Turkey weekend
I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with their loved ones.
Mine was very good, save for the fact the Cowboys lost to the freakin' Donkeys. Dinner was great like always. The number didn't even make it around the table once. My second cousin Cody got the number and without hesitation, he picked my father. My dad drug it out but finally picked a rookie, my cousin Becca. We laughed and then promptly scattered some dishes for her because she was a bit whiny about it. I was fairly tired after losing my ass at the poker table the night before. I didn't get home until around 3:30 or so. By the time, I crawled in bed, it was after four. I was the big loser on the night as I lost 25 bucks, 30 if you count my donation towards the annual football pool.
Friday rolled around and we hung out, played some cards and watched the Huskers kick the holy hell out of CU. That may have really saved Callahan's job, to which I have mixed reactions. I did some broadcasting and then came home. Saturday was much of the same.
Inbetween there, Spark left, thankfully, although we got along a little better than we did on Thursday. Poor bastard is so stoned that it's really showing. I don't think i've ever known someone who couldn't go 2 hours without a hit. I think you can throw some coke in there as well and I'm pretty sure he won't make it to 50. (he's 39 now). In fact, he looked so bad that all of my cousins made a point of it at one time or another.
As for yesterday, I kicked ass and took names in regards to school work.
A weekend
that was good.
Of course, most of the time, any weekend is good. This one was particularly good as we did a lot of hunting, great basketball on saturday night, followed by "services" at Pheasant Phellowship at Milo Methodist.
We were in a bit of a race to beat a group of guys coming up from Texas to hunt. The owner of the field said if we got there first it would be no problem. So we were on the road by 6 a.m. and we got to the field well before legal shooting time.
There were only six of us, but that's a solid number with a dog like Hollie. This field has been a traditional hotspot for bird activity but I don't know if it was the weather, or the fact that we stopped our normal hunting pattern, but we only saw three roosters, one of which I missed badly.
To know me means that I do not like to miss and have a tendency to get rather irritated with myself. In other words, I was seething. I told Jar, "I would hate to be the next rooster that flushes near to me because I will punish it." He laughed, because he thought it was funny, but also knew it was going to be true.
Drew, Jar, Dad and I decided to go hunt one of our spots we had received permission to hunt. I had told Jar there will be birds on the corners. He was a bit skeptical but I told him to "have a little faith in a brotha."
Holy hand grenedes, there WERE birds in there. By our count we saw probably between 60-80. What sucked was the fact that dad choked. I mean choked bad. I don't think there is a pheasant hunter's Heimlich but even if there was, it couldn't have helped him. I guess that's what we get for sending the colorblind guy to go block (stand at a point and hold birds in). He should have shot between six and eight cocks. The only thing he did hit was me. I was telling one of my friends what had happened, when Dad piped up "If my gun would have been a golf club, I would have thrown it. That sucker would have been helicoptering across the field."
I shot two, punishing both birds that I shot. I probably should have had a third and a fourth, but thanks to an untimely gun malfunction I didn't even get shots. Jar shot two as well, and Drew knocked one down.
That night, I called two basketball games, one of which ended on a last second three with no time remaining and the fans stormed the court. I think I may have broken vocal chords because I was screaming at the top of my lungs. It was an outstanding game.
We got up this morning and tried our hand at hunting again, this time with not so bountiful results. The numbers weren't as good, but we saw a few. One field we couldn't get the little bastards to fly, but sometimes that how it goes.
It was a good weekend.
Wednesday
And I haven't updated? I better get on it or Becka will put some type of mexican joke on here without my knowing.
We've got new neighbors. They made their presence known on Saturday and all I can think is that they're related someway to OSL. They have to be. My mother was on the phone in the backyard enjoying the day when Maureen came over.
"Are you on the phone?" Yes, she seriously asked this question. No, mom thought. I just like holding the receiver to my ear whenever I get the chance. Mom nodded which apparently is a sign to continue trying to have a conversation with someone who does not want to be a conversatee. Maureen kept talking, forcing the person that Mom was on the phone with to hang up.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"I'm Kathy." Mom replied.
"Katie?"
"No. Kathy." At this point, Joey was out wandering around the yard when he came up. That distracted her enough.
"That's a nice dawg. Is he a poodle?" I'm not sure becuase I was sleeping but I think even Joey was offended. "I like dawgs. We can't have no dawg. Do you ever need a setter for him?"
