Friday, March 28, 2014

Spring

Our 2013-2014 hunting season officially ended on March 22nd, and it was a terrific season! We had a big catfish cookout for all of the guides, and then gave them a couple of days off. I have taken my phone off the hook at the house because I do not want to post bail for any of this crowd who feels compelled to blow off too much steam on their pressure release valves. I have always stated that if I did not look forward to the beginning of a hunting season, then it was time for me to get out of the business. I have also always firmly believed that if I did not look forward to the end of a hunting season, then it was time for me to be committed to a mental institution!
 Somewhere in the Bible there is a verse that states, and I am paraphrasing here, every man is born with the innate understanding that there is a God just by observing the awesomeness of nature and the perfect cycles of creation, the rhythm of the seasons, and the ordered movement of the sun, the moon, and the stars. These things could not happen by accident. Personally, spring is my favorite season of the year. Down here in south Georgia, the Azaleas and Dogwoods are in full bloom. All of the native fruit trees are blooming along with the other species that shed their leaves in the winter. We are about to begin our controlled woods burning program this coming Monday.
 I always equate woods burning with new birth. We rid the woods of all of the leftover fuel and undesirable species sprouting up on the hunting courses. We almost always burn late in the evening, and try to get a consistent wind from any direction. We then set backfires against the wind, and the fires just meander through the big pines at about a knee high level in very long strings of even lines of fire. Once it gets completely dark, it is a beautiful sight to behold. Of course, we also have burning crews trying to sneak up on other burning crews in the dark woods to scare the living Beejesus out of one another. Along with the crackling and popping of burning underbrush, you will occasionally hear a horrible scream, and you will know that some unsuspecting soul has been scared out of his life. Had General Sherman been as good at burning as Jerry and his crews are, we might not have lost so many fine Georgia mansions during the War of Northern Aggression.
 My goal for this spring and summer is to try to be as good of a person as my dog thinks I am. In closing and speaking of dogs, someone sent me this cute thought that states that every puppy is born with the notion that his master is God. It is the master's responsibility to never do anything to make that puppy change his opinion!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

As Noah might have said,"It came up a cloud here on Sunday".It started raining Sunday around noon, and before it was over, we had received over four inches of rain. I have always heard that the two things a man can want the most and catch up on the quickest are sex and rain. I can assure you that we caught up on the rain on Sunday. Even though the forecast called for another 70% of rain on Monday, we actually hunted all day with no rain fall to speak of at all. Yesterday was cold and overcast all day, but once again, we had no rain. We have high hopes of seeing the sun shine today.
 The best news of all is that we will be very busy during this last week of our hunting season with almost a full house of hunters, and the weather man said no more rain until at least Monday. We may start burning our woods next week using boats rather than jeeps, but I would much prefer the wet stuff to hold off until at least next week. Then , as Miss Scarlett said, " I will worry about that tomorrow"!

Saturday, March 15, 2014

I heard a man say one day," If I promised a man a pretty weekend and he would not accept this one, I would be inclined to whip his butt". Well, it has been an absolutely beautiful mid-March weekend at Riverview. We had a light frost both mornings with crisp,cool hunting conditions. We have a bunch of folks in here this weekend from Michigan who are having a difficult time shooting quail because they are spending so much time looking at the grass. It seems that they have seen nothing but snow on the ground for quite a while now. I'm not certain, but I believe snow is that white stuff that we read about down here in the south.
 We have had a great hunting season, and have only one more week to go after today.The cover has been exceptional this season, sometimes a bit too exceptional as I think that the advantage has gone to the quail on several hunts. We are very excited about our addition of the little English Cocker flushing and retrieving dogs this season. We introduced them with five of our guides this year, and they have been wildly popular. As a matter of fact, they are so popular that some guests are requesting certain flushing dogs next year rather than requesting guides. We plan to expand this program next season to include at least four more of these special dogs in our program.
 As soon as we finish up next week, we will begin our spring burning program, and I will tell you more about that in our next blog. It is my very favorite time of the year!