Ralph and Vicki's Blog

Iowa Report and then some....

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:21:00 +0000

We had a great trip to Iowa this past week. All said and done we took 3 bucks and 3 doee, all on film! Lots of encounters with a bunch of deer! The corn still standing did make it hard to see everything out there, but it was still great!

Chris Griffen from Realtree took a great 9 point buck and a doe. Cameron Hanes took a cool buck and a doe. Brad Schor tried hard, but no luck! Joe Rush from ACMedia took a nice 9 point! Ralph and I each took a doe too! We all donated our does the to Iowa HUSH program. HUSH stands for Help Us Stop Hunger! Great program!! A dollar from the deer tags goes towards the cost of the processing of deer for the hungry! You just drop your deer off at one of the participating locations and they will skin, de-bone and grind up the deer for the program!

Now we are driving home to Illinois! We need to get some filming done for the 2010 TV shows! Don't worry, we will fit the filming in between hunting by our house! :-)
We saw some great deer in Iowa, hopefully we will get back so that Ralph & I can fill our buck tags too!!

Good luck to everyone! God Bless!
Ralph & Vicki

Heading to Iowa- Tales of the Hunt Outfitters

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:58:00 +0000

We are on the road again and a lot has happened since our last post!

Let's see...

A couple of our Posse were up at Efford's Hunting in New Foundland. Lonnie took a black bear and a monster woodland caribou! Bucky was with him and he took a huge moose as well!! Congrats guys!!

Bill & Scott went to Eagle Lakes Outfitters in Pike Co IL and Bill shot a nice 9 point buck there!! Then the rains came & I think they had to swim home!! LOL!

While we were home, Ralph shot a big 8 point buck on Nov. 1st! He is beautiful and the footage is awesome!! I will work on getting some pictures posted up here!

We are on our way to Iowa now. We will be hunting with Tales of The Hunt Outfitters with Aaron Volkmeyer. We will be sharing camp with Cameron Haines and a couple of our friends from Realtree, Chris Griffin & Brad Schor! We are hoping for some great weather, but it looks like it might get warm! We will keep our fingers crossed! If our phone service works there at camp, we will keep you posted!

Be Safe & God Bless!!

Ralph & Vicki

North Dakota Bucks!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:04:00 +0000

Success in North Dakota at Double B Outfitters - Ralph and Vicki with their beautiful bucks!

Double B Outfitters - North Dakota Ducks & Bucks!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:21:00 +0000

Wow! What a fantasic hunt we are having here at Double B Outfitters, here in North Dakota! We arrived on Tuesday, We are up here with Tom Gallagher from Cabela's and Jon Allen from Nikon!
The very first afternoon in our Ameristep blind, 45 minutes into my (Vicki) hunt, I had a beautiful 10 point buck come from across the food plot! He look majestic! He gave me a 20 yard shot and my Shockwave double lunged him!! My new Hoyt Vicxen has striked again!!

Thursday morning we went waterfowl hunting with Carly & Joel from Delta Waterfowl. David & John Brandt from Double B were a little nervous because they haven't been seeing many ducks or geese. we got out that morning and limited on Pintails and on geese!! We shot a blue, speckled, snow and a pile of Canada geese! It was a blast, no pun intended! No one shot any deer on Thursday night.

This morning (Fri 10-24) we didn't get as many birds, but we did get 9 geese and 1 duck!

This afternoon, Ralph shot a beautiful 13 point whitetail buck with his new Hoyt Maxxis! It's bigger then mine, but I guess he has too win every once in a while!! Of course, all of this is on film so far!

Jon had to go back to NY, but Tom is still here and hopefully he will be filling his tag tomorrow!!

Double B Outfitters!! Wow! David and John Brandt are th best!! Thanks guys!

Don't yell at me!! Catching up since caribou camp!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:09:00 +0000

Yes, once again I am running late with everything!! Hey, it's that time of the year when we are supposed to be out hunting & filming, right?

