What's the best way to retrieve tweets that are on a given timeframe?

something.rb

def live_tweets
    tweets = Twitter.user_timeline(self.twitter_username, :include_entities => true)
    max_id = nil
    since_id = nil
    last_id = nil

    tweets.each do |tweet|
      if tweet.created_at.utc <= self.time_end.utc
        max_id = tweet.id
        break
      end
    end

    if first_event_tweet?(tweets)
      since_id = first_event_tweet(tweets)
    else
      last_id = tweets.last.id
    end

    unless since_id
      tweets = older_tweets(last_id)
      # Lost my train of thought here
      # idontknowwhatimdoing.jpg

  end

  def first_event_tweet(tweets)
    since_id = nil
    tweets.each do |tweet|
      if tweet.created_at.utc <= self.time_start.utc
        since_id = tweet.id
        break
      end
    end
    since_id
  end

  def first_event_tweet?(tweets)
    since_id = nil
    tweets.each do |tweet|
      if tweet.created_at.utc <= self.time_start.utc
        since_id = tweet.id
        break
      end
    end
    since_id
  end