Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Thanksgiving

As we enter the Thanksgiving season here at Riverview, we have so many blessings to be thankful for. I would be hesitant to thank God for all of them by name for fear of leaving one out. I am very grateful to see the sunshine after three days of rain which included 5+ inches of rain since Saturday evening. I am also very blessed to live in South Georgia rather than the Mideast or the Midwest of our own great nation following what I have been seeing in Ferguson, Mo. Watching this mess made me think of the following lines from one of Willie Nelson's old songs, "Whiskey for my men and beer for my horses". The opening lines to that song has the following words: " Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day,son, a man had to answer for the wicked he done. Take all the rope in Texas, find a tall oak tree, round up all them bad boys. Hang them high in the street for all the people to see".
 Our country has lost its way, and justice is not being handed out swiftly and surely. Until the lawless learn that there are severe consequences for their crimes, they will just get bolder and more destructive. I am not saying that I would personally enjoy seeing them dead, but I sure would enjoy reading their obituaries.
 OK, that's it for my political diatribes, but I am very grateful to live in a small rural community where people look after one another regardless of race or economic status. I believe that the world can really be divided into two categories, rural and urban. By and large, I have traveled the world in the past five years. Country folks are the same the world over. They try to help you even when they do not speak the same language that you do. I have experienced that personally. So I am going to close my short Thanksgiving message with this comment, "Thank God, I'm a country boy"!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Cold weather

I once heard someone say, "Don't knock the weather. Without weather, most folks would have nothing to talk about at all". In our part of the world, we would add football, pickup trucks, quail hunting, and dogs to that list. The weatherman said yesterday that parts of all 50 states were registering temperatures below freezing, and that included Hawaii. Then this morning the weather lady was standing in Buffalo, NY where they had already received SEVEN FEET of snow. Just as an aside, have any of you ever seen an ugly weather lady? I sure as heck have not.
 Down here in the sunny south, Riverview has been no exception to the cold weather. Yesterday we set a record low for this date at 21 degrees. Now I must admit that I am normally jealous when I see a bunch of excited hunters climbing on the jeeps in the morning to enjoy a glorious day in one of God's most beautiful creations--the big piney woods of south Georgia. We had 16 jeeps pull out from the main lodge yesterday morning, and each of them had two guests going to their very own, private 250-300 acre hunting course. I did not experience the first pang of envy toward a single one of them. And the strangest thing of all to me was that they all seemed eager to get out there.
 It made me think of the line from "The Great Gatsby" that said,"the rich are not like you and me". I have come to the conclusion that Yankees are not like southerners either. I think that folks who live north of the "Smith&Wesson Line" have thicker blood and skin than we folks down here have. However, it was a great day for hunting yesterday, and today is a carbon copy, although just a shade warmer.
 One other good thing about this cold weather is that we have now experienced back to back hard, killing frosts. That will make the scenting conditions a lot better for the bird dogs. One of my guides said that one of his dogs was so good that he was going to have to tape one of his nostrils closed next week. He figures that's the only way that he can stop him from pointing two different coveys at the same time after this frost.
 I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving. The Cox family is looking forward to having everyone home for that occasion!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

An early fall in the South

I now know at least two segments of the economy that are pleased with the cold weather; the energy sector and the southern hunting plantations. Those old energy boys who are visiting us at the moment are grinning like a bunch of mules eating briars, and we are happier than dead pigs in the sunshine also. Now I do not wish misery on anyone, but then again, I have to question the sanity of anyone living in the far northern climates of this great nation who are already experiencing blizzard like conditions. We have already had two light frosts here which really improves the scenting conditions for the bird dogs, and the weather man is calling for very cold weather for this time of the year over the next ten days.
 Our fall hunting has been outstanding, and only promises to continue getting better with this type of weather. Our fall reservation calendar is the strongest that we have seen since the great recession of 2008-2010. We do have some open dates available between now and our March closing, but there are not many of them. if God continues to bless us with a safe season, I can already say that it will be a successful one!
 Our English Cocker flushing/retreiving dogs continue to be very popular with our guests. We entered them in a little field trial event a few weeks ago, and the Riverview Cockers very nearly swept the field in every age bracket. That just confirms what we already knew, and that is the fact that Chuck and Jerry are doing an outstanding job with both the bloodline and training of these puppy dogs. I wish that my Georgia Bulldogs could perform on the field as well as our hunting dogs are doing.
 Now that the elections are over, I can actually answer my telephone again, and watch a little television in peace. I still think that term limits may be the only answer for this great nation, but for some reason no one seems to listen to me in Washington when I make the suggestion.I would love to think that we might see a change after the midterms, but my real concern is , " can my clowns perform any better than their clowns"?
 Oh well, life goes on, and right now it's going good at Riverview. I hope everyone reading this has a great fall and a happy Thanksgiving!