Dad's Muzzleloader (Brad Kraker post)

I was at the range, as a 19ish year old kid, trying to figure out the muzzleloader I had purchased a few years prior solely because it was in my budget, and not because it was a quality firearm, by any stretch of the imagination. I had loaded up the maximum recommended amount of powder (because of my “more is better” philosophy at that time in my life), and seated some sort of projectile, which I’m sure was the most highly marketed “next big thing” that was available. I pulled the trigger, sending the bullet down range, but not hitting anywhere near the bullseye. I was oblivious to the fact that topping a $160 muzzleloader with a $40 scope all but guaranteed struggles at the range. Shortly after the smoke cleared, I heard a familiar voice, in a very familiar sarcastic tone, say “Good night! What. Were. You. Trying. To. Hit?” I looked behind me to see my uncle Rick, grinning ear to ear, with his cartoonishly massive forearms crossed over his chest, which was his signature stance. “You’re not even close!” He had a sense of humor that would either make you laugh, or cry, or wonder what the heck was wrong with him, lol. Thankfully I shared a fairly sarcastic sense of humor, and could give it back. He proceeded to tell me 2 reasons why I wasn’t on target. The first was, I shouldn’t be shooting one of those modern “in line” muzzleloaders. They were a cheater’s version of a muzzleloader. Any true marksman would use the old sidelock percussion cap style, and would be embarrassed to be seen with anything else. The second piece of advice was that I was shooting it backwards, which of course was making fun of me being left handed. It should be noted, that for my entire life, Rick was known as “Zreke”. I don’t know how or why this name came about, but I never questioned it. The fact is, if you are a Kraker, or you know a Kraker, or if you don’t know a Kraker but have possibly met one once, there’s a good chance you have a nickname. These nicknames aren’t offensive, unless you deserve it, but we Krakers must have some aversion to using names given at birth. Zreke and my dad worked together cutting trees for the better part of 30 years, and they are the two hardest workers I’ll ever know, and they were both strong as a bull. Their personalities, work ethic, and sense of humor are very similar. As a kid I was always amazed by how Zreke could run a chainsaw with one outstretched arm. Try it sometime. Good luck. Any time I needed help doing something requiring heavy lifting and/or insane amounts of physical labor, they were the ones to call. I recall one time I needed assistance getting an 800 pound file cabinet down a set of stairs, and dad and Zreke were there within minutes. Once the cabinet was downstairs, Zreke, who was built like a brick sh*thouse, for lack of a better term, took a couple of minutes to goof around with Evan, who was maybe 3 years old at the time. I don’t know why I remember that, but I do like it was yesterday. Evan was probably wondering who this gigantic but funny guy was. Back to the range part of the story. After suggesting that I ditch my muzzleloader and become right handed, Zreke pulled a muzzleloader of his own out of his work van, and I have to admit, I was jealous. It was, at the time, a .45 caliber (later changed to a .50, after a story that is too long to tell), with brass hardware, dark stained wood stock, double set triggers, and an octogon barrel, truly a sight to behold. THAT was a real muzzleloader. I recall many stories involving that old gun, some hits, some misses, and one year in particular where misfires (when you pull the trigger, but it fails to fire) were a source of much frustration for Zreke. I was not (and am still not) an overly talkative person in most cases, but I could talk to Zreke for hours, especially if the subject matter involved hunting or the shooting sports. I always, especially in my late teens years and after, considered him not only my uncle, but one of my better friends. I took his advice to heart, even when he told me to sell that gigantic .300 Remington Ultra Mag. No one needs something that huge, a .270 would do just fine. He was right. I sold that thing before I ever used it. Zreke was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in September of 2012. I remember the last time I visited him, probably trying to convince myself that we’d go to the range and shoot some tannerite or something. Cancer had taken his 240 pound frame and whittled it down to 160, he told me. I remember during that visit, he made a fist while he was talking. His hands were still huge. He passed away while I was on a bear hunting trip. Part of me wanted to make the drive back home to attend the service, but the other part of me knew what he’d say to me if he knew that I had done that, so I stayed up north. Two years ago, I’m not even really sure the sequence of events, but I “gained custody” of that old muzzleloader, and it immediately became my most prized possession. The brass had lost its shine, the hammer spring needed to be replaced, and there are scratches in the finish, but I don’t care. I made it my mission to take that old gun on one more deer hunt. I took it to the range, and had many struggles trying to get it to hit where I was aiming, after a lot of experimentation. I’m sitting in a canvas wall tent in Missouri as I type this, hours after successfully taking a nice deer with that gun. A nice doe walked past me at 18 yards last night, and offered me a frontal shot at close range. I took the shot, directly into the wind, and by the time the massive cloud of smoke cleared and I could see what happened, the deer was on its final run, hit through the heart. As I approached the deer and knelt down to appreciate it, I noticed it wasn’t a doe, but a small buck that had already dropped its antlers for the year. Hey Zreke, after all that time at the range, trying to figure out how to optimize accuracy, I figured out what to do. I think it’s backwards. You have to shoot it left handed. 🙂 Thanks Zreke.