"A setter?" Mom asked.
"Yeah, a setter," Maureen said. Dad was outside by now and he even asked what a setter was.
"Yeah, you know, a bayybee setter for your dawg." Yes, she was about six sheets to the wind at this point. The gist of the conversation was that Maureen and her roomie had just moved to town. The roomie, whom I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting yet, was on disability, and Maureen was trying to get on it as well.
Anyways, she ended up asking Mom's name about three times. This was on Saturday.
Monday, I got home and there is a guy outside standing on the sidewalk that goes between our house and the house next door. I just nod at him because I didn't want to disturb the phone call being that I'm fairly considerate. At about 6 oclock, I'm beckoned upstairs. Standing in the living room, is the guy, a grizzled little man about 5-8 and a grizzled woman, both in their 60's I'd guess, both lacking most of their front teeth.
Mom says to them as i'm bounding up the stairs "Rusty knows about that sort of thing."
SHIT, I thought, what did she just get me into? The guy tells me a slightly garbled account of how they're trying to get digital cable but it doesn't work, and they were told to wait 20 minutes and everything looked right, and that their cell phones don't work in the basement. So I shoot mom the Thermonuclear Glare of Death and trot over to their place.
Yes, everything looked right, but something was wrong with the signal as the box wouldn't load itself. I even spent 16 minutes on hold with Cox to try to talk with them. While i'm on hold, Joanne is trying to talk to me.
"What do youuuu do?"
"I go to college."
"Oh yeahhh, acrosst the street?"
"Um, actually I go to Wichita State."
"Awheatshocker" the guy pipes up.
"Yes, I'm a shocker," I say.
"Your phone works in the basement?" This must not have been evident as I standing there holding it to my ear.
"Yes it does."
"Do you know a lot about them electronics?"
"No, I don't."
"Do you know a lot about car speakers?" What part of me not knowing anything about electronics did she not get?
"No. I don't know anything about car speakers."
"Oh, what do you want to be when you get dun with skool?"
It took all of my self control to not blurt out "Employed." But I held off and said I wanted to be a journalist. And mind you, i'm still on hold.
Then came the question.
"Dooo youuuu drinnnk?" Red Alert!! Red Alert!! All kinds of warning bells were going off in my head. So I did the natural thing and lied through my teeth.
"No."
"Ohhhhhhh."
It turns out that something was wrong with the signal. The cable company's phone died a horrible death too, as it cut me off. I just said to unplug it all, then try again in the morning. I thought "Well RJ, you won't have to deal with them anymore."
This morning I'm about to pull out of the driveway and head down to classes when here comes Maureen. SHIT, I thought.
"Where are the mailboxes for these houses?"
"Over there down the street a bit," I pointed to the cluster boxes that sit about 100 yards away. "Oh," she said. "How do they get the mail? Are there addresses on them or are them numbers?"
"They are by numbers."
"Oh, what's our number?" WTF? How am I supposed to know YOUR number.
"I don't know. I would go to the post office and talk to them."
"Oh. Okay thanks for your help."
"Sure" I smiled showing my full set of teeth and off to school I went.
How much alcohol must one consume on a daily basis to slow oneself down that much? I don't know. But watching that in action, makes me think that my drinking every once in a while wasn't all that bad.
The greatest weekend endeth
And it was good.
I did managed about three hours of sleep on Friday night. However, I was awakened by the cramp from hell in my calf muscle. Thanks to shooting pain in my right leg, I rocketed out of bed and got it stretched out. My goal was to go to bed by 11, so going to bed at 1 wasn't that far off.
The alarm blared to life at 4 a.m. causing me to nearly launch out of bed. I turned on the coffee, got dressed, hauled stuff upstairs and drank coffee until 4:35 or so.
Going outside caused me to realize that anytime that it's 64 degrees on opening day, the temperature would be a problem. However since we hunted our pen-raised birds, it wasn't that much of a problem. We shot 47 pheasants between 18 of us by 10 a.m. I was so over anxious that I missed the first two shots I took. Soon I remedied that fact and had bird number one in the bag. When there are 18 people shooting at pheasants, there is really no way to count who shot how many.
