That Time of Year Again (Somehow)

Jim navigating our new brush mower over the aftermath of a 4" rain from a week ago;
this season has definitely been loyal to the old adage, "when it rains, it pours"

Somehow, we're in the midst of the annual scramble to ready the marsh for another year of duck hunting. Leases are squared away, and the heavy lifting (the actual habitat management) is an ongoing effort that continues to "trend in the right direction" (as Roy likes to say), but the latter half of August has customarily brought a flurry of hunting-specific activity. Teal season (one of my favorites) opens September 1 -- that's a week from tomorrow!

Jim mowing down a heavily overgrown
spur dike looks more like a game
of Where's Waldo

The punters (remember, those are duck hunting guides) and, to a lesser extent, the hunters have done most of the heavy lifting (literally) over the last few years in this capacity. Prepping blinds is one major project. Structural repairs must inevitably be done. (It's a tough environment for wood construction.) Grasses and cover vegetation ("grassing") needs to be shored up. Some creature-comfort accessories are often added. And typically, some unwanted guests -- e.g., muskrats, hornets, etc. -- must be "discouraged" from continuing to set up shop. Nothing beats sharing a blind with good friends, but long-toothed rodents and paper wasps don't qualify.

Often, there is a desire to improve "shooting holes" (open water expanses intended to draw ducks). Sometimes, these efforts involve manual cutting and clearing of small areas of emergent plants -- in our case, typically cattails. But because we have been holding water high (historically high, actually), that won't be necessary this year.

There is also the matter of prepping punt boats and decoy skiffs . . . varnishing punt poles . . . organizing and tending to decoys. These are fun things that add to the custom, ritual, and the anticipation. But make no mistake: they are work.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to get after another annual right of passage -- "mowing" (trailblazing) paths to each of the blind access locations. As you can see in the photos above/right, we now have an incredible tool for the job -- thanks to the initiative and generosity of one of our faithful lease holders (THANKS, JOE!). This brush mower is an absolute beast! And while it's hard not to work up a sweat any time this project is on the docket, the right tool makes it so much simpler, safer, and effective.

There are -- and have been -- a ton of projects picking up momentum in the marsh. I'll be elaborating on each of them (e.g., a pending conservation easement, a pending real estate sale, a pending water conveyance improvement project) individually over weeks and months ahead. But yesterday afternoon, it was fun to get a good sweat going and just think about the ducks that should soon be overhead.

One of my projects yesterday was adding the 10" board on the far left (above) to one of our existing hunter boardwalks;
it's only about 30' long, but until the end of the day yesterday, it was only about 26" wide -- the increased
width makes taking the new mower across much less stressful