So, here we are. One week past our alleged due-date of October 27, and wondering if our child will ever be born. Our sources tell us that no one has been pregnant forever, and we are keen to believe them. However, we do remember one news story a few months ago about a woman in some third world country who had been pregnant for some 40 years. We don’t remember all of the details, mostly because it seems like we’ve been there ourselves by now.
Nathan, Shiver, Robb, and I have set out to do a pheasant hunt. That date, we know for sure. It will be Saturday, December 1 2007, at the Lookout Creek Farm hunting preserve, near Mentone, AL. For the meager cost of $200 per gun, we each get to pot seven cock pheasants. Now, I’ve never seen a pheasant on the hoof or on the plate, but I have read “Danny Champion of the World.” Mr. Dahl was down on the idea of shooting pheasants, and I can tell you why…. This is the description that the pheasant hunting establishment nearest my house game me as an idea of good sport:
…at this time I don’t have a place to do a quality pheasant hunt. I don’t have a place that offers adequate cover for the large birds. Let me suggest something that I think you and your friends would really enjoy. I offer a European pheasant shoot that is great fun. Here is how it works. We need a group of ten people to stand in a large circle here on our property. We then throw 100 pheasant into the air one at a time. It is just like a driven hunt like the Europeans do it. Shooters are 100 yards apart, we rotate every 10 birds to keep things fair for everyone. At the end of the shoot there are usually several missed birds. We will then take the dogs and shooters and hunt the birds on the ground.
Eww. None of us was happy with that idea. Perhaps when we are 90 and much less ambulatory.
Lookout Creek Farm is about two hours from my house. I know this because when it became abundantly clear that Amy wasn’t going to have a baby today, we packed it in, and drove out there. The place is easy to find, and seems quite scenic. As we were in the neighborhood, we took the opportunity to checkout DeSoto Falls and the DeSoto State Park. Both of these were quite nice, but due to the drought, the Falls had been reduced to a small trickle. The canyon they poured into was still quite impressive, and every Alabamian needs to make the trip at least once.
One of the interesting historic tidbits posted on the park’s bulletin board was that the park contains the ruin of what appears to be a fortification built by Welsh explorers circa 1140. This would seem to suggest that the Welsh founded Alabama slightly less than 75 years after the Norman invasion, and about fifty years after founding Cardiff Castle.
