I am in the process of taking hunter's safety education online. In arkansas its required for any hunter born after 1968. they accept any safety card from your home satate though. The irony is that I have to take a test, but they will let Phil hunt here since he passed when he was in junior high. *sigh* if only they knew. (thus far no questions about school busses).

Anyway I thought you would like this page from it, see inside a deer:

http://70.61.99.50/Class/Section04/C/Games/Game01.aspx

Later,

PP

First Kill of the season.

Finally hit a few of the little buggers this morning... So far I'm 5 for ~40 or so... Maybe I won't make as much fun of Pistol Pat this year.... naaa. Note the picture with the houses in the background. We were actually hunting a field with a major freeway to our back and the housing development you see on the other side. There were doves everywhere. I'm claiming first kill cause nobody else has said anything... Losers! ;-) And finding one dead on the ground doesn't count Old Farmer.

Mac's 1st hunt!

Mackenzie went with me dove hunting this afternoon. She seemed to like it right up till she put her hand in a fire ant mound. I'm still dove skunked but at least I got a bunny rabbit. Gonna give it another try in the morning.

Thanksgiving weekend

Sorry folks, first chance i've had to write in awhile. Time to start thinking 'bout fall. Ryan, you coming up? I know that Nelson put in for tags in KB county. I think Pat and I are going to try to make it over there for that weekend.

I've been missing the open country of SD. Yeah, I love the woods, damn, i've seen some beautiful sights this summer (despite the lack of college girls), but I often think back to the crisp fall air over prairie fields. Snow covered corn stubble and the condensing puff of breath out of of a big doe. So I can't wait to see ya'll, suppose I should look up the NR applicaton dates soon....

Dove lease

I'm thinking about doing a lease here in TX for Dove hunting... what do you think? http://djfarmsdovelease.com/
They also allow hunting for anything else except deer. Dad, take a look at the website they run an operation similar to what you want to start.

New Akkerman hunters

	Mom and Rusty. I think they're getting along.
	Yep, he can swim.
	He can almost swim right out of the water
	Here are all the young Akkerman Hunters (and a couple that are just young at heart).

Will it work on Snipe??

When daughter Peggy and her 4 year old son Daniel was at the farm earlier this summer, we were sitting around the fire ring, drinking beer, and talking hunting(what else?), and when did we think Daniel would be old enough to join the hunting crew in the fall. We jokingly told Daniel that until he was old enough to shoot a gun, he could only come along to act like a dog, and carry birds and stuff. We were also talking about seeing mountain lions and bobcats at different times, and told Daniel that to scare lions and bobcats away, he needed to walk around clicking 2 sticks together, and call out to the cats. He found his 2 sticks, and started walking along the driveway, clicking his sticks, and calling "Bob, Bob, Hey Bob!!!"
While he was doing this, a pheasant started crowing in the alfalfa field next to the driveway. Every time Daniel clicked his sticks, and yelled for "BoB", this pheasant would crow back (probably because it was being disturbed). Daniel tried it again later, and also the next day, and everytime, a pheasant would answer his call. Daniel is now convinced that he has the knack of being able to call pheasants, and told his mother, "I don't have to be old enough to hunt, I can go along and call the pheasants for the guys to shoot!" Needless to say, Terri, Peggy and I were having an awful time keeping a straight face( or not falling off our chairs) while he was walking around clicking his sticks, and calling for "Bob".
More later,
The Old Farmer.

I Passed !!! Look out poachers

It is final I just got my State Exam score and I passed. Only 6 more weeks of in-serves training and I'll be home and on-duty.

Back from Greece

Well I am back from Greece and as you all know the work there is hard. And the morning are hell I have to make my own coffee and then drink it with students. But, some how I seem to be able to struggle through an other day at the "office".

The trip was good and I am on my way to my dad's in Ottawa for a week. Then off to the boat and a bunch of dive training.

Farmer man loved the story and it will be great to be back on the "farm".

Well more later

Gray hunter

What a Beautiful View!!!

I was cutting alfalfa at the farm yesterday, right along the driveway. A car with Florida plates drove in, and a nice looking woman got out carrying a large sample case. She was selling aerial photos of the farmstead. They are now taken by digital camera, so one of the selling points was that she could erase or cover up unsightly areas. I asked her to remove the old trailer house, and take out several junk piles.
Now, as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story". This woman was very well built, and had on a loose fitting tank top that showed her attributes at their finest. To put this description in a hunting vernacular that we can all understand, "she would have a hard time hiding behind a tree during deer season, or she would make a good guide, as she was always pointing the way. She was sitting on the front step of the house, giving me and Josh(my 15 year old traveling friend), her well practiced sales pitch. We were standing above her, totally fascinated by the view (of the farmstead pictures) that she was showing us. All of a sudden, she grabbed the front of her tank top, and pulled it way out, and shouted, Can you see anything?
Duh!! How do you answer a question like that.
She reached down her shirt, and was searching for something. Gentleman that I am, I was ready to volunteer to help her search for whatever had hidden in her cleavage, when she pulled out a seed from the ash tree in front of the house. Curses, I had visions of doing a strip search, and saving her from a viscous bee or wasp, not a tree seed. After I had purchased the photo, which I had been wanting for 20+ years, but have never been around the farm at the right time, I couldn't help but wonder, would her sales technique have been any different if Terri had been the one talking to her?
Things looking great at the farm, several nice rains, food plots looking OK. Lots of deer around, good hatch from the Canadian Geese, and pheasants starting to nest. Think Fall, and hunting, but take time to enjoy the summer, it is way too short.

Happy Fathers Day, the old Farmer.