 He taught me a lot about a lot. I was so surprised to find out he passed he was a great man not very easy to get to know but once you did I learned a lot from him and I’ll always remember him! A Good soul! Bob Morsink

 Carla I just thought of another Rick classic today and it really made me smile. I would enter it in that blog but I’m not good at maneuvering that but it was when he’d see a whole carload of people or just whenever he would say “ the whole famdamily” I’m sure you recall that too! Bob Morsink

I'm A Little Late With These

I was cleaning out some old picture boxes and I came across a note titled "Dad Memories". I had meant to add them to this blog a LONG time ago. I guess it's better late than never. Some of them are most likely repeats. Sorry, I didn't take the time to look. I hope they bring a smile to your face, like they did for me. 1. OUR HOUSE I had many memories written down of him working on mine and Jer's first house. That house was actually a combination of work from so many different people. We had grandpa Kraker replace our PVC pipe railings with actual wood and fix our ridiculously uneven stairs. Grandma Kraker put in many hours painting walls, and mom and grandma Kleinheksel put in many cleaning hours. Bry put in bathroom cabinets. I think almost all of you were part of our big painting project since Jer didn't like having a pinkish house! But dad, by far, spent the most time on that house. More than Jer or I. Dad gutted the bathroom, laid linoleum in the kitchen, carpeted, drywalled, supervised the painting (you know what I'm talking about) and made sure no paintbrush handles had any paint on them. When I had Jordyn, he helped us add a room on. When I had Jace, he connected our 2 dormers in the roof and moved us upstairs. He helped re-shingle the roof. No matter what project we had going, he was always there. I remember a few specific things. He had laid the linoleum in our kitchen and bathroom. When he finished, only I was there and he desperately wanted our refrigerator moved back into place. I told him Jer would be home soon, but when he wants something done, there is no waiting. He proceeded to move it himself. As he pushed it along our newly laid floor (which he had admired repeatedly as "looking darn nice"), he put a nice long scrape in it. I felt sick inside....it was brand new floor and a big ol' scrape. Of course, I complained and asked why he couldn't have just waited to move the fridge. His response, "Do you want me to make a scrape worth complaining about?" I knew to never mention it to him again. He never did compliment that floor as looking "darn nice" again though. Don't worry....there were plenty of other "darn nice" things in our house for him to comment on. I also remember him constanly complaining about our house not being square. He had lots of ideas of things we should do to improve the house...but none were ever in our price range. He hated our garage floor. To be fair, it was 1/2 cement and 1/2 dirt and very annoying. I think Jer heard this phrase 1,000 times. "It's too bad you don't know a good cement guy that could fix this floor." 2. OUR LAWN We only had a push mower and Jer worked a lot, so mowing fell on me. I tended to let it go a little too long. One day, the mower kept turning off on me....because the grass was too long. I didn't realize that was the reason at the time, so I called dad to ask him what was wrong with it. He just said the grass is probably too long and that was it. He didn't mention coming over and he was at work at the time. However, no more than an hour later, he shows up unannounced with a lawn mower on a trailer and proceeds to mow our lawn. You'd think I'd be surprised, but I wasn't. This was just typical for him. 3. ANDREW IN CHURCH Dad used to pinch our leg if we were being too loud in church. And it worked to keep us quiet....until Andrew came along. I remember dad leaning over and giving Andrew a good pinch on the leg, and then Andrew loudly declaring, "OUCH, that hurt!" We all know how much dad loved calling attention to himself. I think of this whenever I go to discipline my kids in church. 4. Repossessing My Car This happened when I worked at West Shore Counseling. I don't remember the reason that he had to come there. I probably forgot something and he was dropping it off. Anyway, I wasn't at my desk when he walked in and the girl who was at my desk had no idea who he was. He asked her to find me and then proceeded to tell her that he was there to repossess my car. I'll never forget the look on her face when she came to let me know that someone was taking my car. 5. A Couple Small Things When he called the dishwasher our cupboard. When he called our stairs the shelves. Singing Great big globs of greasy grimy gopher guts Doing I'm a Little TeaPot motions with us as kids, and also climbing up his legs and flipping us over When he always asked me if I "had a monopoly on the bathroom" Tubing at Dumont and whipping Bryan and Mike Becksvoort thru the reeds.