By 10:15 we were taking pictures and beginning the process of cleaning all the roosters. Earlier that morning, we had butchered most of the hens and filleted out the breasts for later. Danny fired up his cooker and eventually, there was fresh pheasant cooking away. We ate like kings. Side dish items included, cheesey potatoes, dressing, mac and cheese, potato salad, baked beans, bbq beef (although I'm still not sure on the reasoning on that one), sausage balled eggs, macaroni salad and pumpkin and caramel apple pie for dessert. I was so stuffed that I couldn't even sneak a piece of pumpkin pie.
We were all sitting there enjoying the sensation of being stuffed to the gills, when Danny came back in with an executive desicion. Instead of trying to keep the 27 hens we had retained for breeding, we decided to shoot them. NOTE:Shooting hens is highly illegal.
It was a scream. I must have shot five of those hens even after they got up in the wind. I laughed so hard. Finally at 2:00 we called it a great day and headed home.
This morning was much the same only there was just 8 of us and we actually did more of a traditional/ethical hunt. Conditions were much more favorable this morning as the front had rolled through. It was chilly, which was perfect. We headed up to Chris's ground to which we saw birds flushing out of range, but finally got some up within range. I blasted two roosters, teamed up on a third, but never saw a quail. Hollie had a perfect textbook point and I wish I would have had a camera at that moment. The poor bird that she pointed should have had a blindfold and a cigarette though. It was annihilated.
Our final numbers.
Saturday-47 pheasant (7 wild)
Sunday-7 pheasants, 3 quail.
Damn what a good weekend.
And the day is nearly upon us.
That's right kids, we've hit the under 24 hour barrier. It's 8 ish here and I'm thinking that this day is going to drag by. Fortunately, I've got a jillion things to do to get ready, I think. I've got explicit instructions to not get shot, so I will do my best to follow those instructions that were laid down upon me.
My gun is ready to do. My vest has been fixed so now it can be zipped up and I no longer have to fasten it with duct tape. I just have to go grab it from my grandparents' house. I can't believe I am actually entertaining the idea of doing homework today so I don't have to try to do it on Sunday evening when I should be dragging ass tired.
The reality will fully strike my in several stages. The first has set in as that we're under 24 hours until legal shooting time (which is half and hour before sunrise to sunset.) The second stage of reality will slap me when I see that first truck with a dog trailer rolling up from the south. I'm sure the third will hit me when/if I wake up at 4 a.m. I have this sinking feeling that I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight.
My only dilemmas reside in the fact if I actually wear my hunting jeans. They are incredibly wonderful, however they were not designed for a warm day. They are an actual pair of jeans, with added features. On the outside from the thigh down on the front, and the knee down all the way around the leg, there is canvas or sometime of material that helps protect the legs. I like that fact as I have walked into little hedge trees that have razor sharp thorns which has caused me to yelp in pain on numerous occasions. On the inside of the jeans, they have been lined with flannel to help keep one warm. Supposedly it's supposed to be upwards of 70 degrees tomorrow which means I may be too warm.
The second dilemma consists of how many shells to load up in my vest. I'm thinking two boxes for sure. I just don't want to run out. I'm just hoping the new zipper holds out as the old zipper died a tragic death. It was a great vest, but they must have tried to skimp by putting a cheap ass zipper on there. On our second club hunt last year, I had six birds in my vest and the weight caused the zipper to pull apart.
I do have a goal. My goal is to break my own personal record for birds shot in one day. Last year I broke the record of seven by killing eight on our second hunt. Do I hear nine? Technically the limit is four, so I broke the law, again.
Danny said that they are going to start catching birds at 5:15. He also said that people will be filleting the hens out so we have fresh birds to eat after we finish the hunt. Don is picking my pops and I up at 5. I'm thinking I need to make a thermos of coffee to have so I'm ready to go, as if I won't be wired enough, but hey, coffee is the lifeblood in the early a.m.
Wow, I've really rambled. Maybe I should shower and go to spanish. Not even OSL will bring me down.
under two days
we're under two days to go. It's getting harder and harder to focus on things. If I can get through this spanish test, i think i'll be golden
Under 3 days
I think it's okay to start to measure the time in hours. We are well under 72 hours until that magical time that defines who I am as a person. By Kansas law, we can not legally shoot until half an hour before sunrise. By Weatherbug, that will be about 6:37 or so would be my guess.
