Tag: mondaymusings

Alligators and Anniversaries

November 20th, 2023

I’m sure that if you google top things to do or places to go for your anniversary, alligator hunting is not at the top of the list, or even on the list at all. For Shaun and me, we could think of no better thing to do, however. We had had a gentleman who came to our house with the easement company to explain that they were going to have shredders and mowers on our property clearing the pipeline easement that runs in front of our house and down one side of the property. He was talking through how it was going to go and assuring us that they would pay attention to our horses and cattle and make sure that our gates were closed. As we were talking to him, he told us the story and showed us pictures of a 10ft alligator he and his wife had just harvested as standby hunters on a Texas Parks and Wildlife hunt. He was incredibly excited and had even typed up the story which he let us read.

That was it for us, we figured if these two 60ish year olds could go unprepared with no bait or anything and set their line out with rented kayaks that we could improve on their preparedness and do it too! He took us to the website and helped us find the drawn hunts page and the information about showing up to put in for the standby drawing if you weren’t drawn prior to the hunt. We read and re-read his story, watched every episode of Swamp People that was available at the time just in case any of that was actually like reality, and did a ton of research and read forums.

We ordered large hooks and paracord from eBay and practiced setting the line out. While my dad was visiting from Georgia, we returned home from a fishing expedition at the Trinity River to discover a message left on our answering machine. A guy from TPWD had tried to call us about a drawn hunt we had put in for. I returned his phone call and much to our delight, learned that we had been drawn for the alligator hunt on September 15 and 16^th, no need to go down on standby we were already in! He said our letter had been returned as undeliverable, but a quick search of our customer info showed the same address, so he was doing his last due diligence to inform us. We also discovered during our conversation that we had both gone to Stephen F Austin State University for forestry and wildlife management and bonded over different amazing assignments and professors as well as crazy assignments from professors. Lumberjacks are instant family in the same way Aggies are even if they’ve never met! He was familiar with the area we were going to be hunting and told us how the hunt would go and where to request to get to hunt based on where he had seen a lot of gators!

When I got off the phone Shaun and I were literally giddy almost to the point of jumping up and down with excitement. My dad, on the other hand, was not nearly as sure. As it turned out, most of the family wasn’t as fired up about us going alligator hunting as we were. Shaun’s dad, of course, was elated for us but he had been in the trenches hog hunting with us for years at this point and he never shies away from something just because it might be dangerous and would never encourage us to. Be prepared and ready, be afraid even, but do it even if you’re scared! My mom volunteered to watch the kids overnight and bring them down the morning of the hunt when the lines had been set out all night over the water so they could be there to see us come in with a gator if we got one.

About a week or so before the hunt, we bought some small whole chickens and left them in a bucket with a lid on it and some other juices and things that when left in the sun for that length of time would be pretty rank. It was, we had gotten to where you could smell it before you reached the bucket! We rented one of the winterized cabins and brought our air mattress and set up camp, launched our little river boat, and went out to do a little scouting. An older pair of gentlemen saw us as we headed out to scout, and we told them it was to be our first time and how we had prepared. They were veteran alligator hunters and shared some tips with us. When we came back in from scouting it seemed they were waiting on us and debating whether or not to go looking for us. They’d been worried about us and upon our arrival, insisted that we come back to their camp to eat dinner. There was no telling them no, and no reason to either. I’m not sure how we ate some sort of alligator soup that night, I didn’t ask questions about it other than what spices he used because it was delicious, he only explained what part of the alligator it had come from and how to cut it up and prepare the crock pot. They were only too happy to share a meal with us and exchange hunting stories and when I shared several hog hunting stories of my own, they visibly relaxed and determined audibly to us that we were going to be alright. We thanked them profusely for the dinner and fellowship and returned to our cabin for the morning’s orientation and release to hunt!

After we were called in to show our licenses and be assigned hunt compartments or areas to hunt which we got to choose, we actually got the area that my fellow alumni suggested, all the hunters sat through orientation and demonstrations so we would all know what to do and how to do it to keep us safe as well as legal. Shaun and I grabbed our bamboo poles and headed out! We set two lines in two separate areas as we each had a tag and came back in to wait. Since we were close to the ramp and staging area we saw a hunter come in with a gator that afternoon and went to investigate. We ended up making friends with him and told him where we had put our lines, he was familiar with the area and thought we had good spots. The next morning, he met us at the boat ramp and told us and the biologist that he passed one of our lines on the way in and that it was down. At the biologist’s suggestion he volunteered to follow us to our line and observe and only help if we were in a bind. I’m not sure if this was out of an abundance of caution for first timers or because I’m a girl or that I was wearing my life jacket and flip flops or what, but I was grateful for someone watching out for us.

