and THE WINNER is.............

Well the first Annual Golden Eye Duck Feast went off at 6:46 last nite.
We had three different dishes.
1. Terryaki
2. Chicken
3. Red Wine Sauce

The tasters had a choice of noodles (angel hair pasta) or rice as well as a great salad made by Ritt himself!

The Results:

3 rd Place... The Chicken broth boiled Golden Eye.... Ok.. eatible...The Dogs like it...
2th Place .... Terryaki... Very good.... but a little too much salt... (I think the issue was that it cooked to long and the Terryaki sauce condensed... Next time just half water.... Ashley eat two helpings.

FIRST PLACE.. and the winner of the Festival.... Red Wine Sauce.... Everybody really liked it and there was nothing left at the end of the nite.

No Pizza was cooked....

We all agreed that the trick is the 12 hours of cooking in coffee.

Ritt had a great idea... and next year we will add it.... Take shreaded GoldenEye and mix with Bar-B-Q sauce.. cook for a hot "sloppy GoldenEye" sandwich... Sounds Good... but we will have to wait until next year for the next batch of GoldenEyes!

Eating Golden Eyes!... Oh YUCK

So hunting Golden Eyes is really fun. They come in about 2 to 3 feet off the water to the dekes and at super sonic speeds. As Ritt says, "Heat up them barrels!" Usually take about 2-3 shots to get one.... Last week, Ritt, Bill and I actually shot a total of 8 shots at one.. and it flew away!

But eating them is something else.... They are a driver duck.. and are very very strong tasting... kinda fishy... Ethically, I have had a hard time shooting them without trying to eat them. Ritt has tried all sorts of things to make them eatible. Last year, I read a receipe that talked about using coffee. SO I have been save Golden Eye breast meat for a year now. Tonite is the BIG Golden Eye dinner. Here is what I have done...

Got out the old crocket pot... put layer of Golden Eye breast meat, layer of onion (sliced about 1/4 inch thick), then layer of meat and so on... Then poured enough VERY VERY strong coffee . Turned the crocket pot on LOW and let in cook 12 hours....

When completed, I removed just the meat and threw away the coffee and onions. Then I mixed 2 cups Soy Sauce with 2 cups Terryaki Saurce and 3/4 cup of honey... Put meat and sauce together in crocket pot and cooked on LOW for another 8 hours.

Let the meat cool in refrig.

Now comes the experiment part... Divided the meat into three portions..... One portion I shreaded the meat and put Terryaki sauce on it... second portion... Red Wine.... Third... Chicken broth..

All will be reheated and served over noodles or rice.... We will see which people like the best.. or If we through way it all and have....

PIZZA!

English Labradors vs. American Lab

This is a picture of me and my labs... Paige (4 Yrs) , Belle (2 yrs) , Me (OLD) and Keely (1yr).

Paige and Keely are true Labradors. English style. Short compact, Blocky heads, otter type tail (very thick) and very strong. We retrieve forever. and Very mellow.

Belle is an American Labrador. American style. Long lanky, pointed nose, long wippy type tail, Very hyper

Paige and Keely are my hunting dogs.

Paige is the princess and the alpha female. She is from the Skyfire Kennels in Ellensburgh, Washington. She rules the kennel kingdom. She is a beautiful and loving dog that begs for human affection. She walks every morning with my wife and her friends.

Keely is the newest of the clan. He is an Idaho boy through and through. Born in Greencrick, Idaho. He is maturing slow but loves to retrieve and will loves to be in the middle of an action. Next season will be his 1 year of hunting. This summer will be training in water retrieves and riding and retrieving from a canoe. Great things will come from him.

Belle is a service dog. She is breed to a Standard Poodle and produces Labradoodles. This dogs are extremely sought after for service animals. Much like guide dogs. These dogs are used for disabled persons and well turn lights on and off. open doors, pull them in wheelchairs and probably the most amazing thing they DO NOT Shed! For more information google Labradoodles.