That's fine. There is a lot of stuff for us to do before we ever go out. Don is picking my pops and myself up at 5 a.m. Personally, I'm pushing for earlier because I want to be in on the action. I also think that it won't matter because I'm really doubting I will get any sleep at all on Friday night. I figured if Don's picking us up at 5, I probably ought to get up at 4 and get stuff done. Since this hunt culminates in a feast of freshly cooked pheasant, side dishes are an important item to take. I think I'm going to make dressing in the crockpot and take it along. I thought about beans, but last year, there were three crocks full of beans so the term overkill comes into play.
Smile for the day...
In Field and Stream magazine, there is a back page columnist by the name of Bill Heavey. Heavey relayed the short story of his friend Tom or Tony and what he thought was a rattlesnake. "Emitting one of the loudest screams ever from a surviving lisenced electrician...he procceeded to club to death a roll of old barbed wire left over from a fencing job."
I don't know about you, but i thought that was pretty funny.
TEN random things about me
01. hunting
02. hunting
03. hunting
04. hunting
05. hunting
06. hunting
07. hunting
08. I swear way too much
09. hunting
10. hunting
NINE ways to win my heart
01. hunt with me
02. hunt with me
03. hunt with me
04. hunt with me
05. be funny
06. hunting
07. play softball with me
08. hunt with me
09. hunt with me
EIGHT things I want to do before I die
01. hunt in south dakota
02. Hunt in hawaii
03. fish for peacock bass
04. own my own hunting dog
05. hunt
06. hunt
07. hunt
08. hunt
SEVEN things I believe in
01. good shots
02. good friends
03. good dogs
04. good numbers of birds
05. good numbers of birds
06. good numbers of birds
07. my shooting ability
SIX things that get me mad
01. getting shot
02. getting walked in on while hunting
03. missing
04. not getting permission to hunt
05. missing
06. seeing birds get away before we can get to them
FIVE things I'm afraid of
01. Heights
02. having to pay to hunt pheasants
03. Spiders
04. game wardens
05. heights
FOUR of my favorite items in my room
01. my gun
02. my vest
03. my hunting boots
04. my hunting gloves
THREE things I do everyday
01. obsess about hunting
02. obsess about hunting
03. obsess about hunting
TWO things I need to do right now
01. Get a drink
02. hunt
ONE person I want to see right now
1. Hunting friends
Countdown
Five days away.
And i'm starting to dream of pheasants and hunters and the like.
This isn't good.
And the countdown begins
Six days away. I must repeat that to myself all week. Of course I will lessen the number by one per day, but good gosh, I'm starting to twitch.
Saturday is taken care in the regards to the ground we're going to hunt. Yesterday, my brotherfromanothermother and I went to look at ground up by Inman about 20 miles away. We think we've got some lines on a couple of places to add to our "collection" of ground we can hunt. The two of us explored the Kansas countryside from about 8 a.m. until 1:30. It would have been a bit longer, but I spent 15 minutes searching for my coffee cup which I still can't find. Anyways, it was very nice to have a navigator who was looking at the rural directories and telling me where we were going and who owned what.
We did make a move that one can only be considered as a mistake as we went to look at the birds. A little background again, my father and I belong to a pheasant club that raises pheasants, then hunts the raised pheasants on opening day. The reason that the club was formed was that numbers were down so much a few years ago, this group got tired of not shooting 60 on opening day.
So now they buy 250 pheasants, hoping that they get about a 50/50 split of roosters to hens. This year however, we lost some of the birds to a power outage, and some laziness by one of the founding members of the club. I think we'll still have good numbers however. You'd think with planted birds we would just shoot and shoot and shoot.
That's not the case. Last year, on opening day, we released 74 birds. As we caught them we put a plastic cable tie on one of the legs so we knew if it was one of our birds. The cover we placed the birds in was ridiculously thick, tall thick grass varying between chest and over the head height in spots. We ended up shooting 46 between the 17 of us. However, those numbers are deceiving as of the46 birds, only 31 had the bands. Fifteen were actuall wild pheasants but that means 43 somehow got away. It wasn't that hard to believe as the cover was so thick. Once during the walk, I realized that Rick and I were the only two people trying to cover about 75 yards. We yelled and yelled and yelled for help but no help came. Two guys covering that much space? The birds were probably walking past us.
Just realizing that I get to take part in my favorite activity has me nearly twitching.
taken from becka who snatched from jay
1a. Name someone with the same birthday as you.
Todd, Lisa and Shakira.(no lie with that, same year too)
1b. Name some people that died on your birthday.
