Thursday Thoughts

Hello friends, Thursday thoughts are back up and running. I want to apologize for not writing in awhile, but I do have a very good excuse.

The reason for my slacking is that I am what my family likes to call a “bear.” I tend to hibernate during the winter. Let me be very clear. I do not like the cold, the short days, the lacking of wonderful sunshine, the ability to wear shorts and flip flops, no boating, no bikinis, no golf, and no good fishing, and no walking out to the back porch in my witey tittys to take a leak!

Usually the winters here do get cold, but this was one of the worst I can ever imagine. It was colder than a coal miners… I am pretty sure it has snowed here every day since September. However I will not bore you with the past.

The time has sprung forward, the sun has been shining, and I am excited for a fantastic Spring and Summer ahead! I got to dust off the golf clubs yesterday and took myself to the ole course for a little tune up before the season, and all I can say is WOW. Typically I get to play or practice “the greatest game God ever invented” at least 3 times a month during the winter, but its literally been November since I’ve picked up a club. I went to our local driving range and had a 13 year old girl feeling sorry for me. This was just after I shanked my first 5 shots in row ( I was a collegiate golfer damnit!). I told her that I hurt my back, a total lie. To tell you the truth, the rest of that bucket went about the same, but I didn’t give two dark chunks in a tuna can about it. It was 70 degrees, slight breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. I can’t even imagine what Heaven is going to be like, but I sure hope it is something like that day.

Spring also brings on another thing that takes up a ton of my time, Weddings. I love and love to hate weddings. I’ve got 4 so far this year in the line up. It really is great to see all the people you haven’t seen in ages, catch up, dress up, and for the quiet, weird uncle, drink up. It never fails, every wedding reception containing the ingredient that makes everyone halfway want to be there is alcohol. And there is always some crazy dude on the dance floor, showing off his 1975 disco moves, killing himself for shaving his mullet in 85,’ being the life of the party. I also love the best man and best bride (whatever you call it) speeches. The best man’s speech alsways contains some information probably not suitable for kids of all ages, and the woman’s speech is always way too long. Seriously darlin, if you’re crying for the happiness of the couple its one thing, but nobody cares that you made up dance rountines on weekends or had matching color bands on your braces in middle school. Once again I do love attending wedding and some that I am not invited to.

Being a single man and all, I have to look good for the ladies so I’ve started my usual Summer diet, which is not near as fun as my November/pre-hibernation (fatten up for the winter) diet. So I am now paying lots of money to the Bo Pilgrim family, consuming massive amounts of chicken, eggs, veggies, blah blah blah….

Hey, did I mention that it was 70, with the sun shining yesterday?

Well I’m headed out of Lubbock to Texarkanna for a wedding (hopefully I can get a good picture of a mullet sporting uncle), and then off to our nations capital, Washington D.C for some good vacation time with Momma D, Chadly, Jeana (Jenna), and the best Aunt in the whole world, Aunt Di. I’m sure we’ll have some good pics and stories from this adventure.

Adios and Cheers!

Hunting Season Winding Down

This past weekend forecast was calling for rain, sleet, nasty cold weather. This meant that there was only one thing to do, go hunting. My buddy Moon’s girlfriend was taking a trip with her friends to New Mexico, so we loaded up Kaiya and lots of guns and headed to his deer lease in Benjamin, TX.

Deer season has closed, so we were on the prowl for wild hogs, coyotes, and bobcats. The weather was exactly as predicted, cold and nasty which is typically great for these types of hunts. The first afternoon, we saw several deer but nothing we could shoot so we picked up the memory cards from the trail cameras and took them back to the lodge to see what kind of game has been in the area.

Upon reviewing the pictures, we quickly noticed that there were tons of hogs in the area, as well as a bobcat. This was very exciting because while hogs are very common, bobcats are usually very hard to come by. The next day we took off back to the blinds and on the way we spotted a bobcat just off the road on the lease. We knew that there was almost zero chance of stalking this thing on foot or in the truck but we decided to try anyway. We went about 150 yards into the lease and spotted him on my side sitting off in the brush. I quickly racked a shell in Moon’s AR15 and took aim. I could barely see him through the brush and could only see his head. These animals are very cautious, and he was not going to stick around for long, so I immediately took the shot. The bullet went right through his noggin and he was done for. This was the first Bobcat I had ever taking, so I was extremely excited.