We were up at Mirage Outfitters for our caribou hunt and unfortunately we didn't do so good this year up there. :-( We lost a couple days to weather and the caribou bulls didn't read the script!! :-) Mirage did everything they could to get us into the caribou, heck they flew us over 160 miles northeast trying to get the whole camp into them!! Some of the hunters were able to get the bulls, but not everyone. We were up there with the winners from a Nikon/Odel Rep Group contest, Mark and Stu!! It was their first caribou hunt and they were able to each get a bull! We had sooooooo much fun with those guys! What a riot!! Thanks guys for the great friendship & laughter!!

We flew into O'Hare on Oct. 10th and had our luggage not show up! It was still in Montreal! We ended up waiting 4 hours for it, because we live 3 hours from O'Hare and we were supposed to be down in Pike County already for the Ladies hunt!!

We left home on the morning of the 11th for Pike! RJ and Nani came with us too!! When we got down there, there were a pile of lady hunters!! How cool!! They were all really nice!! We also had some of the Posse Girls down there as well, and most of the guys from the office filming it all!! Unfortunately once again, the weather didn't want to play nice and it rained most of the week!! Oh, and the deer didn't read the script on that hunt either!! I do hope it isn't like this the whole season!! LOL!!

We are getting ready to leave out for North Dakota to Double B Outfitters and the guys are not patiently waiting for me to finish this blog!! LOL!! We will be up there deer & waterfowl hunting with David & John Brandt!! You Betcha Ya!

Oh, and a GREAT note.... Freddy & Robert North (Posse) each shot a bull moose with a TC 300 Win Mag up at Kashabowie Outposts with Fern Duquette in Ontario!! They each shot a great bull!! CONGRATS!!!!

I promise I will do my best to keep posting more often!! Vicki & Ralph!!

Heading up to Quebec to Mirage Outfitters for Caribou!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Last time we blogged we were up in Whitehorse, Yukon and time has flown since then! We stayed in Whitehorse for a couple of days and then flew home a day early and surprised our son, RJ! Thursday last week, as we were unpacking from our moose hunt, Ralph accidently sliced open his left thumb with his pocketknife!! Yes, he had just got finished sharpening it and was opening up a package with it and the knife slipped!! Well, he managed to cut the inside of his left thumb pretty good, including an artery & possibly a nerve!! I rushed him to the hospital - 4 stitches, and IV (because of all of the blood loss) and a tetanus shot later, we were able to go back home!! He cut his index finger pretty good too while we were up in the Yukon, so the tetanus shot was probably a good thing!! He was in a bunch of pain for the next couple of days.

We did managed to finish putting in our Hunter's Specialties VitaRack Fall Mix plots here by the house! So that's a good thing!! We are expected to get like 2 inches of rain today though, so hopefully it won't flood it!!

Joe and Zendal returned from Renfro's Alsakan Adventures up in Alaska! They each shot a really nice bull moose on a do-it-yourself hunt!! They said it was hard work and a lot of sweat, but they would go back in a heartbeat!! Thanks Wade for having them up there!! The moose footage is awesome!! We are getting some great moose footage and MOOSE MANIA 2 is going to be awesome next year!!!

Freddy and Robery North (Posse) are going to be heading up to Kashabowie Outposts with Fern in Ontario for a moose hunt too!! Scott Wolfe & Bill Ball (both Posse) are up there right now trying for the big swamp donkeys!! :-)

Ralph and I are trying to get everything caught up here, seeing as how we were home for about 12 hours between our Colorado and Yukon hunts! Don't worry, we are not complaining!! We are geting a few things done in the office this miornng and then a packing we will go!! Ralph talked with Peter Palmer, from Mirage Outfitters up in Quebec, yesterday and he told Ralph that there was snow all week in Kuujjuaq and that some of the hunters couldn't fly out of town due to the weather!! They are keeping their eyes on the situation and hopefully the weather will break a little and allow us to fly into a camp on Saturday!! I am thinking I better bring my SHE Outdoor C4 suit!! (Ralph is laughing at me!!) Oh well, better warm, dry and maybe over packed then cold & wet!! :-)

I did call our cell phone company to find out why my data service doesn't work in Canada and that I was going to change companies. They swear up and down that if we take our battery out of our phone for 5 minutes and then turn it back on that it should work. Hmmm... well I guess we will give it a try this weekend, if not maybe we need to make a change.

