2012 Update - Snow Day February 13, 2012

Winter finally decided to pay a visit to Lakeview, Arkansas.  We had some real cold weather blow in Friday,  February 10, and then the moisture arrived on Monday, February 13. 

It started snowing in the early morning and this is the view we had when we got up this morning.  The view is looking out from the deck towards the lake.

The snow fall increased during mid-morning and finally stopped around 3:00pm.

The Ozark Dream all covered in snow.  Now it's time to go to work.

After clearing his driveway, Dad came over with his tractor and blade to help clear the snow around our driveway and the street.

Steph and Dad clearing more snow in the street.

The driveway is now snow-free and hopefully we can come and go without sliding over the edge into the woods.

2011 Update - December 2011 (2nd Half)

As you may remember on the previous post we were awaiting the arrival of Ann and Jared to find out it we are getting a new Grandson or Granddaughter.  Well, the day has arrived and everyone is waiting for the plane to arrive at the Branson airport.  Ann has said they will dress in the appropriate color for the new baby.

Well, it looks like it's a boy!!  Mom is really starting to glow or is it show?

Now it's just wait until May and little Parker Wilson Lowe will arrive.  We will definitely have pictures to share at the happy time. 

The next set of pictures were taken Christmas Day 2011, the first Christmas in the new house.

Tom, Laura, Clara and William at the Ozark Dream getting ready to open presents. 

Grandma Reubin, William, and Clara playing with the new doll bunk bed that Grandma Reubin had made by Jr. Staley, the cabinet maker.  The wood and stain is the same as Tom and Laura's enterainment center that Jr. made for them.  Grandma also had anothr bunk bed made in the same wood and stain as our house for the Grandkids bedroom downstairs.

Clara checking out her new animal pillow.

William and Laura (Mom) with the new John Deere plate.

Christmas Day 2011 was just beautiful.  This is a view of the front of the house with Bull Shoals Lake in the background.

Well, that's about it for the year 2011.  It has been very exciting and passed very quickly. To close, this is a picture of the back of the house.  Spring and summer will be here soon so the deck and back porch will be the place to be.

Visit often in 2012 for continued updates.

Happy New Year to all!!!

2011 Update - December 2011 (1st Half)

ROAD TRIP!  Jared and I are on our way to the Golden Triangle of South Texas Deer Hunting, Carrizo Springs, Texas.  We were there to open the season back in early November, but failed to bring home any vension.  Now, the pressure is on to provide some meat for the Lowe and Reubin family tables.

In case you may have forgotten how lucky we are to have a place to hunt, just take a look at the "camp cabin" we get to use.  I have had the opportunity to hunt at Pete Wardenburg's ranches for at least 15 years and have enjoyed each and every hunt. Many friends and family members have experienced the beauty of South Texas and the awesome abundance of animals at the ranch.

Just a sample of the year-round residents at the ranch.

In previous years everyone was encouraged to harvest spikes (see above) or a doe if you wanted meat for the table.  However, due to the drought conditions in 2011, we passed on spikes unless they were clearly carry-overs from the 2010 season.

Well, Jared and I hunted hard Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning but had nothing to show for the effort.  We needed to make a decision to return home for the OU/OSU football game or stay and continue to hunt.  We choose to stay and it was a very good decision!

Jared was first to harvest a nice buck.  Since the ranch decided to pass on spike bucks this year we started to look for bucks that DID NOT have brow tines/eye guards. 

As fate would have it on Saturday nite a real nice buck came into the feeder that meet the criteria for a cull buck and Jared was successful with one shot.

This deer was clearly a cull buck at the ranch.  He is probably 3 to 4 years old and has not developed as well as others at the ranch.  Now the pressure was on me to harvest something to bring back to Arkansas and I only had one more opportunity, Sunday morning. Saturday nite was spent on the cell phone with Steph, Ann, and Laura getting updates on OU-OSU football.  What a night

OSU 44 OU 10  GO POKES!  How could it get any better than this!!

THIS IS HOW!!

  The weather turned cooler Saturday night and Sunday morning and the deer were really moving around on Sunday morning.  I went to the West Blind where I had previously spotted the 12pt  and Slick Willie (see November posting) and hoped maybe they would return.  Neither showed up, but I had at least 8 doe in the feeder and was in the process of selecting one of them for harvesting. I had made my selection and was nearly ready to fire when out of the corner of my eye I saw another doe running to the feeder and about 200 yards behind her was this trophy.  I let him follow the doe to the feeder and settle down a little before trying to get a shot.  I  did not have to wait long as he turned sideways and gave me the perfect shot. 

The deer is 13pts and scored 159.

At the time, this was the largest deer ever harvested at Pete's. This picture was submitted to the Baxter Bulletin  (Mountain Home newspaper) and was published on January 4, 2012.

