Hackberry Hunt 2009

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Keating Boys Duck Hunt in Hackberry Louisiana, 2009

James, we miss having you with us.

Arrival Friday afternoon, we met at the lodge. With wonderful weather, we sat outside and visited, waiting for the other members of the group to arrive and caught up on what was happening in our friends and relatives lives.

After sitting down to a meal of fresh garlic bread, etoufee, butter beans, carrots, iced-tea, and blueberry topped cheesecake, we all retired back upstairs to continue visiting before going to bed. The door opens at 4:30AM with the "Rise n Shine" wake up call.

Saturday Morning
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We got up, went down to the restaurant, which used to be the office before Ike. The office moved upstairs to room number 9, and the old office-mall is now the eating area, and very reduced mall.

We enjoyed the bacon, eggs, biscuits, sausage, coffee, fruit, and gravy for those that wanted it. We got our guide assignments, and were told to meet at their trucks in 20 minutes.

Dark, and very chilly outside, we went to our blinds.

Some pictures from the blind, from the field, and from the lodge show off the birds taken, and the happy hunters.

You can see a video of Shady, the lab that came with Paul, who was our guide. He was awesome. The bird you see in his mouth was one of the great retrieves. The bird was wounded, and went down in the marsh grass, about 120 yards across the water. The water is very high this year, and you can see he is swiming, not walking on the bottom of the marsh. He swam over to the marsh grass, and was out of voice command, but knew he needed to find a duck. He used his smell, and found the duck trying to move around and hide in the grass, and after about 15 minutes of looking and smelling, grabbed the injured bird, and returned with it.

He had two retrieves like that. The others we trained the ducks to fall in the spread, since we knew he was tired, and didn't need to be swiming out that far again.

After arriving back at the lodge, we enjoyed a bowl of potatoe salad, and hot bowl of chicken-sausage gumbo.

Then, back to the room for some reading, watching TV, writing travel blogs and pulling pictures from our camera, or checking your eye-lids for light leaks. (Drew and Stewart started out watching a bball game, Thad went to check his eyelids for leaks, and I'm trying to put this up for the one who isn't here!)

Tonight, the meal high light is the Stuffed Duck. A big duck, stuffed with spicy sausage, browned in olive oil, and cooked in a pot with roux and water, for 4 hours, and then served on rice, with yams, and green beans.

A good time was had by all.

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Photos

Thad finishing some business
Thad finishing up some business before 'starting' the weekend.

John and Matt
John and Matt arrived shortly after we did, and we tailgated in the nice weather.

Night fall visits continue
Matt, Jeff, John and Donnie hanging out after enjoying etoufee, butter beans, and carrot with blue berries on cheesecake.

More folks.
Scott, Doug, Mike, Stewart and Jim.

Sunrise in the Marsh
Gun barrel blocking the sun, shows the decoys, trying to attract real duckies into the spread.

Thad
Thad and one of his conquests of the day. Some of the others got away.

Dad, Paul and Thad
Paul was our guide, along with Shady, an awesome lab that loves to retrieve and is very well behaved in the boat and blind.

Drew
Look at these pretty boys.