How do you succeed in Life?  One key word is preparation.  I’ve thought about this a lot in the last few days as I “prepare” for my upcoming Elk hunting trip to New Mexico with my friends.  Actually, I am far less prepared this year than I have ever been before.  There are different reasons for this.  The first one is I am just being lazy about it.  Second, I have been pre-occupied.  I have been so busy with recording, traveling, making videos, ect. that I have neglected my preparation for this trip.  Pictured here I am finishing a 4 mile ride on my horse “Tucker.”  If I fail to get an Elk on this trip it will probably be due to my lack of preparation.  It will be my fault.  

Be sure to not fail to “prepare” for eternity.  We can get too busy in everyday life to look ahead and realize we won’t live forever on this earth.  By excepting Jesus as our Savior we can make our preparation to go to Heaven.  When we do this, we have really begun to succeed.

From time to time I want to tell you all about true friends that I have.  The Bible says if you want to have friends, show yourself friendly!  It works!  Bill Stone and his wife Ramona, from Winchester, Ohio are true friends.  He has went with me as far as Winnepeg, Manitoba to help me get to my concerts when Theresa wasn’t able to go, We’ve fished together in the Bahamas twice, Bear hunted in Minnesota, deer hunted many times, and I’ve even went golfing with him in Florida although I don’t golf.  I took this picture of Bill a couple years ago.  They have always supported my ministry here at home and my work over seas.  I appreciate them.  Many of my best days hunting have been with Bill and other friends on his farm, not to mention I took my best buck there too!

My friends and I are DIY horseback elk hunters.  We usually hunt different parts of Colorado.  Last fall a friend of mine from the Wide Rack Ranch in southern Ohio, Mike Connett, told me about a good elk hunt he and his friend went on in New Mexico.  They both took nice bulls with bow.  We decided to put in for this hunt.  We ended up drawing our tags although I didn’t really expect to.  So, Lord willing we’ll wait for 2009 to go back to Colorado.  The picture is my son Thomas and I in 2004 with two elk that my friend Rick Browning and I took.  Two bulls in 3 days with our Mathews bows.  Wow!

My friends Rick Browning, Mike Dean, Joe Nemecek, and I have drawn our 2008 elk tags for New Mexico.  We are really excited about this as we have never hunted this state before.  The picture here is me in Colorado last year calling in a 5 x 5 bull that I took with my bow 2 hours after I took this picture.  Rick Browning and I have hunted elk together for 5 or 6 years.  Mike Dean went with us last year for the first time.  This will be Joe Nemeceks’ first time on a horseback Elk hunt.  He is a Cowboy from Oklahoma.  I worry about him being able to “Handle” a trip like this.  You have to be pretty tough……..

I am already making plans for this fall’s hunting seasons. So far my plans include trips to West Virginia, Colorado, and my home state of Ohio. Pictured are my best bucks to date.