Started the day with birds in the decoys.



Old dog with the last bird of the day.



Then I buried the truck and boat trailer in the lawn after misestimating the amount of frost still in the soil (not much in the sunny part, I found). I spent the remainder of the morning fixing that mistake and here are the remains of the lawn washed off the truck and tractor.

Those sunrises are priceless. In the second picture, with the retrieve, is that a "cloud" of birds over-top of the sedge? If so, wow, that's a lot of birds.

Beautiful pictures of the sunrise. And it is amazing how quickly the ground goes from impenetrable to mush....

Great Photos Todd. I think we have been to that spot. Thanks for the reminder since it looks like we will not be going south any time soon to hunt Brant.


On a side note don't worry about the lawn job. I did the same thing last season on the north end of the house put it took 10 yards of fill to fix it.

Be Safe

Thanks, no the "birds" were just funky remnants of some photoshopping. I removed them for you.

A little more photoshop and you will have the lawn "fixed" in no time.

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Take care, Huntindave McCann SHELL ROCK IA. ,,,,,, "As sailors grow older, the wiser ones move to smaller boats." Thomas Firth Jones, Multihull Voyaging

Quick turning to mush for sure, also amazing how quick forward progress stopped once I hit the melted spot :). Going to need some more grass seed.

When we got the materials for our barn delivered we had a full sized semi with full length trailer get stuck near the same place - we warned him, but he went anyway without checking. That was a fun extraction to watch.

Ouch.

Gorgeous sunrise Tod.

When I lived in Jacksonville and my dad was installing the garage, he had the people come and pour the slab. They brought in the big cement mixing truck. Our back yard was plenty big enough for a semi/cement mixer truck to navigate and move around in. They did not listen when he said back in, don't turn around. Turns out that the FL sand sinks LOTS when a big ass full of cement mixer truck attempts to drive around and he got stuck. That one was also interesting watching the semi tow truck come in to get it unstuck.

Good morning, Tod~


Great photos!


In that first shot I can practically hear the soft clucking as they prepare for landing.


Hurricane Covid is keeping me away from my customary January Brant hunts this year.



All the best,


SJS

Steven Jay Sanford
Pencil Brook Farm
South Cambridge, NY
http://www.stevenjaysanford.com

It sure doesn't take much to get stuck. :). I have chains for all 4 on the truck, but given the mud mess that I made right off the bat, I was hesitant to lay in the mud to put them on, so I dropped the trailer and went with the let the mud fly approach after gentle coaxing didn't work. It was really the skinny trailer tires that acted as an anchor and sunk out of sight. I jacked the trailer up to get boards under the tires and got back on to solid ground with the tractor.

They will be there next year for you.

That pic is taken with a smartphone, so you can imagine how in your face they were. I do love those little chirpers.

On a positive note, you have provided Gus with yet another life lesson.

---

Take care, Huntindave McCann SHELL ROCK IA. ,,,,,, "As sailors grow older, the wiser ones move to smaller boats." Thomas Firth Jones, Multihull Voyaging

Some fantastic photos Tod! I sympathize with you on the lawn, I have damn near gotten stuck in my own pasture before in the spring.




------------------------------------------------
"We base our hopes upon a willingness to go to difficult-to-get-at places, to work hard, to freeze if need be, to rise early and stay late." -Gordon MacQuarrie

Avery- the K-mart of waterfowling gear

That first shot is really spectacular Tod.

Glad you have been able to get oout there and get into the spray and smell a bit of gunsmoke.
G
M
T
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Don't just do something, Stand there!

I'm getting smarter, we are in a pattern of thawing days and 15-20-25F nights. I've been leaving the boat until the next morning to put away. Duh.

Had a nice day yesterday. Here is a shot picking up the decoys. Wish I'd gotten the bow of the boat in the shot.



I have a pot of brant chili on the stove this morning.

Lovely sunrise picture Tod and nice to see the "old dog" still doing work! Hope you've been safe and glad the birds are treating you well.

Brian

Tod

I like the pic of the boat, even without the nose in it. The gear all in place makes for a great composition. That rock off to the side looks serious. I wonder how many foggy morning hulls it's eaten.

Eric

Thanks Eric, boat has been getting some work, I like it. We had a good day today...

Rocks, you say?!?! I got 'em. These all hide nicely at high tide and are available to reshape props at mid tide.



We backed into a little spot that holds water even at low tide out of the wind and let the birds find us.



Captain amazing after just making a particularly skillful shot and feeling pretty proud of himself.



Companions for the day.



Old dog with one of several great retrieves today. Dead birds really moved quickly out of the decoys on the wind and tide.



Birds, boy and dogs.

Crocs must run in the family.

Nice photos, thanks for sharing. Everything is froze up here except the rivers below the dams. Lot's of geese sitting right in town laughing at us as we drive across the bridges.

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Take care, Huntindave McCann SHELL ROCK IA. ,,,,,, "As sailors grow older, the wiser ones move to smaller boats." Thomas Firth Jones, Multihull Voyaging

Does look like a good day. Good crew, full bag. And you stayed off the rocks. I'm glad someone had luck with the brant today. I stayed off the rocks, but was stuck on the sand for a little bit this morning.





Oxford, CT

Looks like a great morning Tod. Actually had some brant around the last 3 days of our sea duck season. Hopefully they will move the season back to coincide with sea ducks. Enjoy the chili !
"Pass the Tradition Along"

Hi Brian, I missed seeing you checking in here. I hope all is well in Minnesota, we are doing well here.

We aren't going to freeze up this year any time soon it doesn't look like. We haven't had a year lately with a freeze and deep snow to push the geese down to the coast. Our late season geese runs until the 15 of Feb and can be pretty good if we get a LOT of snow and it is very cold to lock up the inland water. Hope it will happen. Pretty fun when it does.

Anyone who doesn't wear crocs, doesn't know what they are missing!

I stayed off the rocks pretty well hunting, but I did ride over one pretty excitingly on the way home :).

Sorry to hear about the brant, get them on Wed!