Hi friends! I hope everyone had a happy happy Turkey Day & ate as much delicious food as we did… And had even more turkey sandwiches with the leftovers, naturally… Delish!
Celebrating my 28th with this guy the night before a duck hunt
SO. I completely missed this ol’ blog’s birthday 2 weeks ago. Totally forgot about it. FAIL. I also forgot it was my birthday last Tuesday when I posted the all new
ADVENTURES page! Did you see? Now the most exciting hunts, trips, & events are in an easy-to-find spot. Go check it out! Also… Things have also been crazy busy in the meantime, so my postings have fallen behind. But! Never fear – that’s not because I haven’t been doing any hunting. No sir. The opposite in fact. And here today, I am combining several into one: everything from the first split of duck season!
Post-hunt welcoming committee 🙂
I won’t get too wordy since there are quite a few photos, but I will say this – 3 successful duck hunts & 1 very successful deer hunt. At last! On Friday night before duck season opened, I sat in the deer stand (my usual spot) & watched as two does came out to feed. Noticing just how large the larger of the two was, I decided it was worth it to take the shot. Then, boom! Guess how much that doe weighed? A whopping 125 lbs! In the hustle of trying to get everything ready for the next morning, taking photos completely slipped my mind (I am seeing a trend here…), but thankfully my dear father in law snapped on of John and myself just before cleaning the deer!
Then, it was on to opening day. Finally! I hunted in the blind with the Mr. and my dad, and we were covered up before legal hour. In fact, a duck just about lit on John as he was putting out the last few decoys. It was such a pretty, chilly morning, and everyone has a great hunt. Then it was back to the house for some photos, coffee (ok, ok, Bloody Marys), & breakfast. A good start to the season, indeed!
My next hunt was the following Wednesday, and the morning could not have been more different in terms of weather. It was super windy, extra cloudy, and actually rained on us pretty much the whole time. What I like to call “ducky weather,”
remember? That’s a-ok with me, because it (usually) means you’ll have a decent hunt. This hunt in particular was fantastic – covered up all morning, & I managed to really make my last shot of the hunt count….
My first canvas back! This hen was flying with a drake who stayed just out of range to make an ethical shot at him, but she was not so wise! It was a great way to end another great hunt. I decided not to have it mounted or anything (it actually went into some
duck bbq sandwiches over the weekend… YUM), but was a proud hunter nonetheless!
Our 3rd duck hunt was over this past weekend, and it was very reminiscent of the first – clear and cold, with an amazing sunrise. John and I hunted a different spot this time, and had some really good shots. A teal almost hit me in the face at one point. Not kidding. I could have dropped my shotgun and snatched this thing out of the air, it was so close to me. Naturally, I was incredibly startled and by the time I regained my composure, the duck was too far to take a shot. It still made for a fun (and hilarious) morning, though!
You can see the green wing teal & the blue bill we’d picked up serving as tree ornaments until we came out of the blind (along with a handful of other ducks)
Wagging tail in constant motion with this one!
I’d say it was a pretty active & successful first duck season, huh? Promise I’ll be better from here on out – you won’t want to miss the exciting hunts we have on the books!
