Posted by Rich Alley on January 22, 2005 at 3:46 p.m.:
First duck hunt in 1964. Then in 1971 after college, started to get serious. Got the 1100, then the Membership at Hermon Skeet Club, then the lab, then the Membership at the Maine Retriever Trial Club, then reloading, then competitive skeet and trap, then tired of the $20.00 George Soule dekes so started carving workers...blacks, canadas, whistlers, bluebills and one wood duck. Then came the glory days of the Floating Blind...a 14' Starcraft. Then started the Downeast Chapter of DU in 1973, with about 20 other duckers. Then a few years later I started my oldest son on birding...upland and waterfowl. He loved it and still is a ducker.
I now live with wife and 10 year- old son, and the five year- old lab in Williamstown, MA... way in the NW corner of MA. Not much coastal gunning here, but lots of birds come through, and I get back to the Maine coast often.
Plan to build a big garage workshop soon and have the bandsaw, vice and the tools ready for more worker dekes and some gifts. May even try a boat if it can be kept to less than 70 pounds!