oldfatslow

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Phys Ed

One of the great things about homeschooling
is the creativity one can have. For instance
in our school, duck hunting is PE.

Stuey went out for Early Teal with me
this morning after I decided to take a
vacation day and try a walk on at the
WMA.

Things didn't look too good when we got
there. Six cars were in front of us.
But, when it came time to pass out
the walk on numbers, we were the second
pick. Even better, only two people with
draws at Goodwin bothered to show up. I
got the spot I wanted and got some good
G2 from Ken.

Launching was easy. The boat ride out
was easy. We found our spot easy. Got
the decoys out. Got camoed up. Fired up
the Thermacell (you NEED one of these).
And sat back for an hour wait. We took
turns shining the Q-Beam at bullfrogs and
waited. Finally, shooting time came. We
didn't hear any woodies squeeking and
I was a little afraid they might have
cleared out after the pounding they took
last Saturday. We were pushed up in a
cat tail island with the sun at our backs.
The palmettos we had jammed in around us
didn't give us a good look to our rear. As
always, ducks came from the way we weren't
looking. Two big groups of blue wing
teal came zooming out of the sun over
our heads. I couldn't think fast enough
to recognize them, jump up, and take a
tail shot.

Still, wood ducks started showing up in
ones and twos. We actually had a few
try and land in front of us unlike
Saturday's pass shooting only extrava-
ganza. Stu and I each got two to take
home. He got a beautiful drake. We
had a blast.













ofs

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Early Teal

Was today. There weren't many folks
at the check in station today, but
we were 4th pick and got the spot I
wanted.

The boat ride out was tricky. There
were several large mud tussets that
had become floating islands full of
plants. They were blocking much
of the launching ramp. The first
boat out pushed some of it out of
the way and we were able to punch
through pulling Cannon's pirogue.

Somehow, I managed to get turned
around once we got out into the
marsh. Fortunately, I had my
GPS. The humidity had my glasses
and the GPS screen fogged over,
but we managed to read our way
to the levee jump and then to
our assigned spot.

When we got to the hole I had
picked out we were assaulted by
largest group of bugs I have
ever seen. Jim said the entire
bow of the boat was covered in
a sheet of insects. I could not
open my eyes or breath for the
swarms. Dragonflies were flying
down my shirt. I inhaled a
couple of little bugs and had
several get caught in my eyes.

I was glad when we finally
got the decoys out and got
blinded up. There were only
mosquitoes to deal with then.
But, they were viscous. They
were operating in packs. Our
new Thermacell wouldn't light
and we only had a little spray.
The skeeters harpooned me from
the back of my pants. I'll
probably die of butt encephalitis.

When shooting time came, we could
see a lot of wood ducks around
us, but we weren't on the flight
line and they sure didn't like
the mojo teal. We scratched out
four knockdowns on passing shots,
before Cannon paddled out and pulled
in the mojo. Jim got one last one
and our day was done. The real high
light was Cannon getting a banded
duck. Woo Hoo!

We got home, crashed, and then
picked the ducks (woodies are
the easiest picking ducks), cleaned
the guns and boat, and settled down
for some Gator football.

Other than forgetting batteries
for the camera, we had a good day.

ofs

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