She's 2!

Oh Rogue. Today you turn two years old. I honestly don't know how to feel. I feel sad that your no longer a baby and happy that we have made it together this far with so much farther to go. You are constantly talking even though we can't understand everything that's said. You absolutely love fish. We just got back from a week in Florida and I think you could have fished with your dad all day. Which is really saying something because you are not a patient child. You also love pretty much any animal. You always try to play with Boone, which he doesn't often appreciate. Lately you have had more opinions about what affects you, like going to bed and the clothes you wear. Overall I have to say you are a pretty easy going child. We love you with all our hearts baby girl! Happy Birthday!!

Catch up

I have some serious catching up to do, I know. This is just a little of what we've been up to. In October we went to Post Family Farm with my mom and sister in law and Rain and River. It was freezing that morning so we fed the goats for a little while and had our cider and donuts and booked out of there. Those donuts are just amazing.

We also made our annual trip to Cranes Orchard. We walked through the orchard a little bit and of course and dinner there. As you see in the picture Rogue is eating her apple with a knife stuck in it. Not the safest I know but we were trying to keep her happy so we could eat our dinner in peace. That girl has no sit in her.

And finally we have Halloween. I have to say it was a lot of fun this year. Rogue really got into it. Every year we go to my brother and sister in law's house in Borculo to hit up a few houses in the subdivision where they live. She would walk right up to the door and say Trick or Treat all on her own. She did however have a habit of giving her candy and not receiving it. Cute!

Birthday Buck

October 21, 2010. Chad turns 29 and gives me a present.

We met in the bank parking lot at 5:30pm. I gave Chad an ear piece for his phone as a birthday present (really more of a present for me and dad), and then we had the normal discussion of who is going to sit where. We decided a flip was in order. No one had a coin on them so we flipped the doberman keychain I had on my car keys. Head up, I go to the top stand (hotspot); head down, I go to the lower stand. The head was down so I went out to the lower stand.

About an hour went by and 4 deer came in from the south. Two button bucks came in right under my stand and the two doe that were with them were a little more reluctant to come in. They stood about 70 yards out watching with their noses in the air. After about 10 minutes of me being in statue mode hoping these deer didn't bust me, they turned around and walked off.


No more than 10 minutes later, I heard a bunch of commotion across the creek. It looked like a buck was chasing some doe around (I assume the same doe I had seen earlier). I heard them crash across the river and seen the buck start heading up toward Chad. The entire time Chad and I were in communication on our nextels. Chad told me the deer was coming back down toward me and sure enough, there it was coming straight at me from the north.


It got to the same spot I shot my turkey this fall (25 yards) and I shot. It arched its back up and just kept walking. It came into another opening at 25 yards and I managed to shoot it again. After finding the deer 50 yards from my stand, we noticed one shot was double lung and the other was a gut shot. I'm not sure which was the first and which was the second, but it doesn't matter to me. I got my first 8 point deer!!

I Love Fall Hunting

Tuesday, October 12, I went out deer hunting at the bank, and in no more than a half hour of sitting in the lower treestand, I found myself surrounded by turkies. The biggest one of the group presented itself at 25 yards and I decided to take the shot. It's not what I hoping for, but it's meat on the table. I only seen two deer later that night. One was a button buck and the other was a fawn.


Thursday, October 14, I was heading out with all intentions of sitting in the lower stand at the bank. On the way out there, I heard a bunch of noise coming from the "hotspot" stand. Thinking it was deer, I went to investigate. It turned out that it was just a bunch of squirrels, but since I was already over there I figured I would sit there for the night.

At about 7:30pm, when it was getting dark and I had pretty much given up hope of seeing anything, this 3pt half rack came walking in on the hill behind me chasing some doe's around. I quick changed my pin to 30 yards, and just before he walked in to the woods behind me, he gave me a perfect 30 yard shot, and even though it was hard to see through my peep site with the diminishing light, I managed to get a double lung shot in.

Chad came to help track him,and we found a good blood trail. About 150 yards later, there he was. It was an exciting night!

Bow Hunting Seasons Here!!

It has been a pretty good start to the 2010 bow hunting season, kinda. What I mean by kinda is that there have already been two deer that were never found. I shot a doe behind my house in early doe season and had a great blood trail until it got to the cornfield. And my brother and I both shot one opening morning at the bank. I shot a doe (from the hotspot) and he shot a spike (in the lower stand). Chad's shot was pretty decent and we had a good blood trail for a while and my shot was one that I should have not taken. That is all the detail I will give you on that.

On October 2, Saturday night, Chad shot this 3 point and it didn't go more than 60 yards. He was sitting in the hotspot at the bank.


