Preseason

[DComeaux]

No way would I put Ellie in that water now. Maybe Blake...

[DComeaux]

Jumped a mess of mottled's and a smidgan of teal when we went put out the decoys this afternoon. Got supper on the stove and enjoying life. Except for these damn mosquitos. Birds were on the still flooded oil location.

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[Rick]

Y'all are livin' large.

[Ericdc]

Jumped a mess of mottled's and a smidgan of teal when we went put out the decoys this afternoon. Got supper on the stove and enjoying life. Except for these damn mosquitos. Birds were on the still flooded oil location.

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Nice follow through


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[DComeaux]

Feels really good out this morning. Makes a man smile I tell ya. I can almost here the water level dropping in the marsh. Mid to upper 50's is a wonderful thing, and we should have much better conditions to get our blind put together in a couple of weeks....I HOPE!

[Rick]

I can almost here the water level dropping in the marsh.

Heard this morning that they just now opened a cut on the east end of Rutherford Beach, so perhaps you'll get some relief from that.

[Ducaholic]

Jumped a mess of mottled's and a smidgan of teal when we went put out the decoys this afternoon. Got supper on the stove and enjoying life. Except for these damn mosquitos. Birds were on the still flooded oil location.

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That's a very pretty spot...you did good!

[DComeaux]

Jumped a mess of mottled's and a smidgan of teal when we went put out the decoys this afternoon. Got supper on the stove and enjoying life. Except for these damn mosquitos. Birds were on the still flooded oil location.

20160909_164237.jpg

That's a very pretty spot...you did good!

Thanks, but where that decoy Blake's throwing will land should not have water. Matter of fact, where those decoys are floating should/will be high and dry at normal level. That hump that looks like a blind is a hill of dirt that we sat on for teal season. Our blind in that picture is under water in that pile of grass on the right, 100 yards from those decoys.



Over the last couple of weekends I've pressured washed and stained my deck and cleaned up my yard now that it's finally dried out. I'll be on a tractor/bushog in the morning taking care of some grass that got out of hand because of the rain we've had, and is a bit too much for the lawn mower. The go devil maintenance and trouble shoot will take place tomorrow and hopefully we'll be done with that issue. I'm just about at the end of my list of things to do around the house and we're scheduled be out in the marsh next weekend working on the blind, if the reports tell us the water is down enough.......I sure hope so!.....I'm afraid to ask

[DComeaux]

Found out this evening that the water is down to it's normal level in our marsh. Time to go to work.

[Ducaholic]

Found out this evening that the water is down to it's normal level in our marsh. Time to go to work.

Post some pictures to compare how it looks now versus then if possible. I still think it's a pretty spot regardless of the conditions!

[DComeaux]

Found out this evening that the water is down to it's normal level in our marsh. Time to go to work.

Post some pictures to compare how it looks now versus then if possible. I still think it's a pretty spot regardless of the conditions!

Will do.

[DComeaux]

Found out this evening that the water is down to it's normal level in our marsh. Time to go to work.

Post some pictures to compare how it looks now versus then if possible. I still think it's a pretty spot regardless of the conditions!

Same spot at near "normal" water level. The ducks seem to like to roost and walk around on this piece of ground as it was full of teal and mottled ducks when we pulled up by boat yesterday morning.

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[Ducaholic]

Wow!

Thanks!

[Rick]

The ducks seem to like to roost and walk around on this piece of ground as it was full of teal and mottled ducks...

Your own little grit bar.

[Ericdc]

That's pretty neat Comeaux


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[DComeaux]

We got out to the blind yesterday morning and the water level was down a lot but we found one end of the blind was still under water. Upset about the situation, we made several attempts to lift the blind just the few inches needed to get above the waterline so we could get the water out. The only thing those attempts got me was missing chunks of flesh on my hands from the barnacles.

Not wanting to waste this trip, I sat there trying to come up with an idea to make this happen. I started reaching under water grabbing handfuls of mud placing it on the rim of the blind on the sections that were underwater. The consistency of the mud was good enough that it held together so I continued building a levee. I hadn't mentioned this to Blake but just started doing it, and I think he thought I was nuts.

