As Mark Twain once said, “If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed.  If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.”  If you read my edition of Summer Scene, you may be a little of both. So glad, that Cader IV has let me continue my second favorite pastime of continuing to write this update for Riverview.

 

As soon as hunting season ended, we began our annual controlled woods burning program which is the best quail habitat management tool available.  This is also when we find most of the lost cell phones, shock collars, etc.  We had abundant moisture and cool temperatures which are ideal for burning our woods.  

 

While Jerry and his crew were burning the woods, Greg and his crowd geared up to start planting food plots for the vast numbers of quail wearing Kevlar vests that survived the hunting season.  We have decided to plant our food plots using a no till planting rig which will save us several trips and tractors over each food plot.  We are once again planting Pearl Millet which seems to be much more resistant to the ravages of the Texas Sugar Cane Aphids.  You just have to love Texans.  I just wish that they would have kept their aphids in Texas.

 

While on the subject of hunting, we plan to bring the Bowl and Flats hunting courses back into rotation for this hunting season while the Old River is still a year off.  Jerry says that his guys will go the extra mile to achieve this goal, but I’m wondering if they went the extra mile because they missed the exit sign.

 

All of these projects require a lot of gas and diesel which is finally affordable, but now we can’t go anywhere; so why not use it on the plantation.

 

We will also be spraying more Garlon this summer to kill the briars and undesirable hardwood trees.  We want to get our briars down lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut even if it has an adverse impact on the sale of briar pants in the pro shop.

 

]About the only other wood’s program that I should mention is that we are planting a lot more grasses in places that are conducive to holding quail.

 

Since we have the quail habitat and woods covered, let’s wander on over to the dog kennels.  We are building seven more dog runs to handle our increasingly popular English Cocker program.  Andy Moss and Casey are working with the big dogs while Andy Hay with the assistance of Steven and Greyson are working and training thirteen more English Cockers.  Some of these dogs will be used to replace retiring dogs from Riverview, and some will be for sale.  We are also training some dogs for private owners.

 

Now that we have the woods, dogs and habitat covered, we will move on to the Lodge Complex.  The Riverview “that’s close enough construction crew” will be replacing the deck at the main lodge and will be building a deck on the river side of Island Cottage.  We will also be painting Magnolia and Founders Cottages.

 

This spring our plans to add some premium turkey hunts at Riverview were scratched thanks to COVID-19. But no worries, we will be offering those hunts again in March so give us a call to get on the calendar. Riverview is the perfect location to gobble up some turkey on a hunt or in Retha’s kitchen. 

 

Speaking of Retha, she is working her magic in the kitchen, and the smells wafting down the hall to my office would make a rabbit spit in a bulldog’s face.  Also, Andy has a lot of new lines of clothing in the pro shop for this coming season.  I told him to start at size large and go up from there.  Mediums and smalls usually go to the bargain basement bin.

 

I would be remiss if I failed to mention our agricultural component of Riverview, which is in Greg’s domain.  The last six years have been very anemic for the sweet corn business.  There is just too much supply and too little demand.  We have decided to exit that business and have planted fifteen acres of Satsuma oranges and twenty-five acres of blueberries.  Next year will be our fourth year with the oranges, and we will be able to pick and sell our first crop then.  We actually harvested a pretty good crop of blueberries from our little one-year old bushes.  We are also planting fifty acres of milo which will be harvested and stored in grain bins for the quail.

 

Before getting to my random closing thoughts, I need to let you know that our very popular holiday discount program will continue this season.  Those dates will be:

November 25 – 28   |   December 18 – 19   |   December 28 – January 2

 

As always, I like to close with just random thoughts of my strangely wired mind.  If gun control laws actually worked Chicago would be Mayberry.  We have enough gun control laws on the books already.  What we need is some idiot control laws. I have a good idea how to help balance our budget in Washington.  Why don’t we stop giving money to countries that hate us, and let them hate us for free.

 

Folks keep talking about another Civil War.  One side knows how to shoot and has a trillion bullets.  The other side has crying closets and is confused about which bathroom to use.  How do you think that’s going to end?

 

My last random thought is that as I watch this generation try to rewrite history, one thing I am sure of – it will be misspelled and have no punctuation.

 

In closing, anyone who follows my blogs knows that I lost my beloved wife, Martha, after a valiant battle with cancer.  We have been married for almost fifty years.  I have lifted part of a poem written by a lady named Poldy that sums of my feelings so well.  

 

She said,  

“Like the year, life has its seasons

Summer green and the autumn gold

but where hearts are true and faithful, 

Love abides and grows not old

Time can bring no vain regret,

Nor can it take away from me.

The golden music of the years;

The echoes of sweet memories.

 

If I had the ability to write poetry, I could not have written anything better than that.

 

I would like to wish you and your families a joyous and happy summer.  We look forward to seeing y’all at Riverview this fall and winter!

Cader Cox III