Well what do you know, it's time to start blogging again! It;s been a year since I did anything with this blog and I think it's about time I gave it another shot. I've been visiting other blogs from time to time, just haven't put any time into this. I'm not sure why really, I just kind of got away from it. I got more into Facebook and such, but it's much easier to tell a complete story here. Maybe I'll just try and concentrate on this a bit. Instead of going back over the entire year, I believe I'll just put up a few pictures of what I've been doing lately...duck hunting. Hey, there's really nothing better than sitting in the sow and wind while trying to murder a few of God's creatures anyway. This first picture is of a nice strap of birds I get earlier this year. Some good eats here.

This next one is a lousy picture of my first hunt of the year. I got an invite to hunt opening day at a refuge about 10 miles from me. There's no way I could pass that one up. We went to a pond I thought would shoot lights out, but it was a lot slower than I'd anticipated. I killed a limit of birds, but it took until 5:02 PM...much longer than I thought it would. 

Last week I hunted with Pete Morel. We got a few, but they just didn't want to fly that day. I did get this picture of Pete's dog bringing back a mallard I shot though.

I've hunted a couple times with Tim, shown in the next picture. He's a fella I met on an internet duck hunting site. Nice guy, and good to hunt with. This is a picture from about a week ago from a hunt here locally. I got my limit of 7 ducks, and Tim THOUGHT he had a limit of 7 ducks when we picked everything up. However, upon counting the ducks on the strap, we discovered he only had 6. Moral of the story is count te birds before you pick up the gear.

Last Wednesday I had a good hunt with my dog Hannah. I was trying for nothing but big ducks, but, I ended up with 2 little guys. I HAD to leave by noon, so at 11:30 I opened up the acceptable ducks to include teal so I could finish off my limit. That's OK, they taste good too.

I have been able to get out with te daughter a couple times as well. A week ago Saturday we got to hunt in a storm. It was cold and spitting snow, and the ducks were very cooperative. At one point we had a small flock of 6 whitefront geese come over the pond. I grabbed the spec call (spec is hunterspeak for whitefront) and started in on them. They circled about 3 times and came right over the blind at 30 yards up. I called the shot and we both got a goose. It was Sarah's first ever! Here goal this year was to get a goose and she has no achieved that. Awesome! Here she is with our 14 ducks and 2 geese.

So, there you have it...you are caught up on what's been going on lately. Maybe tomorrow I'll show you the highly technical cup insulator/cup holder I made: you'll be amazed. ;-)

It's a GREAT time of the year! It's duck season!!!!

Today's hunt was a great one: not for the amount of birds killed, but for what I saw and learned. Didn't get drawn for anything (probably because I didn't put in for anything) so I tried a spot on the river where I've seen birds in the past. Figured, what the heck...why not? Got there about 45 minutes before shoot time and decided where I wanted to make the blind and set the decoys. Grabbed a bunch of branches, stuck them together and put rocks around the bases to hold them in place. Draped an old, torn up piece of fast grass over that and set up the chair. Then I had to set up the massive spread: 2 Bigfoot honkers and 2 pairs of mallards. Stashed the extra gear in the trees, sat down and poured a cup of coffee. All the while I was doing that, wood ducks kept taking off out of the trees, one at a time. Must have been 6 or 8 of them roosted there right behind where I was set up.

About 20 minutes after shoot time a lone honker came across the field on the other side of the river and locked up. He sat down too far out and right in the middle of the river. He would call, and I would answer. He would call, and I would answer. He swam over, but hung up about 40 yards out. Too far, in my opinion, so I just sat and waited. That went on for about 15 minutes. Then, I heard some more honks coming from down-river. The honker in front of me stretched his neck up and started calling to his buddies. Way cool: I've now got my own personal caller! It was great because I got to see everything he did and got to listen to everything he said. 5 of his buddies came right in...only 3 of them left, along with my personal assistant. While that was going on I passed on 4 single wood ducks that came in and landed. Yeah, I know, woodies taste better, but I kill a lot of ducks and not a lot of geese, so I waited for what I have less chances at. I did end up whacking a drake woodie later.

I had a big old merganser swimming around me for over an hour. I got to watch him suck up a ton of sculpins. I also got to watch 2 kingfishers do their thing on both sides of the river. Then, to top it all off, a bald eagle flew right over the top of me.

To make it all better I had the whole place all to myself...not another person anywhere to be found. I just sat and watched the stage show and the only thing I heard was the water running through the riffles.

What a great start to the season!

"Weird Al" Yankovic: Off The Deep End - When I Was Your Age

First Susanville Bluegrass Festival

Well, the first annual Susanville Bluegrass Festival is in the books. After several years of helping put on events in various locations, and dealing with committees (yuck), I decided to put on my very own bluegrass festival. It was over a year in the making and finally, this last weekend, it occured! Normally, it will take 3-4 years for a new festival to break even on the costs. However, with only two bills left to pay, it appears that we may actually hvae made a few dollars on this brand new event. That's saying a lot since we started with only $400 TOTAL in sponsorship money. What a great time we had. Yeah, it was a lot of work, and there were a few glitches along the way, but over-all it went very well. We've got a whole list of improvments we're going to implement for next year that will make it even better.

There was quite a lot of camping area for both RV's and tents. Some had grass, and some did not.

Some of the camping area was very well shaded. If we grow large enough, this area has the potential to become the stage area.

Here's a great RV area the fairground manager let us use at the last minute. It worked out really well.

Here's a great RV area. No grass, but good power and water.

One of the first things you need to line up is a good sound man. I choose John Senior Sound because they are the best in the business. Sound will make or break you.

Here's John's sound techs.

The audience area is shaded all day!

A view of the stage. I like that it's permenant: no set up, no tear down.

Here's the Anderson Family girls singing away. They were the belles of the ball for sure.

California Borderline, a band from the Paradise and Chico area.

There was a TON of great jamming each night after the shows and before the festival started. On Friday and Saturday there was still parking lot picking going on at 4AM.

A HUGE hit at the festival was the quilter's room. I secured a room near the stage where folks could set up their quilting and sewing operations and do their thing for the entire week. The ladies LOVED it. This is the only bluegrass festival around where they get this type of thing set up for them. It was great.

They really liked the idea of being able to set things up and leave it there for several days. I think I made a lot of friends by doing this.

All in all it was a great time and there's been a very positive response. It's gonna happen again next year on the weekend right after Father's Day!

Painting

I spent the last couple of days working in the office in the shop. I sanded the walls and ceiling and then applied a coat of primer to both. No big deal, except the walls are twelve feet tall, which means the ceiling is twelve feet above my head. Had to go get an extension pole for the sanding and priming. Now I know why painters get the big bucks...that job SUCKS! All the time I was out there rolling the primer on I kept thinking, "Where is a Wagner Power Painter when you really need one?" Obviously, the answer is: at the store. However, they aren't giving them away this week and I didn't want to fork out the money for one, so it was time to do the job by hand. I'm working the next two days, so I won't be able to actually start painting until Tuesday, when I'll attack the ceiling. Once I get a couple coats of paint on that I'll hit the walls. Then comes the crown moulding door and window trim and the chair rail. Then I'm going to tile the floor ( sure hope Home Depot has something good on clearance) and then it'll be time for the baseboard. After that I'll finish it off with some nice curtains and a curtain rod. Not gonna worry about blinds as of right now...that'll be down the road. It'll be nice when it's done!