Work Weekend at the Lease

September 13 & 14
This past weekend we had our semi-annual work weekend at the lease. Everybody was there and it was one of the funnest times I've had at the lease. I know the pictures don't look like it was a work weekend, but we actually did get a few things accomplished. On Saturday morning, we started the day off right with an action packed dove shoot. I'm gonna call it a dove "shoot" because there were so many birds that there wasn't much of a hunt to it. We were beginning to feel the outermost effects of Hurricane Ike as we started to get a little breeze out of the north and some intermittant rain showers. It didn't seem to slow the birds down any as we were able to bag 64 that morning.

After the morning hunt, we cleaned birds and mowed the yard at the bunkhouse. By the time we got done with that it was time for lunch, so we went to my favorite place to eat, Cotton's Restaurant in Bryson, Texas. After lunch we went over to "600", which is the part of the lease where we deer hunt, and we installed a new free-choice protein feeder in the deer sanctuary. We spent most of the afternoon building a net wire fence around the feeder to keep the livestock from eating the high-dollar protein pellets in the feeder. That evening we dined on some of my Dad's dove hash, which consisted of slow-cooked dove breasts chopped up into small pieces and sauteed in a skillet with mushrooms, olives, and diced potatoes. It was different, but good.

Since the bird hunting was so good on Saturday, we gave it another shot on Sunday morning. It wasn't quite as fast-paced as Saturday's hunt, but it was still good. We bagged another 42 birds that morning. The weather was clear and cool and the sunrise was absolutely gorgeous.

We spent the rest of the day working on various stands and feeders. We are only about a week and a half away from archery season, but I may end up missing it if I get deployed to help with the hurricane recovery.

Also, I found out last week that I got drawn for two different public hunts. Chris and I got letters in the mail stating that we were chosen for the "Historic Methods" hunt on Fort Leonard Wood army base in South Central Missouri. I also received notice that I was chosen to participate in a gun hunt on Old Sabine Bottom Wildlife Management Area in East Texas.
Photos courtesy of Shane Jordan.

Checking the Trotline

This morning I got to go out with my neighbor across the street, Ken Jackson, and help him check a trotline he has been running. There were three fish on the line. Only one was a keeper, so we re-baited the line with some shad. The lake was absolutely beautiful this morning with the calm water and the cool air. It brought back memories of when I used to run trotlines with my Grandaddy when I was a kid.

Opening Day of Dove Season 2008

We had a really good opening day of dove season at the hunting lease this year. I had scouted the morning before and thought we might do okay but I didn't expect it to be this good. My Dad and I each got our limit of 15 by 9:00 that morning. We were joined by my Uncle Rusty and my cousin Shane and all together we bagged 44 birds on opening morning. I believe that should be enough to justify firing up the grill during our upcoming work weekend on the 13th and 14th.

We also got a ladder stand put up in a new spot and my trail camera up and running in preparation for archery season which is just around the corner - September 27th to be exact. We did a little fishin' while we were there as well. Shane is a photographer on the side and he brought his camera and snapped these pictures from this weekend. I thought they were pretty neat.