DO OVERS

  Have you ever had one of those days you’d like to do over? Me too.

I pulled into Wayne’s driveway in dense fog. I dropped over the hill onto the farm groping my way to the river bank. We had planned on setting out our goose decoys for a morning  goose hunt.  The problem is that with it being so cold the geese just won’t fly in the fog.  Once again the thermometer was showing a chilly zero to three below zero. Very cold.I wanted to check out the river. It has been flowing ice for a nearly a week and the ice ledge on the edge was making its way to the half way point of the flowing river in places.Sure enough, the Snake river was flowing ice like crazy.  I watched it for a while listening for the sounds of geese to see if they were still on the river. I could hear little goose honks down river giving me a little hope for hunting if the fog ever broke.I drove back to Wayne’s house and enjoyed a morning chatting with Wayne and his wife, Mona and their son-in-law Tyler. Tyler was there to hunt with me.We waited until nine and the fog still had not broken so Tyler took off  home.

“I think I’ll go set out the decoys and just stick it out,” I told Wayne.
“How about helping me drop hay to the cows first,” he asked.
 I hooked up to his trailer with my already warmed up truck and with Wayne riding the trailer, drove through the cow pasture dropping hay to the cattle herd and the few horses.
 I unhooked the trailer and drove out to the goose blind. I only set out a few goose decoys due to the cold and being by myself, and then drove back to the farm house to park the truck.
Walking back to the blind I watched some hunters on a neighboring farm make a sneak on some ducks in a drain ditch. I walked as they sneaked over the edge and jumped a bunch of ducks. Bang, bang, bang they shot. All the ducks they spooked flew right over the top of me. Of course, I had left my gun in the goose blind not thinking I would need it until the fog lifted.
  “You lucky ducks,” I said out loud to them as they flew low over my head, “I’ll get you next time.
 I had walked straight across the field to the goose blind just like we always do. When I reached the edge of the blind something caught my eye out in the decoys. Movement!
I stood, stunned, to watch a flock of about twenty geese take off out of the middle of my decoys. They never made a sound.
“You’ve got to be kidding!” I shouted to myself, running for my gun inside the blind. Of course, it had no shells in it and the geese were long gone before I could even get to the gun.
I stood in the cold in total dis-belief. How could I have walked all the way across the field and not once glanced at the decoys? I was so riveted on the guys sneaking the ducks I had been totally distracted.
I called Wayne on the phone and told him about my stupidity. He got a good laugh at it. We have an easy way to sneak into the blind from the back side for just that reason.
 I loaded my gun and was still grumbling to myself when I heard a honk in the fog down river. Geese coming!
 I gave a couple honks on my call and watched as a flock of four geese came out of the fog straight for my decoys.
I was ready. I crouched low in the blind and just let the big birds come. Something caught my eye ahead of the four geese. A lone goose right on the ground low coming right into the decoys!
He was very close to the blind and dropping right into the decoys, and easy shot for sure.
As his big wings back peddled him down I decided to let him land and then try for the four following him in.
“I might get a couple of geese instead of just the one,” I reasoned.
I was glued to the four dropping closer and closer, but still out of shotgun range. I heard a honk out by the decoys and turned to see the loner take off and head for the river.  He was leaving. He should just circle one more time and then land I thought.
Not so. He took off into the fog, and his warning honk spooked the four coming behind. They flared out away from my decoys and blind and followed the loner into the fog and across the river. Gone!
A few minutes later Wayne made his way into the blind.
“See anything more?” he asked.
 “I don’t want to talk about it,” I replied, sitting in my chair like a pouting child.
I told him about my second blown chance at geese for the day. He stood there laughing and laughing.
I looked up at him and then asked, “Can I go back to bed and just start this day over again?”
 We still had a good time talking and telling stories about all the ones that got away while fishing or hunting and made a great morning of it. Thinking back like we did it is amazing how many times in life you would like to have a moment back or just start a day over again.
 We did manage to shoot a couple geese and a duck before freezing completely out.
 It was a good day… but… I’d still like to have that morning as a do over!