Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Christmas break

When I was a child and Mom and Dad were trying to build the business, we hunted every day except Christmas Day. Santa Claus would come on Christmas Eve, and we would have a one day break before going back at it. As the years progressed and our occupancy increased, I realized that it was very important to give the staff and dogs a week's rest around Christmas so that the last half of season would be as fresh as the first half. Cader IV has continued that practice.

Today will be our last day of hunting until after Christmas. We have been completely full these last two days. The weather forecast for both days called for an 80% chance of rain, but we did not miss a minute of hunting even though we received 1.5 inches of rain. God smiled on us as our rains came during the night, and the wee hours of the morning. But, it has been two raw, overcast and cold days with our temperatures never getting out of the mid 40's. Now I know that is balmy weather compared to what some of you are experiencing, but us Southerners do not have as much antifreeze in our bodies as you do.

The last half of season promises to be a good one. Since our president-elect says that it is OK to say so, my primary reason for posting this short blog is to wish each of you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year !

Thursday, December 15, 2016

What If

I have been following with great interest the antics of the losing side in this last election. What really got my attention was reading that California was thinking of seceding from the Union. Now the folks on the Left Coast are usually the first ones to come up with new ideas; so I don't know how to break it gently to these folks, but my part of the US came up with that idea in the 1860's. It didn't work out so good for us! We gave out of bullets, food, and everything else after General Sherman made his famous march through Georgia. But, as far as I am concerned, GO FOR IT, you folks from California. And take Oregon with you while you are at it!

Another thing that is particularly galling to me is the concept of "Sanctuary Cities". Basically, if I understand it correctly, these are cities who refuse to obey the federally mandated laws of the land.  Yet our federal government continues to fund these cities while allowing them to thumb their collective noses at Washington and the law.

The above paragraphs set the stage for the title of this blog/rant, "What If". Hawks are federally protected species as raptors. In spite of the fact that wind turbines are killing hawks, eagles, and other raptors by the hundreds, it is against federal law for us to shoot hawks that are eating so many of our quail on a daily basis that they can hardly get their fat wings in the air. What if I just decided to ignore the law, and thin the population? Would that be any different from a sanctuary city? Maybe we can declare ourselves a "Sanctuary Plantation", and I don't even want any funding from Washington.

What if some of our sheriffs and game wardens out west decided to look the other way while a cattleman killed a grizzly bear or a pack of wolves that were decimating his livestock? Would that be any different? Finally, and most importantly to me, what if public schools stood up and said that we are going to ignore your law prohibiting prayer in schools? We are going to start the morning with a devotional and prayer which will be broadcast into every classroom the first thing each morning. By the way, that is the way every morning of school started for me, and we did not need police officers in the schools. The only shootings that happened in school were the dove hunts after we got out of class, and many of us had our shotguns on the school bus that morning.

The only thing I'm trying to say here is that if reasonable people are forced to obey stupid laws, then the other side should have to do the same. We should level the playing field. Your call, Washington, but you should not be allowed to have your cake and eat it too.

By the way, the quail hunting and weather is great at Riverview . If you have not made it here to see us yet, you should call soon as available dates for the balance of the year are really shrinking fast !

Monday, December 5, 2016

Blessed rain

Have you ever seen a bird dog grin? I would swear that I saw a bunch of our dogs " grinning like a bunch of mules eating briars" after we got an inch and a half of rain sometime after midnight last night. For the past couple of weeks, it has been so dry here that the dogs could not even smell their own rear ends in the afternoon hunts when there was no dew on the ground.

Even more blessed news is the fact that the weather gurus are calling for this much or more rain later this afternoon, beginning about the time the afternoon hunts end. That makes our four groups in here almost as happy as the dogs. Now, while big pine trees absolutely can't smile, they sure are all standing taller and majestically today with no drooping needles weeping toward the ground. I know that our dogs will be able to locate the quail today. It would be especially gratifying if our guests could shoot a few of them. One of our top guides came in Friday, and I heard him tell Jerry, " We got four quail this morning, but they were all big, trophy birds".

Things are really looking up at Riverview, and we all have a better hitch in our "gitty-up" after this weather. On top of that, our temps are supposed to drop into the mid 20's by Saturday. The rain plus the cold weather should finally send the pine beetles to hell, or wherever they go when they are not killing beautiful 50+ year old pines. We are staying ahead of them here by cutting any bug infected tree down as soon as it is spotted in order to stop the spread to healthy trees.

In closing, I have just a couple of random observations. It is really disturbing to run into some old person, only to realize that he or she was in your class in high school. I always think," surely I don't look that old?"

I  have always been paranoid about plagiarizing anyone; so let me say that this quote was shared with me by my best friend friend who heard it from his preacher. It spoke to my heart, and I wanted to share it with y"all. " I know I am not what I Used to be, or what I am Supposed to be,or what I am Trying to be, or what I am Going to be----when I see You face to face".