OK, I think I have rambled on long enough!! Better get to work!! Have a great week!! Vicki & Ralph

Back at the Mac!! Moose hunting!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:15:00 +0000

Ralph and I are in Whitehorse, Yukon right now. We just flew back out of our MacMillan River Adventures moose camp and had a great time!!

We flew in on the 13th and I had my bull down by the 15th!! I shot my moose at 5 feet from me!! WOW, what a rush!! He is a beautiful bull, heck I don't even know how long my Beman was actually off of my Hoyt before it hit him!! :)

Ralph shot his bull a couple of days later at about 12 yards!! Yes, his bull is bigger then mine. Steve (our guide), Ralph and I walked up to his bull with Steve using the boat paddle as an antler and really got the bull worked up!! He was mad, thankfully Ralph shot him!! :)

It has been a great trip, we met new friends, the Cross brothers - Greg & Steve, and we spent sometime with the new outfitter & his wife, Don & Jackie Lind. The weather was a hair warm, and the bulls weren't moving as much as we had seen in the past, but it was an awesome hunt!
We love the Yukon!!!

We heard that Joe & Zendal, who are in Alaska at Renfro's Alaskan Adventure's moose hunting, Zendal shot a nice moose!! Yea Z!!! Congrats!!! We also heard that Gary got his first elk in Colorado with Winterhawk Outfitters!! Congrats Gary!! I heard he pulled a Freddy and started to cry!! :)

We have some traveling to do before we get home later this week. We wish everyone well!! God Bless!!

Our hunting season has begun!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:41:00 +0000

It is crazy already and the season has just begun!! I (Vicki) shot a beautiful bull elk on Sept. 8th, last Tuesday at the Cielo Vista Ranch in Colorado! Wow! He ended up scoring 358 6/8" 6x6!! We took pictures of him and then went into town to get Ralph an elk tag. He hunted Wednesday night and Thursday morning, he had a few encounters, but nothing to shoot at. Then we went back to the camp and I turned on my phone, there was a text message from Ralph's Mom, it just stated that we fly out to Whitehorse on Saturday, not Sunday like we were thinking!! Yikes!! Can you say 'throw EVERYTHING into the truck and drive like mad back to Illinois!!!
We arrived at home yesterday about 4:30pm!! We played with RJ the rest of the day and evening.

This morning Mom picked up RJ for the Boy Scouting Event that the Hoffman Estates, IL Cabela's was having today! We washed socks & undies, re-packed, made sure batteries were charged, cut up the Elk backstraps, loaded up the turck and left our house at 11am this morning for the airport!!

We are now sitting in the Vancouver, BC airport waiting for our 10:55pm flight to Whitehorse!! We get into Whitehiorse around 1am, then look for Don Lind from MacMillan River Adventures at the airport. If he couldn't make it, he told us to take the shuttle to the hotel and be ready to fly out tomorrow am for camp!!

As the saying goes..... 'Who needs sleep?' Hopefully we will have some great news to post when we get off of the Mac Millan River!!

Be safe and God Bless!!!

Ralph & Vicki

Cielo Vista - Colorado! Elk hunt

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:21:00 +0000

All I can say right now is THANK YOU all at Cielo Vista for getting that elk monkey off my back!! This was my 6th elk hunt and finally I got an elk! Not just an elk, a beautiful bull!! We will update more later wjen we get better phne service!! Wow!!!!!!! Thank you Lord!!!

