Here we go

Well, although I have been out hunting a few times by myself already (brought home one whole dove and blanked on five coyote stands) our family's season is just beginning.

Last year we started what I hope will be a long-time tradition in our family, our opening day duck hunt. On the first Friday of October, Heidi and I took the boys to Rexburg, ID (the girls stayed with my parents and mostly played Barbies and bugged Papa if memory serves) to pick up my little sister, stay the night in a hotel and for Tommy, Heidi and I to hunt ducks the next morning. It rained most of that Friday, and I was afraid it would rain Saturday morning as well. Sure enough, when we got up it was still raining and it was COLD. I told Heidi that she and Tommy could stay at the hotel if they wanted, but they were both really excited for the hunt. So, we loaded up and went out to Cartier Slough WMA just west of town and just off of the Henry's Fork. The cloud cover was low but the rain had become more of a drizzle. I got all of the gear strapped on my back and then made sure Heidi and Tommy had on as much rain gear as I could scrounge up, and off we set for a little pond I had seen before. It turns out the rain was not the end of my bad luck. I had forgotten my waders and the ponds were much more swollen than I had hoped. I did find us a nice little spot of water just off the main trail, and managed to throw out 6 decoys without overcrowding the hole. Then the luck got worse. As the sun finally started to come up, the drizzling rain got heavier and then turned to snow. I couldn't help but think the other two had to be freezing, but Heidi still had an excited look on her face, so we stuck it out. Almost shooting light now and I can hear the ducks flying over us. It's obvious that there are a lot of birds, and suddenly a nice flock dropped below the clouds. There must have been 30 mallards coming right over the trail, right at us. I raise my gun and hear a "click" OH NO!!! I cycle the semi-auto action and try again on the next wave of birds, "click." My old "dependable" failed me. I got Heidi to shoot a couple times, before we all froze, and we decided to pack it in after about 45 minutes. As we walked back to the truck the ducks continued to fly over in numbers I hadn't seen before. In that short 45 minutes to an hour I guessed that we must have seen at least 500 birds, and, although we didn't bring any home, we all had the time of our lives.

Now, in just over a week, we will try to do it again. This time Savana wants to go and my brother will be with us as well. It should be a blast.