Weekend in Brandon

This past weekend took us to Rebecca's parent's home in Brandon. The initial reason for the trip was Mrs. Melanie's birthday. It grew into also celebrating Philip and Chouna's engagement along with taking engagement pictures for them and another couple whose wedding is coming up in May. So another weekend was spent mixing business with pleasure.

Another theme through the weekend was animals. Mr. Chip's passion is horses. Unless something else needs his attention he is at the barn or on a horse. So along with the horses he also has some cows and chickens. One of the mares was very pregnant. We were on watch all weekend for a baby horse, but she didn't go into labor. There is also a pond on the property and for the first time I took a fishing pole. I love to fish, so I don't know why I haven't in the past, but I will probably make it a regular occurrence from now on. I spent a couple hours on Friday before the engagement party fishing and caught 6 bass. I was the only one out there so my cell phone was the only camera available. They were all 'keepers' if I had been keeping them.

Massaging the pregnant horse.

The chickens were also a new addition. Rebecca has always had a soft spot for chickens. I think it was because she never really had one. She came close as a child when she got some chicks, but their cat got hungry one night. So we went out to see them. He has two roosters and two hens. One of the roosters has an hourly alarm along with the traditional sunrise notice. Their bobbing movement was very interesting to me. One of the hens got very protective of he food we brought them and lunged at Rebecca. I think she got her fill of chickens for a while.

These chickens were not bashful at the crowd

As we were walking back to the house that evening we came across Mr. No Shoulders. Rebecca and her mom were on either side of the driveway and walked right beside him. Rebecca noticed as she was right next to it. I was a few feet behind them, so now the water moccasin was in between me and the ladies. It was about 3 feet long and very still. Mrs. Melanie ran back to the house to get a shovel. She handed it to me and as I was coming down with my first whack to the head, it took off towards the water. I chased it and continued to swing as it dodged my every blow. Just before it reached the water I made contact. It tried to lunge at the shovel once it was wounded, but I continued the barrage. It eventually stopped moving and I carried it to the garage for closer inspection.

The water moccasin. A good portion of him had been chopped off by this point.

Fin and Feather Saturday

I met my Dad, brother, friend Brad, and Dad's friend, Mr. Elmo yesterday to have a relaxing Friday and Saturday at our friend's hunting/fishing lodge entitled 'Fin and Feather.' This is the same place I had my bachelor party a little over a year ago. It a very comfy lodge with a professionally managed pond that is home to some trophy bass. The owners are extremely hospitable and generous with there getaway place.

We had a fairly successful trip fishing wise. Everyone caught some fish and lots were of good size. As part of the pond management scheme, only bass smaller than 15 inches can be kept. This allows the big fish to get bigger because of less competition for food. Also the bigger bass supposedly don't taste as good. Matt won the biggest fish of the weekend at 22 inches. (They didn't have a scale in the boat to weigh it)

Matt's boat found a cottonmouth, sunning on a tree limb slightly emerged from the water. I also brought along my Savage Arms .270 that I got from some of my groomsmen almost a year ago. I still had not shot it so that's why I had brought it along this weekend. I realize this was probably the most inefficient gun for the task, but it was all we had. We crept up to the cursed animal and I loaded the rifle. I sighted him in and fired a round. An explosion of water erupted around him and he did not budge so I assumed I had hit him. We got even closer to inspect and he was in fact still alive. I put another round in and soon after he began to slither away. I quickly pulled my rifle up and shot again. I did not miss this time. Part of the snake was propelled from the tree several feet and the rest of his maimed body  tried to slither away. His floated up to the top a few seconds later. Brad applied several whacks to the head with the paddle for good measure. He disappeared from sight after that, but he couldn't have lasted much longer. I'm glad my first shots with the rifle were serving a purpose. It was a nice way to end the testosterone weekend.