It's Hunting Season!!!!! First to Colorado for elk!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:54:00 +0000

It is finally here!! Hunting season!! Yea!! We are trying to get everything packed up and ready to go to head out for Colorado tomorrow! (Wednesday 9/2) We will be hunting at Cielo Vista in Colorado for elk!! We can't wait!!

We have been shooting our Hoyt's non-stop and they are ready to go!! I hope that we will be ready to leave out tomorrow! There is so much that need to be done before we leave, because this is the start of the hunting season and we won't be in the studio too much from now until mid-January!! Trust me, we are not complaining!!

Ralph and I won't have cell phone service or internet while in Colorado and we will be back home around the 11th. If we are succesful, we will make sure someone posts the news up here for us!! We will be able to post on the drive home, as well!!

We then fly out on the 13th for Whitehorse, Yukon!! MOOSE hunting!!! Yes, the MacMillan River is calling us back and we cannot wait to get there!! Again, we won't have cell or interent service, but we will have a satellite phone and we will make sure someone posts on here if we are successful!!

We also have Joe & Zendal leaving out for Renfro's Alaskan Adventures for a drop moose camp on the 15th of September. Gary is also leaving out for Colorado in the middle of September for an elk hunt with Winterhawk Outfitters!! The boys are going to be busy!! Then comes deer hunting for the guys!!

We want to wish everyone a safe & succesful hunting season!! May God bless all of you!!

Vicki & Ralph!!

One week away!! Colorado here we come!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:43:00 +0000

It has been one heck of a crazy summer!! We have traveled and met a bunch of great people all over North America!! Thanks to everyone that came out to say 'hi' at all of the different events we attended!! You guys rock!!

Now, we have to start getting serious though.... Hunting season is here!!! Yes!! We are excited!! We leave in less then a week for Colorado for elk hunting at the Ceola Vista Ranch!! We are meeting up with Hal Gahm and the rest of the crazy guys there for some great elk hunting!!

Then we will be headin up to the Yukon to Mac Millan River Adventures for MOOSE!!!!!! Do you think we are excited??? Just a little?? We will be up on the Mac again chasing those big bulls around!! We can't wait!!

I believe Ralph is going to be heading to Ohio for opening Deer season, with Clear Creek Outfitters for about 5 days, and then it is off to one of our other favorite places, Quebec for Caribou!! We are meeting up with some guys that won a Nikon product/video contest on YouTube!! Of course then the deer hunting starts and won't end until mid-January!!

We hope everyone has a great and safe season!! Keep us posted on how you all are doing by joining us and our crazy friends on our forum!!!

Have a great day and we will keep posted on our hunts, as long as my phone continues to work!! :-)

Vicki & Ralph

Hey Everyone!!!! Don't forget to sign up for your free ThermaCell by hitting the link on our home page!! www.archerschoicemedia.com There is 1 winner everyday thru the rest of August!!!!!

Time is flying!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:14:00 +0000

Whew! It has been a crazy week and a half and I don't see it ending anytime soon!!

First we were at Deerassic Classic in Cambridge, OH and had a blast! That has to be one of the most fun consumers shows we attend!! Then we went to the Rossford Bass Pro Shop on Sunday and met more people there!! We were home for three days and headed out to Edmonton for Huntfest!

We were amazed at how far people would travel to go to a hunting show, but then found out that they really don't have any shows liked that in Alberta, or basically western Canada! We did meet some really neat people there and saw so many big buck photos that it was sickening!! :-) Saturday was my birthday and everyone sang happy birthday to me during one of our seminars!! It was quite embarrasing!! Not to mention Ralph taking a flower from the hotel for me!! (That's a long story!!) The guys & gals from WildTV also had a birthday cake made for me that we shared with everyone!!

