Cat of the Ages

YAY!!! Lisa is home. They got home at 11:30, which was earlier than expected. Lisa said they all had a great time. They stayed up by the campfire (which they needed help with) till 1:30. Lisa couldn't sleep good and was up by 5:30 she said. So when she got home she was shot. She may have had a drink or two too:-) So I took Lexi and Zander to the parade in Franklin. Zach always takes a nice nap so that gave her 3 hours of quiet to nap too. She said she slept good.

The parade was for catfish days so they had an airated pool with all the catfish in from the contest. COOL! They had one that was 46 pounds in there. Huge. A bunch on 30 or so pounders too. Nick said ours was bigger than the 46 pounder but I thought it was about like the 30 pounders.

Our fish you ask? This is another fish story by Phil and Nick. For the last 3 years we have been going down to the creek by our house netting minnows and to play. 2 years ago we got a baby bass about 2 inches long and decided to keep him in our aquarium. We go down to get bait for fishing and feeding the bass every week or so. I keep them in a 55 gallon drum I got from work with an airator and filter in it.

So anyway....we were at the creek a couple weeks ago and we always see carp or even gars swimming in this one hole. This day Nick yells "Daddy a fish" So I go over to look and see a huge tail sticking out of a hole by the shore from a fallen tree. Nick say grab it. OK. I reached down and grabbed him by the tail and he did not like that. He swam back into the hole and turned around. Now I can see his head. wowowowowow. He is big, real big. I have never gotten a big cat but I guess 20 pounds just from seeing the tip of his head. Now I am getting excited. Nick what do we do ??? I tried poking a stick in his mouth to pull him out. I know, bad idea. I didn't think it would work. He swims back in the hole for a second and comes right back to the edge of the hole.

We stand and think what to do for a minute, and decide to go home to find something to use to get him. We run up to the car and head home, its about a 2 minute drive that I did in 90 seconds. As we are pulling into our street we see Eddie our neighbor coming back from the garden with a PITCHFORK. Perfect. He let us borrow it, probably thought we were nuts. We zoom back to the creek and run back to the hole. Zander came with so I had to carry him to the island to watch. Nick can't wait and runs to see if he is still there. He is. Let the games begin...

I walk over with the pitchfork. It has 4 blades on it with about one inch tines. I was hoping for the other kind of fork but this will have to do. We get in position. I lean over the log and put the fork as far in the hole as I can just behind the head. I ask Nick if he is ready. Here we go.... 1....2....3.... STAB,
SPLASH , PULL, NICK HELP ME HOLD IT!!!! I can barely hold it still. I push hard with the fork and it push through the big fish into the muck underneath. After what seemed like hours(exageration) the great fish calmed down. I held it for about 2 minutes and tried to pull it out. He is still in the hole and the fight has stirred the mud up pretty good. Still can't see a thing. I moved him maybe 6 inches and he went nuts again, so I held him still another 2 minutes. This was repeated 3 times until I was able to move him out into the current. Slowly the current cleared the water. Slowly the great beast became visible to us. First the head. Oh my gosh(edited for the children) He is huge. Nick yells "he could fit Zanders head in his mouth!!!" Then the rest of the water clears and we can see how long he is. And he is LONG!!! I estimate the beast to be 3 feet long.

Only now I see a problem. The fork only got him by a little of the skin on his back. Blood is flowing like a stuck pig. We hold him for 5 minutes just admiring his size. Fantasizing about bringing him home and taking so pictures for the Journal. After not moving for this abount of time I decide to try to drag him the last 6-8 feet to the shore. Suddenly with the force of 2 clydesdales he decides he has had enough of this and gives a mighty thrust with the tail and breaks free. Nick about jumped out of the water. I lifted the fork and slammed it down again, but alas he was gone. Right between my legs and back into his hole. We tried to feel him but the hole must go way back and he has had enough. Let me tell you about adrenaline. wow. I was pumped up for 45 minutes till we got up to the lake.

Lisa wanted to know why we did not bring the camera with to get a picture of the monster roaming our creek. I told her I was planning on bringing him home. Ever the optimist I guess.

So today when we saw those fish I would have to peg his weight at 36 1/4 pounds. Nick said bigger than the 46 pounder but he is only 8 years old with wide eyes. I am sure he will continue to grow over the years. By Christmas he will be 50 pounds at least and Easter 60 pounds. So ends the tail of the great creek cat.
I hope you enjoyed it.

