People Bath's???

This weekend we had Erica's baby shower at my Aunt Lori's. Erica is my cousin Darren's wife and they are having a Son at the end of November! So, we had a "baby shower" and Lexi having a little trouble with the concept of baby shower's vs real showers/baths told Trevor she was going to a "people bath" HA!
Nevertheless, we had a great time at the people bath and Erica and Darren have a lot of nice gifts to start off their parenthood. We even made a scrapbook (complete just missing the pictures) for Erica and Darren to have to remember the birth of their first baby.

Here are some pics of the fun....

Baby's first John Deere Toy! Good work Uncle Lare & Aunt Mare - this one won the award for best "book".

Some serious game playing.. you can always count on Aunt Lori for the games...

Oh many this is hard - scrapbooking without the pictures what colors do we pick??

Congratulations Darren & Erica - we are all excited to meet the newest member of the family!

Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye - to the orange traveler

It will be a year to remember... a year that goes down in history @ LaKnoll... next year, 2009 there will be no mre orange traveler.. So back to the story. Lets just say for longer than I have been born, my dad has watered the corn with these things called travelers... they look like this...

Flashback - June 1997, some of you may remember... it was dry that year - like semi-drought dry, why do I remember this? Let's just say my dad was a little laid up.. small car, 3 wheeler accident and Trevor and I somehow drew the short straw and had to irrigate the corn so it wouldn't die - turns out you can't even pay someone to change the travelers... so long story short - Trevor in his infinate wisdom says - go do that one I'll do this one... hmmm ok I have no clue what I"m doing but I managed ok - except one day when it was really wet by the traveler and I jacknifed it while trying to back it up - after a lot of tears and Trevor and I basically throwing eachother down in the mud in the corn field, a few hours later my dad say, "oh ya that happens all the time" are you kidding me? WHY DIDN'T TREVOR KNOW THAT - do you know what kind of tounge lashing I just got for that? So - that was the beginning of the end for the orange traveler that I have so much love for (not to mention the run where you have to babysit it all night so it doesn't roll down the hill)

Anyway back to the story - lets just say the orange, and the green traveler (same thing - no jacknifing) are a ton of work (like instead of guantanamo we should make the terrorists do this work for tourture) yet still my dad keeps on running them. But NOT ANYMORE.... after some serious deliberation - I mean years of hemming and hawing... and some not to subtile threats from my mom, he made the big decision to buy a pivot. A pivot as opposed to travelers is much easier - he has 2 this will be his third and for those of you who have been to the farm it will water all the fields across from the house -that used to be traveler lanes (how will we get back to our hunting spots without those lanes I will never know... and what will the ariel photos look like without that crooked lane Trevor cut)??? The next pictures is not my dad's pivot, just an example of what it will look like when it is done...I will be updating the blog with the pivot building process as we go along... So far the parts have been delivered and the pad for the pivot tower has been poured (with a few names carved in the concrete) here are some pics...

You wouldn't belive it if you were there...

October 1st. Bow Hunting Season... for the past 6 October 1sts, I have been bummed, because to me it meant keeping food warm for Bill until he got home, worrying about him falling out of a tree, no more going out to dinner or doing anything fun on the weekends because it doesn't get dark utnil 9:00 p.m..... and on and on...

But this year is DIFFERENT. I decided if you can't beat em, join em... so I am now officially a bow hunter... I have actually bow hunted a little bit the last few years, but this year I got serious, bought a new bow, and practiced shooting all summer...

So here it is opening morning after I have been waiting and waiting, and practicing and practicing... like a kid at Christmas I get up early and am rushing Bill out the door because I am ready to shoot Big Moe.

SIDEBAR (Big Moe is the name of all the big deer, but there is an "actual" Big Moe who lives at Badiner's where we hunt in Mattawan. I saw Big Moe the first year I bow hunted but he wasn't close enough to shoot, AND HE IS HUGE... many other have also witnessed Big Moe, but somehow he has never crossed Bill's path - probably why he is still alive).