We took RJ up there with us too, he had a blast shooting bows, BB guns, riding ATV's and watching the retreiving dogs!! We want to thank everyone up there for the hospitality that they poured out on us!! THANK YOU!!

We returned home about 1am this morning (Monday) and RJ starts school tomorrow, third grade!! Wow, time flies!!

We are trying to get caught up before we leave out again on Wednesday for a commercial shoot in CA for Nikon!! We will be there with Don & Kandi, Pat & Nicole, Lee & Tiffany and Wes & Jody!! Sounds like a good time!!

Then on Saturday Aug 22, we will be at the Hoffman Estates, IL CABELA'S!! We will be there for most of the day, including seminars at 1 & 3 pm!! Hope to see some of you there!!

Hey, maybe one day, Ralph will figure out how to blog on here, wouldn't that be nice!! LOL!!!! :-)

Have a Great Day!! Vicki

Deerassic Classic!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:50:00 +0000

Wow!! This is our second year here at the Deerassic Classic in OH, and it is crazy!! We have met a whole bunch of great people and they are all hunters!!
We are on our way to the second day of the Deerassic and we are hoping that it doesn't rain! If you have never been there, you should try to make it!!
Tomorrow (Sunday) we will be at Bass Pro in Toledo from 12-5!!

Time to catch up!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:04:00 +0000

Wow! It has been a crazy since our last blog! Where do we begin..... We had most of our POSSE here from last Thursday thru Sunday, along with many of our supporting maunfacturers. The POSSE learned more about the cameras they film on, as well as the new products from the manufacturers and how they would like to see the products used on film. On Saturday Night we had our POSSE Bash with a theme of 'Redneck Luau'!! It was a lot of fun!! Most were dressed in 'redneck luau' style!! We had a hog roast, awards ceremony and some product giveaways! Not to mention a couple of the guys going bullfrog hunting in the pond...........

Tuesday we had to finish filmng for the Hoyt projet that we are working on! Freddy is doing an awesome job editing the project, and Joe & Z did a great job filming it all!! Thanks guys!!

Wednesday we filmed a commercial spot for Mountain Mike's Reproductions! Mike, Terry and their family are some neat people! They flew out here to Illinois for the shoot, and made it into a family vacation! We ended up eating s'mores Wednesday night before everyone left!! They had never seen fire flies!! (lightening bugs!) So that was kind of a big thing going on here!! LOL!!

If you have never seen the SKULL MASTER skull, you should check it out at www.mountainmikesreproductions.com it is so easy to make your antlers looks great with no bugs, no boiling, no mess!!

Today we are driving up to the Richfield, WI (Milwaukee) CABELA'S store!! We will be there all day on Saturday & Sunday! I will need to make sure that Ralph forgets to bring his VISA card with, I know how he loves Cabela's!!!

Well, I guess we better go get packed up and head out to Cabela's!! Have a Great day!!

Getting ready for the Posse Bash!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:55:00 +0000

Once a year we get our Posse together to go over new product with our manufacturers and filming do's & don'ts, well this is the weekend!! We are trying to get everything in order and arranged so that when everyone gets here there is no confusion. Ha! Like that is going to happen!! LOL!!

We had Dusty Perillo come in early to help us out, her job duties have been stuffing boxes, bags and sweeping raccoon poop!! LOL!! She really has been a big help, even if she does bruise easily!! :-)

The guys here in the studio are running around trying to get everything ready!! Ma & Jody are running around like crazy too!! We should have about 40+ Posse, plus manufacturers here, so it is bound to get crazy here!!

On another note, we are very excited about some new shirt designs soon to be had!! We can't wait for everyone to see them!! We have a few new designs that we have been working with one of our sponsors on this and they are going to rock!! Just wait!!!!!!

On a second other note, we just got our new BadBoy XT Buggie!! For the little bit that we drove it so far, WOW!! It is nice, now if it would only stop raining so that we could drive it more and test it out!! Very impressive for the little bit that we did drive it!!

