My sister Chris has inspired me, she raced a half-marathon in Indianapolis a few weeks ago.

I was literally on the couch watching the Vikings-Packers game today, and after the Vikings won, I got up did a quick search and downloaded Robert Ullrey’s MP3 podcast for week 1 and started! I am starting on the treadmill since it is 28 degrees outside and I don’t have any cold weather gear yet for this. My plan is to get some Body Armour gear and around week 3 when I’m feeling good, get outside and do this if the weather is ok and its not icy.

So how did I feel afterward? I felt great, can’t wait until tuesday for day 2. I found a checklist for the program that should help me keep track of where I am at.

I think I am also going to start the 100-pushups-a-day challenge for the off running days.

Whats my goal here? Running the June Dairy days 5k next spring…

Saturday Chip (my cousin) and I went out at 5am. I got in my blind by 5:30am and waited as the world woke up around me. There was fog, so I really couldn’t see much. I started calling, and I got an answer! I kept calling, and I kept getting an answer, my heart was pounding now. Then… I got another answer and another, pretty soon I had 5 toms answering back to me. Two to my north and 3 to my south. This is where I made my rookie mistake. I sat there calling, and they were not moving, I should have gotten up and went towards them. I have learned that in the early season here in Wisconsin, the tom’s expect the hens to come to them. Later in the year, the tom’s are more likely to come after a hen.

Later in the day, I was walking up a trail to cross a ridge and stopped at the top. As I turned my head, I saw a bird sitting on a log about 10 yards in front of me. As soon as I moved my gun, he saw me and was up and flying instantly. His flight scared up 5 more birds from the trees below him. I ended up scaring another off that trail, but just could not get a shot off.

It was frustrating and exciting. Hearing the Owl behind me, the crows, turkeys and see chipmunks eating acorns while I sat not 10 feet from them… It was great, and I’ll be going again this fall and in the spring again next year I’m sure!

Tonight we went to a friends house and practiced handling and shooting a .22 caliber bolt action rifle. Noah was a bit nervous, but once he took the first shot, he was fine. All of his shots were on target and within the outer ring of the target. It was a good way to get ready for the test this next Saturday.

I think we will be joining the West Salem Rod and Gun club.

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I’ve never done it, but it sounds like a blast and well, I think it will be fun for Noah and Megan who has been asking lately if she can go, to get out in the woods and see what its all about. I have a slate call, a gun (Mossberg 835 Camo) and book. I also have a place to hunt, Chip (Bachlund) and I will be going out in early April to scout a bit. He has a farm close to West Salem to hunt on, I can’t wait to get out there.

I found out recently that there is a gun club in West Salem. I think Noah and I will go out there once it warms up a bit and do a little shooting. He and I are going to go through a hunter safety course together this March. Can’t hurt for me to go through it with him.

I found a new site for cache stats today, so I updated our statistics. You can see them on our Geocaching profile page: