I was down from Alaska in Idaho visiting family and hunting with anyone who would go with me. Wayne called me to say the geese had been flying over his farm and we might want to come and make a field set to see if we could harvest some big honkers.
About that time my brother called saying he wanted to take his middle boy and his friend on a hunting trip. Sounded good to me.
We arrived at Wayne's after a couple days of snow lay on the ground and it was snowing that morning. Biting cold, and not a for sure hunt.
We bundled the young boys up with all the clothes we could find and headed out into the field to set decoys. In the darkness we could hear the geese roosting on the river honk occasionally. At least there were birds nearby.
At shooting time we raced the trucks out of the field and got the boys hunkered down on the ice of a frozen pond behind a big clump of tules.
Snow fell in the early dawn making the cold feel even colder. The boys were cooling off from running around during the decoy set up. Little feet were stomping and gloved hands were slapping.
"Geese! I hear geese," I hissed to the mounds of moving clothes around me. We all crouched low behind the weeds.
A big flock of geese rose from the river and came directly towards the decoys, as they back flapped down I barked, "Take em!"
The quiet morning erupted in gunfire. We adults let the boys shoot first and we noticed a couple birds dropped at their shots.
"Go get your birds!" I shouted to the excited boys.
We watched as they dragged the monster geese back to the ponds edge. Wow, those looked like big birds for those small boys.
The morning was non stop goose action. as one flock would scatter out another would come sailing out of the snow and into the decoys. It did not take long for all of us to shoot our limits.
Just yesterday my Nephew Nick called asking to take a friend on a duck hunt.
"I haven't found much, but we can go try the river," I told him. "Meet me at the boat ramp."
Instead of being driven hunting by Dad, it is now driving himself in Dad's truck.
How can yesterday move so quickly?
I race the boys up the river in the jet boat. I look at them crouched against the biting cold of a teen degree morning boat ride and realize they are not boys, they are young men.
We unload the boat at my selected island and by the time I get the boat tied and hidden the young men have most of the decoys set out.
White frost covers the trees adding the white of the snow on the ground. "Better put your whites on," I inform the guys as I check the time. "Just a few minutes till shooting time."
"I hear geese," I hissed to the young men. "One coming right at us."
We crouched low in the brush and weeds of the island and watched as the goose sailed into our decoys.
"Get him!" I shouted and again the morning stillness is shattered by the thunderous roar of guns.
The young men are so quick at getting on the bird that I don't even get my gun up. I smile to myself.
Little Halibut dog makes a retrieve on the goose and high-fives get passed around.
The cold morning is busy on decoying birds and guns speak over and over again. I watch as the young men hold up the big geese admiring each one.
My mind cannot help but go back to that morning sitting on the frozen pond watching the little boys lug the big geese around. It was only yesterday, my mind keeps saying, but my eyes tell the real story.
Yesterdays pass by so quickly. Little boys grow into men so quickly.
Once again I am thankful for every day I get to spend with my family and friends out in the wild hunting or fishing. There are few memories cherished more than some of these tough trips.
We laugh at the frozen guns, the craziness of doing some of these hunts, but it builds character, it builds a life time of memories, and believe me, each instance becomes a memory far too quickly.
Young Boys Big Birds
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