Hog Hunting

If you read the description of this blog you probably realize that my blog is really many of my random thoughts and actions posted for everyone to see. Here is part of that randomness.

This past week I went on a Feral Hog Hunt. For those of you that aren't familiar with feral hogs, they are hogs that at one time were domesticated, but either were released into the wild, or escaped into the wild. Over the years and as they continue to breed in the wild they revert back to their wild state. These hogs grow more hair, they become darker in color, their snouts grow longer, their tails straighten out, they grow longer tusks and they become VERY aggressive. With all that being said, it sounded like the perfect thing for me to hunt.

Feral Hogs are not native the American Soil. The very first hogs were brought to America by the early settlers for meat. Many people raised hogs on open range, much like cattle is raised in the west. This is one of the major contributions to the feral hog populations that we have today. Significant Feral Hog populations are found in 44 of the 48 contiguous states and are also found in Hawaii. In every state that they are found they are considered a nuisance and cause hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to crops and livestock each and every year. In many states you don't even need a license to hunt them, and in states like Texas their policy is "take them in whatever means possible."

So, on Sunday I set out with a good friend (Wally) to go Feral Hog hunting in New Mexico. A friend of Wally's knew where there were concentrations of hogs, and he had been trapping them for years. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to hunt them.

Our hunt started out on a cold rainy Monday morning. We went to one location where there was sign of the hogs everywhere. They had been rooting in the fields, there were tracks all over the place including little piglet tracks. This could have been the perfect place to take our first hog. Unfortunately these hogs live around a lake surrounded with Salt Cedars. Which looked kind of like this.

As you might be able to imagine, walking through these salt cedars made it almost impossible to be able to stalk up on some pigs. So, the first area was a bust.

After walking through this area, and checking it for hogs - we went to check the other traps that our friend had. There were no hogs, but we were able to see probably a hundred deer out in the fields.

The next day was a much nicer day. It was in the 60's and sunny. A much nicer day to go hunting. We had been told about another area to check for hogs. Some time ago another guy had trapped over 100 pigs in and around this location. So after driving around for a while, we went to walk this other area. This area had alfalfa crops on one side, and a creek bed - again with salt cedars. Since this creek bed was dry we decided to walk down the creek bed where we could be a little more quiet. There was hog sign everywhere, there were fresh rootings and hog prints everywhere we looked. At one point we could even smell them, however the Hog eluded us once again.

That night we went out to try and call and spotlight some hogs. Instead of hogs we saw hundreds of deer in the fields.

So, at the end of this long story - we didn't get to see any hogs in the wild. We did however see some penned up, and were able to take home some pork from the Feral Hogs that our friend had trapped.

We will be going back again soon, and maybe have some different tactics so we can get some HOGS!

Doing Church, or Experiencing God?

This has been a question that has been rolling around my head today. Are we just merely doing church, or are we experiencing God?

I put the question out to you. Are you Doing church, or Experiencing God?

There is a drastic difference between these two things. A lot of people are merely just doing church. They get up each Sunday and they do the church thing. Perhaps it is out of obligation and they feel like they "have to" be there - maybe because they don't want to disappoint someone, maybe because this is what they have always done, maybe because they think it is the right thing to do.

I want to be different than that. I want to go to church, not just to do church but because it give me the opportunity to experience God in a corporate setting.

Today Tracy posted a blog that was an article in The Pentecostal Evangel from 1958. That article was actually from Teddy Roosevelt many years before. The name of the article is "9 Reasons to go to Church". I think this is a great article, but I think Teddy missed one vitally important reason to go to church - to experience God.

Recently our church has gone through some growth. In 2008 our average attendance was 67 and in 2009 it was 82. That is pretty good growth. I look forward to hitting that next milestone in our growth as a church, but even more than hitting that next growth milestone I am looking forward to the day when our church is filled with people who come to Experience God.

How about you? Are you Doing Church, or Experiencing God?

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!!!

Ok, So it has been raining in Arizona a lot. When I say a lot, I mean at least once a week for the past couple months. It is getting really OLD.

Having come from Illinois, I am familiar with rainy winters. The winter prior to moving out to Arizona I think was nothing but rain. I don't think a single snowflake fell during that winter. It was just COLD and RAINY. So we moved out to Arizona and thought we were done with cold rainy winters. Then this winter came, and to me it has been absolutely miserable.

All my Arizona friends, and most of the people that go to our church are enjoying this rain. It is the people that have lived in the desert for many, many years that are finding this rain to be pleasant. For me, it is just too much of a reminder of midwestern winters. Many people think that the midwest gets tons of snow during the winter, and while that is the case this year, while I was growing up it seemed like we got more of the cold rain than we did snow.

So, this miserable cold winter rain is keeping me from getting many of the things done that I would like to do. Every time I think of getting out to do something, it is raining. I have a long laundry list of things I need to get done.
- Clean out the garden (it will be planting time soon and the garden is a mess)
- Re-aim the sattelite (I had to remove it for the Superbowl and it still isn't quite right.
- Clean up the yard (Our yard has accumulated too much junk during the winter, it needs to be cleaned up)
- Do repairs on the camper (Our camper needs some repairs done, and I am just not going to lay on the wet ground to do it)
- Practice archery (I could do this in the rain, but it is just miserable)

These are just a short list of the things I need to get done that the rain is keeping me from. So, while it is raining today - I am feeling a little bit grumpy and just want to say (YELL).....

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!!!!!!!