Fall

Fall officially arrives in south Georgia at 10:36 pm this evening, and, right on cue, Mother Nature is pushing us a cold front through here tonight. We should have very fall-like conditions here for the balance of the week. One thing is certain--we are flat ready for fall at Riverview. The woods are beautiful, and the dogs are playing themselves into hunting season shape with dog running occurring two hours each morning now.
 We have also brought in all of our kitchen and housekeeping staff to begin cleaning and going through all of our cottages. Greg says that we will plant our winter grass on all of the lodge grounds later in the week. When that grass starts coming up, I know that the arrival of guests is just around the corner.
 This past Saturday, I took my triplet nine year old grandchildren on a dove hunt. I had already tried the two boys with a shotgun earlier, and neither of them have quite enough upper body strength to handle a shotgun yet other than at a gun range. Nate and Keaton did kill hundreds of doves(according to them) with their BB guns while Eva picked every dove I killed up without losing a single bird. She is the best pick-up person I have ever had, at least of the two-footed version. I would tell you how many she picked up, but let's just say that she picked up the limit.
 I did have one minor problem with my little pick-up lady. During the best 40 minutes of the hunt, she looked at me with those big beautiful eyes and said, "Papa, I need to go to the bathroom, and I can't do that out here. You need to take me to Mimi's house". So, away we went. When I shared this story with my son, Cader IV, he looked at me and stated,"Who is this old person in my dad's body"? Then he proceeded to remind me of the time that he got stung by 4 bees on a dove hunt, and I would not take him to the house. He then recounted the time he cut himself with his pocket knife on another shoot, and I suggested that he pee on it and rub some turpentine on the cut because I was not leaving the field.
 Grandchildren are different, and that is all i have to say on that subject!