The end of my waterfowl season

My last post ended with me being incapacitated with a back strain. I see it to be only fitting that this post picks up there. After a week of rest i.e.-no work, no play I was feeling good enough to try a hunt yesterday. I called up a buddy of mine and we went to a spot that requires only 6 decoys, and a short walk through the knee deep snow. We got there at around 4pm, kicked off the geese that were there, set up and waited.
Sunset was at 6:12 and at 6:06 I didn't think any of the geese we had kicked off would return, then we heard a honk. In a matter of 2 minutes we had 3 out of the 4 geese that came back, on the water waiting to be picked up. They came in picture perfect, I couldn't have scripted them to come in any better. When I got to the water and was about to net my first goose I noticed that it had an orange leg band. I netted him then I caught up to my second goose and finally the goose Jay shot made it down to me. Not too bad, only one goose got away (Jay's). The horrifying thing in this whole affair was even though I had my camera all set up to record the action,  I forgot to push the record button. So I didn't get any video, what a shame it would've been awesome video.

When I reported the bands I was told this goose was banded in 2008 in Mongo which is an hour north of here. I asked about the orange band and there was no information about it at all.
With only 2 weeks of hunting season left (coyote and fox) fishing season is right around the corner.

Oh and lets not forget about turkey season.

Aplogies and Thank you's

This morning......
I want to apologize once again to my buddy Jay for leading him astray this morning. Then I want to say "thank you", to him for helping me shovel my driveway.
Yesterday....
It was the first day I could get out for late goose season, and needless to say I was excited. I went to a field that usually had geese either in it or over it and set up almost my entire spread. Well the bad news was the geese didn't want anything to do with my corn field and flew right around me to a winter wheat field.
I'm talking about a large number of geese, so as I lay in wait for some geese that want to work I started making plans to hunt the winter wheat field today.
Well around 11am the geese started to slow down and I decided to pack it in, so I got up and started getting ready to go. Then the geese started flying again, so I geared back up and waited some more. I told myself that at 1pm I will pack 'er in. Usually I would've stayed 'til sunset however I was beginning to notice that familiar twinge in my lower back that only spells bad news. Well at 1 I broke my layout blind down and started to get stuff ready to go. I walked out to get my truck and drive it down the utility road to make it easier to pack up my gear. Once I got parked I again was watching geese circle and actually had one land in my decoys. The last time I was in this field I was within 6 feet of a goose before it took flight. I tried my luck and started walking in to the far side of my spread, where my gun was unloaded and cased. When I made it to my gun the goose finally took flight made a 3/4 circle right around my giving my time to uncase my gun load it and kill the crazy Ivan.
That's how I got my only goose of the day.

So I packed up all my gear and headed home, I could feel my back was in a little pain but still made plans to go out this morning. Well when the alarm went off at 5:30 and I literally crawled out of bed made it downstairs turned a little wrong and went to the floor in pain, I knew I was in for a rough day.
I have never cancelled any type of hunting or fishing trip, these are what I hold sacred and they keep me sane. Well before I was out of the house this morning I told Sarah what happened and she got really worried. I of course am just dumb enough to soldier on and let the chips fall where they may, and if the snow hadn't been coming down the way it was I might have just done that. However with the storm raging on I was really unsure what the geese would do. If it would have been a 60/40 shot I probably would have still went, however I let the pain speak and decided to cancel. While I waited for Jay to show this morning I grabbed a push shovel and started clearing the drive,(as long as I pushed and didn't try to lift or twist I was fine). When Jay showed up he instantly grabbed a shovel from the back of his SUV and started helping me. I told him the whole story I just told you and even though I knew he was dissappointed he said he understood.
So now that this week has been a late season bust. I can only hope I will feel well enough to get out next week. There's still plenty of geese and if need be Jay can take a day off.
I owe him a good shoot.
Meanwhile my wife has shoveled the drive and walk two more times, while all I can do is watch, and think to myself ,"she might as well shovel the path to the bird feeder as long as she's shoveling."