ASHLEY's HOME for Vacation!

Ashley is home!

She arrive home on Saturday... But left to go snowmobiling with Dave and Denise. They got back at it sounds like they had a great time... Hopefully the weather will warm up so Ash and I can go back to GeoCache and see if we can find it this time. Maybe a few others too. The Boss is on vacation so maybe will take a day to spend some time with her.... If she want me too?? Great to have her home. "Maybe the slave of the world" will do dishes after she has done her THREE WEEKS OF DIRTY LAUNDRY!!! Hey it saves quarters in the washing machines at school... HA HA!

Also need to work on pictures for this blog...

By the way... check out pictures of the "GOTHic Ashley and David!" on her blogg.... smithers-talk.blogspot.com

THE END...(tear)

Well Sunday was it... The end of another waterfowl season. It was a poor season. The birds were just not there. But between Ritt have cancer treatments and me and my stomach issues... It turned out pretty darn good. We ended on a high note...

Sunday morning 5:55 am arrived at Ritts House hooked up the Jet boat and headed for Oregon!
Boat in the water and up river, dekes setup and ready to hunt with 20 minutes to spare!... About 5 minutes after shooting hours... the dekes got buzzed by teal.. a bunch of them... Ritt was able to get one shot off... Bill and I nothing...

About an hour later we had the thrill of the season. The Mallards got up off the field across the river... WOW... there must have been a 100 of them...AND... they started working the dekes... They made a couple of passes and then cupped their wings for a long glide into the dekes. We were about 30 secs from jumping up when down river somebody leave off a couple of quick shotgun blasts. The ducks flared and were gone. Bummer....

We had set up the golden eye dekes and they responsed very well... We ended the year with 8 golden eyes 6 drakes and 2 hens) in the boat. We heated up them barrels... It was great fun.

Bill, Amber, Ritt, Joanne, Denise and I are all going to get together to try out an Golden Eye reciepe... If it not eatable... We will have PIZZA! Will let you all know and post reciepe if it turns out!

BRRRRRR.....

Brrr... This Duck Hunting is mighty coollldddd! 


This is an awesome picture. This was a picture on a very special day. Ritt and I hunting together again. As many of you know, Ritt was diagnosed with Cancer about a year ago. The outlook was not very good at the time. But here we are again hunting. I thank the Lord for this time together. It was very cold and we were huddled up. It was just great to be out together again!

Solo Hunting in the Ambush 

Hunting Solo

AWESOME!

Took Ambush and hunted the Snake by myself! A gadwall and and GOOSE!

Unload Your Gun!

What a BUST!

Amazing.... No Birds flying... Where did they all go? It was nuts.. and VERY VERY COLD!!!... I will upload a pictures later... Got one Widgeon... and .. the most fun of the day was the last 3 minutes.

We had set out dekes... but the birds were not coming in. So after several hours we decided to change over to Golden Eye dekes... We figured that at least they seemed to be flying. We had birds buzzing us.. The excitement was on. But then nothing. Rats!... Oh well we were both tired so.. decided to call it a day early... Unloaded guns... unhooked the boat... Holy CRAP!.. here they come... Two golden eyes locked in on the dekes! Quick Ritt load up... I grabbed a shell... Rats 10 guage.. wont fix in 12 guage! Digging in bag... found a shell...notice A shell.. Both of up jumped up and BOOM BOOM! Two dead Golden Eyes! YAHOO!

What a way to end the day!

Friday Hunting! YEA!!!!

After yesterday, it was great to get out and hunt. Ritt and I went out early. But not to early... I was a little late. But we had fun. Weather was nice but birds were not plentful. But we came home with a Widgeon and a Beautiful GoldenEye... Going to have it stuff. The Golden Eye as in full feather... awesome looking bird. Going back out on tomorrow too!...

Side note. Joanne's Aunt Dorothy died. So Ritt will be tied up on Monday. Maybe Bill will be able to get out and hunt on Monday. The season is fast coming to a close. Sunday January 23 Oregon will close... Hopefully we will all be able to hunt together on that day. It is tradition!