The very next morning, Sunday October 3, I sat in the same stand and shot this doe. The doe came in from the north with 3 other deer (2 fawns and another doe) and walked right under my treestand. Once they were to the south of me about 20 yards, I made some noise to get her to turn broadside and give me a shot (so I didn't make the same mistake I did on opening day). She turned just enough and I put it right behind her shoulder.


If two deer from the same stand in consecutive days isn't enough, my dad's friend from work sat in the hotspot on Monday night, October 4, and shot an eight point. I guess you know why it's called the hotspot.
(Bob's on the left and Chad's on the right)

She's sneaky

Rogue can open doors now...

Sorry about the poor picutre quality. Darn sun.

Bow Fishing

Sunday afternoon, July 11 us four guys decided it was a nice enough day to go see if we could shoot some carp with our bows. We headed out to our usual lake (Allegan Damn Lake).

The water was a little choppier and a lot dirtier than we would have liked, but we managed to get eight carp in the bucket. My dad took the trophy for biggest fish. I would have to say this is the biggest fish I have seen shot with a bow yet.

All in all, it was a nice day and we all had a good time. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

18 month Well Child Visit

This past Monday we headed out to Rogue's 18 month, really 19th month, well child exam. I'm happy to report that all is well and Rogue is growing like a weed. Some how we missed some routine blood work that was supposed to be done at 15 months so we had to head to the lab for a quick blood draw. Except is wasn't so quick. Every time they sent us to a different room to wait Rogue decided to scream louder. And louder. Thankfully there was a very kind woman waiting with us and she said "she remembers those days". The blood draw itself really wasn't that bad for her and she was very intrigued by the pretty band aid they gave her.

Rogue was wearing a dress that day since she had to have a vaccine and I thought it would be easier than shorts. When Bryan came home Rogue and I were playing outside, and Rogue decided to pull up her dress and show her father the band aid and say ouch repeatedly. I guess kids don't forget so easily!

Her stats:

weight was 27lbs 5oz in the 75th - 90th%

height was 33.75 inches in the 90th%

Critter Barn

It was a beautiful Saturday on the 4th of July weekend and we were looking for something fun for Rogue to do, so we decided on going to the Critter Barn. We could hardly keep up with Rogue as she ran through the barn looking at all of the animals. I would say her favorites were the chickens and the room full of cats.

We got to watch a goat get milked, feed the chickens from a bucket of corn, and watch a herd of sheep run right past us as they went out to the pasture.

Handicap Hildee

Thats right, Hildee is hurt again. This time the neighbor dog was not involved. No dogs were involved at all.

Rogue and I decided we were going to go for a nice quad ride down the road. Well, Hildee also wanted to come along, but there is no room for her on the quad so like any normal dog she ran along side of us. Unfortunetly, the trip was a little to harsh for Hildee's fragile old body. We got to the end of our road on the corner of Adams and 72nd and Hildee called it quits. She walked down into the ditch and laid down. Luckily, it was about time for Katy to be getting home from work so I called her and told her she needs to pick up Hildee because she would not fit on the quad and she was not going to move on her own.

Once we got her back home in the Jeep, Katy examined hildee and found that all four of her pads were worn completely off. Ouch!! I guess I worked her too hard. Anyway, for the next two days hildee would not leave the bed or couch. We catered to her every need. You can see in the picture we wheeled her out in the wagon to go to the bathroom and we brought food and water to her on a regular basis.

You gotta take care of your dog. Especially, if their injury is your fault.

Third Annual Shadow Hawk Cruise

The Shadow Hawks took flight for the third year in a row (left Thursday night June 24). This time with more people than ever. With 12 riders we doubled the amount of people that attended the first year. All of the original six (Chris Malda, Marty Hulst, Terry Prins, Beaver, Kurt Kuyser, and Me) were present. And Larry Stob who joined us on the second year was there. The rookies were Vern Dryer, Jack, John Buursma, Rick Van Bragt, and Mark Reitsma. This year we headed up to the Macinaw Bridge. We made a quick stop in St. Ignace because their annual car show was going on.

The ride went very smooth thanks to Marty's fine navagation Skills. He had the entire trip plotted out on his GPS unit. But even with everything planned perfectly you can't avoid the occassional rear ending. The only two bikes that were not Honda's got into an accident. Beavers Kawasaki smashed into the back of Buursma's Yamaha. Now thats Karma considering the name of the group was derived from the original six memebers Honda bikes (Shadows and Night Hawks). We all learned a valuable lesson. Give Beaver plenty of riding space.

Backyard Buck

Lately, I have been seeing a few different small bucks and several doe in the feild to the south of my house. I wanted to try and get some pictures of them on the trail cam so I could see how often they are around and at what time of the day they are out and about. I hung the camera in the feild and I got 364 pictures of the trees moving. I moved it to a different location in the feild and had little luck. I had two pictures of doe in one week. Finally, I decided to move it in my woods a little further and to my surprise, this is the beauty I captured. I hope this one sticks around until October. It still has a couple of good months of antler growth to go yet.

