OPENING DUCK -by Ben

Duck hunting started early.  One week earlier, and about 2 hours earlier in the morning than in recent years.  Decoys were in the water, and Doug and I were in the island blind by 6:15 am.  We waited until 6:35, when we started hearing the thunder of distant lucky hunters' first shots coming from every direction.  Soon, they would be hearing ours!  We got much more shooting than expected, and ended with 8 ducks in the boat (11 pictured below, 3 with white breasts being mergansers).  Koty spent the hours whining and trying to climb into my lap, but favored pacing the roof of the blind.  I decided not to take him on Sunday.  After birds and pictures were collected, we made it to mainland by 10:30.

Larry was waiting for us with a big Canadian Goose.  He downed it after dropping two ducks with one shot.  We had though that we heard some close shooting.  Icing on the cake!  Doug and I took a walk for grouse in the early afternoon, covering most of their property.  We got 3 flushes and no shots, but made up for our lack of grouse in Koty's abundance of prickers.

The second day was noticeably slower, but just as fun as the first.  Before sunrise, a pair of mallards came sweeping over our decoys, and with two nearly simultaneous shots we each bagged a nice duck.  After the sun was out and shining, some geese flew high overhead.  I emptied my gun and hit air, but at the last second Doug shot, and a goose fell.  We were happy with our take: one duck each, and one goose for Doug, so we decided to head in for breakfast.  With the chairs tipped up and guns cased, we heard a honk.  Two groups of geese were coming over the peninsula to the west, looking and flying straight at our decoys.  I unzipped my case and Doug handed me two shells.  Being very, very still, (after falling on our butts where our chairs should have been) a small bunch locked their wings and came in to land, but were still high.  When they were straight overhead I pulled up and took two shots.  A goose came falling down and down and the splash looked like a grown man doing a cannonball.  More icing for the cake!

It was a productive, fun, and gorgeous weekend at Tom's Lake Farm, thanks to Doug, Larry and Shirley!

A Fall Weekend at The Farm

On Friday, after work, Ben and I packed up the car and headed to the Farm. My grandma, grandpa and dad were still awake, waiting to see Jack when we arrived close to 10 pm. On Saturday morning, the boys got up early to hunt. Grandma and I hung around the house, played with Jack and visited uncle Roy & Sheila. For dinner we went to The Peak - yummy.

We went for a few rides on the golf cart.

Koty ran around like crazy up there! He is still recovering... 

View of Tom's Lake

We emptied the garden of pumpkins, squash, and tomatoes. 

Here is a preview of some hunting. Ben will tell you all about the hunting in the next blog!

What a great weekend.

Loving the Weather

Best Friends

Friday Night Photo Shoot

"The Bad Boy"

 "The Scholar"

 "The Hunter"

More About Jack.....

I'm back! There have been a lot of changes since I posted last.

• Jack is almost 6 1/2 months old! At his 6 month appointment he weighed 19 lbs 13 oz, and was 28.25 in. tall.

• He is now going to daycare twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. Yesterday was his second day. Cindy, the daycare lady, said he did very well! He wasn't fussy, took two naps without a pacifier, and loved watching the other kids play.
•  We put Jack to sleep on his back, but he almost always rolls over onto his tummy with his butt in the air.

Fast Asleep

•  He chews on almost everything he can get to his mouth with his two little bottom teeth. Most things he gets ahold of go straight to his mouth.

•  He is also chewing on food these days. We started feeding him solids (that are still very runny) when he turned 6 months old. So far he has tried rice cerial, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes and chicken. I think his favorite is sweet potatoes.

Yummy

•  Jack can play in front of the mirror for a long time! I think he recognizes his reflection.

• We started using pampers cruisers, size 3, for diapers. He is constantly moving all over the place, and these diapers work best so far!