If you build it, will they come?

The ducks, that is.  We're running late, but we wanted to get the duck pond and blind ready for the remainder of the duck season.  Once the second-crop rice harvest was out of the field, my buddy Gary stopped up the bottom cut and captured the rainwater from a recent rain.  The boys and I met him to work on flattening out the rice stubble to make a hole or clear area so that the ducks will see the water and land.  We initially tried with a four wheeler.  The four wheeler was pulling a plow normally used to make a food plot for deer.

Slinging mud in the duck pond

Unfortunately, the four wheeler almost got stuck several times in the big ruts caused by the combine tires.  The plow wasn't really turning over the ground and burying the rice straw either.  We decided to try again another day.

Not quite getting the job done.  We'll try again.

So we showed up and started building the duck blind by driving four t-posts into the ground and then encircled the area with hog wire.

The beginning of the duck blind

Russ and Benjamin and I began walking out on the levees and cutting down bitter weed and cane grass.  We carried that back to the blind and began weaving the weeds into the holes in the hog wire. It was slow work, but it was a beautiful day and it was nice to be out in the 70 degree weather.

Weaving the grass in the blind

Dad came with the tractor to try plan b.  We drug a cattle panel behind the tractor with some tires on top to provide weight.  He drove around in big circles to knock the rice stubble down and create a stinky muddy hole that ducks love.

Knocking down the rice stubble in the duck pond

The duck blind was really coming together, we all weaved grass into every hole in the fence that surrounded the blind.  Pretty soon, we had a really nice blind that will keep us hidden from the waterfowl that hopefully will land in our pond.

Adding a few final touches

As you can see, the tractor pulling the panel did a good job knocking down the rice straw, making a circular, watery spot in which we'll put out decoys.

Muddying up the duck pond

Finally, we were finished.  In all it took about an hour and a half.  All we need to do is put out the decoys now.

Russ & Benjamin (and a job well done)

Although we missed teal season and a part of the first split of 'big duck' season, we're going to do our best to put some ducks in the freezer for what remains.  We're in the west zone and have from November 15th - December 14th and then the second split from December 20th - January 18th. Hopefully, this stealthy blind that my boys built will assist us in having a good time and enjoying some mighty fine eating.