Judy saw the elephant
Y'all have read about Judy's first goose hunt. Here's the story about her last and final goose hunt.
Great goose hunts are always a combination of luck, skill and hard work. It was around the first of December 1990. I was scouting off Beckendorf Road north of Katy and happened to see some geese landing. On further inspection there was good group of birds on the very south end of the property.
Judy was the editor for the Katy Times and was hosting a reporter from the Dallas Times Herald. I had donated a hunt to Ducks Unlimited, and they were bringing some other clients with them. All in all, it looked to be a promising hunt.
We met at 4 o'clock in the morning at Daylight Donuts in Katy. After a nutritious breakfast of coffee and cinnamon roles with donut holes for dessert, we were off to do battle with the wily snow goose.
When we arrived in the field, the whole thing started coming together. When we got out of our vehicles, the wind hit me in the face and I knew then this would be a good hunt. The wind howled across the prairie out of the northeast. The birds had found about twenty acres of uncut soybeans and were roosting to the southeast.
After giving the hunters a preliminary lesson in rag spread 101, my crew quickly deployed the decoys. I was in the middle of giving my safety talk when one of the hunters ask is it shooting time? He pointed at the geese behind me who were already trying to land in our spread.
I checked the time and quickly sat down next to my beautiful wife, who was freezing to death. She had on sheepskin coat and a white goose parka, but still was shivering. I didn't have time to worry about her, though.
The geese were fighting the wind as they hung over us, determined to land in our spread.
"Hell yes, those are snow geese! Take em!"
The next wave of geese rose from the roost and flew low to the ground toward our spread. They were so low to the ground they had to raise up to fly over the barbed wire fence that separated our field from the roost.
The geese got so close to us, my wife said it was like laying on the floor and looking up at a ceiling fan in your house.
Two hours and 63 geese later, we were picking up the decoys. Everyone was excited and tired.
When I got to the truck, Judy said, "I have never been so cold in my life."
I said, "Ok, but wasn't it fun? Wasn't it fantastic?"
That hunt of a nine-man, seven-bird limit was her final hunt.
To this day, when I ask if she wants to go goose hunting, she reminds me that she froze her ass off in 1990, and it ain't gonna get any better than that hunt, so what was the point.