Can I have more please?

After writing this I realized Chad posted this same thing a while back. Just thought I would share one more time with a picture!

 For our immediate family the picture below does all the speaking. For others, I may have to explain.... This was a familiar sight if you ever had to ask Dad to get you some more to drink. First he would pour out about two drops. After asking for more a few times he would finally give in. The result is shown below. A cup filled to the edge forcing you to slurp it up. Kenlie thought this was pretty funny :-)

In the Trees

If you have any pictures of Dad in the trees. Please email them to me so I can add them to this post. Thanks

Bloody Nose

Recently a couple of familiar phrases came to mind.  I'm not sure if they were Dads, maybe you can can confirm or deny weather or not they are his.

Elijah had a bloody nose today and the phrase "picking and a grinnin"  came to mind.

Also,  Amber had something in her eye the other day and as she was telling me about it she was poking at her eye with her finger.  I told her "it's your finger, get it out of there"  which I'm almost certain was what I heard from Dad whenever I had something in my eye.

Speaking of Grinning---- This is a picture of Dad in his "nice piece of bass" shirt, that I'm sure he NEVER wore in public.

PAINTING

Just a quick memory! I was painting Jaelynn's room this morning and I found myself worried about getting paint on the handle of the paint brush. As hard as I tried, I still got some paint on the handle. I could just see dad lower his head, shaking it in disappointment.... It was so annoying to him! Funny how he's not here to even say anything sarcastic to me about it and I'm still worried about it! I miss those remarks from him!

Baseball

Does anyone remember playing baseball with dad in the backyard? Was I the only one he called "the windmill" because of how I would swing, miss and spin all the way around? Also....how many windows did we break on his poor shed?

Coloring

I was coloring with Jordyn on Saturday afternoon and it reminded me of coloring with dad. I have just vague memories of sitting and coloring with him, but vivid memories of his actual coloring pages. I can remember that he would outline the picture in the color first very dark and then he would fill it in with that color. He would push so hard and color it so dark. He would always make sure to rotate the crayon so that it wouldn't get dull, which he always reminded me to do as well. It's such a simple memory, but I just remember thinking that he could color better than anyone I knew! Of course, as his little girl, I pretty much thought that he was the best at everything he did! He reminded me of his coloring one day while we were having lunch at Russ'. Jace was coloring his picture and dad joined in. He wouldn't finish the picture though because he didn't have the correct color for some parts. It had to be the right color.

"I went tubing yesterday for the first time in a LONG time and it make me think of Uncle Rick. I remember how fast he would drive the boat and terrify us kids on the tube. He got such a kick out of making us flip off the tube. Great picture." Written by Sarah Beckham

Peaches & Cream

As I'm sitting here having my favorite summer treat tonight, I can't help but think of dad.  It was one of his favorites as well.  I'm enjoying some fresh cut peaches sprinkled with a little sugar on vanilla ice cream.  I keep hearing his voice over and over singing, "Peaches and cream; oh what a dream; just like strawberry wi-yine."  He sang that whenever we had peaches and ice cream (and probably many other times as well).  Missing him every day!

Happy 60th Birthday

It has been awhile since I’ve posted anything.  Life is become very busy with summer here and child number three arriving, but even with all the busyness of everyday life, I find myself thinking of dad a lot.  Sometimes the memories are of those last days when he was very sick and everything seemed so unfair.  Although those memories are sad, it was a growing point for me and my family’s faith in God.  It was a growing point in all of our lives and I find comfort in knowing that it was part of Gods plan for us.