Needless to say, Jared and I had a great time at the ranch.  He is going to try to do a European mount for his deer and mine in at Creagor's Artistic Wildlife Taxidermy.  The Big Boy should be home by early April.  What a weekend--Big Deer and OSU beats OU and wins BIG 12 football!!

The next big event for December is to find out if the LITTLE LOWE is a football player or a cheerleader.  Ann and Jared are coming to Arkansas the week before Christmas to make the announcement so stay tuned for the next update.

2011 Update - November 2011 (2nd Half) Activities

Well we made it back home to Lakeview, Arkansas, in time to get ready for Thanksgiving.  The Trent Family (Laura and Tom) will be our host this year in their Springfield, Mo. home.  We left for their house on Wednesday before Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Dr. Tom had to work Wednesday nite so we had a late afternoon dinner on Thursday. I had babysitting duty Thursday morning so William, Clara, and I headed off to Bass Pro Shop and later to Braums for a lite snack before dinner.  Sorry to say no pictures available as Laura and Tom used their camera for the photo op.  I will get a few of the pics and post a Thanksgiving review at a later date.
The next week after Thanksgiving we had an opportunity to meet Laura and the kids at Silver Dollar City to see the light show and enjoy a few of the rides.  The afternoon started off warm, but by early evening when the sun set it cooled down quickly.  A few pics of our evening at Silver Dollar City follows.

Silver Dollar City is well known for its Christmas light show at the park.  We missed it last year, but that wasn't going to happen this year.  This is the large Christmas Tree at Main Street in the park.  The tree changes color numerous times during the playing of Christmas music.

Clara and Grandma Reubin (Stephanie) enjoying one of the rides in the kids part of the park.

William and Mom (Laura) enjoying the same ride.

A highlight of the night was the Chrismas Light Parade around Main Street.  Guess who was their,

Santa Claus and a few of his favorite elves.

This is a replica of the Silver Dollar Train Engine decked out in lights.  I think this was William's favorite item in the Parade. 

Silver Dollar City at Christmas is a real treat to the eyes and ears.  The crowd was not large and we were able to see and do many things in a short period of time.  You should put this on your calendar for 2012 and include a visit to the Ozark Dream.

After our day trip to Silver Dollar City is was time to get ready for Christmas at our house and plan the next big road trip to, where else, College Station and Carrizo Springs, Texas.

During our Thanksgiving trip to Springfield, Steph was able to find the Christmas Tree she wanted for our house.  This is a 12 ft. tree with lights already attached.  I had to get the ladder out to "top out" the tree and get it ready for the ornaments.

The boss has proclaimed "IT FITS" and I like the way it looks.

The family stockings are hung and we are nearly ready the Christmas and it's only late November.

With the tree up and the stockings hung it time for a ROAD TRIP!  We left for College Station on November 29 so that we could celebrate Stephanie's birthday with Ann and Jared the next day.

Well the birthday girl had a real treat.  Jared and Ann had made reservations at the Messina Hof Winery in Bryan, Texas, and we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner and dessert.  Messina Hof fixed a special plate for Stephanie with a Happy Birthday Cheesecake.  The food was outstanding and we will definitely put this on the calendar for a return trip.  We need to go back and tour the vineyard and the gift shop when it gets a little warmer.

This is another picture of Stephanie in the Main Dining Room of  Messina Hof.

Our waitress was kind enough to take a group shot of us.  Thank You Ann and Jared for selecting a wonderful spot to celebrate Stephanie's  birthday.

Well that's wraps up November and gets us to the next road trip for Jared and I, back to the ranch for some unfinished business.  We are leaving bright and early Dec 1 in search of the Muy Grande Whitetail deer, the wild hogs, and maybe a coyote and/or bobcat.  The results will be posted soon so come back for the REST OF THE STORY!

One final note, the house picture in the right margin at the top of page is the real OZARK DREAM.  We will always be updating and changing, but this is what we now call HOME SWEET HOME!

2011 Update - November 2011 (1st Half) Activities

I feel like Willie Nelson -- On The Road Again!  As noted in the October 2011 update we are headed to College Station, Tx.  Our mission, in addition to visiting the expecting Mom (Ann Marie), is to attend the Boys and Girls Country Honorary Dinner and Auction, go to the International Quilt Show, and deer/varmit hunting at Carrizo Springs, Tx.
The Boys and Girls Country affair was terrific.  We had a wonderful dinner, watched some of Houston's top people bid on extravagant trips and gifts, and had a great live show with Bill Engvall of "Here's Your Sign" fame.
The next morning we were up early and on the road to the Quilt Show.  Well, Steph went, I took Beau the dog to see the eye specialist to get a check up of his catarack's.  He still has virtually no vision, but gets around just fine and can still track me down with his nose.
Steph took the camera with her and got a few shots of some of the fancy quilts at the show.  We have added a few shots of some of her favorite quilts seen at the show.