Bay City Walleye

It's official, the Bay City walleye trip has become a family tradition. We hit up Bay City last year during the first week of June and had such a good time we decided to do it again this year. This trip was destine to become a tradition since we almost limited out on walleye every day last year. The fishing wasn't quite as good this year, but the weather made up for it. The first day was a little rough but the second two days were absolutely gorgeous.

Mom replaced Chads postion on the boat this year because Chad was on bed rest with his third child. It took her a little bit to get the hang of operating the out-riggers, but after a little practice she was a pro. We ended up going home with burnt skin and 18 walleye. For someone whose not used to having any luck with walleye fishing, I would say this was a pretty successful trip. I can't wait to do it again next year.

Summer is here!

The weekend before Memorial day the Kraker family, the Koeman family, and Grandpa and Grandma Koeman decided to get a head start on a summer full of camping. We went to Hungry Horse Campground in Dorr (a whopping 15 minute drive from our house!). We pulled our little Skamper in on Friday in the midst of a lovely thunderstorm. Of course, as soon as we were all set up the rain stopped and the skies cleared. Thankfully. We had a riot of course, ate way too many smores (o.k. maybe I did but one is never enough), and had lots of fun. The pools were just opened that Saturday that we were there but were a little too cold to enter. We are attempting the ol' Hungry Horse again this coming weekend with more of our extended family and hope to go for a nice dip in the pools. They also have a 12 inch deep wading pool for the kiddos that I'm pumped about!

I just had to throw this picture in of Rogue and our cat Boone. I always thought Boone wouldn't take well to children but he has surprised us all. Rogue is absolutely in love with kitties right now. If I didn't know any better I would run to the nearset farm and pick up a kitten for her, but for now, or more like the next 10 years or so Boone will just have to do.

He mows, she rides

Rogue's Animal Sounds

Here is a video clip of Rogues latest learnings. You may have to turn the sound up because it is tough to hear. She will do a cow, a dog, and a rooster. Grandma Koeman taught her the cow, the dog was taught to her by Hildee and the rooster was compliments of Fisher Price.

Spring Turkey

I needed a good excuse to use my new bow and I couldn't wait for deer hunting season so I decided I would try turkey hunting with it this year. I went out Tuesday (4/20) and Wednsday (4/21) with out seeing or hearing a single bird, and then Thursday (4/22) right after work I got my chance. A perfect 20 yard shot. I landed this tom with a 10" beard. Needless to say, "I love my new bow".

Afternoon Snack

As you can tell we do not have child safety locks on our cupboard doors and apparently we weren't watching Rogue. We're terrible parents I know.

Destination Destin

Rogue playing on the golf cart

Playing in the fort that Bryan built on a rainy day

Back in March we took a family trip to Destin Florida. When I say we I mean the WHOLE Kraker family. There was sixteen of us total. The youngest turning 4 weeks old while we were there. The weather could have been a bit warmer but the sun shined all but one day we were there so we got a little beach time in. I have to say Destin probably has one of the nicest beaches I have ever been too. The sand was white and soft and there were little "tide pools" along the length of the beach that was perfect for the kids to play in. We didn't do too many exciting things while we were there but it was nice to have a relaxing time with family. I have to say I was a bit worried about the trip down since we were driving through the night. We packed some dvd's and borrowed a friends portable dvd player in hopes that it would entertain Rogue while she was awake. Without the dvd player I think we would have had a rough ride, but thankfully Rogue likes to watch movies so it kept her entertained. I will admit that I had Elmo songs in my head all week. Such is the life

of a mother right?

Mother Sucker

April 1st is the opening day of sucker spearing and this year was a rare opportunity. By rare opportunity, I mean opening day landed on a Thursday and Chad and I both had off from work the next day for Good Friday so we didn't have to worry about staying out too late. Also, the river was low and clear because there hadn't been any snow melt or rain recently, and the final plus was that the temprature was a beautiful 70 degrees. How could you ask for a better situation? Usually, April 1st is poor weather and everyone has to be at work the next day so you don't want to stay out too late. Not to mention, the sucker aren't up stream far enough yet. That wasn't the case this year. The sucker were up in the masses. We probably speared nearly 60 fish that night and we were only out there for one and a half hours.

Just when everything seemed to be going perfect, my brother took a spear to the head. Yeah, thats right, I said a spear to the head. You might be thinking I can understand a spear to the foot, but how did he get a spear to the head? Well, his buddy went to sling a fish off his spear and when the fish flew off the spear the momentum carried the spear right into my brothers left eye brow. Needless to say our excellent spearing adventure was cut short because we had to bring my brother to the hospital where he recieved 5 stitches.

Ah memories, they are priceless!!