Sunday, January 10, 2010

Duck, Duck, Goose, Boom!

Hello. Amanda has been telling me that since we got married in April that this was OUR blog now. So since I really haven't had anything to blog about in the last couple of months I thought what better way to start off the new year than by telling everybody about my annual trip to Arkansas for some duck hunting.

For the last six years I have had the opportunity to go to northeast Arkansas for some duck hunting. My good friend Jay takes some of his clients on this annual trip so I get to go along and help out. We leave on the first Wednesday in January and drive to Manila, AR. We hunt on Thursday and Friday then drive back on Saturday. On Monday January 4th I checked the weather so I would know how to pack for the trip. On Thursday it was calling for a high of 27 with snow showers. For Friday they were calling for a high of 19 and partly cloudy. We when we woke up Thursday morning at 4:30am there was 1in to 2in of snow on the ground and it was 16deg. So I knew the boat ride to the blind was going to be cold so I put on three layers on clothes and I stayed pretty warm. Now Friday was a different story. When we got up again at 4:30am. The temperature was anywhere from 5deg to 9deg with a wind chill of -5deg to -10deg. So Friday I put on everything I had or at least it felt like it. I had on 5 layers not including my jacket. I even had on two sets of gloves. I have never been this cold in my life. But once we go to the blind we were able to warm up and turn our heater on. Even with all the cold weather I had a great trip just like the previous 5 years. So the first week of January 2011 you will know where to find me.

All the guys that went on the trip (from left to right) Paden, Me, Partain, Jay, Cody, Doug & Dave

Our duck blind on the St. Francis river

Inside the blind waiting for the boat to get back. Can you tell it was cold? Look at all the clothes we had on.

One of my shotgun shells that was stuck in the ice.

Our guide and Millie picking up decoys in the ice.

Our only heat source.

Looking out our blind on Friday morning. It was ice and a little running water.


The big elk in the hunting lodge.

3 comments:

Kati said...

I would have died! Glad you had fun though :)

Josh and Shan said...

I have been in a blind (deer) before when the temp was 30 or so and thought I was going to freeze to death. I CANNOT imagine anything below that!!!!!!

matt said...

Didn’t see any pictures of dead ducks. Did Amanda censor this post or were the ducks in Cancun:)