So here I am in my stand opening morning with my new bow and my scent lock and I'm actually excited and ready... I have practiced shooting and I am confident that if Moe steps out he is going to be in serious trouble....

It was a little cold on opening morning and I was chilly but so excited to see a deer it didn't bother me at first, but by 9:30 a.m. when all I had seen so far was 2 coyotes and 0 deer, I was starting to be ready to call it a day (not to mention I didn't take a vacation day - and I needed to get to work sometime soon before everyone noticed I was absent - shh don't tell Kent)

So, I am seriously thinking about getting down, when out pops a buck.... SWEET... here he comes I think, "hmmm what is that red stuff on him... oh that's blood, dang it Bill shot that deer" BUT for those of you who don't know, this has happened before... last year Bill shot a deer and it ran in front of me and dropped over dead."

So I was READY... I'm gonna shoot the buck - blood or no blood. He goes behind a tree, I stand up and get my bow ready, and then he decides to walk right to me.. I hold stealthy still waiting.. waiting... waiting... here he comes, he goes behind a branch of the tree I am sitting in, perfect just as I planned, I pull my bow back, look through my peep sight and wait.... all he has to do is take 2 more steps and I will shoot him... at this point he will be about 8 yards from me basically right underneath me...

I wait and I wait, I wait some more and finally I pull my head back from my peep sight and look around, did he change directions, did he walk the other way... MY ARM IS SO TIRED WHERE IS THE DEER????

OK I can't hold my bow back any longer, my arm is so tired and shakey it seems like I have been holding it for 10 minutes or more, where is that deer seriously he was just right here - he only had to walk 2 more steps and I would have shot him.....

All the sudden there is a noise, "is it the deer?" "is it another deer"? What is that noise???? I turn and look and all I see is Bill popping out of the forest, tracking his deer but for some reason he is laughing so hard he can't contain himself" I can see him smiling from 50 yards away, why is he laughing I wonder??

All the sudden it hits me... the buck is dead, under the tree I'm sitting in, that's why he never stepped out, he fell over dead right under my tree... oh brother - the luck of some people...

And I have to ask myself... would I have been better off in bed?

Happy Hunting :-)

Love the Peck's

Watermelon Slushies

It all started with an idea....
What if we put cut a hole in the top of the watermelon and fill it with Vodka - we might get Watermelon Slushies .... It seemed like a good idea - so we tried it.
Bill & Daryl prepped the watermelon, Nancy and I made some appetizers and Cindi, Trevor and Lexi even found their way out of '052 for the night
it looked a little like this...




























No mom - no vodka in Lexi's watermelon - don't worry














There was some block bulding... and some fishing























And there was the watermelon...




























The food was great, the watermelon was even better and I don't think any of us have laughed so hard in a long time... the only question left to ask is... "when are we doing it again?"

Rilley's 2nd Birthday

On another beautiful day in August, we had Rilley's 2nd birthday party at our house. He was much more excited this year about presents and balloons and especially his own cake to eat and crawl through! Everyone had a great time, the food was excellent and Rilley loved his presents. Here are some pics of the event... Check out all the pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/PeckontheWebGallery/RilleyS2ndBrithdayParty?authkey=clRjkfrxUdk

Gramp's Birthday Party

Wow how time flys when you are having fun... in August we celebrated Gramp's birthday at Trevor's house, it was a beautiful day and all the kids had fun swimming in the pool, the food was great and everyone had a good time... here are a few photos!

Palin for President

Hey All,

I know it has been awhile since I last updated the blog and I do have lots of pictures to share including Grandpa's birthday party, Rilley's brithday party, some Big Moe's caught on film on our new trail camera.... and maybe even some shots of my new bow - we have been practicing every day.

So I hope everyone is having a great summer and come back and visit soon - I will add more pictures as soon as I can. PS - go PALIN for VP!