Football!!

So, last year I was a senior at Clarke Prep. We went to Troy to play Edgewood for the CHAMPIONSHIP!! Senior memory right there. We cheered our hearts out but didn't win... We all cried and the juniors and youngers didn't understand why. This year we made it to Troy again. Only to play Edgewood yet again. We fought hard!! But the bottom line is, you can't beat the men in the striped shirts (refs). We lost 61-52. Edgewood had a sign on their sideline that read, "Beat CPS... Again". I wanted to rip the signdown so bad, but unlike them, we have class. The score board might have said we lost, but in our hearts we are all still winners.

 This was last year. My Senior year!

 

The some of the seniors of 2013 supporting the Gators of 2014!!

Me and Marge!!

Me and Taylor on the Victory Line before the game!!

 

Deer Season!!!

My computer has been in the shop. That's why i am SO far behind. Well, just a quick highlight of bow season. I do not bow hunt, so we will hear Dad's bow season stats lol. He killed 2 does, a hog, a coyote, and a decent buck here in Alabama.

 

Not too long ago he took a trip to Illinois. He had a great time even though it rained and the wind blew terribly the first couple days. He said he killed a monster but wasn't ever able to find it. Same thing happened to him last year when he went.

Sunrise and a track

Last Saturday i took these pictures in Nanafalia. While we were hunting...

Sunrise :)

 

Went to Nanafalia again today, and run a hog a long way... This is all we got of him...



A new Pillow!

So, my friend Lisa Tucker bought me a new shirt for my birthday. Turns out it was one of those shirts that is supposed to suction cup to your body. Well, I don't do suction cups lol. I made it into a pillow instead. It's a little lumpy now but it will soon look like a real pillow!

Mary's first hog adventure...

So, we caught a hog in a trap today... sounds pretty easy, right? Wrong!! Leave it to me and Mary to make things so much more complicated than they really are...

So this is the hog...

 

To understand this story, you must first understand the building of this trap. The door opens repeatedly from tthe outside, but you cannot open it once inside. So, we had the dogs on the back of the truck when we rode by the hog. They noticed it, but they didn't jump off after it. We decided to let the dogs off and get in the pond to cool down. Well, that was a bad idea. Jase took off, but i was able to call him back. Later, they were running off through the woods so we cranked off and begin to drive away because they always come back to me leaving them. They come right on back, right past us, and straight to the hog. We got there in time to keep Jase out, but we were too late for Charlie. He had already found the door and was inside with the hog. It felt like an hour before dad arrives, but it was only like 5 minutes. He caught, and got plenty of practice. This is what both looked like afterwards....

 

None of that blood is his...

sticking his tongue out at that hog

Oh, and this Mary... Hiding behind the truck... :)

3 little piggies

So, dad has been sick this entire weekend. Got up Saturday to go to Nanafalia and after we got everything loaded he said that he really didn't want to go. But we already had the dogs and everything loaded up so we went anyway. We got there way to early so we just kinda killed time in the truck till first light. When i stepped out of the truck I stood there getting the tracker ready and stuff. Little did i know that i was standing in a big old red ant hill. They crawled up my jeans and tore my legs up!! Anyway, we hunted all morning and came up empty handed.
We skipped hunting Sunday because we had breakfast at church. Later on that afternoon we went to the sandbar and hung out on the river. Well, me and my friend Angelica went for a "nature stroll" around 7pm. Well, of course, it got dark faster than we expected an her mom freaked out because we walked back in the dark. Big Deal!?! Not!!
Monday, Labor Day, we had a little bit better luck with the hog population. Started off slow, we kinda thought we were gonna get skunked, but we didn't. First thing, Black Betty left on a hog and we just thought she was running a deer so we left and kept on hunting. Little further down the way Hound Dog got on a track and bayed not 5 seconds later. Turned my younger pit loose and he wouldn't even catch! Anyway, I ran in there and caught him and brought him out. He was pretty tiny so we put him in the dog box. We left there and hunted some more. We got on another hog. They jumped him outta the bed. We could hear him grunting from the ranger. I don't know what happened in there, but they left the big boar and caught another pig. Dad and I both fought the briars and got him out. We also put him in the dog box. So, we kept on hunting. We have been wanting to break the terrible twos so bad!!  Well, we finally did it! We got down beside this big ole slew and loe and behold there was Black Betty. She musta been barking because the rest of the dogs took off to her. We cut off the ranger so we could listen. They bayed solid. We started runnin. Got to the slew, decided we didn't want to swim it, ran back to the ranger, and drove back and around to the other side. Good thing we did cause they had a good size sow bayed in the road. Igot out and flipped her. Dad finally decided he would come hold her so I could tie her. We were pretty much done for the day. We got back to the truck and had to tie the other two pigs so we could put the dogs in the box. I let Sherry tie one just so she could say she had tied one. She didn't like it as much as she thought though.

