These are of the Crossroads Church '06 Youth ministry canoe trip down the Eel River in northern Calif., that's me in the kayak doing safety patrol. In the middle picture is my son Josh in the bow of the canoe with Steven. We had seven canoes and me in my touring kayak with four girls, six boys, and four adults. Paddled the first day till we reached our haul out camp spot area where we spent the night and then headed out the next morning to finish out the trip. Fun and good fellowship was enjoyed by all and everyone was glad to give the unaccustomed muscle groups a rest when we finished . We can't wait till next years trip when we will go earlier in the season when the river has more volume ye ha! Just a thought but if any other church group has canoes and equipment maybe you can join in with us and make it a real event. Contact us if you are interested in talking about the details of our trip.
         

My son Josh and his first smallmouth bass, you can tell from the smile that he had a good day fishing.

I will try to get some more pictures of this summers fishing, camping and prospecting excursions posted later, it was a heck of a summer. By the end of the summer Josh was begging to not go on any more trips, well better that than bored at home glued to a video game or the TV. The Lord blessed us with many memorable experiences and many good times of father and son fellowship. He doesn't want to admit it but I think he had a great summer, you know how kids are about admitting that in spite of themselves they really did have a good time.

The three day November Veterans Day weekend Father and Son Fishing trip to Burney Calif. East of Redding was great and all caught some really nice trout. The weather was a bit brisk with snow on the ground Saturday morning but as long as fish were biting nobody cared. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures of the fish that were caught, no really we did catch some and this isn't just a fish story honest. The one picture that I was able to get from someone else's camera is of most of us standing in front of Burney falls which unfortunately we are blocking but it was beautiful.

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The November Turkey Shoot fellowship was twofold, first on Saturday the 19th we got together at the Potter Valley Rodeo grounds to join in with the Grange fundraising turkey shoot where we had seven folks turn out. In that shoot only one of our group won in the trap events and he won several times. On Sunday after Church some of us attended the Ukiah Gun Club Turkey shoot. My son Josh won two turkeys in the youth small bore category and I won one in the adult pistol competition. We later were able to bless others by giving two of the turkeys away to families who didn't have a turkey for thanksgiving, the Lord is good. Following are some pictures we took at the Ukiah Gun Club Turkey shoot .

Well we have been at it again, this time after Sunday Church service Josh and I and his friend Pat did a little black powder shooting. It was Josh's first time to shoot his own Hawkens and I think the grin on his face tells it all, he'll remember today and he even shared it with his new best friend Pat.

      
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“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Psalms 19:1
May we stand in awe of Gods majesty when we enjoy the great outdoors,
yours in Christ,  Dana Howell

If anyone has something to share, a church outing, outdoors fellowship get together or whatever send me your picture and a description of what it is about using this Contact link and I will post it to this page. (please no huge picture files)