Bear with me as I get familiar with the new layout and take a day or so to get my feet underneath me.

I have an email into the warden service in hopes of finding out more information.  If anyone has information on this matter it would be greatly appreciated.

 I hope this is not the case.  If so, we have some work to do with laws around youth in the foster care program.

I also want to thank everyone who stops in and checks out my blog.  I wish you all a great holiday season.

This comes as great news for those youth whose dream it is to go on that “special” hunt before they move on from this world.  Due to insurance liability reasons many of the non profit organizations will not touch youth participants.

You can read more about this in an article I found on the cabinet.

What a great opportunity for these youths.  New Hampshire again steps out and gives us a demonstration of how many of us and our states should be.  To see the smile on that kid who life has dealt a bad hand is priceless.

Here I sit a few days away from the end of rifle season here in Maine.  It has been a long and hard season this year.  The weather has been against us most times it seems.  It’s either super warm or windy.  The deer seem to be “rutting” later and later each year.  Here we are in the last week and I am just now seeing some sign of the rut happening.  The lack of deer in my hunting area is not the problem.  The area is saturated with deer sign.  It appears to me though that due to the circumstances they are just bedding down during the day and moving at night.  The problem with that is I have not located where they are bedding down I guess.

This will be my second year in a row without harvesting a deer unless the next couple days turns out to be productive.  Something happened to me a little over a week ago that I have never experienced in hunting.  I was sitting in my stand and began to think how “useless” this was.  I pointed out to myself I had not seen anything.  Nor had my hunting partner.  After sitting that morning I came back and told my wife, “I’m done deer hunting. It’s pointless.”  My wife almost fell to the floor in shock.  I said “Yup, I’m just going to go duck hunting and turkey hunting.  Atleast, there’s some action in that.  Turkey hunting you can call and do things rather then just sit there.”  After a few minutes I came to my senses and was planning and thinking about my next deer hunting outing.

How many times does this happen to us in our walk with Christ?  We have things keep piling up on us.  We continue to go out and “sit” and do everything right, yet we see no results.  We then give up and say, “God, it’s just not worth it.”  I know this has happened to me so many times in my life.  I lose focus of the goal.  I lose faith in God and begin to focus on distractions outside of the goal.

Through this experience I have found a renewed passion for  Christ.  I had begin to think what is the point in doing many things that I know God has placed me here to do.  I have also rediscovered why I deer hunt.  It’s ultimately not to shoot a deer.  It’s the challenge of going out into his living room and trying to outsmart him.  It’s getting outdoors and enjoying God’s creation.  It’s getting away from “life” and enjoying a long standing tradition.

Don’t give up.  Don’t let life’s distractions get you down.  Stay focused on the goal.

We are a long ways off from election day and I am certainly a ways off from making a decision of who I want to be the next leader of our country.  With that said candidate Huckabee gets a positive check for all of his great work in preserving and promoting hunting, fishing and the great outdoors.

How many times have you heard people talk about “buck” fever.  What does that mean?  Well to me it means that the hunter has become overwhelmed with the trophy sitting in front of them.  The most common one is those who focus on the antlers of a monster buck.  Has this ever happened to you?  You see movement.  Then you realize that it’s a deer.  Then you look for the antlers.  Alright, it’s a legal buck.  You try and focus in on the target, the shot placement in the vital area.  You then pull up your weapon.  You realize now your shaking.  Your heart is about to jump out of your chest.  Then your focus goes back on that massive rack.  You try and focus on the target area.  This goes on, back and forth a few times.  Then usually one of two things happens.  We are so intent on the “trophy” that before we know it the deer has walked off without a chance for a shot.  Secondly, we take a shot but our focus was on the trophy and not on the target, resulting in a missed shot.

The apostle Paul spoke a lot about “the prize” and “running the race.”  He longed for those crowns that was there to reward him, but was never distracted by the trophy.  He realized what the true prize was.  He realized that the trophy came with the prize.

We then should focus on the target.  Realizing that the “trophy” will come with the prize if we remain focused on the target.  While our salvation is secure, that certainty shouldn’t get in the way of our aiming for the target.  We should always remember that we need to focus on the “target”.  Why?  So we don’t miss out on opportunities that God has given to us because we focused on the trophy instead of the target.  Remember, the trophy comes with the target.