It's Opening Day of Dove Season!

Dove hunting with Daddy!

(You might notice that Robert's gun looks a little short, it's my gun.)

Robert took Audrey dove hunting on opening day - she was so excited.  She dressed in some of Jack's old camo clothing and grabbed her bb gun and hunting hat.  

waiting...

practicing aiming...

having a snack...

evening night shade (blooming since March and growing strong in a drought)

last sunflower - most of them look like the photo below

searching...

Robert's very cool dove decoys

Robert shot four mourning dove on the first day of the season.  He did not see many in the morning, but found the evening there have been more in our 'dove field' area on the land.  He probably would have gotten a few more if he wasn't posing for photos or being distracted by us, but he enjoyed the company.  The children are excited to have dove stew again, which I make with sweet potatoes and Robert hopes to shoot more this weekend.  One of his favourite recipes is to stuff them with a jalapeño pepper and wrap the breast in bacon and grill them.

I wasn't there to 'shoot' a gun, but take some photos of Audrey - so I was easily distracted by things on the ground...here is some wood bleached by the sun - could make for some interesting future craft projects...smile.

Opening Day of Dove Season 2011

Audrey gives dove hunting two thumbs up & hopes everyone had a great opening day!

Dove Hunting With Daddy Part II...

cleaning dove after the hunt...

mommy was so impressed I wanted to hold the dove and pluck it's feathers!

daddy taught us about how they store their seeds that they eat in their gullet...

wow, that is a lot of seeds!

Jack watched daddy break open the dove's breast to get the meat and he thought he'd try....

WAY TO GO, Jack!!!

boys think blood is cool!

I wanted one of the dove wings as a trophy.......smile.

dove is the BEST!

baking a cake in honor of opening dove season...

our red velvet cake, made with our duck eggs and home made cream cheese frosting....the cake looks like blood in honor of the kill....although we know that some people have a hard time with killing animals, we are learning how wonderful hunting can be and how we can find our own food without going to a store...it's an amazing experience and we're lovin' dove season 2011!