Life with no wife

Like the title.?! Lisa left about noon today. She was waiting outside to get picked up by her friends since about 11. She was ready to party!!! I hope you have a good time at the lake Lisa!

The boys both took nice naps today. That gave me time to clean the house, vacuum, do the dishes, clean the toilets, you know, the usual. When the boys got up we packed a picnic and went to Herman The German park to eat and play. Zander went down the firemans pole all by himself a bunch of times and Zach liked the merry go round the best. He would climb up and stomp his feet. It made a loud banging sound, cool when you are 1. Lexi wanted to hike on the hill so we went around the top edge of the park.

After that we went to say hi to Gramma and Grampa. Mitch and Tammi just got back from the boat races at lake Hanska so I gave Nick his clothes to stay over at Erics. Z's were both shy. After a while we went home and got the kids to bed at 8:30 and 9. Now just so they sleep till 9 I will be OK. Good luck.

The Simpsons

Today I took Nick and Eric To the Simpsons movie. We got a huge pop and popcorn. We had 3 refills on the pop and one on the seeds. The movie was pretty good. We don't letthe kids watch the show but they have been singing spider pig song for a month now. Nothing too bad in the movie. At the beginning Homer dares Bart to skateboard naked to the Crusty Burger. That was pretty good.

Earlier in the day we went to the creek for some minnows. We got one frog and three crayfish. We got a couple hundred minnows too. The bass gulped down the frog before he hit the water. Nick hasn't been feeding him everyday like he is supposed too. He has grown to about 14 inches I would guess.

After grilled cheese for supper we played a couple games of cards till Zach got in the way too much, then we headed outside to play till bedtime. Zander likes to fall asleep in our bed and have me carry him up to bed. Tonight when I laid him down there is a lump in his bed. Huh? Zach crawled out of the crib and went to sleep in Zanders bed. Cutie pie. So I put Zander on the edge and moved Zach to the crib and then moved Zander in straight. Good night boys. Then I hear Nicks radio on and check on him. He couldn't sleep he said so I carried in the laptop and showed him how his fantasy baseball team was doing.

Now a beer and bed for me. Goodnight.
Phil

Thursday

I am so tired. The boys have been getting up early all week. Like 6:30 or so. This is too early and one of the joys of Zachy learning to get out of his crib by himself.

He used to just talk and sing to himself a little bit and fall back to sleep. NO MORE. He is mobile now. Let's see, first lets wake up my partner in crime Zander. He is an all too willing partner in crime. Who is next...Lexi some of the time but usually is it right to the stairs and Mommy and Daddy's room. Some morning he crawls down the steps and busts open our door and yells HI!!! Big smile... Look what I did. Hard to get mad at him when he does this. Next he climbs all over us till one of us, usually Lisa gets up with him.

Zander likes to sit at the top of the steps and yell Mommy I'm SSSSOOOOO hungry or thirsty. Really into the repeated adjectives lately. Like I am really really really really thirsty. He might just die if you don't get him a juice box or some choc milk (he skips the late in choclate. Too much work I guess) NOW.

Gramma wants Zander and Lexi to stay over night tonight. They were gone in Alaska for 40 days. So she misses her little buddies. Lisa did not want to deprive Gramma so she got the two kids over there first thing in the morning.:-) Maybe we can get a nap in today.

Lisa has her girls night at the lake this Saturday. So I will have all four kids for a couple of days. I am trying to think of something fun to do.
TTFN
Phil

FUN RAS

Today Lexi and Emily set up a "fun raiser". They set it up while I was in the house player cards with Zander and Zach. They made a list of all their games and got some prizes to hand out to the players. While I was downstairs doing the laundry that has been on my pool table for.... The girls came down to get some golf balls for games and prizes. They invited me up to play so I went outside to check it out. We played egg races first where you balance the golf ball on a spoon. Zander played too and did pretty good balancing it. Next we played throw the ball in the bushell basket. Then we all got prizes. I picked a bead necklace and Zander took a bobber.
A couple minutes later Sue walks over to see what is going on. It turns out that the kids went to every neighbor on the block asking them to come over for the fun raiser. Luckily only Sue was home. She got a kick out of the title fun ras, and played the egg race with us. Then it was time to eat. Here are some pics.