Saturday, May 7, 2011

My Eldest Son's First Fishing Trip!

Today, my oldest son and I went fishing together for the first time. Went to a friend's pond that was well stocked. He absolutely loved it! He caught 3 fish on his first 3 casts! 2 brim and 1 small bass. I didn't keep an exact count, but he caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 fish while we were there. It was such a great memory and wonderful father/son time.



Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Video by Steven Hoag: Wilson NC Tornado AS IT HITS WALGREENS

I like how this guy's tone of voice never changes even though a tornado passes about 20 yards to the left of his truck.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

My wife wins a half marathon!

My wife is too modest to talk about this, but I am not. Today she ran the Roanoke Rapids Canal Race Half Marathon and she won! Her time was 1:39:40!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Colorado Skiing and Acute Mountain Sickness!

Last week, Battree and I went to Breckenridge, Colorado for a ski trip. The weather was snowy, the Rockies were magnificent and the slopes were powdery. After arriving after midnight Wednesday, we got up early Thursday and started skiing. We skied all day Thursday with no breaks other than lunch.

Warning, if you ever plan to ski out west or anywhere with an elevation above 8,000 ft. make sure you give yourself a day to adjust to the extreme altitude change and drink plenty of water and gatorade before hand. I was not warned. A few hours after going to bed Thursday night, we both woke up with splitting headaches. Neither of us slept well the entire time we were there. Breckenridge is 9,600 ft. above sea level. The mountain summitt at the resort is 12,998 ft. I am not slamming the town, but make sure you get your body used to the elevation before doing anything active in a place this high.

Acute Mountain Sickness is altitude sickness in it's mildest form. It's like having the flu minus the body aches. I was nauseous and light headed for about 3 days. While skiing at higher elevations, I could see stars, in the daytime. While I was throwing up in the parking lot of Keystone Resort, a local guy told me that the best way to get over altidude sickness was to drive to Denver and stay for about 2 hours. I did not have that luxury. Denver was about 2 hours away and it was all curvy interstate in between. Just what a nauseous guy wants. Instead, I spent about 3 hours at the Keystone ER getting oxygen.

I laid in bed the rest of the day and felt great by bed time. I just stayed in bed.

Saturday provided another great day of skiing. There was constant snow and great moguls. After going to bed Saturday night, the bad headache returned with more nausea. When our plane landed in Greensboro, I had never been happier to be close to sea level.

Enjoy the pictures!















Gel Helmet and Greg Jennings

Gel Helmet ran the Disney 5K today and was greeted by DeAngelo Williams and Greg Jennings at the end. I asked if it was cold enough in Orlando to wear a hood. Gel Helmet says it was not. Greg Jennings had 4 catches for 64 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Super Bowl. We would like to thank Greg for posing for our blog.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

2 Black Duck morning

Longeared Mule, Sadie and I hunted this morning. The Mule called in a pair of black ducks and we took both of them out! Sadie made 2 nice retrieves. It was a great day!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Gadwalls and Geese

Today we shot 2 gadwall and 2 geese! It was the usual crew +1. Longeared mule, Sadie, Zorbacon and Clayface! We shot 2 gadwall early, then Mule and Clayface shot 2 geese as we walked to the truck. After the hunt we traded insults and came up with the new nickname.

I think today might be the first gadwall I have ever shot. I'm not sure. Mule and Clayface say that we may have shot a few about 10 years ago. Notice, the drake has a black bill. The hen has an orange bill.





Clayface and Longeared Mule


The real Clayface

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Playing Possum

Sadie found this pretty little fella Friday morning. She danced around and he played possum.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

January 8th duck hunt

Today started out great and ended slow. It began with Gel Helmet arriving extremely late. He walked in with about 2 minutes to spare for legal shooting time. He wasted no time by almost immediately shooting 2 wood ducks. It was a nice double! Good shooting by the Helmet. One of the woodies was about 5 ft. off of the end of his barrel. His shot literally cut the bird in half. Nasty. A few minutes later, I shot a mallard drake. That was all of the shooting. We did see a few more mallards and wood ducks, but overall pretty slow. It was a fun hunt. They all are whether we have success or not. We are thankful to be able to do this as a hobby. Rowza and his brother in law also joined us. They were in a bad spot for shooting and did not get the chances that the Helmet and I got.


Friday, January 7, 2011

Black Ducks and Mallards

Today I shot my first black duck ever! Longeared mule and I combined shot 2 black ducks and 2 mallards. All drakes! This was one of those days where I woke up with no expectations an would have been fine with shooting nothing and eating a biscuit. I'm so glad we got up. The ducks have really migrated in recently. Duck season to date has been less than stellar. Today made up for it. Sadie made 4 nice retrieves! I will go to bed tonight dreaming about a greasy biscuit. Maybe tomorrow will turn out similar.