Saturday December 5, 2015-Inks Lake State Park

This evening we went to see a boat parade down the river above Inks Lake. Our vantage point was from the old highway on the closed-down bridge, which was a good point to see the boats below us, but it was surrounded by a very high cyclone fence, which made taking good photos very difficult.

The boats gathered and then circled under the bridge. There was also a barge with the fireworks on it below us. Again, it made personal viewing the fireworks easy, but they were very nearby so I couldn't get the full effect. 

After the boat parade we drove into Burnet to see the Christmas lights on the town square around the County Courthouse. Beautiful!!

I especially liked the icicles hanging from the limbs. They are actually flat lights with descending lights that make them look very realistic. We plan to go to another couple of light displays before Christmas and I'll show you the pictures when we go.

So long.

Thursday December 3, 2015-Inks Lake State Park

We have been having a great time again at Inks Lake where we are camp hosting again. This is our fourth year to host here and my third year to be a deer hunt guide. 

I think I have showed you this picture before, so this is just a reminder of how beautiful our site is here. If they had wifi here, it would be perfect!

Our neighbors, Paul and Willene's place.

We were visited here at the park just before Thanksgiving by our friends Tony and Erika, but unfortunately I didn't take any photos during that time. I am sorry for that, but trust me, we had a nice time with them. We ate out a couple of times including Cooper's Barbecue in Llano and the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls but best of all, we had fun with our friends!

We went to visit Grandma Willie Mae and my brothers Phil and Ted the day after Thanksgiving. We had a delicious lunch at Pat's Place in New Braunfels. That is Grandma Willie Mae in front, Stella and I to her right, Phil and Carol, and Ted. As some of you may know, Ted lost his wife Kay in February. 

This is one of my three deer hunt blinds. I am just showing you this photo to give you an idea of the size of this area. It has the longest distance for shots of any of the blinds and I am proud to say that it has one of the best records for deer harvesting. I am standing in front of the blind and it is approximately 125 yards to the brush line. If you blow the picture up you can see the deer feeder in the left center of the picture. The man in the black jacket is Don, another host in the park and a professional photographer and the orange speck is the hunter, Shane.

Here is a better picture of Shane, one of five disabled  hunters that were here this week. This is an Americans with Disabilities compliant hunts, and as far as we know, one of very few in the country, certainly the only one in the TPWD system. We had the Director of Public Hunts, Justin, here for this hunt and he was very impressed.

Here I am posing with Shane and his two deer. As you can see, he is confined to his wheelchair as were three of the other four hunters. The fifth hunter was named Alia, age 10, who has a prosthetic leg. He took three deer by himself, one of which was his first-ever! I believe that he is having the deer mounted as a trophy of his first deer hunt.

A better photo of Shane with his hoodie down. It was cold this morning, about 35 degrees, another reason to congratulate these guys for braving cold weather to come out to hunt. We are honored to have these guys, both young and old, to come out and participate with us. 

The hunt will continue and I will try to keep you posted on or activities. We will have a youth-only hunt during the Christmas vacation and I will try to remember to bring my camera with me during that time.

The weather has been just about perfect for the past couple of days, with cold temps in the morning and warm and dry days, with temperatures in the upper 70's. I'll love it while it lasts!

So long.