Contrary to the opinion of some and the chagrinity of others, I have not gone on to that beautiful Plantation in the sky. I normally choose to back off from writing any blogs for a few weeks preceding mailing our Summer Scene Newsletter. All of our guests on our active mailing list should have received the Summer Newsletter by now. If you did not and need one, just email me, and I will have the magicians who manage our website and this type of stuff send you one.

I woke up this morning with a rather unique thought that I believe applies to Riverview this spring and summer—Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up with the thought that it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed and eaten. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up knowing that it must outrun the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you are the gazelle or the lion—when the sun comes up you had better be running! We have been kind of like a clock this summer—we just need to keep running. However, as I have told Cader IV and his men…do not run from your weakness; you will only give it strength.

Our guys have done an amazing job this spring and summer of running with strength toward their challenges. While I certainly would not have chosen a hurricane along with the tremendous economic losses to achieve this, I can honestly say that Riverview has never been more beautiful. I am also confident that the hunting will be better than ever. Thanks to Hurricane Michael, a lot of our trees that were crowding out the sunlight to the ground are gone. Our ground cover and feed patches look just phenomenal. Even I might be able to see and hit a quail this season while the hawks are going to have a much more difficult time taking them from us. You know when we long for a life with no difficulties; we tend to forget that big oaks grow strong with contrary winds, and that diamonds are formed under pressure. In that case, we could put a jewelry store to shame with this group of diamonds on the payroll!

I truly believe that all of you will be absolutely amazed at what you see when you visit this fall or winter. We have gotten very beneficial rains at the right times, and have been able to burn over 95% of our timber piles to ashes.

Now, since we all love to hunt, I want to close with a few very funny comments that were sent to me by a very good friend on the subject of guns. I claim no authorship of these comments, but they are great.

1. If gun control laws actually worked, Chicago would be Mayberry.
2. The Second Amendment makes more women equal than the entire feminist movement.
3. Legal gun owners have 300 million guns and probably a trillion rounds of ammo. Seriously folks, if we were the problem, you would know it.
4. When JFK was killed, nobody blamed the gun.
5. 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 Civil war is going to end?

I loved these, and just wanted to share them with you although you may have seen them before. In closing, appreciate where you live. It has to be better than South Georgia in the summer. Our daily temp/humidity indexes are hovering between 105-110, and our gnats are measuring in the trillions at this time of the year. They attack any orifice including eyes, ears, and mouth. I’m thinking about cutting a hole in my pants to give them another option. I hope you and your families have a happy, safe, and blessed summer. DO NOT come see us before early October unless you enjoy suffering!