Emily's first Randall!

Emily, age 3, is the youngest of our 5 children. This Spring she just received her first Randall Made Knife, and was she ever excited! It's a mini model 3, one of 1500 Randall made for collectors. The small size however fits her hand perfectly, just like a full sized one would fit an adult. Here are a few pics of her using here new knife for the first time on some lake fish.

Andrew (age 10) and dad	Daniel (age 8) and dad	Daniel and Emily (age 3)
RMK's models 23 and 21... carry knives in the field. The #23 is a larger version of the model 8, and forged from thicker 1/4" stock. I got this knife a few years ago from a friend who purhcased it new from the Randall shop the 1970's. It has seen a lot of use on elk and deer.		Emily, age 3, using a Randall model 21. A perfect skinning knife!
Daniel, age 8, using a Randall model 21. A perfect skinning knife!	Andrew, age 10, using a Randall model 7. Another perfect skinning knife!	RMK's models 7 with the #6 grind (very much like the Denmark Special model), and a model 21... two perfectly designed tools for the job!
Emily in the beans while out scouting for deer in the pre-season.	One of the many incredibly beautiful sunsets from the field...
Steven (age 15) and Andrew (age 10) on the youth deer hunt the last weekend in Sept.

We hunt waterfowl here on the small lake where we live. Below are some recent photos from this year's opening season (Oct 2009).

(Click photos to enlarge)


A story to go with the pics...
Here's a story and a few pics from this weekend. I got a very late, and totally unexpected last minute invite to waterfowl hunt on the island. I got home around 11:30 p.m., got to bed late at 2:45 a.m. and woke up at 5:30 right on the nose. All of you know 2 hours and 45 mins of sleep in two days is not much rest. I would have loved to sleep longer but knew the boys were very much looking forward to the opening waterfowl season. So I forced myself to get up, and got dressed while the coffee was being made. The smell of fresh groud Columbian beans was the only good thing about this morning so far.  We walked down to the pontoon, got it started in the cold (which wasn't the easiest thing to do), and headed out on the water. Cutting through the calm sheet of glass in the cove when all of a sudden the outboard died. I was quick to blame it on the cold, and re-started it. It ran for a a couple seconds only to stall again. This went on a few times when I suddenly got the idea to check the fuel... you guessed it, the tank was competely empty. The second tank had emptied out late summer and I didn't re-fill it because the year was coming to an end and the boat would be pulled out of the lake soon. All we needed was a little gas in the one tank to get back and forth waterfowl hunting. However when you have kids that use the pontoon without even thinking of checking or filling the tank, it's bound to happen.  I keep one boat oar onboard just in case (whish I would have had two), and went to the front to start paddling. After a couple minutes of this I realized I had two boys who were a lot younger than I so handed the oar over to young, strong backs.  Several minutes later we made it to the island but still had no gas to get back home later. No time to think about it now though as it was getting closer to sunrise and the decoy spread needed to be set up.

With the decoys in place, and us in the blind area, the fog was so thick this morning that we couldn't see the dekes or even each other yet. So we sat patiently waiting for it to lift. It did allow for some quiet time and a couple cups of coffee which helped me to "wake up". It finally cleared around 4 hours later, 10 a.m. or so, and we saw very few birds. The weather is still quite nice and they were all flying high with no intentions of coming in to our spreads. With CA geese only open for Sat and Sun, then going back out until Nov I thought it best to let the boys hunt them while I sat in the "duck section". For those of you who don't hunt, ducks are fast and also small (especially wood ducks). Geese are also fast but being much larger, it would be easier for the boys to hit them... plus the fact that they are only in season for the two days. After a long while waiting, a huge group of 75 or so Canadas came in flying over to check things out. Calling to them and hiding... they circled around and came back right into the decoys. As I watched I thought "This is perfect! The boys will each get two geese". As I watched from the other end of the island, a dozen or so birds came in very low and flew right over the boys's heads, but no shots were fired. I called the other cell but no answer... evidently Steven had forgotten to bring it with him. Later I learned that they were watching and calling the large group circling overhead and didn't even see the small group fly right over very low above them.-ha!  One of them stepped out looking at the huge group and was spotted by the low birds. They immediately pulled up and alerted the large group making them all land out in the deep water a few hundred yards away. A learning experiendce for them, and something they likely won't forget.

I was in my spot for 3 hours and 5 minutes and was getting bored. I walked over to where the boys were for some conversation when it wasn't even 15 minutes later and two mallards came in close. A couple calls to them and they landed right in the "pocket" of the decoy spread where I had been sitting... I knew I should have stayed down there.  One thing for sure, it showed us the decoys were set up properly as it worked exactly like I had planned.

By the way, we found about a cup of gas that was already mixed in a can on the island. It was enough to get us back to the pier so we didn't have to paddle.

Here are some shots I thought everyone may enjoy seeing.
~dale


Sunrise through a heavy fog...

RMK model 21, beretta O/U, with calls	Emily (age 3) with CA goose
	Emily & Daddy	Emily carrying the goose... it's now ready to wash and soak over night. We pulled this one out of the oven last night. Prepared using an "oven bag" since we skinned it, so it wouldn't dry out... it was spectacular!
		Scenery pics taken from the  "SS Out-Of-Gas"
	Water doplets on a leaf (while waiting for the fog to lift).	Andrew found some "treasure".
	A Randall model "GTR Special" cutting a couple ducks to be prepared on the grill

	Emily saw me taking pics so wanted to take this pic of me. It's in focus and centered, a great job for a little girl who is only 3. ; )

Winter may mean the boats are out of the water, but it doesn't mean we have to stop fishing. Emily ice fishing...	Emily on the lake at sunset...	Daniel cleaning fish...
Emily not only catches them but helps us clean them too.	Daniel cleaning fish with his RMK model 8 and an old Townsend skinner.

Emily playing with bubbles,,,	Daniel and Emily playing with Haley (the family dog).	Emily and Haley
Daniel and Haley	Haley	Our hands...
lots of campfires...	Emily & Daniel on an electric bike
The compartment is "just the right size"	Emily likes to take knife pics too. ; )