As we reached the line, we could see the grass on the bank was pretty torn up and the water around was muddy. When Shaun grabbed the line and slowly began pulling it in fist over fist into the boat, he felt something huge and heavy on the other end. Slowly he pulled the alligator until his head broke the surface of the water as I readied the .410 shotgun standing beside him. In hindsight, my flip flop clad foot being propped on the side of the boat that the alligator was being pulled up on was probably not the safest choice but fortunately I didn’t lose any toes and as his head broke the surface and he began thrashing and fighting to get away, I put it down and we redoubled our efforts. Shaun pulled him back up again as I readied the gun and when his head slightly breached the water the second time, I took aim directly behind his skull and squeezed. Instantly the alligator stilled and water splashed up around us from the shot. Our hunter friends in the boat observing us whooped and hollered, clapped, and congratulated us telling us it certainly did not look like our first gator! Shaun and I tapped his mouth out of an abundance of caution and pulled him into the boat as well as retrieved our pole.

When we got back to the biologist check station at the boat ramp, we were grinning from ear to ear and all three of our kiddos were standing their being tightly held onto by my mother looking on with huge eyes and maybe a little admiration for their parents. We drug him out and the biologist took his measurements and tagged him, he was an 8 foot 9in bull, and we sent him over to the skinners who were there in case anyone needed their services but let us watch and help too!

Our second line had been empty, so we had reset it on the way in with the first alligator. It was time to head back out and check it. Since we had only set it up a couple hours ago, when we tried to go find the area looking for the white line hanging, we couldn’t find it. After trolling around for a few minutes, we thought, what if the line has fallen or we have a second alligator and began looking for the pole instead. We quickly located it and slowly drifted in. Shaun grabbed the line to see if it had just fallen or if we had something on it. To our surprise, as he began pulling in the line and it got tight, a very fresh and active alligator tugged back against him as he tried to get it closer to the boat. This guy was a fighter and drug our boat around a bit as Shaun fought him in. Like the last gator, I began loading and readying the shotgun, when Shaun got the alligator close to the boat and his head breached the surface of the water, it was on me to shoot. In my excitement and fidgeting, I accidentally separated the receiver of the gun from the buttstock. It’s a very old gun and I knew if you torqued it a certain way that would happen. It wasn’t unsafe, just inconvenient. I began apologizing profusely and remember Shaun, who was fighting a very live and very fresh 9 foot 8 inch bull alligator, responded in the calmest and kindest voice, “its ok babe, he’s not going anywhere, just get ready and I’ll pull him up again.” His calmness in the middle of that battle was so comforting and reassuring to me! I quickly slipped the gun back together and got into position to shoot as he again pulled the alligator up. Just like the first one early that morning, the alligator instantly stilled, water rained down around us, and we grinned and high fived….and maybe kissed because, hey, it was our actual anniversary, and then pulled him in to head to the check station where our kiddos were again waiting.

Since this hunt, we have tweaked a few things, but each of our kiddos has been able to harvest at least one alligator from either being drawn for this hunt or going down on standby. Our daughter harvested a 10-foot 10-inch one in a whirlwind of a standby drawing some years later. We have made so many memories hunting alligators together as well as so many friends. Shaun and I were even drawn to hunt another location near the Texas coast some years later which ended up on our actual anniversary date again and we basically had a remake of the first trip and made another lifelong friend! To say that alligator hunting holds a special place in our hearts would be an understatement!
Waders, Calls, and Wader Falls

November 13th, 2023

Duck hunting was a natural next on the list of ways to enjoy the outdoors with our family, the trouble is Shaun hadn’t ever been a duck hunter and obviously neither had I. We happened to have a couple of friends who were also a hubby and wife hunting and fishing duo that were big into duck hunting and more than willing to teach us. We had a place to hunt as our deer lease was more of a duck lease since the vast majority of it stayed under water more often than not, so we invited them to come and stay with us over a long weekend so they could teach us the ways of their people!

Cristy brought down an extra pair of waders she thought would fit me and we bought some for Shaun. Before we could ever get out to that field of flooded timber, we were making memories just trying on waders. Cristy is an athlete, incredibly coordinated at all times and picks up literally everything naturally, just like my hubby, Shaun. As she instructed me to put on those waders for the first time, it was clear I wasn’t nearly as coordinated and “a natural” as they are. She literally had to tuck me into them. I am, even if not natural, a very fast learner, and picked up walking in them on land, in water, and in mud, which are actually different, very quickly.

