The Schamel Family

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Pre-Born Puppies By John Schamel

About 6 months ago, Ben’s dog, Princess, had 12 puppies and now she is pregnant again.   Ben breeds his dog with a dog that is half Dad’s dog and half my dog.  His name is Buddy. It takes about 9 weeks or 63 days for the puppies to be born.

     In the 4th week the puppy’s eyes and spinal cords develop and their faces take shape. By just the 5th week, the puppies will get toes, claws, and you can tell if it is a boy or a girl. The mom will start looking pregnant. Then on the 6th week they develop skin and you can hear their hearts beat with a stethoscope.  On week 8, they grow more and you began to think how many will there be? You also have to make a place for her to have her puppies. We put down hay in a stall in the barn with a heat lamp and a heater for Princess. So, when she has her puppies, they will be safe and warm.  This picture is of a puppy 3 days before birth.  At 60 days, the pups get to where they can hear and smell.  They have nearly 200 million scent receptors in their noses.  We humans, have only 5 million just after birth!  Dogs can smell 100 times better than humans.  This helps them to smell out birds (if they are hunting dogs), bad guys (if they are guard dogs), and their mom when they are born because they need to know where she is by smell because their eyes are closed and they can’t see her!    
      On week 9 or 63 days she has her puppies. We are very excited about having our puppies!  What we do with our puppies is sell them.  They are AKC registered Labrador Retrievers.  We allow them to go to their permanent homes at 8 weeks old.  They come with their 1st shots too.  People can pre-order their pups already, so if you know anyone who’d like a good puppy, let them know ours should be available around March 10th. 

November Hunting Trip    By Ben Schamel

On the 20th of November our family, and five other families
started our way down to Missouri, for our very first family
camp. After we drove for a few hours the, Cupit's Uhaul
trailer that they were taking with them fell off and
started banging on the bumper of their van in the middle of
the highway. We all had to pull off to the side or the road
in the middle of traffic. Fortunately a police man was
right behind us when the incident happened, and called over
another police man to help direct the traffic while we tried
to find out what the problem was. It turns out that the
ball on their vans hitch came unscrewed and that is why the
trailer fell off. We found out afterwards that there was
not much damage done to the back of the van, only a slight
dent to the bumper. When we finally got to the ranch that
night, all we had time to do is inflate some air
mattresses, and get settled in, and go to bed.
At 4:00 O’clock AM the next morning all the people that
were going deer hunting, met in the cafeteria to meet with
Mr. Brock Frost, who was the one who set up all the deer
stands. Then we selected our deer stand that we were going
to hunt from, ( I got the stand by the spring ). I walked
down to the spring, and sat there until daylight came.
After a few hours of sitting there, I saw five does out in
the field, but I did not shoot them, because I thought that
you had to fill the "either sex" tag before you could fill the
doe tag, and I didn’t want to shoot a doe for the more
expansive "either sex" tag. Soon they sensed me and ran off,
so I waited for about another hour. When I did not see
anything I walked back to the house, and found out that I
could have filled the doe tag first, which was a bit
disappointing, knowing that I could have got a doe that
morning.
Until it was time to go out hunting again in the afternoon,
we mostly fished in the pond, played musical interments,
and ate some delicious food. When it was time to go hunting
again I went back to the spring and sat in the tree stand
for just about two hours with out hearing or seeing any
thing, but all that waiting paid off when a buck came
running down the hill behind me. He crossed the dried up
creek bottom, and popped up over the little ridge thirty
yards from the tree stand that I was at. By the time he
came over the ridge I already had my cross hairs right
behind the shoulder, then BANG!!!! The buck ran as fast as
he could. As I watched him run, doubts in me arouse, “did I
miss?? Did I hit him in the stomach, that would be a mess??
No I had the sights right… I thought!!” However I anxiously
watched him run, but when he got about fifty yards away, the
buck ran full speed into a big oak tree, then fell down,
rolled over, and kicked for a few seconds. When I walked
over to him I did not know if he was dead or not, so I
grabbed a stick and touched his eye hoping that he wouldn’t
blink. It was a good thing that he didn’t or I would either
have to shoot him again, or slit his throat, and I did not
want to do either one. Right there started the hard part, I
had to clean him.
I had him mostly cleaned, but by this time it was getting
pretty dark, so it was difficult to see what I was doing.
Fortunately not long after that, my Dad and David were
coming back from hunting, and they were coming in the truck.
There are two things that I was grateful for them having
the truck, one is that it could give me light to see what I
was doing, and the other is that I would not have to carry
it a mile to two miles to the house, or need to walk that
way to get the truck. After flagging them down, my dad
pulled in front of the buck, and he helped me finish
cleaning him. The funny thing was, I didn’t get nervous
until we got the buck in the back of the truck. The buck was
a seven point, but the ends were broken off both of the
sides, so it could have a small ten point, but I guess we
will never know.
The next morning my family accidentally slept in to long to
go hunting. However that night I took David out to a
different deer stand than I was in, to see if I could help
him shoot a doe. About 20 minutes before it was to dark to
take a shot, David saw a doe out in the field about 400
yards. We decided that in order to get a shot before got to
dark, we would have to sneak up on it, instead of waiting
for it to come closer. When we got close enough to get a
good shot the deer saw us, and ran away in to the woods.
After it the deer left, David and I started walking back
home through the field, when we saw another doe, but by
this time it was to dark, so I advised David not to shoot.
A few days went by and David and I were still hadn’t gotten
another deer. One morning he got his chance, we had a doe
at twenty yards. I whispered to him to get his sights on
her, ( I was going to have him to wait for a better shot,
but I guess I didn’t tell him that) because while I was
getting my firearm ready, I heard his gun shoot. After
David shot and the deer ran, we both went to look for
blood, although we were almost sure that he missed. We
looked, but we did not find anything.
On the 26th, the five other families drove back to
Colorado, but all of my Dad's side of the family came over
for the rest of the time that we were there. We didn’t go
hunting but twice after the 26th, and only once I got
another shot, but I went with my dads muzzle loader so I
missed. On the thirtieth at 11: 00 O’clock PM we got home
and went straight to bed.
Some of the things that I enjoyed the most, was the bible
studies that we did every night, shooting the buck, and
spending time with friends and family, having a great time.

