Thanksgiving Weekend at Camp Fence

Dad and I in the trees waiting on a deer...

Blaze orange is very slimming.  So is camo.

You would think that during vacation would be the best time to blog, but time always seems to slip away on me when I'm home visiting.  Additionally, internet is hard to come by in Seymour, so I have to use my cellphone to power up my computer.  This makes for slow blogging, as you can imagine.

Dad and Tristan splitting wood, to keep us warm all winter.

Mum, Dad, Tristan, and me at Joel's cabin - Nov 2012

The Hunting MEN: Bill, Curt, Tristan

Anywho, I wanted to share some footage and stories from Thanksgiving weekend up at Joel's cabin.  Thanksgiving continues to be a time to reflect on all that we are thankful for and it's a time that I wish I could be close to Joel.  This year we were fortunate to be able to go up to his cabin and spend sometime surrounded by his favorite things: 

snow, hunting, family, and the outdoors.

The only deer I saw... behind a game farm fence.  Expensive mistake.

Excited to be in the woods.

I knew I was going to be home over Thanksgiving break and we were planning to spend it up north, so I thought it would be fun to sit in the tree and go hunting with Curty.  I used to hunt more when I was little after I so proudly aced my hunter safety course!  Whooot whooot.  The hunter safety course leaders announced that there was only one student to score 100% on the written test, and only one student who failed the distance test.... I was that person for both.  Dohhhh!  Ohh well.  So, I bought a license this year to try my luck.

Curty in his second home: the truck.

Breakfast sausage station.  Man land.

Dad and I went out morning and night until we were frozen, and we didn't see anything.  The deer were pretty smart at this point and would leave moments before we got to the stand in the morning.  There were fresh tracks all around and their daily corn was licked clean.  All I can say is... better luck next year!  I had a blast in the woods and hopefully can continue the tradition in the coming years!

"Did ya see Da Thurdy Pointer?..."

Turkey Day

Matt is carving the delicious turkey!

The night before Thanksgiving is apparently the most profitable night for local establishments… I remember hearing some of the crazy stories of how much people would make tending bar that night.  Mom, Dad and I stopped into see Grandma Marsh and I was able to spend time with Kyle’s kids.  They were having fun playing games and running around the house.

Afterwards we met up with Dan and Katie up at Jackson Point to grab some dinner before the band blasted our ears off and Lyssa and I went to downtown Seymour.  There were a lot of familiar faces out, and it was a blast to catch up with Dan and Katie to hear about their new puppy!

Thursday morning I made my wild rice with dried fruit and we had Thanksgiving with the Nagels.  It was so nice to see them all under one roof on Thanksgiving.  Grandpa VB even stopped by for a while after he had lunch with Grandma.  The food was excellent – I could barely move after dinner and didn’t have a spare ounce of room for dessert.  

After chatting after dinner for a while, Mom, Dad, and I took off for Joel’s camp to spend the rest of our Thanksgiving Holiday relaxing in Joel’s presence at camp.  It was nice to be up there to relax and reflect on the year that has gone by all too quickly.  I cannot even begin to explain the ways that life has changed in the past year, but I’m sure blessed to be surrounded by such supportive friends and family.

There’s always something we can be thankful for – I am thankful for the memories and special moments we had together.  Miss you more each day Buck.

Guest Speaker

After my recent return to Pittsburgh, Lyssa and I were chatting on the phone about the possibility of me coming to see her school and her class.  For some reason, it worked out just perfectly because I was flying into Wisconsin on Tuesday afternoon and if I hurried on home, I could make it to her classroom in the early afternoon.  AWESOME!  After my GI exam, I was scrambling around to try to get stuff done in time to have dinner and leave bright and early Tuesday morning.  The 3:30AM alarm came too quickly and soon I was in the car on the way to the airport slugging coffee like it was my job.  

A photo I used in my presentation, my big brother inspires me.

Toothbrush on endoscopy to freak out the kids!