"Any day hunting is better than being in the Office!"

Bummer Day!

Today at work was not a good day.

Had to tell my team that we were hiring Outsourcers to begin working on some of their duties.
Going to take Friday off... People are pretty upset with me.... I keep telling them.. Don't shoot the Messenger!

Going to start working on my personal business plan. RBR&K!

A NEW Bird to Hunt! (Turducken)

A Canadian friend turn me on to this!

Question: What is a Turducken?

Answer: It is what you get when you cross a Turkey, Duck and and Chicken!

Ok Seriously.....

Turducken is a dish, usually served around the holidays, that is made by cramming a boneless chicken into a boneless duck, which is stuffed into a boneless turkey. Three kinds of stuffing are layered between the three kinds of meat and the monstrosity is cooked for a very long time. The end result, when cut, is a fantastic food rainbow that must be eaten to be believed.

But the road to Turducken is not a short one. The dish isn't found on many take-out menus, isn't sold in the frozen foods section at the local supermarket and must be made at home, for the most part. The entire process will take you two full days, leave you covered in blood and guts and cost more than $100. This turducken is the ultimate test of the primal desire to feed, requiring baking, boiling, broiling, butchering, sauteeing, chopping, stirring, sifting and even sewing, but once you're seated with a plate and fork you will understand.

Chef Paul Prudhomme is credited with this bird!

Check out his website...
http://www.chefpaul.com/turducken.html

Ashley is Gone!... At Least for a couple of weeks

Took Ashley to the airport today. Was sad and nice. Sad that she was leaving but nice that it was going to be nice and quiet again around the house for Denise and I. I love having the girls home. But wow!... they are busy busy... I am ready to slow down. Snowed this morning too. So the roads were slick going to Church... But clear and dry for the trip to the airport.

Bill, Amber and Cash came over for lunch after church. Ashley was able to give Cash his Christmas present. HUNTER DAN the DUCK Hunter! It was a hit... I am not sure who was laughing the hardest... Us or Cash!... but it was great.


When we got the the airport... Ashley had a little surprise... Her X was on the same plane .... Oh Brother!... She told me later she had given him the 411 "so hopefully he will get over me". Life is never dull.

Home to a quiet house.... and early to bed. Work is calling .... Tomorrow will be the first time in 2 weeks I have been to work. Hopefully I will survive the day and things will settle down.

Have a ton of things to do around the house. So have quietly "laid off" Shooting World. Thinking calm thoughts

First Hunt of the Year!

Today is New Years Day!.... Ritt and I went hunting ALL DAY! It was great. We took out the Big Jet Boat. It was my day to drive and learn all the ins and outs of the boat. Ritt just stood back and watched. He did help me a lot though. He gave me a lot of tips and tricks on the boat. We even got a little hunting in too. I drifted the boat down the river and let Ritt be the hunter. I loved it! After the last year with all the cancer stuff it was just a great feeling to see him out on the river enjoying himself. I even motored up to one of our favorite spots. We saw a lot of birds going up river. We set out the dekes and waited. The snow fell... the Rain fell... but no birds. We had a great talk. We talked a lot about what the year had been and how greatful we both were to have each others company ... especially out in the blind again... Just about that time two teal buzzed the dekes. The 28 guages barked and down went a drake green winged teal. It was fantastic. Ritt and I did the usual... We both picked out the same bird. Ritt was shooting #1's and I was shooting #4s bismuth... When I cleaned the bird there was a lot of little holes and a couple of big ones... So WE got it together! It was a great to be able to do something together again. It was the only bird of the day.

We tried out the new GoldenEye dekes too.. It was fun... but no birds. The dekes really look great... but the GoldenEyes were not flying. Maybe next weekend? I was able to make it through the whole day... that was another great thing. Tomorrow we take Ashley back to the airport for her flight to College. I will miss her.

Happy New Year!