Great dove season final!

This year's dove season came to an end in fine fashion with both a morning and afternoon shoot on the final Saturday.  We got into a birds on both shoots and had a great time fellow shipping with good friends and watching good dogs retrieve our tasty little grey feathered friends as they tumbled from the sky after a shot from my Browning shot gun.

I always hate to see the last day because it seems to end to quickly.  We have had a good year and Josey once again made me proud with her consistent field work.  I love to take her hunting because you can tell she loves it so much.  I will have to patiently wait for next season to come around in September and hope that my son will be ready to shoot his new shotgun at a few passing grey birds with me.

Bring on Turkey season!

It's the little things!

Christmas was always a big deal at my house while I was growing up.  It still is!  My parents always made sure that we had great Christmas mornings with plenty of presents and things from Santa.  Some of my favorite Christmas morning memories include new baseball bats, new guns and a 4 wheeler.  All of those were very big ticket items and cost my parents a lot of money, but my favorite gifts on Christmas morning have always been and always will be found in my stocking.

It's the little things I like.  Baseball cards, golf tees, small hunting gadgets, chap stick, a new pocket knife, etc, etc.  My Mom always had a way of customizing your stocking so that you knew it was meant for you.  A nice little personal touch to remind you that even though you now have a pile full of new gifts, the little things still matter too.

My favorite day of Christmas shopping each year is the one I spend by myself shopping for stocking stuffers for my wife and kids.  I try to put a lot of thought into the small items that will fit into the limited space of a stocking.  Bath oils or a new necklace for my wife.  New art supplies for my daughter.  A cool new gadget for my son.  It does my heart good to see them enjoy the smallest gift as much as the biggest.  Cool things really do come in small packages!

This Christmas, my wish for you and your family is that you will embrace the gift of the little things that this life has to offer.  If you can find happiness in the little things, then everything else should fall right into place.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Trey

I got busy!

I sat and watched the final seconds of the Georgia Southern Football season tick away on Friday night with a since of disappointment in the fact that our season was ending but also proud that my boys were once again one of the last four teams standing.  It has been a good year for the boys in blue and I am a very proud alumnus!  Now that football is over, it's time for me to get off my lazy tail and get back to work in the shop!

The table that you see above has been sitting unfinished in a pile under my counter for about four months. I picked it up in an antique shop around Macon, GA and never got around to completing it.  Saturday, it got all of my attention.  It is a very nice tiger oak table, but what I really like about it is the fact that it still has a label under the bottom shelf.  This table came from The Knoxville Table and Chair Co in Knoxville, TN.  Why is that important?  It's really not, but this is the second table that I have bought from this small company that went out of business sometime in the early 20's.  The first table sits in my living room and can be seen below!

They really made nice solid pieces of oak furniture and liked to use tiger oak.  I'll take all that I can find!

I was also able to polish up a very nice round top table that looks a lot like the one above.  I have it for sale at a friends shop.  I forgot to take a picture.  Let me know if you need a last minute Christmas gift!!

So I took a vacation....

To my loyal few followers, please allow me this time to say that I am sorry for my lack of posting in the month of November.  I needed a vacation to re-charge the batteries, so I took one.  I took a two week vacation from work in which I tried my best to stay away from a computer, and I took a month long vacation from Blogging.  So here is what is going on in my world...

November means Kansas and our annual pheasant hunt.  I look forward to this trip with my Dad because we get to spend time together and I love the Kansas countryside.  Chasing birds across fields of Milo is a rush like no other.  The only problem is that you need birds to feel that rush.  Two years of drought conditions have taken their toll on my feathered friends.  20 hunters hunting hard for two solid days only managed 16 birds.  Not a very successful trip.  We can only hope that conditions improve and the state of Kansas can get it's bird population back.

I've spent a great deal of time in my deer stand the past few weeks.  So far, no luck!  I have seen does and small bucks, but I am still holding out for one of the big boys that I am still capturing pictures of on my trail camera.  If I could only hunt at night!






Josey is ready for a good bird shoot!  Thanksgiving came and went without me firing a shot in the dove field.  My farming friends have been busy with a bumper crop this year and our dove hunts have been put on the back burner.  I am hoping all of that will change this weekend!

I found a little time to get out in the shop and refinish this gun stock.  This gun belonged to my Grandfather and is now owned by my Uncle.  It was worn with age and needed some attention.  It now looks like new!