The memories I truly relish are the good times I had with dad before the cancer, and if you haven’t noticed from this blog, dad created many great memories for all of his family and friends.  Because it is hard for me to get on the blog and post a memory as soon as I have it, Tammy gave me the good idea of putting a note of the memory in my phone and coming back and posting them later when I have time. 

The first note I have in my phone is the memory of shooting bats in our back yard off the roof of the house.  We did it a few times that I can remember but were only successful once.  Still sitting on that roof, throwing a sock with a tennis ball in it up in the air, and shooting at bats that swooped at it with a shotgun was a memory I will never forget.  Guess that’s where I got my redneck side from.

Second, I remember the times we would go to the warehouse at dads work in the winter and shoot our bows.  Dad would set up an old tack board behind the target in case there was a terrible shot that missed the target (which of course none of us ever made that terrible of shots).  We would scavenge the warehouse looking for things we could shoot.  It was usually plastic silverware or tacks.  Then we would see who could hit them first.  It was stupid but I loved it.

Third, I remember the trips to check the back on Sunday nights, when I was just a young boy.  Dad would have to do a walk through to make sure everything was in order and he would attempt to make it as scary as possible.  He even created a scary sound track for the walk through the tunnel (Do do….Do do….Do do).  He always made things so much fun for us kids.

Finally, I always enjoyed the random calls to see if I wanted to go to Gander Mountain.  Sometimes we would go with a purchase in mind and leave empty handed and other times we would go just to browse and leave with bags full of stuff, but no matter the outcome of our trip, we always enjoyed going and talking about our favorite hobbies (hunting and fishing). 

Even more than memories, I find myself having thoughts of how great it would be if dad was still around for certain things.  For example, dad would love to be able to help with projects at Chad’s new house and Tammy’s new house, he would love to see our pigs and help out with me and Chad’s hobbie farms, he would love to work on our old Case tractor with us (or at least give us grief), and most of all he would have loved to have met my new baby boy, Sullivan Richard.  I also miss being able to tap his knowledge when I have a project I want to do or when something breaks. 

The family got together on dads birthday at his grave site and it was just nice to pay our respects to the greatest man we’ve ever known.  I hope we continue to do this for years to come.  Maybe even share some good memories together (as if we don’t do that all the time anyway).

The Channel

Just a quick memory...

This weekend our family camped at the Holland State Park.  It brought back a couple of memories.

First, it reminded me of dad's complaining about having to go camp at the beach...even though I think he didn't mind it that much.  He just liked to give mom a hard time.

Second, I had a hard time walking past the channel without picturing dad sitting out there on one of the cement benches.  He could sit there for hours just watching the boats go in and out.  I don't think he ever got tired of sitting out at the channel.  I miss sitting there with him.

A Box Of Fun

Recently, I have been taking cardboard boxes home from work for our baby ducks and chickens to live in.  Before it becomes a place for our farm animals to stay, Rogue and Blair like to play in them like it is the greatest toy ever.  Seeing my girls have so much fun in a cardboard box reminded me of the time dad brought some huge boxes home from S2 Yachts (it may have been more than once but I was too young to remember all the details.  Tammy or mom may have a better memory of this story).   He set up the box in the basement and made a play house out of it with windows and a door.  I remember having a blast in that box. 

DAD-ISM'S

I wanted to do a post to remember some a dad's famous one-liner's and/or quotes.  Dad always had a good come back to anything you could say.  I'm not sure how he thought so quickly sometimes.  Here are some of my favorite "dad-ism's".  Please add to the list as I KNOW there are so many more!

• Are you going to make a career out of that?  (for example:  someone turning into their driveway slower than dad would like them to)
• Do you have a monopoly on that? (I was asked that question often during my teenage years while using the bathroom)
• It’s a 4-way stop, not a parking lot.
• Yuppies
• Some of us have to work for a living (said to us kids while we were playing and he was leaving for work)
• Are you fake the jakein’ it? (Said to us over and over whenever we stayed home from school sick.  Sometimes I even began to feel guilty that maybe I really wasn't sick)
• Life ain’t fair
• Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then
• Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades
• Did you see that __________ (fill in whatever project he just did)?  That's darn nice!

