Outdoor Odyssey

On February 20th I posted a story, “Bring enough Gun”, about not taking a shot at the coyote that I had called in.  Between the rain, snow and cedar fever, it wasn’t until this past Wednesday afternoon, March 3rd, that I got back out to try and call up something else.

Selecting the same tree blind that I had used in the last post, I was guarding about an eighty yard, track, heading south, between two thick, copse of woods.  Beginning the calling, it wasn’t long before I noticed something, definitely not a buzzard, arcing down in a graceful, not really a dive but more of a swoop, heading right towards me.

It was a big bird with a six or seven foot wingspread.  At first I thought it was a Mexican eagle, but its head was dark with lighter flecks on its wings, then I surmised it was a golden eagle (Aquila Chrysaetos).  It continued its swoop over me, then on out across the field, turned and caught the wind and headed north.

Locally, sheep and goats are dropping their young and these are easy pickings for winged and furry, predators.  I’ve heard of red tailed hawks coming in to a game call, but never an eagle, or was this just a happenstance?  If a fox, bobcat or coyote had hold of a jackrabbit, not only the rabbit but also the furry predator would become a meal for the eagle.

Keeping up the calling with the sun sinking down low, I noticed movement out in the field south of my property.  Nine turkeys traipsing along the creek, then flying a few yards to roost in the small trees along the creek.  As darkness approached I walked down to the fence. The birds were perched on the small branches in the tops of the trees and it never ceases to amaze me, how can those little limbs hold up a big, turkey?   

In our county, spring turkey season opens on April 3rd and maybe this is an indication that this season will be much better than last’s.

Last week I went into town to pick up a water filter and as I walked into Mills County General Store, (it really is an old timey general store), on the counter along the entryway, there was a picture of a nice deer.

A closer look showed that it was a really, nice deer, being held up by a smiling Ginger Spies, obviously the shooter. Ginger and her husband, Rodney, own the Mills County General Store.

Walking to the back of the store I saw Rodney and asked him about the big deer.  He told me that Ginger shot him on their ranch west of town, on the last day of the season, three minutes before the end of shooting time!  The buck was walking in the general area around a deer feeder and took one step to many and, boom, Ginger dropped him with her .308.

The Spies took the deer to Warren Blesh, owner of RRR Ranch, for B&C scoring and it came in at a whopping 144 and 4/5ths.  The buck was 5-1/2 years old, with the beginnings of palmated antlers, as this picture shows. 

The deer also qualified Ginger for the yearly, Texas Parks And Wildlife’s special dinner for bucks scoring over 130 B&C.

Yesterday, visiting Mickey Donahoo to pick up my bobcat mount, I went into his taxidermist shop and he showed me Ginger’s deer.  Of course I didn’t have a camera, hence no picture of the beautiful mount.

This past Sunday I added two new links to blogs that should be interesting and informative to everyone.

The first is Ghillie Suit Source and offers a range of Ghillie Suits, the max in camouflage for the serious hunter.  Check them out!

The other is Camping Tourist and provides the reader with the best of camping destinations gear, tips and recipes for outdoors cooking.  A real neat site!

Growing up, my Grandmother, Linnie Ross Sanders Wallace, told me several times (in no uncertain terms) that the Sanders were SCOTS-Irish, with the emphasis on "Scots".  I heard her and remembered it, but like all youth, I didn’t realize the importance of it until last week!

Digging through the Sanders’ family’s genealogy, I’ve come across a mystery of sorts.  The mystery being, was William and/or Lewis Sanders involved in the capture and slaying of Edward Teach, better known as, Black Beard the Pirate.  Lewis Sanders was my 6G Grandfather and William was my 6G Uncle.

The plot started when I read an old letter, written in 1895 by Thomas Bailey Saunders and sent to one of his nephews.  The letter was posted on Gary B. Sanders website, “Sanders, of Randolph and Montgomery Counties, North Carolina, and Jackson County, Alabama, and other counties in Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas”, and I quote,

"There were two Saunders brothers who came from England long before the Revolutionary war. At that time the Pirates were very bad on the North Carolina coast. The governor of N.Carolina outfitted a vessel to catch them, and in making up the crew he took one of these brothers, and they caught old Black Beard the pirate and hung him to the mast arm. The crew got a good deal of money, and when that brother came back he left the U out of his name. This the reason so many spell their names Sanders”.

Spending a good deal of time researching the events, I was surprised that, actually, the Governor of North Carolina was in league with Black Beard.  In fact his Secretary was captured and convicted of accepting funds from the pirate.  In reality, the Governor of Virginia gave two unarmed sloops, Ranger and Jane, to Lt. Maynard of the Royal Navy.

On November 22, 1718, Black Beard, engaged the two, unarmed sloops in Oracoke Inlet off the coast of North Carolina and opening fire on them with his cannons, he almost destroyed both ships. Teach closed in on Maynard's ship, Ranger, boarded it and engaged Maynard  personally in combat.  Maynard shot him and both men swung their cutlasses, Teach's shattering Maynard’s and as Teach was going to deliver the death blow, according to an Autumn, 1992 article in the "Colonial Williamsburg", magazine, now online, his throat was slashed by a stout Scot among Maynard's crew.

To claim the reward Maynard cut off Teach's head.  Returning to his homeport of Hampton, as a warning to other pirates, Teach's head was placed on a stake near the mouth of the Hampton River.

