We opened this week with a bunch of good hunters, great hunting, and excellent weather. I came down the first morning and kept asking the kitchen when those mouthwatering biscuits were going to be ready. After eating one, I could only grade it as a “B”. Cader IV then chastised me by saying that the only reason for that grade was since I had harassed the kitchen into taking them out of the oven too early. So, the next day I pouted and did not show up until the jeeps came in from the hunt at 5:00 PM.

Rebel and I strolled over to the lodge yesterday afternoon, and really enjoyed the smiling faces of our guests, and the contented look of satisfaction on the guides’ and dogs’ faces. While we are still hunting today, we are also conducting trial hunts for our new guides. I expect that their pucker factor is off the charts. This is where a couple of senior men pretend to be guests and attempt to create all the circumstances that we have seen cause confusion for a first-year guide. If they passed this test, they are absolutely ready to go.

These young men are outstanding and have undergone three months of class and field training. I have no doubts that they will pass their tests today and tomorrow with flying colors. Speaking of tomorrow, we are supposed to have a strong cold front blow through here tomorrow, and really plummet our temperatures for next week. That’s a good thing because next week appears to be one of our busiest October weeks in years!

If you have yet to call for a reservation, I would encourage you to do so. It’s going to be a great season, and we can enjoy looking at our pandemic last season in the rear-view mirror !!

I always like to close with a few humorous thoughts. I have spent years trying to “edumacate” my northern brethren on the nuances of the southern language. Much of our part of the south was settled by Scotch/Irish. That means we like to drink and fight at the drop of a hat. In order to prevent too much bloodshed, we developed our own language called “Southernese”. By employing this language, you could cut someone to the bone with your tongue without a fight simply by adding a phrase in the sentence such as “ Bless your heart”. Southern women are especially good at this art.

Here are just a very few of many examples:

1. What a cute haircut! It looks SOO much better.
2. He is who he is. God love him.
3. Honey, I hope you don’t catch pneumonia in those shorts. They sure look- – breezy.
4. Honey, it’s not your fault. You just didn’t know any better.
5. It’s not their fault. They weren’t raised right.
6. That one right there has always been a little different.

I could go on forever, but I think that you get the picture.

May God bless you and your families!