I see flashing police lights in the reflection of the dressing mirror.  I slip on a pair of boots, a flannel shirt to wear as a jacket with my nightgown (fashion at it's finest), and run toward the commotion.  As I get closer, and the wind is blowing, I realize pants would of been a good idea.  I snapped a few pics from a safe distance, heard people talking about a trailer issue and headed back inside.

Glenn asked me what was going on and I'm like, "Oh, it's nothing, just some folk's moving a massive missile down the road.".  I suppose I was tired.  Or maybe living on a military base for several years accounts for my lack of excitement about this.

I dreamed of Marvin the Martian that night.

The next morning, it was Pinterest party/sister time at church.  Two of my sisters, Audrey and Roni, were there.  Audrey is the oldest of us girls. 

 

The six of us can get a little rowdy.

It was the first Pinterest party that we had ever been to.  So, "What happens at a Pinterest party?" you ask?

Well, us ladies gathered together and talked about God and Pinterest.  The main message was to remember that if you search for Christian on Pinterest then pics of hot guys named Christian come up.

Opps!!  Did I just type that out loud?  Shaking my finger.  Oh No She Didn't!

Umm, what I meant was, the main message is to invite God into time spent on Pinterest.  Really cool things happen when we do this.  Instead of browsing for self-centered reasons, I find myself browsing for things that honor God.

 Besides listening to the message, we all crafted a THINGS TO DO board.

I was pleased with the way mine turned out:

Next, we got to admire and sample some of the various other crafts.

I enjoyed the real life Pinteresting.  

She is wearing a necklace that I thought was adorable. It has each child's initial on the leaves of the branch that a momma and poppa bird are on.  How sweet is that?  (Sorry about the poor quality pic.)

If y'all get a chance to go to one of these parties, I strongly advise it.  If not for the crafty inspiration, the Buckeye's alone were worth it.

Homemade gifts are my favorite type of gifts to give.  Thanks to this party I am planning on pinning a secret board of gift ideas for others.  :)

Then the plan will be to actually make and give those gifts. 

After the Pinterest Party ended, I went to a craft show in Valparaiso.

The craft show is a fundraiser for the Special Education Learning Facility, SELF.

Elsa and the movie, Frozen, had a major appearance in the wares. 

I thought the little angels made with Hershey kisses would be a cute kid project to make.

Moss houses would also be a good idea for all those homeless fairies out there.

ScoobyDo on a stick anyone?

The turkey cake balls were adorable too.

What a crafty type of day!  Back at home little SnowBall was using my current crochet project as a bed.

Happy Crafting!

River Fishing

Brrr, Halloween was a chilly, snowy, blowy kind of day.  Do ya'all see that sleet coming down? 

The light snow cover didn't stay around long.

It was just enough to remind everyone that it's on the way.

I took the kiddies trick or treating; the weather was participating with intermittent howling winds.

Most mornings, the ground has had a cover of frost here lately.

By the afternoon, the sun has things thawed out a bit.  I donned my neoprene's and fished Salt Creek.

The steelhead were not interested in biting while I was there.

Before I knew it, it was time to leave.  A bit later that same day, I fished a southeast stretch of the Kankakee River-- without getting shot!

Regardless of the fact I didn't get a single bite, it was nice being out on the water.

Sometimes the smaller channels have a few surprises in store; not this time though.

 

I got off the water as the sun was coming down.

Both fishing sessions were fairly brief.  Although, it most often seems I run out of time before I run out of the will to fish.  

Back at the house, I was greeted by 2 Indian Geese. A Momma:

And a Baby:

Yes, it's true.  I've resorted to raising cement fowl.  I will say that they don't eat much and the coons aren't interested in em.  ;)

El Hombre DustBall & Dunes Hike

Hola!  Te gusta mi sombrero  Opps, I mean-- Hello!  Do you like my hat?

I rocked this sombrero for Halloween.  Bettcha didn't even recognize me!   ( Hint-- it's me, DustBall.) ;) 

 

I'm in the mood for a little PURRRITO! 

 

She may look like a dulce little Mexican treat, but in reality she's a real tail biter.

At least having her around takes some heat off of me.  After all, I'm a guy that likes to lay low-- especially on Halloween! 

Sophie was Elsa (from Frozen ) for Halloween.  Better the dog than me.  Meeowwww!

Well, me and the puritto, er kitten, are busy trying to nap around here.  TTYL, Senor DustBall

Hey there Folks; it's me, Kristina!  That goofy cat of mine just had to try his paw at blogging.  :) 

The kiddos, Sophie, and I went hiking at the Dunes the other day.  This trail is known as Cowles Bog, but we refer to it as the little snake trail.

 

Gladys spotted a ringed neck snake, which are real little ones, about the size of a night crawler.  (I wasn't fast enough with the camera and it got away before I got it's pic.)

  

Back in May, a few years ago, Jean, Jamie and I were hiking and the girls decided to go barefoot until they realized these little guys were every couple of steps:

 

We found a bunch of them, fresh out of the egg, and with attitudes!  The girls put shoes back on quick!

  

This hiking trial has a fishing intermission (for me anyways) at the warm water discharge.  The kids like rolling down the dunes a zillion times.  I'm all for a good dune roll, but once or twice tends to give me all the fix I need.

 

Fish like hanging out there, but it's not the easiest place to get to via land.

Makes for some good exercise though.

The weather was cool, sunny and nice.

The scenery is awesome, both in the woods and on the beach.

On the way back to the truck, we took a lunch break.

I'm not really sure how far of a hike it is, but I'd say a few miles both to and from.

 

Happy Hiking!  :)