We had watched a lot of duck calling videos and done a lot of practicing after learning the differences in duck calls, reeds, and sounds. When Cristy and Cade, who are very experienced callers came down, rather than tell us to just let them do the calling, they listened to us, demonstrated for us, and encouraged us to call alongside them. I’m not an insanely confident person which usually comes as a surprise to everyone so their encouragement to do something I was way uncomfortable with meant the world to me. That was honestly the tone of the whole trip. I’m sure there were times when they looked at each other and probably thought “these yahoos,” but they demonstrated such patience with us even if we drove them nuts with novice mistakes.

Our pack of kids stayed home as the adults headed out for an adventure. We arrived at the deer lease and even standing there unloading shotguns and decoys and shimmying into our waders, we were seeing some birds flying and hearing some too! As we headed out into that flooded timber and got the decoys out and got stationed in our shooting positions, we talked strategy, and they began to call a bit. Up until this point, I had seen duck dogs but never had one and didn’t realize the true benefit of them quite yet. We had a few birds circling and we were trying the calls to entice them back, learning what calls to blow and what sounds to make and when as they circled overhead or flew farther out. We did get a few to come in and since we were stationed in positions a little away from each other they seemed to like where the guys were slightly better than where Cristy and I were.

Shaun and Cade had gotten a few birds and were enjoying themselves as were Cristy and I, both of us admiring our husbands and enjoying the outdoors. Maybe it’s just me, but I think my hubby is insanely attractive and I love watching him do what he loves, it amplifies the attractiveness whether its hunting or building something. I think it’s totally healthy to swoon over your husband while you’re enjoying life and adventures together. I get that’s not part of a normal hunting story, but I never claimed to be normal!

Anyhow, we were hearing some quacking and rasping overhead but they weren’t committed to coming in and Cristy encouraged me to hit them with a “comeback call”, and I did. I was so worried I’d sound like an idiot, but I had a basic idea of what she meant by that, and she stood pretty close to me talking me quietly through it. She and I were keeping our heads down while watching the ducks and she was instructing me and how to call and what to say depending on how they were responding and where they were overhead, just like we had talked about at home. They seemed to be committing and circling to come into where we were, and I was getting excited and nervous as shotgun has not been my strongest discipline. I was hoping I was smart enough and coordinated enough to put all these working parts together! Did I mention that Cristy is a coach? On your first duck hunt, it is INCREDIBLY valuable to have a bonafide coach in your ear! The birds had been talking back and had circled low enough to let us know they were committed to coming in. As they cupped up, we got the go ahead and I raised my shotgun as they came across our opening leading one by about the length of a loaf of bread and squeezed! He went down immediately, and we could see my first duck had been a mallard drake. That green head was unmistakable. There may have been cheering and high fiving!

The process to get those birds to come in was tedious and took patience I don’t usually demonstrate along with knowing when to call and what to say! That was so exciting, and I was feeling my confidence in some brand-new skills build. As a hunter and in life in general, you should never stop learning. This is when we got a brand-new lesson about the value of duck dogs. Shaun and Cade volunteered to go retrieve the birds and as they were slowly and carefully walking through the water out to where my duck had gone down, the water was rising slightly higher on their waders, but they were making good progress. They were being careful not to get tripped up on underwater logs and hazards as they made their way out. We were watching the pair of them sort of wade out when, all of a sudden, one of them disappeared. While the water here was pretty deep for flooded timber and there were signs of beaver activity on nearby trees, the water was really only about waste deep, chest in a couple of areas. As they were walking out, they encountered what was obviously a very slick and well worn trail under the water that was much deeper than the rest of the area. Waders do a great job of keeping water out as long as you don’t wade into water deeper than they come up on your body!

In a lake, topping your waders could be so dangerous, in this situation he was able to gain purchase and his head wasn’t even under water long as he sprung right back up. If he had been sliding down an underwater shelf on a lake or river however, the weight of the water now inside the waders would make it difficult to swim and he would have had to have the presence of mind to quickly unbuckle and hopefully shimmy out of the waders and donate them to the lake. Did I mention the water during duck season could literally be freezing depending on where you are hunting? I don’t think I could shimmy out of mine that easily! Duck dogs don’t have this problem, they just swim right out and grab your bird and swim right back! A duck dog is clearly a valuable partner to have in the field! Lesson learned, wish list started! Also I topped my own waders the next hunt coming back and stumbling in knee deep water! We were getting a dog!

