senor beavis

1. Christmas Vacation
2. Klaus
3. A Christmas Carol - Scott version
4. Die Hard

Honorable mention: Daddy’s home 2

Try and get tickets for the Fiery Furnace in Arches- if you have a sense of direction and adventure, get the "unguided" pass. We did both Arches and Canyonlands and it was by far our favorite hike. They only let a handful of hikers in each day, so you truly feel like you're on your own and will get lost; lots of scrambling and hidden features and its actually pretty cool temperature wise compared to the rest of the park.

Gettin basted- KC competition BBQ joint. The walls are covered with awards they've won. It was so good, we ate there twice on our trip. Burnt ends were amazing.

Did all three this summer- Mt. Rainier was definitely the highlight. The town of Packwood was our base for Rainier and its an hour away from the north side of Mt St Helens, so you can knock out both in the trip. Its a small town, but had a couple of breweries and a handful of restaurants. We only scratched the surface of the area, having dedicated more time to Olympic, but if I had it to do again, I'd spend most of my time there and probably hit up North Cascades.

Times varied per ride- much of that was due to "weather holds". It was quite chilly and some of the rides were down for not meeting the minimum temp, which led to longer waits for those that were open. It was also the most crowded time of the year so that contributed, but I'd say on average 1/2 hour wait per ride- again some longer, some shorter. Lines were definitely shorter earlier in the morning and later in the day.

Red-shouldered hawk, I believe.

I hear this all the time and I think it has a lot to do with where the "pond" crawfish are coming from. Pond crawfish from Acadiana rice fields irrigated with well water are gonna taste a hell of a lot better than those coming from a stagnate pond in another part of the state like the ones you see along LA 1/308. At one time, most of the "pond" crawfish in the BR area were coming from the later, which obviously has changed with the crawfish farming boom. I may be biased having direct access to the rice field version, but in my opinion the basin crawfish aren't even close to being as sweet/fat.

how many of you have ever done the wing surveys? It's my appreciation that most of the species specific data comes from these. I've actually been drawn multiple times in the last 10 years- if memory serves me, you can do it for a maximum of 3 consecutive years, and then take a year off. USFW sends you a packet of envelopes at the beginning of the year with instructions, and you mail one wing from each bird you kill throughout the season. At the end of the year, I get a letter logging each bird, and it i.d.'s whether it was an adult or juvenile as well, by species and date.

The interesting thing is that out of my friends and family that hunt quite a bit, no one else has done this, and most have thrown away the letter requesting participation when received. Sure its somewhat of a pain, but I think its the best way to get actual data.

I've been to two different ones and there was no comparison- one was a hunt won in a raffle in a whitetail-only place in the upper midwest that advertised itself as 2000 acres. The reality was it was a series of pens, with the largest being about 750 acres and every blind located on a feeder. After the "hunt", we toured the facilities where they bred the deer like cattle. No chance in hell I'd go pay to go to a place like that.

Contrast that with a Texas ranch that I've been to that is 4000 acres+, without a feeder on the property- all the hunting is done via stalking and glassing, and outside of the exotics, all genetics are native- no supplemental feeding at all. On this place, it truly is a hunt, and I'd argue more of a hunt than sitting in a stand over a corn pile/feeder.

Simply put, not all high fences are created equal, but to each there own, and if you are interested, do your homework.

Try Wendy Lou Classic Game Reserve- its located near Dublin and is over 4K acres without a feeder on the property. I've hunted it a couple of times, and while not for whitetail, I've seen quite a few on my past hunts. Can't say enough good things about the ranch manager or they guide (his son-in-law).

Whitetail up to 130 B&C are 2K. They've got some good pictures of recent ones on their facebook page.