Donald Pleasance (1995) Gene Kelly (1996) Charles II (1685)
1c. Anything exciting happen on your birthday?
No. Except that a big furry rat has to see his shadow or we have more winter. Actually, 1982-San Diego beats Miami 41-38 in OT after blowing a 24-0 lead, 1954-President Eisenhower reports detonation of 1st H-bomb, done in 1952
2. Where was your first kiss?
On the mouth.
3. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone else’s property?
my lawyer said i'm not allowed to talk about that one.
4. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex?
My sister is female, so it counts i guess
5. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people?
Back in high school when I used to sing in chorale...but the director hated me for not going out my senior year so he made my 97% a B.
6. What’s the first thing you notice about the preferred sex?
eyes, legs
7. What really turns you on?
neck. being kissed there. i'll be honest.
8. What do you order at Starbucks?
I've never had starbucks.
9. What is your biggest mistake?
Trying to walk and think at the same time. it only results in my getting hurt.
That or sliding. Sliding always seems to be a bad one.
10. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose?
No. And i've hurt other people on accident. Wait, I take that back. I did make my nose bleed one time to get out of class
11. Say something totally random about yourself.
i need to shower
12. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?
Nope. Not ever.
13. Do you still watch kiddy movies or TV shows?
Absolutely. I'm a big fan of the Superman Cartoon.
14. Did you have braces?
braces on my teeth no. braces on my knee, yes, braces on my elbow yes
15. Are you comfortable with your height?
Sure. I'm 6 feet tall and happy with that. Although being 6-4 wouldn't be bad becauce then i might be able to dunk
16. What is the most romantic thing someone of the opposite sex has done for you?
Nothing. Nothing good ever happens to me in the romance department.
17. When do you know its love?
You have to take notes and apply it to the Van Halen song. If the characteristics fit the established criteria, it's all good. However, I know nothing about love so I can only go on things I learn from cds.
18. Do you speak any other languages?
No. my limited knowledge of spanish is appalling
19. Have you ever been to a tanning salon?
HAHAHAHAHA funny question. no. they call me mexican in the summer time for a reason.
20. What magazines do you read?
Sports Illustrated (surprise, surprise) Field and stream (again not a big surprise there either) and Reader's Digest.
21. Have you ever ridden in a limo?
Yes, and we were drinking like fish at the time because it was wedding
22. Has anyone you were really close to passed away?
Yes, my uncle, my grandfather on my dad's side
23. Do you watch Mtv?
Sometimes. I do like Punk'd but i think they need to show more reactions of the people
24. What’s something that really annoys you?
Fake people, or attention whores.
25. What’s something you really like?
the whole aspect of hunting pheasants, being outside in the cold, walking the kansas countryside, the explosion of color when a rooster breaks in front of me, the instant reaction of my gun snapping up to my shoulder, the smell of gunpowder hanging in the air, watching a good dog work in front of me, the comaraderie of the hunting buddies, the anticipation, the muscle control of not shooting a hen when they flush, all of that is what i really like
26. Do you like Michael Jackson?
No.
27. Can you dance?
Not unless completely trashed.
28. What’s the latest you have ever stayed up?
I don't know.
29. Have you ever been rushed by an ambulance into the emergency room?
No, but I was rushed by bus to the emergency room. my sister was in the ambulance
30. Do you feel inferior or superior when you’re around other people?
i don't feel either. I feel i can blend into most social settings and therefore am all good.
Frothing at the mouth...
Now that Halloween is over, it's official. I'm starting to froth at the mouth, chomp at the bit, and barely sit still. Pheasant season starts in nine days.
I cannot wait.
I'm like a little kid at christmas. I know it's only a few days off and the "presents" will be a tangible item. I've already ordered my ammo from the G-man as he loads his own shells with a little more oomph than factory loads. My boots are good too go, my shooting shirt is great. I do need new gloves, but I'm afraid it will be too warm to even need gloves for the first weekend. Saturday is set, with the pheasant club, but Sunday is up in the air as to where we will go.
I think this year will be worse than last year as I'm ready to go. I think this year, I'm going to use this blog to keep a tally of what all I manage to shoot this year.
I'll be surprised if I get any sleep the night before.
Wow!
Nothing like some bad planning by the program director. Since the radio station just called me, I'm departing to do a football game tonight. It's a mad scramble I tell you.
Mad.