I better get back to getting ready for the Bash before anyone realizes that I am not really working!! LOL!!!

Vicki (& Ralph)

Things back to normal.... Crazy!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:47:00 +0000

Hey Everyone!

We are back home now from Texas. We had a blast meeting everyone at Wulf Outdoor Sports, what a great group of people and a couple of great stores, they have everything!! Thanks to everyone that came out to the Athens & Center, TX stores to visit with us!! Wow, was it HOT down there!! We live in Illinois and that 100+degrees everyday is crazy! Thursday night at 9:00 it was still 100!!!

We ended up getting home about 1:30am Monday morning, and with a few hours of sleep, right back to work!! We had some major production meeting to get everything lined out for the next few weeks.

This week we have two top secret photo shoots (1 video & 1 stills)!! Wednesday, Mike Schoby will be here with us at the studio doing some work. Thursday we have a top secret HOYT project going on. The guys in the office, (Joe, Freddy & Zendal) have been busy working on this project for about a month and it is almost completed!! Wait until you see what that is!! Very Cool!!

Ralph and I decided to have a huge family picnic this weekend with both of our families coming!! We don't live normal lives, and we always miss other gatherings, so we decided to have one on our only open weekend for the summer!! :) Yes, he wants to kill me!! :) But it will be good!!

Next weekend is our Annual Posse Bash!! The Posse will be infiltrating Northern Illinois, beware!! :) We have lots of great things planned for it, including some of our manufacturers coming out and talking to us all about the products!!

Well, I better go and get busy!!

God Bless,

Ralph & Vicki

Heading to Wulf Outdoors Sports in Athens & Center, Texas!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:50:00 +0000

Hey everyone!

Ralph and I are getting ready to walk out the door to fly down to Texas for the weekend!! We are going to be at Wulf Sports!! Come out and visit with us, we would love to see you!!

July 10, 1-5 p.m. at Wulf Outdoor Sports in Athens, TX
July 11, 11-4 p.m. at Wulf Outdoor Sports in Center, TX
July 12, 1-3 p.m. at Wulf Outdoor Sports in Center, TX

There will be some giveaway and I believe the first 50 people will receive a free t-shirt!! :)

The final count for us down in Florida was 7 gators and 13 hogs!! We had a blast with Hoppy at Osceola Outfitters!! Wait until you see the gator footage! It rocks! A couple of our Posse even went swimming in the canal to retrieve one of the gators!! Chet & Meegan - you two are crazy!! :)

The count went like this:
Ralph - 1 gator & 1 hog with TC 223 -- 1 hog with AlphaMax
Vicki - 1 gator & 1 hog with TC 223
RJ - 1 hog with TenPoint crossbow!! (Yes, on the last night he got his hog!!) :)
Ma - (Arlene/Nani) - 1 hog with TC 223
Joe - 1 gator with TC 223 -- 1 hog with AlphaMax
Amy - 1 gator & 1 hog with R15
Dani - (Joe & Amy's daughter) - 1 hog with TC 223
Dusty - 1 gator with R15 -- 1 hog with TC 223
Meegan - 1 hog with AlphaMax
Lonnie - 1 gator with TC 223 -- 2 hogs with AlphaMax
Chet - 1 gator with TC 223 -- 1 hog with AlphaMax

Well, we hope everyone has a great weekend!! Stay cool and be safe!!

God Bless,
Vicki & Ralph

Hunting hogs & gators at Osceola Outfitters

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:24:00 +0000

Well, we had high hopes of blogging a lot more then we have on this trip! We have been running around here hunting hard! Right now, I believe we have 4 gators and 10 hogs!! It has been a blast! We have today and tomorrow left to try for more, and trust me, we are trying! :-)

Amy Rush has the biggest gator so far, 10 footer!! You go girl!! We shot the gators with our TC 223 Contender! Wow, did that make a hole in it's head!!