Another quote from Gary B. Sanders website, further whetted my appetite for intrigue, “… I think it's likely that William Sanders of Anson County, North Carolina may be the brother of Lewis Sanders of Fairfax County, Virginia.  William and Lewis appear to be of the same generation.  DNA tests show William was related to Lewis.  These two may well be the two emigrant brothers described in a somewhat jokingly fashion in the 1890's letter of Thomas Bailey Saunders."

Being left with questions that, in all probability, will never be answered, I can only make some assumptions and ask a few more questions.  Both brothers were of Scots-Irish ancestry. Both brothers also took the "U" out of Saunders.  Was one of the Saunders boy’s a part of Maynard’s crew?  Was one of them the stout, Scot?  

What if the old story is really true?

As I’ve said before, my friends and relatives send me some real neat outdoors pictures.  The following ones are no different.

Randy Pfaff in southern Colorado sent me this picture of a truly magnificent bull, elk.  This animal, supposedly, was shot in New Mexico, using a very expensive, Governor’s tag.  I wonder what it cost?

A very enterprising ‘coon, climbing up a feeder post, to get at the deer corn, was sent to me by one of my softball teammates, Ev Sims.  His ranch is in Jackson County, Texas.

And finally, my Cousin, Kathy Pribble, sent me these two pictures of the February 12, snow that paralyzed north Texas.  She lives in Henderson County, Texas, on a beautiful lake nestled in Texas’ great piney woods!  

This picture would pass for “up north” somewhere!

Central Texas is a wonderful place to live!  After spending years fighting the humidity in Houston, plus a few years handling the ice storms in Atlanta, not to say the heat of Phoenix, Layla and I were ready for the moderate climes of central Texas.  Not too hot and not too cold, not too much rain, with a little snow sprinkled in once every four or five years.  Except for the "cedar fever", hard to beat!

Last year, 2009, we were blessed with over forty-three inches of rain, close to two years of our annual amount.  Through February we have received almost nine and a half inches, almost one half of our yearly average.  Praise the Lord!

However, there is a problem.  This year we have experienced snow, five times.  Not a dusting, but accumulations that even stayed on the ground, the last being on Tuesday, the 23rd.  The weathermen hit that one on the nose, saying it would begin raining in the early  morning hours, then change to snow, with a total of six inches possible.  We got more than that, snowing continuously for fourteen hours, completely shutting the area down!

Before lunch I took this picture of the snow pouring down.

Another one of our shooting range and the target almost obscured by the snow.

This one of the garden and the mid morning accumulation.

Layla and I went out to lunch last Tuesday and snapped these pictures of our central Texas snowstorm.

I'm a sucker for snow and water.  It makes the water look black and the lack of color in the woods is neat.

The oak trees, normally an evergreen, are covered with snow.

With the temp hovering around thirty, even the fence had ice on it.

I only have two comments about this weather.  One, it looks like I might have to buy a snow shovel.  And two, who are we kidding, global warming is a hoax!

Our score on our hog trap is two captures, but no hogs!

Last year in early November, our first score was on a young bull, calf.  He had ambled into the trap to sample the corn scattered about. We released him and he scooted back to mama.  But, of course, on that release we didn’t take a camera along with us!

On this past Monday a Deputy Sheriff stopped by our house and told Layla that we had a doe caught in our hog trap.  I was in town talking to a natural resources rep about cedar eradication and when I was returning home she called and told me the news, adding, “Hurry up!”

We hurried out to the trap, and sure enough, there stood the doe, securely ensconced!

When I walked up to release the doe, she became quite excited and banged around the trap, but as I opened the door she took off in full high, speed; way to quick for a picture.

Maybe, our third score will be a charm and we’ll trap a hog?

This is the second part of “Business Trip” and it covers the fishing excursion.  The action was hot and heavy and some good pictures were taken!

The Captain gave us instructions about how to apply the hook to the whitebait.  He said to hook them just above the pelvic fin and that hook placement makes them spin around on the bottom and, in turn, excites the predators into striking.  We baited up and looped casts into the area behind the boat.

My first strike was solid, the fish made a nice run, then headed towards the boat.  Another shorter run and, keeping the line tight, I reached over and grabbed the nice bonita by the tail and lifted it into the boat.  Before tossing the fish back into the water, our host posed with me as I held it up.

We only caught one more bonita, but the kingfish moved in and supplied us top flight, action.  With our medium/light tackle, their initial runs were spectacular and they battled us all the way in, until subdued with a coup de grace, a billy to the knoggin.

We fished for over three hours and the action was constant.  On one cast of mine, as the bait floated toward the bottom, my rod was jarred with a heavy strike.  My first thought was another king, and I braced myself for its characteristic long first run.  But to my surprise the fish came straight up, out of the water in a beautiful arc.

The fish was identified as a barracuda and I started getting ample instructions about landing it.  The instructions were interspersed by how good it was going to taste!  After several more jumps, the mate gaffed it, careful to apply the gaff in the barracuda’s head area.  It was bonked on the head with a billy and into the cooler with it.  For me, I will have no part in eating that fish!

We took this picture of the barracuda as we were unloading our catch. The two smaller ‘cudas, pictured, are under twenty-eight inches and supposedly free from ciguatera.  The one I caught was over thirty-six inches and, I imagined, full of the disease.  

Cruising back into the dock area, we counted up the fish we kept, ten kings and three ‘cudas, a good mornings outing!  As the ‘cudas were being cleaned, I commented to our host that I still would have no part in eating one!