Hunting Season

Hunting Season  

     I can't begin to write this blog today without first commenting on the significance of this day (Sunday, 9/11/11). I know that any of us who were around on September 11, 2001, will never forget that day and will always remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when it happened. I was in my office at school, waiting for my first class at 9:30. Sheri, who at that time was still staying home with Anna, called me and told me that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers. I thought at first that it was just a small plane that had accidentally gotten off course. However, while still on the phone with her, the second plane hit and we knew then they were passenger planes.

     I wasn't near a television set, so I went to the CNN website on my computer and was riveted like everyone else. THAT was my class on that day. My students and I watched our computers in total disbelief as the events of the day unfolded. I watched the commemoration events on tv all day today and cried all over again. My heart still goes out to the families of everyone who lost someone on that fateful day. We should never forget and should always commemorate this day every year.

      My goal when I began this blog was to prepare a post to be published every Wednesday. It never fails that, as soon as I post on Wednesday, I immediately start asking myself, "What in the world can I talk about in the next post!" I worry sometimes that I won't have anything to write about. But something different and/or memorable happens every week it seems, and this time it is the beginning of hunting season, particularly alligator and teal hunting in South Louisiana.
 

8'5" inch gator!

     Sheri and her two boys (Landon and Luke) went to Gueydan this week-end. Gueydan is Russell's hometown in south Louisiana. Landon had asked his uncle Bob, one of Russell's brothers, if he could come down and hunt with him. Bob hunts alligators every year, as well as teal and later bigger ducks and geese. Craig used to LOVE going hunting with his dad and his brothers. He said he didn't care if he ever shot anything;

His limit of teal.

they just always had so much fun! Russell AND his brothers are all excellent story tellers (like their dad) and joke tellers! So his experiences in their duck blinds was priceless.

     And now Russell's grandsons are doing the same thing. Landon is an avid outdoorsman. He loves to fish and hunt and just be outside--just like Russell.They had a great "first day," catching an 8'5" alligator the first day and also killing his limit of teal (4). He loved it! It just made me so sad, though, thinking that Russell should have been there with him for this and would have been. I know Landon doesn't look very happy in these pictures, but, trust me, he is! This is just how he takes pictures.


     I found some earlier pictures of Russell and Landon when he was a lot younger. He didn't actually "go gator hunting," but after Bob and Russell went they picked Landon up and took him to the processing place

Fun, huh!!

so he could see (and sit on!!) an alligator. The quality of these pictures is really poor. I couldn't actually find the original pictures; these are actually scans of copies of the pictures. The other little boy in the pictures with Russell and Landon is Gage, Russell's sister's youngest.   He's about a year older than Landon.

     I love these pictures. I am so glad that Russell's brothers are able and willing to take Landon and the other grandkids fishing and hunting with them because this was part of his retirement he was so looking forward to. In fact, we probably would have bought at least a camp in Gueydan so we would have a place to go to during the summers when the kids were out of school. Thanks, Bob and Chris!!
 
    

Landon sitting on an alligator--it's dead!!

     

 

     The weather is really cool today, very "fallish," a good day to be outside. This week-end Sheri, her boys, and I are going to spend some time at our farm in Yokena (about 8 miles out of Vicksburg). We have been doing a lot of cutting and cleaning up down there--getting ready to harvest pecans and getting it ready for the boys to hunt. This time of the year and especially spending time at the farm really make me miss Russell--a lot! But we are hoping for some company in a week or so and are planning to spend most of the time at the farm--that's where Russell would be if he were here. September 25 will be the three-year anniversary of his death; we are going to celebrate his life down at HIS farm.