Duck hunting

Well its the weekend after Christmas and a great need to hunt again... i mean a 3 day workweek was long enough and i sure could use the exercise. A very good friend of mine, Robert Railey gives me a call and says hey lets go duck hunting... i am in... and my son Cody would also like to go... so come friday we load up and go to his house, load our stuff into his truck and off we go.. we needed to be at the wildlife refuge by 10:30 pm in order to get into the drawing for the next morning, we did not have a reservation so we did the sweat line..which is no guarantee of getting a area to hunt... we made it but a lot of the better areas were taken very quickly.. we ended up in a area close to the sea, Salton Sea. it is very salty there being that the sea is located below sea level..and boy does it rust things fast.. our shot shell were rusted up by noon when we got back to the truck.. The guns are going to get a real good cleaning.. Well from the pictures one is the decoys sitting out in front of us.. the flooded ponds are very muddy and needless to say i sink very deep into the stuff.. I did happen to get a picture of Cody ready to go as he sat in the middle of some salt cedar trees, it was typical dessert hunting.. freezing cold in the morning and hot by noon... I was a beautiful day.. blue bird weather.. a slight breeze, we could have used wind to make the birds fly because they raft out on the sea and don't come into land... Cody bagged a nice spoon bill duck and lost just one.. he hit it and dropped it. We saw it laying on the water.. well later after i had dropped one next to it i wadded out to get mine and his when after picking up my bird i went to were his was and it was not there.... i followed the feather path to the shore and there it is.. i go to pick it up and it gets up and flys away... guess it was not dead enough... i was lucky enough to bag two birds, a cinnamon teal and a green wing teal.. both good birds to eat.. As for Robert well he bagged 6 birds. 4 teal and 2 spoonies. well thats all for now untill the next hunt or adventure..

Christmas ------Yeah

Well we recovered from Christmas and it was fantastic... all went well and the food was fantastic... Joann made her rice pudding and well after thirds i was full... the year end was hell on the waist line... i made the mistake of weighting in last nite and well i have gone up 10 pounds in less than a month... it must be the cold weather... that's my excuse and i am sticking to it... the kids had a great time.. it was great to see my niece Chris her husband John and their baby daughter Emily, what a little cutie... They had flown out from Louisiana to visit. This is the first time most of us have gotten to see the new baby... i believe she is now 6 mo.s old.. also Cindy flew in from Raligh North Carolina for a few days. She is manager of a Starbucks and working on doing drug and alcohol counseling and Jeff drove down from Sacramento, he works at the state capital, he will be leaving on Thursday because he has tickets to the UCLA football game... love it.. the kids spent the day playing with their toys as well as the adults " helping them"... i think they had just as much fun doing puzzles and reading and assembling legos... i had gotten Mom a electronic sudoko game.. she is now hooked... its one of her favorite news paper games... now even easier.. tip for the day ... invest in batteries... well i am off for a walk, got some poundage to get rid of.... take care and have a happy new year...

Good day everyone... its about a week to go before Christmas.. and its about time to start shopping... i still have a few more days to gear up... i like the pressure and the fact that most of the items are gone which cuts down on needless roaming around looking at things.. this way i am conserving energy mainly mine... well i have not hunted since November and am itching to go... possibly i may go duck hunting this wednesday.. its still in the planning stage.. we shall see.. well the last few weeks have been stressful... i was down with the flu for over a week and then Mom went to Cedars Sinai hospital for a shoulder replacement... it was one long monday.. she is now home and doing well... well everyone have a merry Christmas and a happy new year....

Birthday party

Well it has almost been a week since the party for Amberlee... she is now 21... wow... am i getting old.... maybe just looking it.... well we were going to have her party the saturday before thanksgiving but my wife, Tammy came down with the flu and the doctor said, "No contact with people" so it got postponed a week.. and her suprise... it was so funny watching her expression on her face the actual day of her birthday as we gave her presents to her.. i think she kind of thought wow is this all i am getting for turning 21,,, a DVD, journals and some ear rings.. yep my family really went all out..... little did she know... now its saturday evening all her friends, family and her boyfriends family are there... and its time to blow out the candle on the cake and open presents... as she is opening the final one it looks like a piece of luggage... she makes a comment about is this a hint to move out... then someone says open it.. in side was a Mandolin.. the look on her face was priceless... in fact if ya go the Aunt Joann's blog she has a lot more pics of the party including her tears of happyness... even Tammy's tears of joy... i love it.. a week later and i have heard her play it a few times.. it sounds good... i am really impressed... i guess its harder than a guitar because the strings are reversed... anyways i am very proud of her... she is my little princess all grown up.....