It's been hot, stormy and mosquito infested! The mosquitos are big enough to fly away with you!! Thank goodness for our ThermaCel's!!!

We some great footage and can't wait to edit it and share it with everyone!!

Out and About

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:16:00 +0000

Last week Ralph, RJ, Nani and myself took a ride out to Iowa to check out the deer hunting property and all we can say is WOW!! :) There are lots of ticks, but the deer sign was awesome!! Habitat, habitat, habitat!! A creek, two ponds, big white oaks, locust and osage trees and of course lots of ticks! It was about 95 degrees when we decided to walk the propoerty, and boy did we sweat!! If we get our Iowa tags this year, we have a really sweet spot in southwestern Iowa to hunt!! :) Deer trails that looks like motorbike trails!!

On the way home, what is supposed to be a 6 hours drive, turned into a 9 hour drive because of the nasty thunderstorms that we hit!! Interstate 80 was actually closed near Iowa City, due to a river flowing over the road!! So we sat about 30 miles west of Iowa City on I-80 for about an hour before we decided to exit and 'try' the back roads back to Illinois. The good news here is that we only had to drive thru water over the road once!! RJ thought it was fun!! Great!!

On Father's Day we cleaned the house!! Ralph was sooooooo happy!! It's part of that honey-do list!! :) LOL!! It rained so hard on Sunday night here at the house, it made our wood chips float to the other sode of the driveway!! So Monday morning we were out there sweeping the chips back! It seems to be the summer of the wood chip stories!! :)

We are leavingout on Thursday for Florida, to go hunt hogs & gators with Hoppy at Osceola Outfitters!! We always have a blast down there with the whole Kempfer family!! I have been told that I should be able to post blogs from my phone anywhere I get data service, so we will see how that all goes! If so, I will have an excuse to bring my phone out in the blinds with me and Ralph won't be able to yell at me for it!! :) I'll be 'working'!! LOL!!

Take care and be safe!! God Bless!!

OK, Vicki told me I need to BLOG....Not sure what that means!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:36:00 +0000

Last night RJ had a baseball game and they almost came back in the 5th ining, they played great defense and RJ got a hit but in the bottom of the 6th, last ining, Pearl City scored a run and our little guys lost. It was a great game!

Joe & Zendal left this morning to film a new project we are working on for HOYT, and we are busy today getting everything ready for this fall season and wrapping up other production stuff.
Update on Joe & Z's Manitoba hunt adventure with Adrenaline Outfitters.....Z MISSED! Wait till you see the size of this bear, by far one of the largest bears we have EVER gotten on camera, and poor Z was drawing back and hit his release....He was so bumbed and wow, we have some serious beeping out of audio right after the shot! Not a normal thing from the Zman! Don't worry buddy, we all have been there and will be there again.

Well got to go and spread out some more cedar chips in our yard, it is on Vicki's Honey Do lists for me. The only question I have is why did we have to go BUY so many cedar chips in a bag when we live in the woods anyways? What would drive someone to want to put wood chips down on the ground when you live in the woods anyways? HHHHMmmmmmmm THIS MUST BE ONE OF THOSE THINGS FROM ..Men are from Mars and Women etc.........

Our first try at blogging!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ralph and Vicki) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:02:00 +0000

Hey everyone!

I guess it was bound to happen, now we are blogging too! :) It is amazing how fast & much technology changes! If I understand it right, Ralph and I will be able to post new blogs right from our phones to keep you all up todate with how our hunts & travels are going, good, bad or indifferent!!

We have had a strange spring so far, but hey, that's why it is called hunting! Lots of production and not as much hunting, what's wrong with this picture!! :)

We just heard from Joe & Zendal, they are hunting up at Adrenaline Outfitters in Manitoba! Joe shot a really nice chocolate phase black bear yesterday! They said it is beautiful!! I guess they are going after a big one tonight for Zendal!! Good luck guys!!

Well, we will be blogging to you all soon!! :)