Oh what a Morning!

I did not go hunting as I thought this morning but went to my hunting property with my wife and dogs, Tom Brown my Chesapeake retriever and Bud dog my recliner dog. Now Bud has just lost his life long friend Lou dog who was the alpha dog in the house and has been moping around for the past few days so my wife and I figured that maybe he would like to go with us for a hike. Now Bud is not really a car riding dog and he is like 12 inches tall and 30 inches long... snapping jaws of fury death! We got to the property around 9:30 and turned the dogs out, both of them had a good time running around and peeing on every stick they could find. My wife and I started walking and soon we came upon turkey sign where they had been scratching around looking for bugs and seeds, I showed her the deer trails and the prints left after last nights downpour a couple of small deer and a fairly large doe. Soon we came upon a pair of buck prints along with a couple of small rubs on some short pines. We made our way down to the point and watched some buffleheads drop in and dive for small fish and critters. Then I took my wife into Mr. Bigs laydown area, Tom was going crazy as he loves to chase deer and I showed my wife where he had rubbed a cedar tree tree 8 inches around 5 feet off the ground, and there was more than  one of those.  On the way out we looked for some fox sign and racoon tracks, we saw some more turkey sign, and watched some Canadian geese set across the river. The sky was thick with snow geese in long strings leading out to the bay and ocean, with just enough nip in the air to make it a beautiful scouting trip. Tom swam in every piece of open water he could locate, romping through the mud and marsh with that big ass grin he has. We loaded up and got the dogs squared away in the back of the explorer and headed home, watching a fox groom itself in a bean field near a branch. I had to stop and turn on the electronic predator call and when the fox heard it he zeroed in instantly.  I was thinking that today was better than ducking alone, I got to sleep in, took a nice walk with my wife and dogs, saw wildlife and had a nice drive. All in all a great morning.