I made most of my presentation on the plane on the way to MKE and was rummaging around Google for some gross medical facts and weird X-rays for the kids.  Haha, I was cracking up with all the random stuff I found and even managed to download a video of an endoscope where they removed a mouth moistening sponge from a patient’s stomach.   I was kind of nervous about the presentation, so wore my short little white coat and brought each kid a pen shaped like a syringe full of liquid and some stethoscopes to play with.  The talk went pretty well and I was able to witness the energy of a classroom full of 7^th graders in action.  Wheww!!  It gets even wilder once you gross them out a bit!  It was really quite impressive to see Lyssa in action as “Ms. P”!

All in all, my immense respect for teachers was confirmed!  I only worked with the kids for two hours and I was ready to go to sleep I was so worn out!  Haha!  After school was done, Lyssa and I celebrated the success at school with a double date with our mothers at Applebee’s.  Perfect!

FAST Bowling!

Zel and I with our FAST Group Bowling in Squirrel Hill!

Another FAST (Faculty and Students Together) event was scheduled perfectly between exams and Holiday chaos.  This time, we had the chance to team up wither another FAST group for an evening of pizza and bowling in Squirrel Hill.  Zel, Bhavana, Leben, and I worked with our faculty advisors to set up some friendly competition!

It was fun to catch up with everyone and see how first and second year of school are going.  The first years were in the midst of genetics and experiencing Team Based Learning in all of its glory. I have to say that I have heard each year of medical school is better than the last, so I'm glad we're always moving forward to new and exciting things - even if that means that we are slowly approaching USMLE Step 1.  Eeeeek!


Bowling was a blast.  I cannot remember the last time I went bowling, but I think it was probably at Wally's Seymour Bowl.  We all grabbed a pair of "vintage" shoes and started throwing towards the pins.  Real bowling is much different that Wii bowling I found out rather quickly.  My score was ugly.

I'm glad we were able to sneak in another event before everyone takes off for the Holidays and gets a well needed and deserved break from school.  Until next time... study on FASTeeees!

Zel taking charge of the lanes...

Last Minute: Destination Wisconsin

The first weekend of our new gastroenterology course was a prime opportunity to sneak home for a mini vacation.  I made sure I had extra time in the airport this time around and was flying through Cleveland back to Green Bay.  After a minor delay, I was running out of the airport to find Haus’ Burb in the passenger pick up ready to take me to a fine local establishment to meet Lyssa, Liz, Kate, Marc and the boys.   Luckily everyone was in the mood for dancing and we were sore the next morning from the night of busting many wild moves on the floor.  

Brown eggs, fresh from the chickens' buns.

Saturday morning, Lyssa and I drove up to Joel’s camp to meet my parents and help my dad get some things ready for the up and coming hunting season.   Saturday night we migrated down to Uncle Johns to catch up with everyone after dinner and exchange stories and dance like Taylor Swift.  Lyssa and I got on a role telling stories from our college days and some of the adventures we got into with Windpants.  I was laughing so hard!  We also had Dad and big Whitey consider volunteering to be a standardized patient for a little extra cash – hahah!

Curty teaching Lyssa how to navigate like a northwoods man... GPS.

Getting a good angle on the bambis.

Helping Curty putting up the three stand!

Living off the land...

Sunday morning I went for a walk down the road at Bucks cabin to take in the rustic scenery and the farmland.  There were a lot of great photo opportunities to capture the remaining fall foliage and harvested fields.  Later that morning, we took a trip to the public land to help Curty put up a few deer stands in preparation for opening day and he showed us a few tricks to tracking down the big bucks.  Lyssa was navigating with the GPS and carrying a part of the climber.  It as a nice little hike back into the woods followed by a stop at the water falls on our way out.  We made it there just in time to take pictures and run back to the car before the downpour of rain!  Perfect timing!

Lyssa and I at the falls - WI

Curty, our local tour guide!

Lyssa in the midst of the waterfall

Monday afternoon it was down to Milwaukee for a late night flight through Newark and to Pittsburgh.  I’m sure glad that I was able to make the trip back to visit and catch up with everyone before the hustle of the Holidays!  I never turn town a weekend trip to Wisconsin!

Just another reason why I love Buck's Camp Fence...