Wednesday, April 23, 2014

We are experiencing the coldest and definitely the wettest April in my memory. Our Albany weatherman said that it is already the fourth wettest April on record, and we have another strong weather system moving in here the middle of next week. I am telling you that it is wet enough on Riverview right now to bog a buzzard's shadow.
 The rain has been great for our spring woods burning program. It definitely lessened the stress on the trees, and the new growth on the ground is sprouting green cover much sooner than normal. However, it has not been so sporty for the sweet corn farming operations. Unless we are growing hydroponic sweet corn due to the fact that a fair amount of our corn is under water at the moment, I have to assume that our yields will be off a good bit. Since all of the farmers in our area are in the same boat,literally and figuratively, maybe we will receive higher prices due to lower yields.
 Our trapping program is in high gear now, and we are having great success now as the trappers have finally gotten smarter than the trapees. We are breaking in a new bookkeeper at the moment, and I thought that she was going to have stroke this morning when she opened an invoice for a gallon of bobcat and a gallon of coyote urine. She had no idea how to code the bill, but was more concerned with what kind of place she worked at that purchased urine. Hopefully, she will stick around. If she does, I can guarantee you that she will see stranger things here. I once had an IRS auditor who did not like me very much for some strange reason. He also did not like or understand what we do here; so he classified us as a circus in his code book. Back in the old days, you could be ugly to those folks. Regretfully, I now fear my government more that I do Russia or terrorists.
 Speaking of terrorism, when we renewed all of our insurance policies, our agent tried to get us to buy terrorism insurance. I just have to tell you that I would consider us a very low value, but well-armed target for an attack. I declined that one, but I sure am glad that we renewed our flood policies. For those of you who visit us annually, you would have a difficult time imagining how high the Flint River is at the moment. We are not ready to break camp and move furniture yet, but we are definitely keeping a wary eye on the Flint. I can still recall my Dad saying to me," Son, dry weather will scare you, but wet weather will kill you". As usual, Pop was right.
 Well, I'm going to put my rubber boots on and mosey on out to the corn field to see how many tractors are stuck at the moment. I will chat with y'all later.

Friday, April 11, 2014

I spent a little time with Chuck this week observing his training program on these little English Cockers that we are integrating into our program as flushing and retrieving dogs. We are very excited about this program, and the few dogs we had ready to go last season were very well received. As a matter of fact, we had several guests who called and requested to hunt with certain dogs rather than guides. That somewhat offended the guides, but they took it with good nature.
 At any rate, the methods being employed by Chuck were so impressive, I asked him if I could send my wife, Martha, up to his facility for a day to see if he could train her to obey commands that good. Chuck, being smarter than he looks responded," Boss, this program has not worked on my wife, and I know that it would not work on Miss Martha. Besides that, I have young children, and need to stay alive for a while longer".
 I then checked in with Andy and Casey to see how our trapping program was going. After they informed me that "something" had drug one of their leg hold traps,chain, and log out of the ground and off into the woods near my house, I am reexamining my daily jogging route.We have caught some coons,possums, and skunks, but we are really after the coyotes. They are wily critters, and we will entice them into the fold in the next few days.
 The last thing that I want to mention is turkeys. I do not know why you turkey hunters get so all fired excited about the thrill of turkey hunting. For the past two weeks, I could have killed all of them I wanted to from my patio with a gun in one hand and a cup of coffee in another. But,like the males of all species, they will get stupid when they get females on their brains. One of my mentors when I was a young man just back at Riverview was a fine old gentleman named Lemuel Boulware. Mr. Lem once told me that he had reached the stage in life where the" Wall Street Journal" excited him more than the Playboy centerfold. I thought to myself," You poor old fellow". Humn, I'm getting closer to understanding that now although these turkeys have not figured it out yet.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

spring burning season

This is definitely my favorite time of the year. To me, the control woods burning feels like the beginning of a new year. We rid ourselves of the residue of the prior year, and prepare to watch the new growth burst forth from beneath the majestic oaks and stately Longleaf pines. We have had two excellent days of burning with one very minor exception.
 Late yesterday, as I was enjoying the soothing sounds of the fire crackling through the underbrush blending with the sighs from the big pines as the winds stirred through them, my reverie was interrupted by the sound of a voice on the radio from one of the burning crews saying, "oh S---, the wind is shifting from the west to the south".Our trusty weather forecaster who predicts the weather like I do the stock market was wrong again. Thank goodness at the time we were burning some of our oldest timber that had only light cover underneath, and no damage was done other than to our professional pyromania pride. With just a bit of luck, we will finish up burning this week, and can begin preparing our habitat for another excellent quail hatch in another month or so when the ground cover will be perfect. In the meantime, we will be getting ready to trap our worst  predators that prey on nesting birds.