Idaho 12-23-18

Sometimes you have to give the gift of solitude, that's just what I did today.  I took the day for myself and headed to 'The Point' alone and with the intention of having some time to contemplate life and my position in it.  With the holidays coming up there will be lots of work and precious little time with the things that matter.  First and foremost is quality time with my Sweetie closely followed with time not spent with the masses of people that want me to perform in a occupational way.  Eat it customers!  I also did not tell Clider I was going, sorry friend but sometimes you just can't enjoy yourself when The Expert hand catches banded ducks while you wait patiently in the blind for something to fly in. Plus, the man just had a full week of vacation spent hunting.  (of course you wouldn't know, there have been no posts, right?)  So when I woke this morning and the rain was pouring down on my roof, I knew that I must go.

The f250 and I powered through the downpour and when we arrived at Anderson the rain let up enough to set a fine minimalist spread of decoys in the open water of the channel.  I had time to sip a little wikki and listen to a lone duck pass over me in the dark, it's wings whistling in the predawn darkness. Lately the ducks have been few and far between owing to the massive Canadian cold front that moved through during the Founders Tour.  I am becoming certain that it took every duck within the Pacific Northwest with it to points south.  Remember, if you lived in the water with temps in the single digits it would make you head to Cabo too.

Thought?

This being the case, I saw nothing.  Literally nothing.  No ducks flying, no ducks sitting on the water, no ducks anywhere.  I took a walk to the other side of the channel and looked for them in the puddle where The Expert has slayed before, and nothing.  Even when I pulled up just a couple hours later no ducks buzzed my spread or taunted me with their presence, an occurrence that seems to always happen.  Form this I can only believe that it may be over, just like when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

Now, before you think that I didn't have a good time today, just remember why I went out today.  I had a good 4 hours of time sitting in nature listening to the creatures of the lake wake up on one of the shortest days of the year.  I saw a white tailed hawk hunting for things for a solid 15 min before I moved and scared him off and a hen pheasant took off and landed twice during my walk.  The weather changed from rain to calm to rain again and the light of the day switched at least 3 times from start to finish.  The semi warm temps and rain made me think of my days in Oregon hunting the Mighty Columbia and made me excited for the possibility of Clider and I heading West for the ever popular 'Killing for the King' weekend.  All in all a great day.
Then I came home and took a nap.
GBCH