BilletHead

Sweet, it is all about going. I love this time of the year. I know for a fact teal know when legal shooting time starts Getting ready to head out with the Mrs. o a Pond this morning. Our and My last trips have netted a double and then two singles. That was three trips worth! ha Thanks for the report and photos, BilletHead

Surf and turf? Maybe lake and sky? Pretty cool there Scott, BilletHead

Well done John P. Sunrise is my most favorite part of the day. I need to start messing with my go pro, BilletHead

Neat John Have you ever had one of those dragonfly's buzz in your peripheral vision and think it was a dove coming by? Happens to me all the time.. BilletHead

Way to go on the Doves John. Hang in there I think next week will be much better, BilletHead

One word for this morning." MOSQUITOFEST " Decided to make a run this morning to the duck park. There is some water there seen they had pumped a little last week. Had a plan and took the kayak as I can't carry what I need but can do a short paddle to the hide. Got there and I thought the 59 degrees would be nice. As soon as I opened the truck door the swarm invaded me and the truck inside. I had spray but chose not to use it right away, MISTAKE #1 Slid the loaded kayak into the channel and paddled in the bright moonlight as the swarm followed me. Note the hat was off because I was starting to sweat, MISTAKE # 2. Hitting my mark for the morning I quickly removed my glasses and head light and began to fog my head face and arms, hat too. Than I began to feel for my glasses, MISTAKE #3 be careful where you lay the glasses. Did finally find them in a bush above where I thought I laid them. Then I put on the glasses and they instantly fogged up. Yes I thought it is going to be one of these mornings. Off again go the glasses but into a safer place. Started setting up and a couple of singles buzzed me. Phone rings and the Mrs. is checking on me. What a woman. As she was wishing me luck a big group of twenty wizzes by my face and I thought this is going to get good! LST arrived and nothing but a wood duck now and then. I waited and waited finally in the distance a small group. No close birds all morning. Did hear six shots on the whole place. Sun up over the trees now and I quit. As I pick up the decoys I see four coming towards me. Drop the deeks pick up the gun as the four birds come by, shoot once and drop one. So it wasn't a total loss. Paddling out I see three more bunches and pick out another spot for later on IF it cools back off. May have to go dove hunting again, BilletHead

Grill basket from the clearance rack a few years back at Orscheln farm and home. I think they still carry them, BilletHead

Good one Njardar. Food is a simple pleasure and it doesn't take much to keep me happy, Daddy-O Yes it does taste like beef. You would be hard pressed to know it was duck. Very, very tender too. BilletHead

Neat stuff? Not me cheap stuff. Got to love a bargain. Grill is one of those little bitty webers. Found it on clearance at Sutherlands for a whopping fifteen bucks. Grill basket clearance rack a few years back at Orscheln farm and home. I think ten bucks. Kingsford's brand. Oh yes the table a freebee from a friend. It is one of those with two legs that attach to the side of a grill. When not on the grill it rests just right on the deck rail for the little grill. Have had that freebee for close to eight years. Have had my moneys worth out of it all.

I can hear you all now duck again? Yep but you would be hard pressed to even know it was duck. It is more like a tender cut of beef. I suppose you could do this in a skillet but we like the grilled charcoal flavor. Today we will do this with mallard, skinny mallard. We save our fat mallards for searing. These birds had very little if not any fat on them. The kind where you can see the color of the meat through the skin. We slice the breast meat pretty thin on the bias. About an eighth inch thick slices. Add a liberal amount of olive oil and a bunch of coarse black pepper, some garlic salt too. After coals are white and hot get the meat in the grill basket. From all the olive oil dripping you will get a flare up, just go to stirring flame and smoke is good! When the meat is browned and is beginning to show some blood oozing add onions. Here again onion petals liberally coated with olive oil and lots of the pepper. Stir, stir, stir until the onions are hot but still crunchy. Plate it up with some fried rice. Try it, BilletHead

Moodyfour good on you all. Nice picture of your young one. Both of the young ones. I have had the pleasure of watching dogs work a couple of times. It was neat. Someday there might be a dog in my future. If so I will be asking a lot of questions. Until then I will be using the kayak, long hook pole, waders, Mrs. BilletHead or the wind to retrieve. We made another hunt this morning and bagged two, one each. We had a group of fifteen buzz us before LST and then two work later and we got them. A single big duck flew by and then a group of eight big ducks in the distance. Lots of geese pestering us but they don't like the spinning wing decoys. We will work them over during early goose or at least try. Todays photos. JD she can smile, BilletHead

Do I dunk there little webbed feet in it? OR should I cook and baste them before sending them on there way? HA! BilletHead