Got the levee built and I was about to climb in to start bailing.

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Levees held and it lifted up just a bit So we both jumped in and started bailing.

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We got overzealous and took more water from a pit, that we found out in an exciting way, was not secured to any of the existing driven lumber. As we were took the ride upwards, I was excited to know I could start from scratch and lift the blind height some and I cheered. But during that ride upwards I thought Blake was going to have a heart attack. We added water back to the blind to get it stable and set the height we wanted.
Blake still holding on to the post.

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We got all of the new post driven in and secured the blind not allowing movement in either direction. I got in, removed the mud, and washed out the blind.

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Built Ellie a platform and relocated a LARGE root ball of cordgrass with a few embed roseau from our south side of the blind to ellie's side. Roseaus will be snipped away before the season.

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[DComeaux]

Finishing up Ellie's ramp.

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Once we completed the blind work we took the tools to the truck and took a little lunch break.

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After the break we began pulling up cordgrass for replanting.

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The blind all dressed, and I think, only discernable by the few stalks of roseau sticking up and Ellie's ramp. I plan on adding a couple of root balls of cordgrass on the sides of it as well.

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We saw a good bit of bluewing and the drakes had their white stripes. We saw a few ruddy's, mottled ducks were thick, and we did see some other unidentified species. We we're too busy to really watch the skies...... My fat azz is sore!

[Ericdc]

Bet you guys felt a lot better about it all after yesterday.


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[Rick]

Excellent. But I'd want to haul the clump with canes starting somewhere I was mad at.

[DComeaux]

Bet you guys felt a lot better about it all after yesterday.


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Feel great...Ready to go!

Unread postby Rick » Sun Oct 16, 2016 4:10 pm

Excellent. But I'd want to haul the clump with canes starting somewhere I was mad at.

As I mentioned above, they will be snipped at their base. There's only a few stalks embedded in that root ball.

[Rick]

Better Spike the fresh stumps, too, if you want to be done with it.

[Darren]

Man what a day! Glad it worked out for yall. We're headed to the Delacroix holes tomorrow to build a new blind in our main pond, hopefully goes relatively as-planned.

[Ducaholic]

Well done!

[DComeaux]

Better Spike the fresh stumps, too, if you want to be done with it.

Do you think spiking those stumps will have any affect on the cord grass, being they're entangled with the cord grass roots?...And spike with what chemical?

[Rick]

Spike was a chemical that would kill a chicken tree if you cut through bark and sprayed or daubed it on the cut. Don't even know if it or something similar is still around, but my point was that cane can be the devil to get rid of once a root system is in place and cutting off the tops probably won't get it done. Having let it go from blessing to problematic at and around my mudhole, I'm now experimenting with something to see if I can just make it sick but may looking into a spot treatment like Spike myself in the future.

Were I you and could replace the cord grass clump it's in, I would.

(Now hate cane like I once hated the damn white pine that was being planted to replace timbered hardwoods all over the North.)

[DComeaux]

Yeah, I know what those damn cane will do, just being lazy. That root ball covers a good bit of Ellie's platform and it was there, a somewhat effortless move, so I used it. Those cane were on my mind while we were moving that clump and I got a good look at their roots.

I wrapped the blind with rebar tie wire tied to screws to hold the grass vertical until they take root, something I've done in the past that worked well. I guess I'll undo that side and get that trash out of there before I regret my laziness. We'll do this when we go back to set the decoys......I'll plant that clump in a place in need of wave protection, away from the blind.

To think this is what it looked like just a month or so ago.

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[Darren]

Dave does it look like your dekes will be indeed rockin be rocking and rolling on a a good wind?

[DComeaux]

Oh yeah. S&SE wind especially, north not as much. Seems we'll never have a non movement issue. Always have a breeze, even in fog.
We'll also have calm areas within shooting range no matter the direction.

I'm going to enjoy setting the decoys at that blind. I can make the layout look really natural because I have the room to do it, utilizing the protected pockets, in range, to our advantage......At least that's the plan. We just need the birds to show up, and this is a new to me spot, so we'll see. The pirouge ride will be interesting, on some days!