I remember waking up that morning as my best buddy Chevy stares right at me from the floor beside the bed. He already knew we were going hunting that day. He stayed up all night anticipating this day since he saw me getting our gear together the night before. Creeping around the house, trying not to wake up the girls, we slipped outside to warm up the truck. Although it wasn’t much past midnight, I could tell by looking at the clear sky and feeling the frigid cold air that we should anticipate having a very good day. Now Chevy was fearless, he could hunt to some extent in all weather conditions. Yet for myself, after leaving the house, I began second guessing if I had on enough clothes and if I had packed up all the right cold weather gear. …show more content…
Surprisingly, I was starting to warm up a little right about the time we arrived at the swamp. Although it was still dark, we could tell that the swamp stood iced over. Jamie went in first breaking the ice as he crept on the way up the duck blind about forty yards from the water’s edge. The rest of us followed behind him carrying our gear and also, the decoy bags his gun, shell bag, etc. At the time, it looked to me that the water level was down a little because Chevy and Piper actually swam out to the blind the last time we were here. Now, Chevy and Alex are still walking most of the way to the blind. Now comes the time to spread out the decoys. Though, first, we need to go out and bust up the ice in front of the blind so that the ducks we plot to call at, and decoy, can land in open water. Now, finally we are finished setting up and are getting back into the blind. Waiting for sunrise, we all lock and load our shotguns and pull out our duck calls and dog whistles. Still waiting for sunrise, we quietly sit still and are listing to the sounds of nature. We can hear Mallard ducks in the sky, nevertheless, cannot see them. Chevy is shaking with adrenaline and looking at us wondering why we are not shooting yet. Alex remains on the floor of the blind