Will send some your way, BilletHead

Nice post Tim and thanks. We have been to Dinosaur national monument, Kemmerer and the Fossil butte National Monument although the monument was closed we did do a pay to place and got some fish fossils. Did the Florissant Fossil monument too. Pretty neat all the bug fossils. We have also explored around Vernal and found some Caddis and leaf fossils, BilletHead

Ok I will get the teal thread party started! There are some here, and with the two cool fronts last nights and the one coming these two weeks should get better. I / We have been watching two ponds. Both are used for irrigation and have been pumped pretty low. Mud flats they have and blue wings like it. No cover to hide but if hidden the best you can and not moving it will work. So a plan was launched last Evening hoping that it wasn't raining too much. Up early checked the radar, some clearing on the way. So we hit the road to the water. Got there in good time and no rain so we got all set up. As the Eastern sky started to lighten the rain started falling lightly. Just like usual in teal fashion they started flying and landing before legal shooting time of sunrise. Nice bunches of a dozen to twenty. Back and forth in and out of the decoys. Then it was time and we got in some shooting. The morning flight was over before we were but it did happen. The set up, No lab for me but a nice fetcher just the same and she doesn't smell like a wet dog. She says to tell you all like most women she had to take the time for her makeup. No complaints from me about this. The mornings results were seven little blue winged rockets. Three nice adults with a goodly amount of fat build up and four thin skinned youngsters BilletHead

What F&F said except they will still go to fields in the rain to feed. We just decided to stay dry that morning, BilletHead

There you go Mitch. Baby steps. Once she gets hooked an sees what it is all about things will change. When we first married neither one of us could cook. I remember the first time we had my parents over to dinner. Fried chicken with mashed taters and gravy. You could stand a spoon in the gravy and it would just stand there. Had the consistency of drywall mud. Oh my the memories. BilletHead

Thanks gents, A good day for sure. Hoping there is many more like this for the rest of my life. Do what you can with the one you love. A life time is limited, BilletHead

Mrs. BilletHead has Thursdays off. She asks last night are we going dove hunting? Sure if you want. We got 13 on Monday and on Tuesday I did another 15. Gave it rest Wednesday. So the Alarm goes off at five this morning. I have been fighting a head cold and finally got a good night of rest. I grunt when it went off and started to fall back asleep. Soon I feel a poke. Aren't we going? Well let me see what it is doing outside. I take a quick wiz, put my glasses on and go out the door to check the weather and thermometer. Instantally humid hits my face and the cold glasses fog up as I peer at the temp. 76 degrees. I crawl back in bed and get poked again. I want to go. Alright so we get up and do breakfast. Then hit the road for the short trip to the field. Get sit up, Mrs. BilletHead watching the sun rise, The results were great. I was done with 15 birds by eight. I shot better than I have ever for doves. 15 for 19 shots. Monday I shot a modified choke and was either missing or tearing up birds, Tuesday I shot the Mrs. gun with a improved cylinder and done way better so this morning I changed chokes and did well. The Mrs. ended up with 7 birds and averaged three shells per bird but get this she downed two birds with one shot. I asked her did you do this on purpose? Heck no, at least she was honest in the answer, Got the birds cleaned and took a drive to Joplin for something to do. Came home and I started the charcoal grill. On the menu was bacon wrapped dove. This is my favorite way to eat them. A strip of bacon enclosing the entire breast and pinned with a toothpick. Put them on the hot grill where they started getting happy, more happy and the happiest of all. I cook then until the bacon gets done, not too crispy but more on what I call the wormy side, And now it was time for us to be happy. Sided with a nice salad and a half of a baked potato topped with sharp cheddar cheese and an adult beverage of choice. A good old ice cold blue moon, I am so glad she kept poking me to get up! BilletHead

Just three more. Blah, blah, blah. Rub it in, rub it in! Good going Scott, BilletHead

Have a great trip luckycraft! Give us a good report, BilletHead

I could see couple starting to turn in the photo. Bad early here too last year for that. Seeing a few teal and some pintails here. Last year seen two pintail third week of September. Have eight now on a pond here close. Had frozen ponds here on thanksgiving hunt last year. Should I be worried it will be another cold one this season? BilletHead

Did a solo in the same field on day two. Done and heading home with 15 at 8:15 AM. A really good shoot, Pretty muddy after three inches of rain. Still no complaints as dry as it is/was. Still would like some pond filler rains. Walked right out of my stuck muck boot once. What to do? Just reinsert muddy foot and keep hunting. A water hose and flush cleaned it out but what a wad of mud I got out of it! BilletHead

Well done friend. I bet they will taste good even if they are in "plain brown wrappers". BilletHead

Get more and report Scott! Duane you are getting them. BilletHead