Oh, and did I forget to mention the stove and propane heaters. He does all this in the darkest, coldest part of the wee early morning hours as his alarm went off at 4:30am and he had been laying awake for an hour, waiting for the first beep that signaled opening day of the long awaited 'waterfowl season'.
This is something I can only sit on the sidelines and watch, I have never been bitten by this bug. I do my best to just stay out of the way for the months of preparation. I close the door at 6:30 am when be bounces out of bed to watch "Water Dog" or “Whistling Wings”, I try my best to comfort our little Jack Russell when the duck and goose calling practice begins, and I just vacuum around the decoys, and pick up the little pieces of twine left after trimming ends off the knots that tie on the decoy weights. I try to be nice when in the heat of the moment he forgets the time and wakes me at midnight from a sound asleep beginning a loud round of 'calling in the flock' with a new snow goose call. I have even quit trying to explain the fully assembled camo lay-out blind in the living room, and the calls lining the sink in bathroom. I tried not to look surprised when he came home with workout weights from the clearance rack, so proud of himself at the great sale he found, only to find out that now he would be buying a melting pot and molds to make his own decoy weights in the kitchen. I even got in the spirit a little after a year of duck boat camouflage grass in the living room, and I remodeled a bathroom into a duck blind and put the duck grass behind the toilet, this had the added advantage of eliminating the questions about those duck calls on the sink too. It also made a good place for the great invention of a hip boot/wader dryer, this contraption stands about 4 foot tall, with 2 pvc tubes sticking up into the air to hold the wet waders, and a glorified blow dryer to dry these boots out in time for the next days hunt. The new 'blind' bathroom with over head fan works great, because as I was surprised to find out swamp water, duck weed, and crushed cattails don't smell to good as they dry, and the dryer has enough out-put to disperse this fragrant air through out the house in very little time.
I can always tell goose season is getting close when all the batteries in the house get pushed into service for flashlights in the “Barge”, and every candle lighter finds it’s way into the propane stove box along with several pans and numerous kitchen utensils. The picnic basket loses all of it’s plastic plates and the fridge gets loaded with soda in plastic bottles. Some days even the front yard gets into the spirit as the 'spread' of decoys gets an evaluation before opening day.
I noticed a couple of days ago that the top of the freezer has become a re-charge haven for ‘robo-ducks’, this wonderful invention is a decoy on a stick, with whirly-gig wings that run off a rechargeable battery. It seems that one robo-duck is either lonely or afraid of the dark while in the marsh, as it needs several friends to keep it doing it’s job. All those friends with their batteries and of course the extra batteries ‘just in case’ have left several of the items in the house without extension cords. But hunting as I have found over the past 32 years has different priorities. During hunting season my hair dryer, my small office and kitchen TV, my bedroom radio, my phone re-charger and my curling iron all give up their extension cords to recharge robo-ducks. This year I have noticed a new addition to the top of the freezer, several cans of “Great Stuff”, this highly desirable can holds a kind of liquid Styrofoam, that swells up and become hard when dispersed. This is used, I am told, to fill small steel shot size holes that sometimes get in decoys unable to get out of the way in time. It is required to keep them from sinking or rolling on their side after one of these encounters. It seems that a little “Great Stuff” goes a long way as I noticed a box of several exploded decoys bursting from the seams with oozing Styrofoam globs.
In preparation for the pre-dawn departures of the 30’ “barge” behind that tank of a truck he drives, I have moved all the hanging flower baskets, the yard decorations, the house number sign and several of the large rocks that line the drive way. Last year, I found out this entourage requires an extremely large turning radius, increased dramatically it seems in the dark during 4:30am departures.
Since Labor Day is the opening day of early goose season and the last day of waterfowl in Michigan is February 1st, this is a long goodbye, I looked at John’s calendar hanging beside his camouflage recliner, between his mounted Buffleheads and Green Wing Teal and just below the Pintails, to confirm the dates. I see lots of highlighted dates, 5 days in Alabama duck hunting, a trip to the east coast for sea ducks between Christmas and New Years Day, and a trip to Mexico’s Laguna Madre with 10 other hunters in January, this trip according to the calendar seems to include a stop at the Dallas Safari Club Fundraiser and a hog hunt on the way home.
I also see a few days set aside for bear hunting in the U.P. with Scott, Bill and Brian in September, I am guessing this one will involve a few hours of scouting for waterfowl ’honey holes’ for opening day in the U.P. And I did notice the big smiley face on November 15 for opening day of firearm deer season, it definitely looks like a long goodbye.
I guess as soon as I say goodbye at 4:30am on Labor Day I had better start cleaning out the freezers for the 2008 bag limit. At least I know that the Muskegon Rescue Mission and places like Teen Challenge will be glad to see me coming with donations to their kitchens. And I had better go shopping for freezer bags and a new extension cord for my seal-a-meal.
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