Quack!

Ducks are great! I work for the Ducks! Or more specifically, for a great organization that works endlessly to restore and conserve habitat that benefits not only ducks, but all of us. I am in the process of trying to raise a little extra $ to help with one of our initiatives to conserve our wetlands. Do you see the little box with the dog on the side of the screen that says Ducks Unlimited? Of course you do. Click on that and make a donation in my name for $5, $10, or $100,000,000. Whatever you are able to give means a lot towards our goal of conserving North America's vanishing wetlands. It's hard times right now and it's hard for the Ducks too, so throw them a little bread and they will love you for it.

60 years and going

We had a fun weekend at the end of February celebrating Lesley's Grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. Not many people have the opportunity to take part in a celebration of a 60th wedding anniversary, but we did and it was a blast. Newt, Ross, and Les all made it in town for the celebration. Their aunt and cousins from California flew in for the festivities, as well as cousins from North Carolina.
The weekend was filled with adventures in the row boat, watching little Sam "test drive" his first John Deere tractor, gathering the chicken egg with Emory, fishing and hiking and playing with the dogs, and of course celebrating with the whole family. It made for a memorable weekend. February 23, 1949 Bruce and Margaret married each other and managed to make many memories and expand their family over the past 60 years. We had a wonderful meal with family at the "Big House" (way to go Aunt Pam and Aunt Donna) and then enjoyed visiting into the wee hours.. about 10 p.m. The little ones were entertained playing with their Mardi Gras beads from the recent Mardi Gras parades. 40's Jazz played in the background and I think we can all agree that we can't wait until the 70th comes around in 10 more years.

Mystical Krewe of Barkus

Some people lead a secret life and I can accept that, what I didn't realize was that our dog, Cloud Dancing, also leads a secret life and that is a bit more disturbing. During the days and weeks when she's with us she's a cute little puppy but by cloak of night and weekends she is the Caped Destroyer! This past weekend we decided to take a trip down to New Orleans, or as we have begun to call it NOLA, for a Mardi Gras experience. Tucker and Jane came and we stayed with Newt, Kristy, and Trout in their new place. I know, I know, when am I going to get to the Caped Destroyer? Just hold on and we'll get to that. We arrived early Saturday morning, Valentines day too, and got the dogs comfortably playing while we looked into the Mardi Gras parades that were taking place that evening. We chose to go to the Knights of Sparta, and Krewe of Pegasus. Before we left for the parade we planned a valentines meal for the ladies. Whole Foods had just what we needed for a great dinner. Newt, Tucker and myself decided to make blue cheese, bacon, and onion stuffed NY strip, with salad and pie for desert. And we would make that as soon as we returned from our parades. We got the dogs situated and took off toward the part of town known as "Center City" and found ST Charles Ave where we didn't have to wait long for the parade to start. It was dark out and the parade started with Drunken vagrants and then Fire and then Drunken Horsemen. I'm not at all sure that one of the horsemen made it through much of the parade. The floats and bands were fun to watch and we landed a lot of beads, and cups, and plush stuffed swords, and I think an alien. The second parade was a little more tame but it did include the one and only Chris Owens on Her/His very own float. She/He didn't look all that good in the Autumn of her/his life. The parades were everything I thought they could be and we were all ready to get home and work on those steaks. Upon returning from the parade we found a Stripper and a Super Hero hanging out in Newts house. What, you ask, am I talking about? It turns out that our furry companions are leading an altered existence as members of the Mystical Krewe of Barkus. They turn tricks for cash and destroy things for justice in their spare time. As it turns out they had a gathering of the Krewe members scheduled for Sunday the 15th in the French Quarter of NOLA. We woke up early, ate breakfast and made our way to Armstrong park in the French Quarter. We were surprised at the number of Barkus members, probably in the thousands, and handlers. Little Caped Destroyer was quite shy around other super pups, maybe for fear of someone recognizing her as Cloud Dancing. It took CD about 2 hours to calm down enough to want to march in her parade. Trout on the other hand was quite excited and was able to amble about the park making contacts and pulling in a little cash with a wiggle here and jiggle there. At one point a man in a bathrobe and shower cap stuffed a cool mill into Trouts little G-String. We lined up and stepped out of the park onto the busiest French Quarter I have ever seen. Wall to Wall people crushing in to see the masked canines. Normally in a Mardi Gras parade the floats and marchers throw beads to the parade goers, and they did in this parade too, but the parade goers also had throws consisting of dog treats. I suppose it's their way of saying thanks for keeping us safe in this dangerous place. The route was 2 miles up and down the streets of the quarter and then across Jackson square. By the end we were tired and the Krewe disbanded until next year. I think both Cloud and Trout had a great time and who knows... when you're in need you just may see the CAPED DESTROYER!

