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Another Thanksgiving trip. Once again, we did our “big loop” trough Mississippi and Tennessee. It was great to see all of my family and Nancy’s family. Highlights of the trip include our nephew, Jesse, falling into Maw and Paw’s pool and a 4 pound sweet potato as big as my size 11 shoe!! Pics will be up soon in the gallery.

Well, it took 38 years….I finally went to Disney World. Myself, Nancy, my Mom, Step-Dad, one of my sisters, brother-in-law, and two nieces spent six days running around all the theme parks….riding rides, getting pictures with characters, and eating food. Simply put, it was a BLAST!! Pictures can be see in the gallery under Disney World – October 2011. We stayed at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, which I highly recommend. For the most part, it was centrally located to just about everything…making for short bus trips. Nancy and I were not able to get to the Animal Kingdom…we just ran out of time. It will be on the top of the list on our next trip to Disney.

One downer…our camera broke while there….not completely, but it quit focusing when zooming. You’ll notice starting with the Epcot photos on, there is not a zoomed shot .

I was invited by my good friend Ted to join him and some of his friends from his church on a dove hunt in Abilene, TX. We left Thursday, September 22 with the plan to hunt through Saturday afternoon. Thursday evening, we saw quite a few birds at the field, but arrived so late that we did not get a chance to really hunt. So, it turned into a scouting trip. The first hunt was Friday morning. I managed three birds in the bag. Ted had two. The birds were not very plentiful and flew for a very short period of time, 1 to 1.5 hours. Friday afternoon was a bust with only Ted getting one bird. The rest of us zeroed. Saturday morning was better than Friday night, but not as good as Friday morning. I managed two more birds. Again, the bird numbers were pretty low, and the birds flew for a very short time. After Saturday morning, we all decided to call it and headed back to DFW. I ended up with a total of five birds…which was better than opening weekend. Ted got three total. He said that the birds were much better than last year, but not near as good as 2009.

One non-bird highlight of the trip was the field being across the highway from Dyess Air Force Base. Got a good show from the C-130 and B-1B Wings as they did maneuvers each day.

The ongoing drought has finally put a big dent in my fishing. The main lake I fish, Lake Lavon, is now more than 11 feet low and down to one open boat ramp. It is expected that this last ramp will close shortly as well since several boats were reported to have backed off the end of ramp on Sunday. The little bit of rain dropped the last few days is not impacting lake levels. The ground is so dry, it is absorbing it all. For the Fall and Winter months, I will have to find a new lake to fish…most likely Ray Roberts Lake (until it is closed for low water as well).

Finally, here in mid September, the temps have finally receded from 100s to the low 80s to mid 90s. We have also managed to get a little rain here and there. But we still need much, much more rain.

Well, opening day was not as good as hoped. There were birds…just not a lot. They flew very erratic and for a very short time…maybe 1.5 hours tops. I manage to knock down 4 birds, but lost two in hip high grass. So, I have two birds in the freezer. Hopefully, the season will improve.

For the first time in 15 years, I will be out in the fields at sun up September 1…opening day of dove season. As a kid growing up in Mississippi, I looked forward to the day every year. Spending a day in the field hunting with my Father and Grand-Father were always exciting. After college, I got pulled into new directions and hunting became low on the priority list. Last year, I decided it was time to return to my roots. I signed a lease with a an outfitter with fields one hour northeast of my home near the city of Leonard, TX. They have 9500 acres available to hunt…mostly cut corn and cut wheat. Scouting trips have shown that the dove population looks pretty good. Perhaps it will be a good opening day. Gonna be hot…and the drought is really going to make things interesting…but hopefully they will fly.

Well, Mother Nature decided to throw North Texas a bone this morning. We finally got rain after 51 days without a single drop. 1.17 inches of rain as of 9am. I can already see a difference in many of the shrubs and trees. They don’t look near as stressed. With cloudy conditions all day, our high is predicted to be a mere 88 degrees. It is welcome relief after 40 days above 100 degrees and nights in the mid 80s. Hopefully, this is a sign of the weather pattern changing, and we will see more normal weather conditions in the near future. We still need more rain. Lake levels in the area are still very low, and Plano moves to Stage 2 water restrictions on Monday.

Well, as July moves in, the thermometer is moving up….rapidly. The traditional Summer high pressure system has moved in over the central US bringing really hot weather to North Texas. We have now had 14 consecutive days above 100 degrees (20 overall) and 22 days without rain. Even night time temps don’t go below 80 degrees. When it gets like this, we typically don’t see relief until mid-September, when the Fall seasonal patterns start to shift in, and we get more rain. Until then, just have to suck it up and do outside stuff early in the morning.

Between busy work schedules, sickness, and crazy winds this year, we have not been on the lake much….exactly 2 times so far this year. Since March, daily winds have consistently been 15mph+ most days with gusts exceeding 30mph. This makes for a rough day on the lake with rolling waves that pound the body and the boat.. Most of the non-windy days have fallen in the middle of the week, and have not been able to take off time to take advantage of it…..and have missed a few nice days due to illness. Hopefully things will improve for the second half of the season.