I went to a wedding!  One of my fraternity brothers got married on the weekend of the 10th.  It just happened to also be my 10 year wedding anniversary.  My wife and I celebrated in style with some brothers I have not seen in almost 20 years.  I was great!!

Other than that, there is not much going on!  I hope to get back on the blogging trail with updates from a good dove shoot!

 

See you soon! 

 



Tri-County Soccer Success!

Our local recreation department joins forces each year with departments from two other counties to put on a Tri-County soccer tournament.  We do not have soccer all-star teams, we just enter all league teams from each county and play one big tournament.  Reid's team, the Tigers, had a disappointing season loosing the first two playoff games, but decided to put everything together for the Tri-county tournament.  They played well and finished with a 4-0 record to win first place in their division.  I was very proud of Reid as he played very well in his mid-field position.  I think we only allowed two goals in four games with Reid doing more than his part in keeping the ball on our end of the field!  He loves the game of soccer and I am glad the he has been able to find some success.

Mid-field Master!!

 

Reid and his coach, Terry Harper

 

The winning team! 

 

Thanks to all you coaches out there!  You really do make a difference!  It has been a great season!!

 

Go Tigers!!!

Opening Day Deer Season Report 2012

Opening day of rifle season 2012 was a beautiful cool crisp fall morning that had me up early with anticipation.  The hunting usually does not get very good here until the rut in mid November, but we had put in some extra work this off season and I was eager to try my luck in a new stand that has shown some promise via trail cam pics and good sign.

The morning did not disappoint as two does moved into my new food plot from the direction in which I thought they would.  They fed around for a few minutes until a small buck ran them off.  He was just a small 6 point, but I was encouraged at the deer activity.  Unfortunately, I had to leave the stand a little early to make sure that I made it on time to a road race that my son was running in that morning.  Was it worth leaving early for???

Yep!  He won the mile race by one second!  He has entered three races and has won two and finished 2nd in the other.  Run on buddy!!

The rest of the deer hunting weekend went much the same as we saw several does and a few small bucks.  We have a pretty good idea of the deer we want to shoot.  Here are a couple of shots of the guys we are after!

 

 

They will be hard to get until they let there guard down during the rut, but you can bet I'll be there giving it my best shot!

 

Good luck this season to all of you!! 

Maine (Part 3 and wrap up)

The second and final hunting day began with the Duckman cursing Mother Nature.  I really only had one more goal in mind and that was a Drake Eider.  They only way to have a chance at my bird was to hit the open water.  The only problem was that the wind was blowing 20-25 mph with gust up to 35.  This makes for some pretty ruff sea ducking.

We put the boat in the water and bundled up to face the 29 degree temps and breezy conditions.  I was well equipped today since my luggage had finally arrived.  I was never once cold as my Browning jacket and rain suit pants did their job.

We set the decoys out and anchored the boat.  No easy task since the wind was working against the rushing tide.  The tide moves so much here in Maine that I didn't know we were set up in the same spot as we were the day before.  Some of the small islands that I saw yesterday were currently under the sea.  The Duckman told me that the water rises and drops about ten feet with the changing tides.  Wow!

We waited.  We got a few birds to look in our direction, but not many.  The conditions made it hard for them to see the decoys.  I just wanted one duck and hopefully he would be sporting those white feathers that I longed for.  I finally got my chance as a Drake Eider turned our way and approached from the rear of the boat.  I would be able to take a head on shot which was very helpful because the boat was riding those 4-5 foot seas like a fast moving roller coaster.  As he got close I raised up and steadied my legs.  One shot and drop!  I poured it to him again and my goal was met!

I missed a few more but I'll be honest, those suckers are hard to kill and I need more time on the water to get my sea shooting legs under me.  I have a new respect for Tony as he makes this type of gunning look easy.  I'll have to get him on a South Georgia dove shoot and let him be humbled by those little greys who fly in all directions at once.

Saturday night was something that all us Southern boys dream of!  Fresh lobster and all I could eat!  Mrs. Duckman went out of her way to make sure that I had a meal fit for a king Maine style!!

Even though the hunting was not great on the last day, I had a ball!  The trip was perfect and one that I looking forward to making again one day.  Tony and his family made me feel like one of their own and I am so thankful that I have excellent friends in the great state of Maine!  Stay tuned as the adventures between the Duckman and The Brave Eagle are bound to continue.  I have it on good authority that The Duckman is trying to fly south for the winter.  Their may just be a spring turkey hunt and some lunker bass fishing on the horizon!

 

 

Until next time....This is how we roll!!!