Washers, Dryers, Graduation, Christmas, Duck Hunting, New Years, New Presidents, Mississippi Waterfalls and of Course the Pileated Woodpecker!

I'm falling behind but I shall try to redeem myself (that sounds like the start of most of my blogs). I can only vaguely remember where I left all of you but it seems like a long way off and far far away. Since about last September I have been in the process of applying for graduate programs, studying for the GRE, and interviewing for potential research positions. On top of all of the graduate school stuff I have been working away at Ducks Unlimited. Lesley and I have managed, however, to have a lot of fun in between our grown-up tasks. After our fun trip to the sand bar on the Red River we went back to Jackson with the knowledge that we didn't have to work a full week of work again until after the new year. I had an interview scheduled with Texas A&M so I flew to Aggie land to try and impress them and convince them that I was worth a fully funded research position.
The plane had hardly landed back in Jackson before Lesley and I packed up, I actually don't think I unpacked, to fly to Colorado for Chris's graduation from the University of Colorado. It was a lot of fun to see the family. We were able to celebrate Christmas while we were there. This was nice because Justin and Chris would be there too. We played a lively game of Scrabble, and even though Lesley and I spelled the best words we came in last, I guess good words don't equal good points. Also while we were there I even had a chance to steal away and see Troy, Heather and their new baby Brennen George. Note to self babies scare me, especially when I hold them but little BGD was a good kid. I should also mention because I was in Colorado I was afforded the opportunity to watch the CSU bowl game...GO Rams! Well, we weren't able to stay too long in Colorado and we had to fly back to Jackson, again, for our obligatory two days of work before Christmas.
When we flew back to New Orleans we also told Trout that we would pick her up and take her home with us for the holidays. Cloud was especially excited about this. The work had barely started before we, still packed from the last trip, loaded up the truck and drove to Shreveport for 5 days relaxing on the farm. It was nice to relax and play on the farm, it always is, and Cloud loved having Trout and the other puppies to play with. Lesley also had a chance to meet up with all of her friends from high school who were in town for Christmas as well.
....Back to Jackson for three days of work....., still packed, load up the truck, pick up a trailer, and drive west; destination Dallas. Before we get ahead of ourselves we need to take a pit stop in Rustin, LA for Christmas with Lesley's Grandmother. The little cousins were there and we had a fun time catching up with everyone. OK. back to Dallas. We have been living in Jackson for about a year and half at this point and have been struggling with regards to cleanliness. By cleanliness I mean keeping our clothes clean. We have no washer and dryer and one day out of the blue Grandmother Downs asked if we wanted a pair. Of course the catch was that we needed to drive to Dallas (about 8 hours from Jackson) to get it. It didn't take long for us to jump on that opportunity. You see Dallas may be 8 hours away but the prospect of clean clothes and the wonderful smell of fabric softener permeating the apartment was too good to pass up. I have had some training, both practical and professional, on pulling trailers behind trucks, but in all of my experience I have never had to drive a trailer through Dallas traffic. This is a horrifying thought and so I pushed it right out of my head and asked Bruce if we could borrow his truck to navigate the Dallas traffic with a washer and dryer and then load up the house hold appliances on the trailer once we got back to the farm, and from there drive back to Jackson. We left early and drove to Dallas to pick up the washer and dryer. It was no sweat picking them up and we were back on the farm by dark. The next day we planned to shoot guns before we drove back to Jackson. Since joining the ranks of Ducks Unlimited I have become interested in hunting but the problem with such a specialized activity are the barriers to entry such as having a gun, knowing how to load a gun, knowing how to shoot a gun etc.. all things I have never learned. Well it just so happens that Lesley's Dad was willing to take me out and show me all the essential gun skills to be a safe knowledgeable gun handler. This