Looking ahead...

[Rick]

Lots of young fledging birds? I know they don't fly too high when they just learning.

That's my usual guess with any summer wood duck concentration, though these weren't in presumably invertebrate rich marsh where we usually find them. Went out low and bunched like teal and didn't start gaining altitude and breaking up like what they were until after a big swing around the farm.

[Ericdc]

Arkansas stayed at 3 and 74 days

California is 10 and 107

If I wanted to target specks with the best chance of success---either NE Arkansas or Northern California

NOT SW Louisiana

SW Louisiana is far too far and I'd have to drive through NE Arkansas to get there. SW Illinois has some as well. Not prime, but it is in-state for me.

If I do ever get down that way, it would be for the late season ducks and hopes of something different like mottleds or whistlers with geese as an afternoon option.

You'd probably need to hunt early season down there for mottleds and whistlers. The mottleds get super smart after the shooting starts.


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[Rick]

Wait too long and the tree ducks may be all that's left down here - unless they bail, too.

[SpinnerMan]

Arkansas stayed at 3 and 74 days

California is 10 and 107

If I wanted to target specks with the best chance of success---either NE Arkansas or Northern California

NOT SW Louisiana

SW Louisiana is far too far and I'd have to drive through NE Arkansas to get there. SW Illinois has some as well. Not prime, but it is in-state for me.

If I do ever get down that way, it would be for the late season ducks and hopes of something different like mottleds or whistlers with geese as an afternoon option.

You'd probably need to hunt early season down there for mottleds and whistlers. The mottleds get super smart after the shooting starts.

Good to know.

Wait too long and the tree ducks may be all that's left down here - unless they bail, too.

Don't worry, when they shutdown our nukes and cover every field with wind mills, they won't have the warm open water and open fields to spend the winter unmolested after our season closes in mid December.

[Ericdc]

Streets in Sulphur are flooded from all the rain - I saw it on the noon news today on a Baton Rouge TV station. Not good for us - all that water is going south - our marsh was already 18" to 2 feet too high
I hope your area is fairing better than ours.

Really hoping it starts drying up soon. Y'all a lot wetter than us in north Louisiana but we need some drying out.....we'll prolly go into a 4 month drought now that I said that.


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[Rick]

On the other hand, ankle deep water on the fields got me a pass/reprieve on going to Sulphur for an eight and nine-year old tournament ball "World Series" that's not going to go as well as LSU's.

[Darren]

On the other hand, ankle deep water on the fields got me a pass/reprieve on going to Sulphur for an eight and nine-year old tournament ball "World Series" that's not going to go as well as LSU's.

Here's hoping the top handful of players on the team you're heading to see actually show up in Sulphur, unlike LSU's best failing to do so in Omaha.

[Rick]

I'm afraid the 8-9yr-old boys version of LA Rush isn't in the same league with their competition and are getting crushed. But they're used to it and taking it well. Pretty good bats but no, zero, zip pitching - yet.

[Rick]

On another note, I've just noticed that Photobucket, which hosted a decade of my images, has gone into a suicidal rage that's eliminated the third party linking most used it for. (Well, unless one wants to pay $400 or some such a year.) Am almost afraid...OK, I am afraid to see if I can retrieve some that are only filed there to my computer...

[Ericdc]

On another note, I've just noticed that Photobucket, which hosted a decade of my images, has gone into a suicidal rage that's eliminated the third party linking most used it for. (Well, unless one wants to pay $400 or some such a year.) Am almost afraid...OK, I am afraid to see if I can retrieve some that are only filed there to my computer...

I would imagine smartphones and tablets are putting a hurt on them. I used to use PB too.


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[Rick]

RIght now they're putting the hurt on me, so far getting my photos back is a no go...

[Ericdc]

RIght now they're putting the hurt on me, so far getting my photos back is a no go...

Yea that sucks. I went and logged into mine, had some pics from 2011 and 2012 but nothing important.


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[Rick]

When I tried downloading a whole album, I thought I had it, but it's now "missing". But I just tried a single photo that's still on my PC, knock wood. Worth a shot if you've anything important to you on photof-up.

[aunt betty]

Wonder what will happen when the cloud pukes. Will it rain pictures and drawings from microsoft paint?

[Rick]

Wouldn't rule it out.

[Ericdc]

I know it's really easy uploading pics from the same device that takes the pics, but I realize if you have a nicer "photographer" camera that's not possible.


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[Rick]

I know nothing of its workings - or of a whole lot of things' working, for that matter.

But I've been getting to enjoy the company of lots of mottleds and squealers lately, so not understanding cyber space doesn't seem so bad.

[Ericdc]

Forgot to post Saturday, but my wife and I decided to go riding Saturday. We were about 5-10 miles north of the state line in SE Arkansas and I spotted 2 good groups of black bellies. They were hanging out in a gravel parking lot surrounded by soybean, corn, and cotton fields.

They are definitely expanding northward.


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[aunt betty]

I know it's really easy uploading pics from the same device that takes the pics, but I realize if you have a nicer "photographer" camera that's not possible.


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Oh God it's a pita to post a pic from a "real" camera.
It's been a while but I had to upload the pics, post em on facebook so FB could dumb them down to size, then copy and finally post here.

What irks me is that these days with wifi and the cloud our pics should be in the cloud and available to all our other devices without all the download-upload bs. I have to emaila pic to myself, copy, then post if I want to do it today.
I keep this one around for making clever memes.

13239092_262550680764467_1788123706996755499_n.jpg

[Darren]

Have only ever uploaded pics from my jump drive on PC so always have the master files. Have not tried Tapatalk but figure posting from phone is easy going that route, guess I need to try it.

[Ericdc]

Very easy just click small so the pic is not too big.


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[aunt betty]

But you want stuff to look big...

20170706_143530.jpg

It helps if you have really tiny hands.

[SpinnerMan]

You know what they say about men with small hands?





















They wear small gloves.

[Ericdc]

Very easy just click small so the pic is not too big.


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[Ericdc]

But you want stuff to look big...

20170706_143530.jpg

It helps if you have really tiny hands.

Uggghhh

This was going to be tomato week for me. The deer wrecked my tomato patch the last few nights. Taking big bites out of the green ones and eating the plants...



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[aunt betty]

Sorry to hear it man. I have to beat the squirrels and rabbits here so I pick them green. Mostly the critters here are thirsty and/or curious and never actually eat a whole tomato. Little bastages.
Been watching the bee-yard for years and whenever the squirrels or rabbits get where there's a lot these little hawks move in and wipe them out. Happens in cycles. The rabbits are due. Babies running around all over the yard.
Just started gardening over there in ernest once I got a tiller.
Next year I'm making a strawberry patch. Takes a year to establish so june 2019 should be good.

This year experimented with potatoes. Planted three types.
The gold ones did ok but not a big producer. They died off pretty quick but that's how you know when to dig em.
Red potatoes produce excellent here. (surprise)
The white ones did ok but only produce about half what the red sdo in the same space.
Fresh-dug potatoes are freakin awesome. Who knew?

Sweet corn is coming up to be ready in about two weeks give or take. Planted three varieties.
Illinois...sweet corn. They invented Illini extra sweet here. (good stuff)

The pumpkin patch is looking pretty humble.

[aunt betty]

That tomato weighs 9/10th of a pound. Not exactly small.

[Ericdc]

That tomato weighs 9/10th of a pound. Not exactly small.

The deer took a few from me just like that one.

I will exact revenge this fall, albeit on some of their cousins about 15 minutes from the house, but I will not be as conservation minded as I have in the past.


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