Trip to Florida   By David Schamel

In December we went to Florida for a business trip. We flew into Ft. Myers. The night we got there, we had to go to Naples. By the time we got to Naples, it was about six o’clock, so we ate and went to our hotel. The next day, my Dad had a meeting. While he was in the meeting we went to the store then went swimming at the beach and then the pool. We went swimming for most of the day. The next day we swam at the beach and did some boogie boarding, collected shells, then we went to the pool. That night we went to the business banquet. It is a formal banquet where everyone dresses up in fine suits and dresses and eats a fancy dinner.

Then Sunday came. When we got up, we had to get ready to go fishing. First we ate breakfast, then we got to go fishing. We caught a lot of fish. When John caught a fish called a ladyfish our guide whistled really loud, then a bald eagle came flying out of nowhere to get the fish. It was really neat! We fished a while longer, then it was time to go back. While we were coming back, we saw some dolphins. Our guide went the right speed so that the dolphins jumped in our waves. When we got back, we drove to our hotel and got ready to go home. The weather was nice especially compared to Colorado’s weather of 17 degrees. I thank God for giving us a family business.

Responsibility   By Melody Schamel

Responsibility is, knowing and doing what is expected of me.

Today I will be telling you about responsibility which we have been working on this month. Most children obey but we have to do more than that. We have to take responsibility. Here's an example, lets take our newsletters for the example we need responsibility to get it done. In school we heard a story of Nature about two eagles, and this is how it goes.


 


The Bald Eagle

A sound came from the sky in the morning air. There, flying in the sky, were two bald eagles, one a male, and one a female flying next to each other. In the female’s mouth was a stick. The stick was not too big, but big enough that you could see it. Then she dropped it on purpose to test the male. The male went flying down to catch the stick, but the stick kept going faster and faster. Then the male grabbed the stick and flew back into the morning air.

Then the male dropped the stick to test the female. She flew down and got the stick. That was their test to show each other responsibility. They showed that they would be faithful to one another and do their jobs of caring for one another and their eaglets.

There are many other stories like that about the bald eagle. Do your children take responsibility? If not, you could make a chart and write all the things that you see your children do with out telling them to. Happy new year!

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