We saw no other game for the rest of the hunt, but considered it a great success. Winter hunting season is about over, and it was a good one. While I do love to hunt more than almost anything I can not wait for warmer weather and to do activities that do not require 3 layers of clothing. Spring is right around the corner, and I can hear the fishing lakes and the golf courses calling.

Here are some pics from the Winter hunting season:

Bucket List Item Number One

Everyone has certain things they want to do or accomplish before they die; I now have my first one checked off.

Last week, four buddies (Sam, Michael, Moon, Zach) and I took the 10 hour trip from Houston to Buenos Aires. After a few “Cultural” days we took another flight over to the Province of Cordoba. After two hour bumpy dirt road ride that would make a Texas dirt road look like a brand new Interstate, we finally arrived to the Paco Riestra la Macrena Hunting lodge. The lodge was an older but newly updated 5 bedroom house complete with 4 bathrooms/showers, eating areas inside and out, huge lounging/napping couches, swimming pool, satellite TV, Cuban cigars, 3 maid servants, and a fully stocked bar that had an unlimited supply of our favorite beverages (believe me, we tried).

Unlike the United States, dove in Argentina are considered pests. There are millions upon millions and destroy over 30% of the country’s crops. The Argentines welcome everyone and anyone willing to shoot as many doves as your shoulder could stand.

We took the fields, which resembled nothing unlike a hunting field here in Texas. They were large vast areas separated by tree lines that we posted up in and used for shade. We hunted twice a day; mornings from 9 to 11:30 and in the afternoons from 3 to 6. We each had a “bird boy” who were men from the ages of 25 to 60 who would stand right next us (all day if we desired) and served three purposes: keep our Beretta Semi-automatic 20 gauge shotguns loaded with 4 shells, keep our bird count with a small clicker, and keep us “hydrated” with the famous Argentine cervesa Quilmes Beer. These guys knew very little English, but were not hesitant to teach us any Spanish that we needed to know.

On our first hunt, after I had run through my first two hundred shells, my shoulder was starting to get sore, and after taking a look at my clicker I realized that I had just killed 87 doves. We had been hunting for 24 minutes.

The next three days were no different, thousands of dove flying from all direction and we sent off hundreds of pounds of lead off into the blue sky. There would be times when I would just stand in awe at the waves and waves that would come over the top, from side to side, and come right in front at the same time.

One afternoon I even skipped a hunt to let my shoulder rest. I took a magazine to the pool and spent the afternoon taking in the Argentine sun, it was 85 degrees with a slight breeze (43 degrees in Lubbock that day). I got made fun of relentlessly by my buddies and the help, but I cared not.

It was great to take in the majestic scene in front of us, millions of Dove crossing the large soybean fields. Strangly we learned early on that it was just as fun to watch each other, including the bird boys, shoot at the birds. Everyone was very quick to laugh and trash talk at a missed target, but also quick with a compliment for a downed bird. We also enjoyed watching our bird boys shoot. These guys worked their tails off for us and we had no problem letting them partake in the fun. Later we learned that of the 12 years they had been in business, no group had let them hunt as much as we did.

All in all, this was truly a trip of a life time and we seriously had the time of our lives. It was unlike anything that I could even begin to describe and it was great to share it with great friends. The shoulder and 10 hour plane ride pain will soon pass, but the memories can never. I know that I am extremely fortunate to have the opportunity and would recommend it to anyone who loves wing shooting.

Lastly, this experience gave me a great perspective of a different part of our world where people live in unimaginable poverty. I know its very cliché to say, but there are so many things that we have and have access to that we take for granted every day. I know for a fact that I got far more from this trip more than a just a fantastic time and a great dove hunt.

Addition!! I have been asked several times so I want to add that in our three days the five of us killed just over 7,500 birds.