 After Steph's day at the Quilt show we returned to Ann and Jared's house on Thursday night.  The next morning Jared and I hit the road early for Carrizo Springs.  We wanted to get in a little deer scouting and varmit hunting on Friday afternoon before deer season openned on Saturday, November 5.

This picture shows three of the bucks we saw on Friday afternoon.  The buck on the far left is a young 8 pt, the deer in the middle is a fabulous 12 pt, and the buck on the right is an older management buck we named "Slick Willie" since one of his main beams only has 1 tine.  As fate would have it, we never saw these bucks after Friday nite.  I guess they have an internal clock that tells them deer season started Saturday.

Jared had a successful hunt on Saturday morning bagging this coyote.  The neat thing about this was he used a coyote caller (wounded rabbit) and the coyote came running into the area near the blind and he was able to get him with one shot.  We saw lots of deer Saturday morning, but nothing worthy of shooting.

 Saturday night Jared and I both scored with hogs.  The ranch is full of hogs this year and they are quickly becoming a major problem. Our score for the weekend was 3 hogs, 1 coyote, and 1 rattlesnake.  No deer were harmed this weekend.

 This next set of pictures I have to give credit to Ann Marie.  Ann and Jared ventured up to McKinney and represented the family at Jake's 5 years old birthday party.  It's hard to believe he is that old, in fact I remember the day he was born and I was at the ranch deer hunting and got a call about 2 in the morning that Brent and Melissa were heading to the hospital.  Later on I got the news that Jacob was born. This is Jake getting a card and present from Hannah.

This picture has Jake getting ready to open the family present with Dad and Hannah.

Well it looks like the party is getting close to the end.  That's Mom (Melissa) giving Jake his birthday cupcake with the
"Big 5" on the top.

Well that about wraps the first half of November.  We have hit the road for home, but something tells me that the road trips are not over for November.  I still think I have some unfinished business to take care of in Carrizo Springs.  Come for the exciting conclusion to November and maybe a sneek peek into early December.

2011 Update - October 2011 Activities

Well, it's time for another update of the exciting things we do as "retired folk."  After our trips to California and Texas we were able to come home for a few days to do laundry, check the mail, pay bills, and pack for the next adventure.
In the middle of October, Tom (Laura's Husband) and I headed to Colorado to try our luck in Elk hunting.  We joined a father/son team we knew from Mountain Home and headed off to Teleuride, Colorado.  This hunting trip was a little on the "roughing it" side, not like deer hunting in South Texas.
This is a picture of our camp site.  YES, that is a tent!! This was home sweet home for 5 days.

Elk hunting should be considered an Xtreme sport.  If the altitude doesn't get you, we camped at 8000 ft, then the climb up to nearly 11000 ft looking for the elusive elk will surely finish you off since you have to walk, carry a backpack, and don't forget the trusty rifle. I still have a few aches and pains.

Never fails, you hunt for Elk and all you see are mule deer.

Well, I am sad to report that no elk were harmed during our visit to Colorado.  The one saving grace to the trip was seeing some of the most beautiful mountains and forests in the USA.  This is a sample of the terrain where we were hunting.  The temps were warm for Colorado so the elk were going higher and staying in the dark timber and we were not able to find their hiding places.  I am sure they knew we were coming long before we got near them due to all the huffing and puffing to catch our breath we certainly did not sneek up on them.

The last day of the 1st Elk Season was on a Wednesday, but we broke camp on Tuesday because if an elk was shot on Wednesday we would NOT make it back to Springfield, Mo., in time for a very special event.

Yep, that's "No Kill" Tom and the little birthday boy William. This was the family birthday party for William.  He has just got a new tool kit like his father and a new hot wheel car.

Well the big day arrived and all of William's friends came to play, eat cake, and take a hay ride around the pumpkin patch.  The "Bouncee" was a real hit with all the kids.  It was a great way to wear the kids down before re-loading them with cake.

The theme of the party was John Deere Tractors!!  Grandma Reubin (Stephanie) went to the John Deere dealer and got special shirts, patches, plates, and a toy or two all with the John Deere logo and the color green.  Even his b-day cake had a John Deere theme.

William is holding one of his favorite gifts, a mini John Deere tractor.

The end of the party was highlighted by a hay ride around the property to the pumpkin patch where each guest was able to pick his or her favorite pumpkin to take home.  We all had a wonderful day and the weather was just great.

Well, as October was coming to a close Steph and I are headed off to College Station (again).  This time it  was to drop off Steph to visit with Ann, then Jared (Ann's Husband) and I were going to South Texas in search of the Muy Grande Deer.  The deer hunt stories and other wild tales will follow in the November Update.  Come back soon for this update, it could be real exciting!!