This is Gregg and Sherry along with her children Kobee, Angelica, Evan, and Mallie. She is the mother that freaked out Sunday night. And the two oldest accompanied us on the hunt Monday.

Bottom to top in order of catch.

Sometimes you're the dog and sometimes you're the hog.

Sorry gotta catch yall up again lol

One of two hogs we caught in Butler.

 

 

Anyway, this saturday be caught 2 little pigs in Nanafalia, nothing too special. Anywho, Sunday we hunted by oursleves again. We caught 2 decent sows first thing before seven a.m. The dogs did really well and we are very proud of them.

We made it all the way back to the camp with no problems. Every time we hunt i take Tanner and Betty and put them on the same leash and take them back to their pen together. However this time dad spilt some feed on the ground. When i pulled the leash they banged into each other and over the food they fought. I kicked in amongst them to break it up and Tanner accidentally bit me.

 

Everybody i told that story to told me i was crazy for not getting rid of the dog. It wasnt her fault. I shouldnt have stuck my leg in the fight and i know better. This was my fault and not hers. She still got extra feed for hunting so well. Just like she should have. A dog should never be punished for a humans mistake.

Butler hog

i'm sorry i haven't been keeping my blog updated. I've been dealing with my best friend being diagnosed with cancer and my "friend" going off to fight in Afghanistan. Anyway, we haven't been tearing the hogs up lately. we caught 2 pretty good hogs last saturday.

 This was one of them.

 

We caught them in Butler. We couldn't find anybody who wanted them so we turned them loose. They will be caught again another day.

 

 



the things a dog will bring you...

it's amazing what a dog will bring you...

the dog, Ricky

 the present he brought me :)

a creeper in the night

So, last Sunday my alarm went off at 3:50am. Got up, brushed my teeth, pulled my hair up, and realized it was storming. I went and got dad up and aasked him if we were still going. He said yes. So i went and got dressed and laid back down in the bed. I woke back up around 9am, still in my hunting clothes. Needless to say, we didn't go hunting last Sunday.

On to this weekend. Saturday we went back to Nanafalia. We got on one big hog and the dogs finally bayed 500 yards in the thicks kudzoo and down in some the deepest gullies ever. Dad and Travis walked as far as they could and then crawled the rest of the way. They said the hog had some pretty good teeth but it was no way they could have gotten him out so they stabbed him and left him for the critters. He did do some damage on a few dogs though.

We didn't get to hunt Sunday because we had early church, but we did get to go to the sandbar. We had tons of food. We had a washer game and a horseshoe tournament. On the way out it got pretty intense. Somebody, I wont mention any names, wanted to race on the way out. So, we killed our lights and floored it. We were alright until we fell in the ruts and for a split secong i thought we were gonna flip over and die. We didn't lol. Then, we when we got home we went on the hunt for some stranger that had been creepin up and down the road IN THE DARK. We finally called it a night about 12:30am. It was still fun though!!

fun and funny

Not really much of a story from today's hunt. We got on the first big boar on the outskirts of the big corn field and right into some saw briars. Turned 4 bulldogs a loose and all 4 caught. Charlie got 2 minor holes in his shoulder again. So, we unloaded him and went after another one. We got on the second big boar not to longer after the first. He was in the middle of a cudzoo/vine forest. It took forever to tie him up and get a four wheeler in to him.

This might not be something yall want to read about but i thought it was funny so im gonna share it anyway. While we were riding around, Tanner's bulldog decided he couldnt hold it any more. He pooped all over Tanner's buddy. He had to strip his shirt off and put on his long sleeve. He through to poop covered one away in the cudzoo valley. :)

Good teeth

So, we took our puppies, Candy and Travy, on a practice run Tuesday. They did pretty good for their first time in the woods. So good that we decided to take them again today. We jumped a pretty good hog outta the bed and we heard the bay dogs catch. On a wild hare we turned our younger bull dog a loose just to give hime some practice. Little did we know that a big ole' boar was waiting on him.

my dad :)

this used to be a pic of me and dad together but my photographer (mom) chopped my head off so i cropped the rest of my body out.

 

 

We finally called the puppies into the bay and Candy fit right in, bayed a long with the rest of them. Travy, however, stepped on the hogs head and when the hog flung around to bite him he tucked tail, growled, and left.

We were headed back when another hog ran across the road in front of us and we turned the dogs loose on her. The caught her with no problem.

The littler one is her ;)

After we got back to the truck we realized that Travy was still gone. We unloaded the hogs and the dogs and went on the hunt for Travy. We found him right back in the same spot where we caught the first hog.