Can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Missing Rick!

    I think of Rick everyday.  I enjoyed taking him out for coffee to McDonalds the last few months of his life and taking him to the Holland pier to fish.
    I also appreciated that he took the time to fix my boat floor and fixed the wiring when he was getting so weak.  And the time he went with me and Larry to Silver Lake to fix the boat lift and he was upset that it took us so long to fix it.  He was always willing to help anyone and could fix anything. I miss him.   Dad Kleinheksel
  

Snowmobile prayers

As we have been snowmobiling lately, I remember the nights that Rick would be out there pulling the kids on the sled behind the snowmobile.  All I remember doing is praying that no one would get hurt. All I could hear was Andrew screaming all the time and I never knew if he was hurt or if  Rick was teasing him and making him chase the sled and then taking off just as he got close. That is what he did but poor Andrew was much younger and had a hard time running as fast as everyone else. Was I right?

Snowmobile (Part 2)

As I drove into mom's driveway yesterday, I noticed something was different (and no, I'm not talking about the chicken coop sitting on a trailer along with a hot tub turned on its side).  I noticed there was fresh fallen snow everywhere and the yard was untouched.  This is probably the first time that I have ever driven into dad and mom's yard after a snow fall and not seen snow mobile tracks.  It made me really miss dad.

I know we already had a snow mobile post, but dad loved snow mobiling so much that I am sure there must be more snow mobiling memories, good and bad.

I remember when we were younger, each winter a group of about 12 snowmobiles would show up at our house.  Dad would put his snow gear on and head out.  Him and the guys (I don't know who all came) would head out and snowmobile late into the night.

I remember riding with dad to grandpa and grandma Kraker's house and going inside to get warmed up and eat Doritos and Cheese Balls.  We would fly down the gravel road so fast (at least I thought it was fast at the time)!

I remember dad was always tinkering on or fixing a snow mobile.  I think he did more of that, the older us kids got.  We seemed to always be breaking something on them.  I can remember one time that Bryan and I went snowmobiling.  We were flying up and down the ditches out near 146th.  Bryan was following my tracks.  Apparently, I narrowly missed hitting a culvert.  Bryan wasn't so lucky.  He bent the front ski up and did some other damage.  We limped the sled home, having to stop every so often to put the spark plugs back on.  When we got home, dad was not there.  Bryan, thoughtful as he is, parked the sled right in the front yard in perfect view for dad to see as he drove in the driveway.  Bry and I went inside and waited for dad to come home, peeking out the kitchen window to see the expression on dad's face.  I don't remember what dad ever said to Bryan about it, but I do remember the expression on his face as he did a double take at the sled when he drove in the driveway was priceless!!  Poor Bryan....and dad, since he would be the one fixing it....again.

I know there must be more memories.....so please post them!  They make me smile :-)    Even the bad ones.

Snowplowing

    With all the snow plowers out and about today, this memory came back to me of Rick snow plowing for his Mom and Dad. Rick always loved to go out plowing, so seeing all the  plowers today was a little sad.  Rick would plow anyone and every ones driveway that he could find to do.
     I believe it was a Saturday afternoon. It had snowed quite a bit so we headed out to see whose driveway we could open up. First, we went to his Mom and Dads house. I went inside to have coffee with them.  As we sat by the table, we could hear Rick plowing and could see him from the window each time he shoved more snow away. There was a lot of cars that Rick had to wait for which always made him mad.  He just wanted to get the job done and wanted the whole road to himself.  As he sat in the driveway waiting for cars to pass a snowplow came through and threw a massive amount of snow right back into the driveway and right into the back window of his jeep. Now, the jeep he had then had a canvas top, so when the snow hit, it split the plastic open and threw the snow right through the window and it landed on  Ricks back. I can't even describe how funny it looked.  Not only did the snow hitting him make us laugh, but his shoulders dropped in disbelief as he realized what just happened.  I'm not sure we should have been laughing at him but just the way his shoulders dropped, we  knew what was going through his mind. I'm not sure who else was there that day, but I do remember laughing with them and yet, not wanting to go home with him because I was sure his day was ruined and he would be very crabby.
    Of course, if you knew Rick, he finished the job in his cold, snow filled jeep, and then went on to find more driveways to plow!