The Hunter and I were able to get the kids on a real duck hunt twice over Christmas vacation. We actually took them up to Schell Osage and to Four Rivers Conservation Areas.
The first time we took them was on December 22 and we took them to Schell Osage because they have blinds there and the kids don’t have to be quite so still as they do when you aren’t hunting out of a blind. It was supposed to be a clear day with temperatures in the upper 40′s so would be perfect to get the kids out. We had to get up at 2:30 AM to get up there by the time they had the draw for the hunting spots. There were 26 blinds available and some other wade and shoot areas where you have to stand in the water when hunting, so we really wanted to draw a blind. Mini-me got to draw and drew number 27. Fortunately, when we got to the window to make our pick there was still one blind left. It was something like 17 degrees out that morning, so we drove to Nevada (Missouri, that is!) for breakfast before heading out to hunt. We hoped it would warm up by the time we got out there.
On the drive to the blind after entering the conservation area we saw these huge flocks of snow geese.
The kids were amazed and had so much fun watching them!
We got to the blind and got everything set up. Unfortunately, the wind was out of the northeast and it was much colder than it was supposed to be. Worse yet, the ducks weren’t flying. Everyone but The Hunter took a nap at some point. 
The interior of the blind has a bench so is not too uncomfortable for a nap, especially when you have a soft head rest! 
This is a picture of Munchie looking for incoming ducks. The ducks you see on the water in the background are our decoys. Notice the cover of the blind in this picture? How bare it is with just the grass covering the interior of the blind? Munchie spent quite a bit of time while Mini-me took a long nap and camouflaged the blind for us. She gathered grass from the mound and piled it in the holes on the front. We were really glad she did as the weather got even worse as the day went on. the wind was howling and it even began snowing and sleeting. That extra cover on the blind really helped keep us warm!
Munchie is trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue. You can see how much more cover there is on the top of the blind. She is in the same position she was in the picture above. She worked HARD!
Finally toward the end of the day a few ducks began flying. You can see the snow flying in this photo of The Hunter and one of the two ducks we were able to kill. Overall, it was brutally cold but the kids had fun and stayed warm. They both wanted to go again.
The second day we went was on December 29. We went to Four Rivers this time and the weather actually was beautiful! The sun was shining for most of the day and it was so warm we were hunting without gloves or coats.
We hadn’t much more than set up the decoys, put the boat in a tree row with the kids in it, placed some sticks and brush on the boat to disguise it some, when the ducks started to come in. The Hunter wasted no time getting the first green head!
That was where we started….but with a little shooting and the warm weather we had one problem -
You can see just a little bit of a knot on the right side of the tree down under that leaning branch…there is a honey bee hive inside of that and they didn’t like the shooting and the close proximity! You can see a few of them flying around, but here is a close-up.
Can you see all those bees? You could hear the buzzing and more of them were swarming around, so before either of the kids got stung we figured we better move down the tree row.
Here is the second place we ended up. Just down the tree row from the others. Here the kids are in the boat playing with a willow branch that hung over the boat. It was pretty well camouflaged, and when ducks were flying they would hunker down and not move. We got to see a lot of ducks, and though they didn’t want to be here as much as they wanted to be in our first spot, we didn’t do too bad. 
These two drakes were killed by the Hunter with one shot! Not too bad!
My man….ain’t he awesome?
You can also see we were in our hunting shirts with no coats or gloves or anything. Perfect weather to get the kids out!
This picture is looking across the marsh at the area we were hunting. All the grasses you see are in water that is about thigh high. Four Rivers had been dry and hadn’t had any water in it at all until the week before this when they area finally got enough rain to put the river out of its banks and flood the fields. There was plenty of food and the ducks were loving it.
Here we are all headed in. We ended up with 5 mallard drakes total…not too bad considering when we take the kids we are happy with anything! The most important thing was that we had a wonderful time and made some incredible memories!
This picture shows the fats and oils ready to mix with the lye. This has some luscious oils such as cocoa butter in it and it made for wonderful soap.
Doesn’t that bar look luscious?! The Hunter calls them chocolate chip cookie dough soap because they smell like chocolate chip cookies!
I think they like to play with the canning utensils more than anything. I kept having to search for what I needed!
This was just our first batch. I made another a couple of days later.