It was a good day, and we are very proud of the dogs. We thank God that he kept us all safe.

a workout

Well, yesterday's hunt was very intense to say the least. We turned a loose while it was still dark in a corn field. Huge hog tracks all the way around it, they had this field tore up! The dogs bayed right off the bat. However, the dogs split and got on seperate hogs. Tanner turned his bulldog loose on his dog bay and the hog broke. The hog run right by us with all the dogs right on his ass. They bayed him again in the middle of the corn field. I turned Charlie loose and he went to them. But they couldnt hold him long enough and they started the run. 500 yards later they bayed him again. We drove straight down hill as far as we could, but we still had 300 yards to go. The running began. Tanner called to me and asked how many bulldogs were on him and i said 2. He told me his bulldog was not with them so i told him one, my Charlie :). Next thing i knew Tanner had turned Jase loose and he flew by my like a bat out of hell. Anyway, we run through the thickness straight down until we hit a creek. What waited on the otherside was the worst thing ever. A straight up mountain. We started the climg in the slickest mud ever. Tanner and dad were the first to the top, then matt and ivey. I made it to the very top and went to take the last step and slid all the way back down to the bottom. So, I just oppted to stay there. Brindle came back forst and layed down in the creek. Charlie was next. His head was covered in blood and his cut vest had migically disappeared. One by one the dogs and the guys started to reappear. Jase also didnt have his cut vest when he got back either. All the dogs collapsed in the creek. Tanner and dad said on top of that hill was 2 more hills and a cudzoo jungle. The cudzoo was so thick that 3 bulldogs couldnt get in to catch. They ended up stabbing the hog and leaving him behind. Then we got lost trying to get back to the rangers. We finally made it back and we made a pit stop by the trucks to get some drinks and then we were at it again. They bayed again agross a fence under the Tombigbee River bridge in some more thick stuff. After that we were all hot and tired and called it quits with plans to try again next weekend. Sorry no pictures, so ready to go i just let him go without a picture. :)

2 little pigs and a plan for tomorrow

We did a little better today. We ended up with 2 little pigs.

 

Dad got caught in a wasps nest and lost his cap and glasses. Guess who had to go back and find them... yep, me! He loves me so much!! Excited to go back and try to catch the monsters tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

A couple a weekends ago we got skunked, but we did find this really interesting shooting house... and a red balloon.

pretty boring

it's been pretty boring in our hunting adventures lately. We scouted out a new place Saturday in Butler. One bay dog caught but he couldn't hold him and we spent the rest of the day running him. We never could catch him again. I do want the thank Mr. Gregg S. for treating us hunters to a terrific lunch at Ezell's Fish Camp in Lavaca, Alabama!

On Sunday we planned way to hard. One group of us turned dogs aloose 2 miles from blue rock road and another group was sitting on the road waiting for this hog to cross. (we've run this same hog 3 times prior so we know his track well). Anyway, the hog crossed and we turned another pag loose on him. We run that hog for at least 3 more hours. Me and dad had to leave early since we had to be back in time for church. The rest of the crew hunted past lunch and caught 2 pigs, but we still couldn't catch the monster we wanted.

I have high hopes for this weekend. Wish us luck!! :)

JALAPENOS!!!

So, my wonderful father was trying to find a "home-made" jar of jalapenos. In the process of moving around the jars in the pantry he dropped a jar of pickles and, of course, they shattered.

 After the pickle disaster he proceeded to tell me to get the peppers out of his truck... this is what i found...

 

Now, i asked myself why you would need this many jalapenos. Here's the answer... the little jar stays in his icechest in case we need a little kick while we are eatin on the sandbar, the big jar is for the guys night at the camp tonight; they are going to fry them up! Sounds like they are gonna have some heat tonight. Jalapenos in the hushpuppies and fried jalapenos, too!!

6 hog record

We tore the hogs up today!!! We caught 3 and killed 3 more. We went swimmin twice and caught in the woods only once. Will give props to my huntin buddies; Justin, Morgan, Will, and Hamner. Hamner brought his bulldog for the first time today, he caught with charlie on the the last hog that was in a DEEP slew. Means to say we were all happy to get home to showers and dry clothes. We finally pulled into the drive way at 2:30pm.

One the first hog we sent the guys out and they immediately hit the pond. Morgan hit a hole and lost both of his boots, which he later recovered. They gave me hell for not goin in to that hog so i had to show them how it was done on the last 2. The last hog broke his tusk off so when we loaded him up Clint finished pulling it out... lol :) Here are the pics!

Justin and Will

Justin, me, and Will

Justin, Hunter, me, and Will