Even though this hunt was years ago, I still consider myself a rookie duck hunter, even once we got dogs. I got better at calling and Shaun of course took to this new style of hunting like a fish to water. We have enjoyed many more hunts together, all of them successful because we got out and enjoyed the outdoors with each other and others, some of them were just more bountiful than others and like all of our hunts, led to life-long friendships and memories! I still have a curly tail feather off that drake and think about this hunt every time I see it!
Feathers and Fences

November 6th, 2023

My first dove hunt was also my kiddos’ first dove hunt and like most of my hunts, Shaun and his dad were the ones to teach us and take us. This story is also not in chronological order because we already had gotten dogs to retrieve and trained them at this point. The getting of the dogs was a result of sliding down a beaver run well over waders on a duck hunt, but that’s a story for another time! Just as an FYI waders do a great job of keeping water out as long as you don’t get water higher on your body than the waders go up.

One of our favorite things to do is share our love of hunting with others and build relationships that usually lead to lifelong friendships, meaningful conversations, and tons of memories. Dad had had a friend of his tell him how much his grandson wanted to go dove hunting and he would be happy for us all to go together on a piece of property he owned. Naturally, we were happy and excited to oblige.

First, we all met together in the field and talked strategy and safety. Dad and Shaun helped us to understand what to expect and how adrenaline and excitement might make us have a tendency to react in an unsafe manner. I talked through gun safety and we demonstrated proper movements and then Dad and Shaun gave us our marching orders!

Tristan and I were stationed away from the pasture the others were walking through and we positioned ourselves where we had seen dove flying in, of course at dad’s suggestion. I remember T’s first dove about as well as I do his first duck although he didn’t get quite as excited. He was shooting my old 20ga pump Mossberg which I think may be called a Maverick and we had our German Wirehaired Pointer, Maverick, with us. We saw the dove headed our direction and T positioned himself to safely shoot, I still remember the huge grin he had on his face when that bird started falling, T’s eyes wide open. We sent Mavie to retrieve it and he rushed over and found it, picked it up, promptly carried it few feet towards us, and spit it out like it tasted bad! Repeated commands to fetch it up were unsuccessful as he would walk over and sit down by the bird and look at us as if to say, “its literally right here, YOU can pick it up.” Mavie was duck crazy, I guess something about the dove feathers he just didn’t like.

We stayed there that evening hearing gunfire across the pasture as the others in our group were getting shots at birds, but the most memorable sound was that of laughter and conversation as they walked through the goat weeds and either jumped birds or flushed birds Ripp found. Ripp, our other GWP, didn’t have a care in the world about what he retrieved. You could tell him to fetch up hairbrushes and bottles and he was just as happy doing that as he was bringing you back a mallard! On the way over to mine and T’s spot he had actually retrieved my first dove and then went with Shaun and the others.

Dove hunting in Texas is hot and since we didn’t want to overheat the dogs, we were giving Mavie a break from finding our birds, while still encouraging him to retrieve them. It was his first dove hunt too, and I took off to retrieve a bird T had shot. We had talked about letting anything that flew in the same direction go while I was out, and that T’s only shot was behind us. About the time I reached the downed bird, I had to search for it. I heard T scream and Mavie yelp. I yelled to him to find out what had happened, and he screamed what sounded like, “I shot Maverick.” Instant horror began building in my gut but there had been no shot, so I was also confused. Running back to him and Mavie I could see T running to me and that they both physically seemed unscathed although Tristan was crying, and Mavie was huddled under his chair. When I finally got him settled enough to repeat himself, I learned that because he was determined to hunt behind him and not put me in danger, he was moving he and Mavie around so they could see behind them.

While petting Mavie, T also touched the electric cross fence on accident! He had screamed, “I SHOCKED Maverick!” I should be a better parent, I should be a better dog owner, my first instinct should not have been to bust out laughing, but I guess I’m neither of those things because, knowing they were both fine, I laughed really loudly and really hard, Tristan didn’t find it all that funny.

A little later T had downed a bird over on the other side of that electric cross fence and shimmied under to retrieve it rather than chancing Mavie again, and besides we could see it and it wasn’t far, which made Mavie and his hate for dove feathers unnecessary in this instance. As T handed me the dove over the fence, excited as he was for his great shot and swift recovery, he began leaning forward and touched that fence AGAIN all while I was trying to gain his attention and stop him! Today this story is hilarious, Tristan is incredibly leery of electric fences, and we tease him mercilessly every time we are around one but even he can look back at his younger self and have a laugh!

This hunt led to years more with Dad’s friend’s grandson and our family, a lifelong friendship between the kids, and more memories than we can count, as well as some really good food! The laughter and tears, the relationships built with the dogs and each other are as priceless as the memories we collectively share.

Tag: mondaymusings

Alligators and Anniversaries

Waders, Calls, and Wader Falls

Feathers and Fences