Wow, what a difference a year makes! This time last year I was dealing with the loss of the love of my life while being quarantined from anyone who could provide me with comfort. I have heard it said that everyone who came out of quarantine had one of two problems. They either realized that they had a drinking problem, or that they didn’t love their spouse as much as they thought they did. Personally, I think anyone who buys 144 rolls of toilet paper should have gone to the doctor long before the quarantine began.
As usual, our spring began with a controlled burn. Cader IV happily escaped the office for a few days and joined the brush hog crew of mowers.
Our inaugural turkey season went very well. Everyone either killed, missed or saw a big gobbler. I spent most of my time trying to figure out which party was the turkeys. Just kidding, as all our employees and guests had a great time!
The conservation crew led by Greg has been burning the midnight oil planting food plots of millet which seem to be immune to the Texas Sugar Cane Aphids. I haven’t watched them finish a single day because the older I get, the earlier it seems to get late.
Over at the kennels, Andy Moss and Andy Hay are working on our pointing dog and English Cocker strings. We have a lot of promise coming into the 2021 – 2022 hunting season. Anyone who says that money can’t buy happiness has never bought a puppy. My puppy Rebel has been a lifesaver for me!
We are also doing a limited timber thinning operation on the east side and north Yates tracts. Andy Moss is leading Clint and Casey as they clean up right behind the cutting crew.
Of course, while we are all pretending to be busy, Retha is actually working in the kitchen putting up green tomato pickles, figs, mayhaw and blackberry jellies. Cader IV tells me that we will paint two cottages this summer, but that there are no major renovations planned for the lodge grounds this summer. Praise the Lord!
Perhaps the most innovative phase of our operations is the agriculture section where I once thought an idea would die of loneliness. Cader IV and Greg have taken this to a new phase. We harvested over 120,000 pounds of blueberries from our 25 acres of two-year-old blueberry bushes. We have also planted about eight acres of blackberries for next year’s harvest. As to our Satsuma oranges experiment, the best that I can say is that we haven’t managed to kill the oranges yet and hope to harvest our first crop next fall.
Before going on to any personal or random thoughts, let me remind you that we will continue our very popular holiday family promotion dates. These dates will be:
November 21st-27th | December 17th-18th
December 27th-January 1st
During that period, we will discount our base rate by 35%.
As always let me close with a few random thoughts:
- I think that if you took the collective brains of the U.S. Congress and Senate and put them in a hummingbird that the bird would fly backwards.
- Thomas Jefferson said that guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians!
- Age 70+ might be the new 50, but 9:00 p.m. is the new midnight.
We have all struggled through the past year. And, we missed seeing some of our regular guests due to COVID-19, but we are all very excited about the coming hunting season. Bookings are good! We sense a lot of pent-up demand.
I wish each of you and your families a great summer and look forward to seeing you again at Riverview Plantation this season!