THANKSGIVING/GOOSE HUNT

Bill and his son Scott, & Rick and his daughter Rachel came for an early breakfast and a goose hunt.
Rick brought some of the waterfowl sausage he made. I put Rachel to work cooking it.
About 75 geese had been roosting on the wetlands. We sat our decoys up and hid along the new hedge row. We were all surprised when 4 geese came flying out of the east and with a little calling set their wings and came right in. But they all flew right back out. They just weren't close enough and we missed. The shooting got the geese off the pond. Rick and Rachel got some pass shooting. Rick dropped this nice goose. We were all surprised to see it was banded.

FIRST RABBIT HUNT

Rusty brought his 4 beagles to Bobworld for the first rabbit hunt of this season.The rabbits were up against me, my old friend Johnny, Rusty and his friend Bobby.
Bobby grew up just down the road, a couple miles away. It had been years since I had seen him. Of course Dakota and Janey weren't going let those beagles have all the fun. I went over the rules of engagement with the the hunters. Rabbits had to be running when fired upon and not till they made a circle. When you hunt with beagles, hearing the dogs running the rabbit is the best part. Beagles trail the rabbit by the scent it leaves behind and bark. They call it tonguing when the dog picks up the scent. The rabbit always runs back to where the dogs or hunter first jumped them making a big circle.I told Janey and Dakota they could hunt for the rabbits but had let the the beagles do the running. We jumped the first rabbit in the field behind the house.It went in the woods before circling back. Janey jumped up a rabbit that ran between johnny's legs. I had to call her back and remind her about chasing. Then some quail got up and we saw a cooper hawk swoop after one of them but the quail got away.The dogs brought the rabbit back around and johnny got the shot and the first rabbit of the day.I got the next one and Dakota made the retrieve.Rusty got the next one. Johnny seemed to be in the right place - the next couple rabbits came by him. Bobby got the following one.Rusty got another. Johnny got #4 and that made the limit for him.It was about 12:30 and the dogs were getting tired so we called it a day.
We got 8 rabbits out of maybe 10 that we jumped. There's going to be fried rabbit on the menu at Bobworld.

THE RUT IS ON

Last week I started seeing bucks out in the open with does.The breeding season has started and bucks let their guard down. I sat in the big stand with all but the youngest of my grandchildren one evening.We saw 4 does coming our way but they heard the kids talking and up went their tails.The kids got a lesson in keeping quiet.Then a big buck came out in the field a good ways away but didn't stay long.
Just before dark a doe came out but it was just too dark to shoot. Next time the kids are down I think one at time with me in the stand. We would have a better chance of getting at deer that way. Molly was the cook for us after the hunt. She and Nate like their steak as much as grandpa.They got a ride on the new 4 wheeler. We had to take them back home Saturday. Here's the little critter that went on the trip with mom and dad.I'm sure he missed his sister and brothers..Saturday was youth day for deer hunting and Mike and his dad came.They spent Friday night at the cabin.Mike enjoys my cooking.I was gone Saturday but heard he saw some deer but didn't get a shot.Sunday I picked up the new cook stove. I put it in that afternoon. We had stir fry and apple pie for dinner. Rick had just finished butchering the buck he got. The meat could not have been fresher.Cindy brought kasha - it is healthier for you then rice. George brought the Jim Beam - better then Pepsi.The stove has a big fire box and is air tight.It will hold a fire all night and puts out lots of heat.

SOUTH DAKOTA TRIP

I went with my dogs again on their hunting trip to S.D. This year Belle, Emma and their owner Steve rode together with my group. It's a 24 hour drive that we do in two days.We stay and hunt on Bruce's farm near the small town of Roscoe.It's always nice seeing Bruce - he was combining corn.
There were 7 of us hunters and 9 dogs this year. We go for the pheasant hunting - it's always good. This was a wet year for the area, so there was a lot of water and that made for a lot of ducks. I had never seen so many ducks at one time. We hunted a flooded corn field and had lots fun with the ducks.I bought a roto duck in Aberdeen. We put a blind up and shot ducks.Janey and Katie, George's lab, did the retrieves.Janey has one here that played the diving game. Most all the ducks were mallards.Bill shot the only goose .It's a speckled goose. Hunting can be hard work, we would shoot ducks at first light. Then go in town to the Prairie Rose to get breakfast. At 10 we started pheasant hunting. We would hunt till we got our 3 birds and then go back to the house and clean them.
We did take a trip to a ranch, Bieber Red Angus Ranch. Steve is looking for a bull for his herd at home. Craig Bieber, the owner, was happy to show us some of the bulls.They use the by product of making Ethanol from corn in the feed mix. George is checking it out.For dinner we usually went back to the Prairie Rose. On Halloween night, the locales looked like this. After dinner we went back to house and some of us would have a few drinks. George always falls asleep at the table.We hunted for 5 days and headed home. The dogs had a good vacation. Here are a few more pictures from the trip: