Stories about our area hunters have been a little slow coming in this year for some reason. There weren't a lot of deer killed and the warm weather during November and the first few days of this month has kept the ducks from stirring around too much. Although the weather"s certainly changed.

I haven't been hunting in some 14 years now and can honestly say I don't miss the cold weather that early in the morning. I went with some guys from Blytheville who had several blinds on Mallard Lake in Mississippi County. When we went my son was too young to hunt with a gun. That didn't stop him from taking along his BB gun and shooting the decoys, though.

Kenneth Ford was coming in from Hayti one day last week when just off of the north side of Highway 412 he saw what looked to be acres of farmland covered with geese. Snow geese have found those flat lands to their liking over the last few years. The movement of the birds out of the corner of his eye caused Kenneth to do a double take.

There was one good news story to come out of the duck blinds last weekend.

The 4th Annual NEA Clinic Charitable Foundation Duck Classic was a rousing success. I didn't hear a final total but, according to at least one report the amount raised was well over six figures. The winning team came out of the blind owned by Freddie Chandler. Don't know if Freddie did the calling himself or not, but congratulations are in order regardless.

There's another duck hunting story that is emerging this season. Seems a couple of fellows are needling each other in the duck blind much to the enjoyment of their fellow hunters. These two guys have taken it upon themselves to be the one who venture out of the blind in the boat to pick up the ducks and apparently it's become quite comical to listen to them go back and forth at each other.

What really makes this give and take so interesting is that one of these guys is 50 years old and the other, who holds his own pretty well, is 14. In fact, a couple of the other guys in the blind think Andy Lack had more than held his own against Terry Whitlock.

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A different hunting tale

There are other hunting tales which come along once in a while that tell about the dark side of hunting. Hunters who don't always follow the rules. One unsavory practice that a hunter might use is hunting in a baited field. That's a field that usually has been sprinkled with some sort of food a particular bird or animal eats as part of its normal diet.

Fortunately that doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while something like that happens. Sometimes it's seed left in the field for birds to eat and conveniently placed near a blind. Deer have an affinity for salt and there have been hunters - none that I know personally mind you - who have placed a block of salt out in the woods which just happens to be in line for a wide open shot from a deer stand.

Truth be told there is a fellow in town who has been guilty of hunting in a baited field. It started a couple of weeks ago and it's still going on. Plain as day the goodies are spread out there tempting the prey, which is just unable to resist those morsels just waiting to be gobbled up. It's just not fair, but I don't think there's anything the authorities can do with this particular case.

And the guy that's setting up that baited field just smiles and acts like everything's hunky-dory. I think his wife also participates in setting up the bait for this particular field. It's just not fair. Since law enforcement has no recourse on this guy it falls to the newspaper guy to expose his tactics.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm talking about Zack Parr and his wife, Chris. Disturbing. I can also tell you I have first hand knowledge of their antics.

Just about a week ago I stopped into Ultimate Fitness - which can also now be referred to as the scene of the crime - and there on a coffee table between a very comfortable sofa and chairs was a very large Christmas jar full of what looked like chocolate no-bake cookies. To make matters even worse was a sign telling all who walked past, whether they be headed for the dreaded treadmill or the menacing weight machines, was a sign proclaiming the cookies were "Free."

By my calculations one cookie equals about 10 minutes on the treadmill. That means I can only eat about three cookies at a time. I'm either going to have to build up my stamina or talk Chris into making smaller cookies.

Free indeed. Where's C. Everett Koop when you need him?

Why, the next thing you know Zack will be offering a free box of chocolate covered cherries with each new membership.

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Another snow covered trek

After reading last week's comment about walking up hill both ways to school in my early years Ruth Walsh recalled her own school days growing up in South Dakota.

Mrs. Walsh's trip was just a little different living farther to the north, she was more prone to have snow on the ground when she made her trips to school. She didn't have to wade through the mess though. She slid over top of the white stuff.

Her trip to and from school was also measured in miles, but she used skis to get around. Pretty handy mode of travel, but it also requires a good bit of stamina to get around on skis. Mrs. Walsh will be the first to tell you those adventures made her a pretty "hardy Norwegian."