Looks like a good weekend to retreat to the man cave. Sub zero and 6 inches of snow on the way. Going to re-read an old upland classic from my library, play some guitar, currently working on Kenny Loggins "House at Pooh Corner", load some shells, play with the dogs, and open that small batch bottle of bourbon my son gave me for Christmas.

Good for you Harold. See, cold weather is not so bad after all. I am celebrating Robert Burns' nicht tonight and celebrating the close of duck season Sunday morning with my boys

Sounds like my kind of weekend. I highly suggest a shot of that burbon in a mug of Bigelows Orange Spice tea right before bed. Sleep like a baby:coffee:

I just got in from running errands it's -24 with the wind:eek: My truck hasn't been started in a couple of weeks so I thought I'd better give her a try and she cranked right up.

I picked up the 32 inch 16ga hammer gun from the smith as I had 3/8th taken off the comb, no need to float the target now. The rifle project will go out for case colour next week so thats finally coming to a close.

Off to load some more 16's to prepare for the season, shoot some imaginary birds with the hammergun just to get the feel of the lower stock, go to Namibia hunting dangerous game with a good book and enjoy a little Buffalo Trace. All in all it's going to be a great afternoon.

Boy, sure glad I live in the warm north country. It's 42deg here with light rain in the forecast. How do you guys tolerate all that cold !?

Isn't that a hoot. We are 28 in the heat of the day here in North GA, and Richard is 42 in AK. Ya never know with the weather.:vconfused:

Funny you say that Harry, on my way to work this morning I looked at the truck temperature gage and it said -9. My first thought was maybe I should move to Alaska where it's nice and warm.:rolleyes:

Rich,
I'm so glad you posted that picture. I've shown it to my wife so she can see that's the way it's supposed to be!

mighty fine man cave you got there harlod... it was 5 degrees at my house this morning..some strange weather huh..richard basking in the sun and me basking and freezeing setting by the heater..charlie

Im in South Ga near Tallahassee last week we had some 70 degree days now its in the 40-50s . Freezing for us ! :rotf:

There are several of use that live in the state of goerga. It would be interesting to find out how many.

Wayne,
There were 48 PGCA members as of 12/31/2013 from the great state of Georgia. You can thank Mary Bowes for that information.

I love Georgia , home of the bobwhite :)

Thanks Mary.

How is the wild Quail population in the South?

mississippi also has a lot of bob whites in places but saddly most of them are pen raised..hope you boys well with your wild bob whites ours vanished in about 20 years for some reason...charlie

I hunt in the piedmont portion of GA which runs across GA from a little North of Atlanta across the state south of Macon. Native populations of quail decline has stabilized, but quail populations are still low. When I was very young I remember responding to quail with the bob white whistle for hours. If you answered, they would answer. As kids we did this until dusk. Rarely do I hear the bobwhite whistle in the late afternoon now. I am grateful for pen birds because a small percentage do survive in the wild. I really do not know the reasons for quail declines in the south.

I would think the suspects are A) Loss of habitat, B) use of insecticides for crops C) increased predation.

I think you are correct Rich. I do know that when some of our leases have been clear-cut for timber and re-planted. The years when the new seeding are several inches high until they are ten foot high quail populations explode. Then after the pines grow larger the quail population disappears. Farming in GA has changed from a collection of small family farms to large operations. With the loss of cutover areas and natural boundaries the quail have declined.

The wild quail population in my area of Georgia and SC is abysmal. There are lots of opinions about why it happened, but the longer you listen the more you realize nobody really knows. Hopefully they will come back one day.

i used to work on a quail plantation .
from what I seen hawks would massacre the quail population .
To bad we don't have a hawk season, really they are just a coyote with wings :whistle:

Thought I would include my Man cave also:

[IMG]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medi...004_-_Copy.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medi...02_-_Copy1.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medi...055_-_Copy.JPG[/IMG]

Leighton ,Very Nice ,Looks as if you must have some Fantastic Deer Hunting in your neck of the woods ! Great Gun Room !

Very nice!!

Who mounted that albino barn cat for you? Nice job whoever it was!

Leighton - What's the name of the woman who painted the scene in the last picture? She has a very distinctive style.

It's so lifelike.

I was going to have my neighbor's cat stuffed, but I was afraid that Linda would invite her over for coffee some day. My plan was trashed when I started to see "Have you Seen Fluffy?" posters around the neighborhood. I kept looking, but I never was able to find Fluffy.

That's an interesting place to store your luger.

Leighton, That print looks like a "Doolittle". Is it?

The print is Bev Doolittles Sacred Ground. Thats my cat Whitey, she stays with me all day

Oops... Sorry :bigbye:

I like the sofa, looks very comfortable! Gary

In every sense of the word, a cave. Complete with artwork and the best gun collection you'll ever see (or not) I was lucky to see it, but I had an inside contact.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson...-treasure-room

Someone forwarded this same video to me about 3 hours ago. Unbelievable.

My niece sent it to me because she remembered how I couldn't stop talking about it. It was her father who got me in to see it.

The Army will have quite a task to match this museum --

http://www.usmcmuseum.org

From what I understand from the video, the Army Museum will be built on Fort Belvoir. Another important military museum is in the planning stages just a few miles down the road. That will be three major military museums within a ten mile distance. The "other" museum is the "Museum of Americans in Wartime", to be built on 70 acres close to the Marine Corps Museum. It will include at least part of the Allan Cors tank collection, a major running collection now housed a bit west of I-95..

I think the Army could rival any branch based on the shear volume of their collection, but I would have thought West Point might have made a better setting.
The Imperial War Museum in London ranks at the top of my list for the lasting impression it left.