is all in the hopes that I may be able to purchase my first gun and go hunting sometime in the future. I shot a .22 bolt action, a 9mm Glock, two different shotguns, and a Remington .270 bolt action rifle. It was a fun experience. Lesley squeezed off a few shots as well. Our imaginary quarry didn't know what hit them. Back on the road we had our washer and dryer lashed to the trailer and our help lined up so when we got home we could haul it up our three flights of stairs. We got it moved into our little home and man has it been sweet. Clothes are now clean and we have freed up a lot of lost time. Did I mention that all of this was happening over New years, well it was, that's how we had the free time to make it happen.
It had been about a month since we had to work a 5 day work week but we are back at it. I was able to talk with Tucker about squeezing in a Duck Hunt before the season ended in Louisiana at his duck camp. The weekend came and we hooked the trailer up to the truck with the 4 wheeler loaded and headed to Start, LA and to the Smiling Mallard Duck Club. We hadn't made it far into Louisiana before a few deer, or should I say a heard of deer came out of the median on the interstate and attacked my truck. They were on the right, on the left, and in front of me; eyes red and frothing at the mouth. I managed to avoid all but two of them. I got one on the right with my front bumper, and one on the left with the fender of the trailer. If I would have let Tucker have his way he would have been on them with a bowie knife ripping the guts out of them, but I said "Tucker be cool... Let them die in peace" maybe I didn't say that but we were lucky to be thinking those thoughts. Most double deer strikes on the interstate don't end so well. Well after a quick pit stop to check the status of the truck we were back on our way to the duck camp. We had deer sausage in tribute that night, not to mention the great hamburgers. After a lively round of Duck Commander videos we hit the sack so we could wake up nice and early. It was muggy that morning, not really suitable weather for duck hunting. Good duck hunting weather involves rain or snow or both. We put on our camo, found our blind and waited. Needless to say we weren't terribly lucky on this morning, though it was a fun trip.
With duck in the freezer and clothes in the washer I think we are finally finding our domestic streak. I was excited for the inauguration of the 44th president Barack H. Obama. I tried with all my might to stream the ceremony on my computer at work, but alas the bandwidth traffic jam got the best of me... good thing I have an iPhone. I was able to live stream one and half hours of the ceremony including the speech on my iPhone...Saved by the iPhone.
This last weekend since we were at home with nothing to do we decided to stay in the state of Mississippi and find the legendary waterfalls of Clark Creek. If you go to the end of the Natchez Trace Parkway and head south and west into the very corner of the state you will come to a remote natural area with 30 foot waterfalls. Mississippi is flat so this is a spectacular sight. These falls don't roar from miles away but they do trickle down a series of steps off of a high bluff. It is a lot of fun to see. Cloud came along and tested out her new backpack. One of the best surprises of the trip was when the Pileated Woodpecker finally reveled itself to us. You have probably heard me talk of this bird for years now. I have been on the hunt and in the process have made the bird my totem. We have searched high and low for this bird from the desert in Arizona to the Buffalo river in Arkansas and we found it right here in Mississippi. I am happy to say that I have a picture of it as well, so thanks for reading and enjoy the wonderful Pileated Woodpecker!

Red River Cookout

Les, Bruce, Kathy, and I took a a little evening excursion to the sand bar on the red river to have a cookout. We loaded up the pickup with the essentials of chicken dogs, puppy dogs, marshmallows and beer. Drove to the gap in the levy and packed into the sandbar. Cloud loved the ride over, she practiced her pickup truck bed riding and then her drift wood gathering... all essential skills for a well rounded backwoods pup. The sandbar was huge and there was plenty of drift wood for a roaring fire. The weather couldn't have been better. We made S'mores and enjoyed the chicken dogs roasted on sticks. Did I mention the S'mores? Cloud also had company, Kathy's dog Taylor came along to play. The puppies had fun and so did we.